Whether you work as part of a management leadership team for an insurance agency or you own an insurance agency, you carry tremendous responsibility on your shoulders. Even when hiring highly qualified agents, you still need to stay on top of things.

That’s just one aspect of working as an insurance agency leader. Even with hard-working agents, you need to make sure that every client receives superior service. That means they’re treated with respect, provided with information so they can select the correct policy, and given all applicable discounts to keep the premiums affordable.

Unfortunately, even the best leaders make mistakes. On the bright side, it’s possible to recover from some of these. However, certain errors can prove disastrous. So, the best plan is to identify the most common errors that agency leaders make and then avoid them at all costs.

The following are the 10 mistakes most often made by insurance agency leaders and owners and how to avoid them.

Spending Inadequate Time With People

For any insurance agency to grow and prosper, those in charge need to set an example. That includes spending quality time with clients, as well as with their agents. Make sure that you take the time to cover both professional and personal issues. Ask about their business, their families, their plans for the summer – remember, the goal is to form a bond with both your employees and your customers. People like to work for, and do business with, people that they like and trust.

Missing Opportunities to Develop Talent

Insurance agencies always try to hire the best insurance agents. Sometimes, that entails bringing someone on board who has years of experience and a ton of knowledge about the industry. Other times, it involves recognizing that someone new has incredible potential. All they need is a mentor.

You’ll even find hidden talent among your top agents. So, when an opportunity presents itself, take full advantage of it. Provide your team with the tools and support they need to succeed. After all, the better they do, the better the agency does.

Maintaining a “Closed Door Policy”

If you’re looking for a way to bring down office morale and turn clients away, then take an inaccessible approach to how you lead the agency. Well, you don’t want that. So, you need to be available and approachable to both your employees and your clients.

For the internal staff, you want them to know they can come to you any time to discuss anything. As for the clients, the focus is to make them feel that regardless of an issue, big or small, that you’re always accessible to them.

Failing to Provide Feedback

Insurance agency leaders who excel in their jobs understand the importance of providing their team with frequent feedback on their performance. Keep in mind that, at times, you’ll need to address a problem. However, you also want to point out when they excel. While constructive criticism will help them hone their skills, positive reinforcement will give them a sense of pride that encourages them to perform even better.

Ineffective Conflict Management

It doesn’t matter how many skilled agents work for your insurance agency; conflicts will arise. If not handled appropriately and effectively, a small issue could quickly turn into a serious situation. Within no time, the entire office would feel stressed and anxious.

Remember, an open-door policy combined with accessibility is a great way to prevent problems from occurring. However, the second you realize that something’s amiss, you need to take action, and not just any action—effective action. As an insurance agency leader, it’s up to you to get things out in the open and then to determine the right resolution.

Running a Stagnant Agency

With the insurance industry facing fierce competition, you can’t run an agency the same way you did 10 years ago. For one thing, that’ll prevent the agents from providing the clients with outstanding service. For another thing, it won’t take long before the members of your team look for work elsewhere.

Over the past several years, multiple things within this industry changed. As a prime example, agents now rely on advanced technology to maintain client records, schedule appointments, and even see trends that can help build a stronger agent/client relationship.

Now isn’t the time to cut corners. By investing in an insurance agency management system, you’ll quickly notice an improvement in the agents’ performance and the clients’ satisfaction.

Forgetting People Are Human

There’s a saying that “business is business,” but sometimes, it’s not. Yes, as an insurance agency leader, you need to run a tight ship, but at the same time, remember that every team member is a human being. As such, they have emotions triggered by good and bad experiences.

Sometimes, those experiences have to do with losing a client. You expect the agent to feel frustrated and disappointed. In your position, you don’t want to ignore those emotions. Rather, take time to listen to them and talk about what happened. Investing in the ups and downs of your staff will go a long way in helping them overcome challenges.

Failing to Motivate

If you want to see your agents go into overdrive, motivate them. Along with recognizing their incredible performance, let them attend a seminar, develop new talent, increase their pay, and so on. It’s amazing how insurance agents, and people in general, respond to the right motivation.

Not Encouraging Risk

Usually, the word “risk” relates to something bad or dangerous. However, there’s also such a thing as “good risk.” When selling insurance, you want your agents to take some risks. Otherwise, they’ll never beat the competition. It’s all about teaching them to push but without going outside of the safety zone. This is where you, as an insurance agency leader, can set attainable goals and boundaries.

Managing Without Leading

There’s a big difference between managing and leading. As a leader, you need to succeed at both. To manage your team, you need to organize, plan, control, and administer. To lead, you want to motivate, encourage, and inspire. If you can merge those two skills and apply them to your team, you’ll see a remarkable change in the agency.

When an individual or business wants to buy a policy, they could turn to any number of insurance agencies. If you run an insurance agency, it’s important to stand out. That way, prospects will immediately focus on your agency and what it has to offer rather than go somewhere else.

The key to making this happen is to ensure your insurance agency is unique compared to others. From a client’s viewpoint, their main focus is on obtaining excellent coverage at an affordable price. While that’s part of succeeding, you want to prove to them that your insurance agency adds value beyond that. Here are some tips for how to make your insurance agency more valuable to clients.

Talk to Your Clients

While that might sound like a given, surprisingly, many insurance agency owners and agents fail to do this very thing. As a good rule of thumb, whenever you talk with a client, whether in person, over the phone, or even via email, ask questions. The more information you can gather, the better you can serve them.

Remember, a conversation is two-sided. So, along with talking, make sure you spend time listening—really listening. Keep a notepad nearby or have your computer open so you can jot down notes from each conversation.

Also, any time you meet with a current or prospective client in person, stay aware of your body language and the tone of your voice. You want people to feel comfortable sharing information with you. So, give them your full attention and remain engaged at all times.

Maintain Accurate Client Records

From a client’s perspective, there’s nothing more frustrating than providing the same information to an agent over and over again. Remember the notes you took? Well, you can enter those, as well as a wealth of other valuable information, into your insurance agency management system. That way, you’re always prepared when speaking with the same client.

By having the information, you’ll quickly build a tight bond with your clients. They’ll realize that you listened and care enough to remember key information about them and their policy needs.

Beat Clients to the Punch

Another great way for your insurance agency to add value is to contact clients with new information about better coverage or savings before they reach out to you. Taking the initiative in this industry is a key to success. With the detailed notes that you took from your first meeting with a client, you’ll know the things to look for later on that could benefit them.

Make Your Services Convenient

In all fairness, buying an insurance policy isn’t like shopping for a new car. After all, people need insurance protection, making this a required purchase. In comparison, buying a new vehicle is exciting and fun. However, you can enhance the insurance buying experience by making your services more convenient.

For instance, offer your clients flexible hours. That way, they can visit your office early in the morning or later at night. Better yet, go to them. Because people must have insurance for many things, make the process of getting coverage easy. Existing clients and prospects will both appreciate your efforts and thereby choose your agency over another.

Educate Clients

Believe it or not, most people want to learn about insurance so they can make well-informed decisions. The problem is that many insurance agents use jargon that clients don’t understand. Take time to teach your clients about the different types of policies based on their specific needs using language they can relate to.

Unfortunately, some insurance agency owners and agents feel that giving clients too much knowledge equates to giving them too much power. That’s not accurate at all. You want your clients to understand the products you sell and why you recommend the things you do.

Multiple studies on this very topic show that educated clients have more trust in a business than those without an understanding of services. As stated, it’s important to build a strong business relationship with your clients, and this is one more way to accomplish that.

Make the Insurance Buying Experience Positive

Seriously, the more positive the experience, the more your clients will depend on you for insurance. This often includes small things, like ensuring that you can accommodate their schedule or that you’re setup to communicate with them using their preferred method (face-to-face, Zoom, phone, text, email, etc.). Make the entire experience about them, focusing the conversation on the benefits to themselves, their family, and their livelihood.

Summing It Up

For your agency to add value, you need to look at everything from the client’s position. What would they appreciate being added to their insurance buying experience? This will give you an entirely new perspective of the things you need to change.

When it comes to insurance, everything seems pretty straightforward. Agencies like yours sell policies of various types to both individuals and businesses. So, that makes it appear as though the premiums paid by policyholders are your only revenue stream. Right? Well, no. There are many additional opportunities for agencies to generate revenue.

Especially today, just about all industries deal with fierce competition. That includes the insurance sector. Especially after 2020, an increasing number of people recognize how important it is to have the correct type and amount of coverage.

On the one hand, that helps boost insurance sales. On the other hand, it’s not the only option available for growing your business. If you own an independent insurance agency, here’s your chance to learn about the various revenue streams and how you can maximize them.

Commissions

For independent insurance agencies, commissions are a big part of generating revenue. However, the revenue will increase not only as you build your client base but also if you opt to work with an aggregator.

By banding together with other independent agencies, you gain more access to markets and insurance carriers. Since this allows you to provide more options, it too will help grow your client base. As a result, hit ratios will increase, which bolsters both sales and commissions. So, to maximize this particular revenue stream, consider an aggregator.

Incentives Based on Growth

Here’s another way to boost profits. It’s common for all types of companies to use incentives as a way to increase sales, including those in the insurance industry. If you create a good plan, you can use growth incentives as another revenue stream.

For this, you need to establish an incentive that’s based on new business, as well as overall book growth. Keep in mind that insurance carriers typically only offer this to agencies that meet specific criteria for profitability and size and those that secure business with them.

Profit-sharing

This is another type of incentive that insurance carriers can give out, sharing a portion of their profits with agencies that meet certain requirements. The amount you can receive depends on several factors, including the insurance carrier contract. In most instances, this involves a combination of growth and loss ratios. Just remember that you’ll likely experience some fluctuation. That means there’s no viable way to budget for this or consider it a reliable revenue stream.

Even so, along with some more challenging years, your agency will likely have some excellent ones. Overall, the revenue gained from profit-sharing should end up in your favor.

Technology

You might think this sounds like an odd revenue stream, but with the right insurance agency management software, your agency can reach more prospects. Now, these aren’t just any prospects, but those targeted specifically for the type of insurance you sell.

Amazingly, many independent insurance agencies still use outdated systems that provide little to no benefits. However, if you rely on the right software, you can accomplish several things. First, this will help your agency run more efficiently. Second, it gives you access to more potential clients. Third, it opens the door to better communication.

A great software program can automate some of your tasks, saving both time and money. It also personalizes your approach to potential clients. The broader your agency’s reach, the greater the chance of growing your business. So, don’t overlook the possibilities that come from technology.

There’s yet another advantage to using insurance software as a revenue stream. Along with making connections with prospects, you can stay in touch with the clients you already have. So, as a new product becomes available, you can quickly and seamlessly introduce them to it.

Something else to consider is that the right software will make it easier for you to network with other insurance professionals. Building solid business relationships can increase your agency’s sales. For example, if an agent within the network can’t provide the coverage their client needs but you can, they can refer the interested individual or business to your insurance agency.

Reaching Beyond Standard Sales

Yes, the traditional methods your agency uses for marketing and sales are important. However, to maximize profits, you have many other opportunities. Especially when it comes to insurance, you need to get creative. While Jenesis can’t help with everything, we can provide you with superior insurance agency management software. Help your agency streamline its processes and make more money today.