How many times have you heard that?  I can tell you I’ve heard it enough in this industry to make me question who’s really in charge of these agencies.  “It’s not my job…” is the most common response from a CSR when asked to sell a policy, round out an account, or ask for a referral.  Over time, the division of service and sales has not only become apparent, it has become completely acceptable.  This is a major systemic problem within the local insurance industry today.  If you plan on growing your business, this division can no longer exist.

Here’s the reality: The Carriers have made it their mission to steal your entire customer base from you.  Once they have your customer on the phone, you can bet they will ask for ALL their insurance because if they don’t, they no longer work for that Carrier.  Is your agency prepared to deal with that?  The landscape of the insurance industry has changed so much over the past few years that in order to survive and ultimately grow your business, agencies MUST move from a service-centric culture to a sales-centric culture.  But how do we do that?  It’s actually easier than it sounds.  If you’re a good sales person, you should be able to “sell” without selling.  My definition of sales is the same for service: offering a solution to a problem that person didn’t know they had. When executed correctly, sales and service share the same mission, the same objectives and the same results.

Everyone at the agency from the receptionist to the CSR has got to understand that every time the phone rings, it’s a sales opportunity.  There are only 2 types of people in this world; those who currently have insurance with you and those who don’t.  Both are sales opportunities waiting to happen.  How many of your current customers are mono-line?  Do you think they are aware of all the other insurance products you offer, or more importantly what they need?  How long do you think it will be until they contact a Carrier for a different insurance need and that Carrier asks them to leave you and combine their insurance with them?  Knowing you should multi-line your customer’s insurance is one thing, actually DOING IT is another.  If I owned an agency and more than 50% of our book were mono-line, guess where we’d be spending at least 50% of our time?  The last thing we need is another lead!

Every day we see agencies leaving money on the table.  Your sales and service teams must come together under a unified mission to build value in your agency, people and products on every call.  Bottom line: In order to grow your agency, you must sell more policies.  Why don’t you start with those who’ve already said YES to you once?