It goes without saying that in regards to commercial insurance, due to the relative size of the deals and the value of keeping them year after year, most agencies have two primary goals:
- Prospect for more commercial deals
- Maximize the retention/renewals of current commercial clients.
If these are the major goals, then it follows that every agency should have a plan or program for accomplishing them. Here are a couple of ideas to add to what you are already doing that we have found to be effective:
Add Another Arrow in Your Quiver
Prospecting for commercial accounts is hard work. Asking business owners if you can see about getting them the right coverage and/or a lower price wears out your shoe leather and burns up your phone. One of the best ways to get your foot in the door is to offer something of value before asking for anything.
One idea is to offer business owners a little space on your website to advertise their business. You could explain to them that you get “x” number of visits to your website, and the traffic just might result in some sales for their business. Maybe even offer a 10% off or two for one coupon. People love to get a deal so that feature can drive sales for that business. “What’s the catch?” they ask. No catch, but of course you would welcome the opportunity to examine their current insurance needs. Who knows, you might just get a new client.
Be a Partner, Not Just a Vendor
If offering some real estate on your website is a good idea for prospects, it’s an even better idea for current commercial clients. Ideally, your current clients start making money from the visitors on your website who see your clients/partners mentioned there. Then, when competitors surely call on your clients to offer them a better deal on insurance, wouldn’t it be great if your clients told them to hit the bricks? “Why should I care about saving $1,000 on my premiums this year when I made $5,000 from my association with Sue at Sue’s Insurance?” Help them make money, and take some extra steps to promote them any way you can.
Some of our agency clients go so far as to promote their commercial clients by highlighting them in videos and “Buy Local” campaigns. Others incorporate their clients into a referral drawing, and the prize is $100 to spend only with their commercial clients, so that the referrer is rewarded, and their commercial clients are promoted at the same time. These are great ways to be seen as a real partner to local businesses, instead of just the vendor that handles their insurance. That has real value at renewal time, and so commercial client retention tends to rise.
Since commercial clients usually pay much higher premiums than a typical personal home or auto client, when you lose one, it can leave a big hole in your revenue. It can pay big dividends to look at ways of increasing commercial prospecting activity and effectiveness, as well as taking creative steps to raise commercial retention. Ultimately, when you see the bottom line, you will be glad you didn’t stick your head in the sand, but rather did something about it.