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Every day in my inbox comes another article about Google entering the insurance space. Guys, we knew this was coming. Why is everyone running scared? When you saw and heard this was coming didn’t you plan accordingly?
As I read these articles I get enraged. Yes downright mad and you should be too. Amazon, Google and others are literally jumping into the ring because they see an industry ripe for the picking. Every article sites how the independent insurance space is resistant to change, slow to adopt technology, and that insurance is becoming a commodity. The reason most agents are scared and not mad is that they know it’s true. Their agency is resistant to change, rejects using technology and is perfectly ok being mediocre.
Most agencies fall into one of two buckets on this:
- Yes, bring it. We have great processes, we use technology, and we serve our clients by asking for referrals, account rounding and educating clients on why to do business with us.
- Agents that are asleep at the wheel, not marketing, not setting goals, not training their team on account rounding. No plan and no direction. These are the people talking about Google entering insurance.
You have a small business, there are competitors. In fact your biggest competitor is down the road from you and probably part of the same country club. The time is now to get your agency to be awesome. This is a process and a path. It all starts with creating customer-centric marketing strategies and processes. Many agencies think they have processes but they don’t. They have guidelines on how to enter data into their management systems. Your agency needs to have a strategy for the following:
- Maintaining an up-to-date database with cell phones and emails
- Automating marketing touch points so customers call you, not your competitors
- Investing in the best technology, multiple screens, rating software, mobile marketing agency app and new cutting edge tools like ProTrac that help your agency achieve goals
- Manage your data, have strategies to call lost business, unsold business, monoline accounts and non-standard business
- A plan to shout from the roof tops why someone should buy from your agency and stay with your agency
- A real brand that you invest money in. You have to compete with funny Mayhem, cute pigs and lizards. Stop being cheap, invest in your brand.
- Processes that seal every profit leak: cancellation process, renewal process, late payment process. All of these need scripts and your team needs to be trained.
So if you are scared about these guys coming in you need to call Agency Performance Partners. We specialize in analyzing your agency and building processes that protect your business.
