Today I am speaking to all insurance agents about the biggest concern regarding building your business and that is - how to prospect for new clients in today's new marketing environment? Agents of the past conducted all their appointments in person, face to face, belly to belly and sitting at the kitchen table. It was also common business practice to work a neighborhood. If an agent had an appointment with one resident after that appointment they would work that same community and go door to door and try to sell more insurance. They would even collect monthly premiums going door to door.
Some of the old school agents still work this way and new agents entering the insurance industry are being taught these same old methods.
There is however a new breed of agents that are raising their game and implementing new social media marketing strategies. I can speak from experience because I'm one of them. Years ago when I entered the insurance industry I first took a job with a national big name carrier as a captive agent. Two days a week they had me wasting my time calling what they claimed to be hot leads. The truth was those leads were DEAD! The first three weeks working for that major carrier I wasted two days a week in the office calling DEAD leads. The fourth week I quit!
Intrigued by the idea of starting my own agency I decided to work toward being an independent agent. Still a newbie and very green I called the only person I knew that was in the insurance business. It happened to be an old friend of my father who was one of those old school agents I talked about above. He was very excited to hear I was in the business and offered to work with me the following week. I had no idea what he had in mind but we ended up going door to door cold calling. We did this from sun up to sun down for an entire week. We sold 3 policies that we split the commission 50/50. I told myself if this is what I had to look forward to I would look for a new career.
Well to make a long story short - over time I incorporated social media marketing strategies and techniques in my business model. I receive leads from social media techniques I've incorporated and transact all my business online. Most all carriers have online agent site where you can do online applications...and that's what I do 100%. No more going to no-show appointments, wear and tear on my car and paying for gas unnecessarily.
If more of your business is using the old model try some of the new online marketing strategies it will make a huge impact on your insurance business.
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