Sales strategies that can help you easily reach your goals.
Low-hanging fruit refers to the easily accessible fruits on the lowest parts of a tree. In business, when a task is “low-hanging fruit,” it means that it’s one that can be completed quickly and easily.
For many agents and agencies, growing is the goal; but making a new sale doesn’t always require a valiant effort. As an insurance agent, low-hanging fruit in your book of business is those easy-to-close sales opportunities.
Here’s how you can identify low-hanging leads in your book of business and convert them.
Ideas for Lead Generation: Three Prime Lead Groups You Should Be Targeting
Being strategic is the key to saving time and maximizing your sales. These three groups in your book of business are full of low-hanging leads just waiting to be closed: cross-sells, people turning 26, and people turning 65.
Let’s dive into how you can quickly and easily find these people in your book of business so that you can take action accordingly.
Cross-Sells
Cross-selling is one of the most cost-effective, smart, and easy ways to build your book of business. Why? Because you’re selling to your existing clients.
There are two main ways to identify cross-selling opportunities: conducting a client needs assessment (CNA) and running a cross-sell report in your agency management system (AMS). Use these together to optimize your approach.
A CNA is a questionnaire that you can use during an appointment to help you identify potential gaps in your client’s coverage. It helps you discuss at length why different types of coverage are beneficial. Run through the pros and cons of each product to help your client decide what is best for their needs and budget.
Check out this video from Michael Sams of Sams/Hockaday & Associate, Inc. to see how he leverages a CNA:
YouTube
Before you start your CNA, you will want to know who will be affected and how you can help. Ask questions about your client’s children, family, and life to ensure you’re providing them with the products and services they need. This will be especially helpful when you look for people in your book of business who are turning 26 and 65, which we’ll discuss next. Throughout your relationship with them, take plenty of detailed notes in your AMS to cover all of your bases.
Before you use a CNA, you can save time by running a cross-sell report in your AMS. This will give you insight into who’s missing what coverage without having to set up a meeting.
For a successful and complete report, you must have your data in an organized, centralized AMS. Here’s an example of what a cross-sell report looks like in AgencyBloc:
Cross-Sell Report in AgencyBloc
How To Use the Cross-Sell Report Feature in AgencyBloc
Running a cross-sell report takes seconds and gives you the information you need to confidently reach out to clients and provide great customer service. Simply create the report, save it, and then run it again whenever you need to.
Some cross-sell opportunities you may find in AgencyBloc include clients that have:
- Life insurance with you but not health insurance, and vice versa
- A group health insurance policy but don’t have add-ons like dental and vision
- Life insurance with you but no annuities
- Life insurance with you but no short-term disability coverage
- Original Medicare but no cancer insurance
Turning-26 Crowd
As you know, 26 is the age when dependents must find their own insurance. This group is likely made up of your client's children and grandchildren. Although many may be employed and receive benefits that way, it never hurts to check in case they fall into one of these categories:
- Don’t have access to coverage through work
- Still in school pursuing an advanced degree
- Freshly graduated, working at an internship without benefits
- An independent worker or freelancer
- A solo entrepreneur
Use your AMS to keep track of all client relationships and their family members in your book of business. In AgencyBloc, you can create notes and activities to help you track your client’s entire life. Use this data to find your turning-26 prospects in three ways:
Set up your parameters with these tools to include individuals turning 26 or those with relatives who will be turning 26. With an Automated Workflow task reminder, a specific event (such as your client or a member of their family turning 26) triggers an automatic task, which populates on your dashboard and reminds you to reach out to the individual and/or their family. Or, use the Custom Report or Saved Search features to produce a real-time list of potential leads to contact.
Pro Tip
Using the Saved Search function, you can run the list once, pin it to your dashboard, and you’ll have a list to work from that’s updated automatically!
Turning-65 Crowd
You can approach this group in many of the same ways as we discussed in the turning-26 section—Automated Workflows, Custom Reports, and Saved Search features will come in handy.
These features help you stay proactive when it comes to tracking clients that are close to aging in so that you can make the transition smooth. You will also want to use a CNA during these meetings to ensure your new Medicare clients are getting all the coverage they need.
Take it a step further and set up an Automated Workflow to nurture them into their new coverage. It’s important to note that, for this to be possible, you must have an AMS with workflow automation capabilities like AgencyBloc.
Here’s how a new Medicare Client Workflow could look:
Trigger: Contact’s status updates to New Medicare Client.
- 0 days after: A welcome email is sent to the client and a notification is sent to the agent of record to reach out and welcome them.
- 7 days after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to check in and make sure the client has received all of their information.
- 1 month after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to reach out to see if the client has experienced any problems with prescriptions or visits.
- 3 months after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to check in on how things are going.
6 months after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to reach out and make sure the client has everything they need.
Customize your workflow to send emails and task assignments of your choosing. Integrate carrier-specific or policy-specific informational emails within your workflow to give your clients extra educational resources. If you choose this route, narrow the scope of who will receive the emails by utilizing recipient filters.
Additionally, you can add contact-specific information with variable data. Variable data often appears like this: [FirstName]. It allows you to personalize messages while only having to write one email. Each time the email is sent, it will pull the data from the contact’s profile and insert the appropriate information where indicated. Here are some examples:
- [FirstName] becomes Alan
- [PolicyNumber] becomes KDUW2897324092
- [BusinessPhone] becomes 555-393-3399
The Easiest Way to Find Your Low-Hanging Fruit
As an insurance agent, your two main measures of success are client retention (the number of clients you keep) and client acquisition (the number of prospects you convert). Growing your book of business through the lead groups above will not only help you reach your goal but can also help you provide excellent customer service, which supports retention and acquisition. Happy clients also make for great referral opportunities, which is another smart way to grow your book of business.
The first step to converting your low-hanging fruit is identifying them. The best way to do this is with an industry-specific AMS that allows you to manage leads, clients, and policies in one searchable, reportable place.
Without a streamlined approach, your low-hanging fruit can easily go unnoticed, and those growth opportunities could be lost. If your current system isn’t allowing you to identify your low-hanging fruit, it may be time to consider moving to one that does.
Ready to see if AgencyBloc is a good fit for you?
Request a 1-on-1, personalized demo to explore our Custom Reports, Automated Workflows, and more. Create your own cross-selling, turning-26, and turning-65 reports to see how easy it is to identify the low-hanging fruit in your book of business.
This blog was previously posted on January 31, 2018, and has been most recently updated and republished on June 7, 2022.
Posted
by Allison Babberl
on Tuesday, June 7, 2022
in
Lead Nurturing & Automation Software
- client retention
- data management
- lead nurturing
- selling
About The Author
Allison is the Content Lead at AgencyBloc. She manages the creation and schedule of all educational content for our BlocTalk and Member communities. Favorite quote: “Conversation is the bedrock of relationships. Without it, our relationships are devoid of substance.” -Maribeth Ku
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