5 Major Reasons You Need an Agency Management System This Open Enrollment Season

How an Agency Management System Streamlines Enrollment Season

August through December is a busy time for life and health insurance agencies. Between your CEs, getting certified with different carriers and plan types, selling new clients, and servicing existing clients, you are swamped. 

However, there is one thing that can make your processes and preparations easier—technology.

Today, we’ll discuss 5 reasons an industry-specific agency management system (AMS) streamlines your enrollment season and eases your workload. For more ideas, check out our guide: 7 Tools to Ease Your Workload This Open Enrollment Season.

1. An Industry-Specific Agency Management System Keeps You Organized

Organization is essential during enrollment season. You’re busy enrolling new clients, renewing existing clients, cross-selling, marketing, nurturing, etc. You’re busy. And when you’re busy, it’s easy to let things slide off your plate and fall between the cracks.

Keeping your information organized in an agency management system provides you peace of mind that your data is secure, up-to-date, and reliable. In AgencyBloc, being organized means you have quick access to information like:

• Client notes
• Client coverage information
• Prospect information
• Lead information (including lead source)
• Where leads/opportunities are in your sales process
• Projected incoming sales revenue for each month
• Carrier information (including portal links and passwords)
• Group enrollment and elections
• Relationships (individual to individual, individual to policy, individual to group, policy to carrier, etc.)

Image Source | AgencyBloc

Having this information in one easy-to-access, easy-to-use place is crucial.

"I looked at several agency management systems and selected AgencyBloc because of the price, it's industry-specific, it's easy to use. I can access my data anywhere, do business anywhere, and the system keeps things fast and in order for me."
—George D., Danielhealth

Some significant benefits that come from using an industry-specific AMS over generic CRM software or a homegrown solution are:

• Everything is built specifically for your industry; therefore, you have fewer workarounds and don’t have to build out as many customizations.
• It’s a one-system approach. You can track policies, clients, prospects, leads, agents, carriers, and commissions all in one localized system instead of running a CRM parallel to a commission-specific tracker.
• It helps you work smarter. With built-in capabilities like workflow automation and industry-specific reporting, you can automate some daily, repetitive tasks and better analyze your overall book of business for a smarter, more informed approach to business management. 
• Everyone can have access. Some homegrown solutions and generic CRMs aren’t built for your entire team and their specific roles. Most industry-specific AMS solutions can be leveraged for any position within your agency. Learn more in our blog How to Integrate Your AMS into Every Role at Your Agency.

2. An Agency Management System Streamlines Policy Renewal Communications

Streamline communication by utilizing workflow automation in your AMS, like Automated Workflow in AgencyBloc. Set up an Automated Workflow to trigger when a client is nearing their policy renewal date. You can also use Automated Workflow to send tasks to the agent of record to ensure both the agent and the client are on the same page.

For the client-facing side, here is how that communication schedule could look:

• 120 days before expiration: Trigger an email to the client to let them know their policy will be expiring soon.
• 90 days before expiration: Trigger an email to the client to remind them of the expiration date and steps they should be taking.
• 30 days before expiration: Trigger an email to send to the client to remind them of the quickly approaching expiration date and steps they should be taking.
• 14 days before expiration: Trigger an email to send to the client to remind them of the renewal deadline and what they need to do.

Use automation to create your own timeline of when and what you want to communicate. Get more ideas on how you can use automation to send policy-related communications to your clients in our free templates: Policy-Related Email Templates for Agents & Advisors.

3. An Agency Management System Simplifies Communications Regarding Carrier & Policy Changes

If a carrier or coverage type is changing, let those affected know ahead of time so you can plan for what’s to come. With an AMS like AgencyBloc, you can run a quick search to see which of your clients have a particular coverage type or carrier to know who will be affected and how you need to proceed.

Once you know how many will be affected, you can make informed choices about contacting them. If you have an AMS with integrated email capabilities, like AgencyBloc’s Email Campaign builder, you can send a mass email to all of those with information of what they need to know and their next steps. Take it a step further and use Variable Data (smart data) to personalize the message. 

For example, instead of saying:

Your policy will be affected by upcoming changes. Here is my plan...

You can instead say: 

Hi Jim, your policy [policy number] with [Carrier] will be affected by upcoming changes. Here’s what I am planning to do regarding this change.

Now, they have more knowledge of what’s happening and what your plan is to help them navigate the change.

4. An Agency Management System Can Easily Identify Cross-Sell Opportunities

Use the enrollment season to provide more value to your clients by ensuring they have no gaps in their current coverage. Run a basic cross-sell report in your AMS and quickly identify clients who have X-coverage but not Y-coverage. This is what the Cross-Sell Report looks like in AgencyBloc:

Image Source | AgencyBloc

Take it a step further and send a mass email to all those you’ve identified in your report. Not sure what to say? Download our free Cross-Sell Email Templates for Agents & Advisors.

5. An Agency Management System Helps You Manage Your Leads & Sales Opportunities

When it comes to converting your leads, speed-to-contact is essential. You’ve heard it all before, but these stats create the visual:

• If you follow up with web leads within 5 minutes, you’re 9 times more likely to convert them
• 50% of sales go to the first salesperson to contact the prospect

However, with all of the other stuff on your plate (like quoting, enrolling, meeting with current clients, renewals, answering calls, onboarding, finding a moment to eat lunch, etc.), it can be challenging to nurture new leads effectively—let alone have time to follow up with new leads immediately. 

This is where an AMS with workflow automation and sales management tools can help.

In AgencyBloc, you can build a customizable Lead Form that connects with Automated Workflow. Then, when a lead fills out that form on your website, it is populated in AgencyBloc and can kick off an email that says, “Thank you for your interest, we’ll be in touch soon.” Check out our free templates, Lead Nurturing Email & Workflow Recipes, for more ideas of what you can say and when.

Simultaneously, you can assign a task to the agent, team, or sales manager to alert them to the new lead.

Once you have your leads in AgencyBloc, nurture them and add an Opportunity. Using Opportunities, you can add the different product types they’re looking at and move them through the designated Sales Pipeline for that product. For example, if they’re looking at group benefits, you could split the benefits (life, health, dental, vision, etc.) into different Opportunities and Pipelines or group them together. 

Then, move them through the sales process you designed. Note, the processes for each product type can and should be different. You can also use a Pipeline just for renewals. Learn more about the types of Pipelines you can build in AgencyBloc in our blog, 4 Examples of Health & Life Insurance Sales Pipelines.

Why the Technology You Choose Matters

Using the right technology, you can have your most productive and profitable enrollment season to date. It allows you to streamline your client communications, improve lead distribution to your agents, create consistency in your sales process, be more organized, and, most importantly, help you work smarter.

Your agency can save a considerable amount of time and money, make smarter business decisions, and better focus on the heart of your business—your clients. By utilizing an industry-specific AMS during the enrollment season, agencies have saved:

• 100+ hours on client communications and sending renewal notices
• 40+ hours on document management 
• 6 hours per week in lead distribution

This blog was originally posted on August 21, 2018 and republished on August 24, 2021.