Nothing affects insurance agencies quite like the summer slowdown. The fun of summer can cause insurance agents to get off track, leading to lower earnings across the board. Fortunately, you can avoid the slowdown this summer by following some tips. These tips will keep your agency on track and could lead to your best summer yet.

Cross-sell Recreational Products

You can increase your sales during the summer by creating campaigns around recreational products. Look through your existing book of business to find clients who need insurance policies for recreational items such as boats and RVs. Your insurance agency management system will help you identify cross-selling opportunities for recreational products. Then, you can reach out to the clients to make the sale.

You can also create another campaign to reach new customers who need insurance for these items. Remember, many people keep recreational items parked all year, and summer is the first time they take them out. You can find lots of customers who are ready to buy insurance today, so they can have a fun summer. Your insurance agency management system can help you gather and nurture leads for your campaign.

Reassess Schedules

Schedules shift a bit during the summer months. Both agents and clients have more going on during the summer, such as caring for kids. Keep this in mind when creating schedules and booking appointments. For instance, if your clients and agents have growing needs in the afternoons, book appointments in the mornings. By adjusting your schedule and becoming more flexible, you will help your agents stay productive in the summer months.

Schedule Client Reviews

Summertime is the ideal time for client reviews. Have your agents begin scheduling reviews now, so they can check in on clients during the summer. If possible, plan the customer reviews to coincide with a special day, such as the Fourth of July. While you won’t want agents to call clients on a holiday, they can call right before. They can use the time to wish them a happy holiday and then discuss their current policies. This will help them improve customer satisfaction, and they might be able to cross-sell some additional offerings.

Host Free Workshops

You can increase the value you provide to your customers by hosting free workshops with other professionals. Invite financial professionals and others to share the stage with you. Then, you can use your time to explain the importance of insurance while the other speakers talk about their fields. Along with educating your current client base, you can do some prospecting as well. The other professionals will invite their clients, and you might get them to sign up with your agency.

Energize Agents With Outdoor Time

The nice weather can make it hard to work inside all day. That can make the summer slump even worse. Mix things up by having some meetings outside if possible. You can also encourage agents to take walks outside during breaks. The sunshine and warm weather will boost their moods, so they’ll be ready to come inside and get to work.

Keep Agents Comfortable

Your insurance agents might enjoy the summer heat while taking a walk outside, but they don’t want to be hot while inside the office. Keeping your office at the right temperature can boost productivity across the board. Set the thermostat at 68-76 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures in this range have been shown to improve productivity.

Be Strategic With Vacation Time

Some of your agents might want to take a vacation during the summer. Their kids are out of school, so it’s the perfect time to plan a getaway. However, you can expect the typical summer slump to get even worse if too many agents take vacations simultaneously. Be sure to stagger your vacations! By keeping your agency staffed, it will be much easier to grow your revenue during the summer. Plus, agents who take a vacation can enjoy a true break instead of having to juggle work obligations because your agency is short-staffed.

Limit Distractions

It’s easy to get distracted in the summer. People have more on their plates, so it’s harder for them to focus. You can improve focus dramatically by limiting distractions in your office. Distractions come in multiple flavors, from text messages and emails to unorganized work environments. Spend the day clearing away the distractions so your agents can focus on the tasks at hand.

All Work and No Play…

While it’s important to stay on track and to not lose sight of your goals, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have some fun in the process! Don’t forget to take advantage of the beautiful weather and do something nice for your team and your community. Consider hosting a community barbecue at your office to let your customers, and the community at large, know that you care for them! It’s a great way to connect with your customers and meet some new people, too.

If you follow these tips, your insurance agency can avoid the summer slowdown.

You might not be able to add more time to the day, but you can make better use out of the time you have. With the right time management strategies, you can get more done during the workday and feel less stressed in the process. Read over our top time management tips for insurance agents; then incorporate these strategies into your agency.

Clean Your Desk

If you have a messy desk, you won’t be able to locate what you need in a timely manner. That can drain your productivity, and you also risk losing checks and other vital items. Messy desks are also a security risk since you might leave customer information out where everyone can see it. Keep your desk clean, organized, and free of paper so you can quickly locate items as needed.

Stop Spending too Much Time on Problem Accounts

Each insurance agency has problem accounts, such as accountholders who fail to make payments on time or come in to pay policies. Agents waste a lot of time serving these clients. They have to track down past-due payments or spend 15 minutes or longer handling in-person payments. These accounts are a drain on time and resources, and they typically don’t yield high commissions. The time and resources could be better spent on high-tier clients.

Agents can free up resources by spending less time serving problem clients. One way to do this is to require that customers pay online. You can use a tool like InstaCheck from Jenesis Software to accept checks without seeing clients in person. This simple change saves lots of time that agents can use on their high-tier clients.

Always Have a Plan

You can also save time by planning out your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Start with a monthly plan that includes your big projects. Then, create a weekly plan each Sunday to address additional goals and needs for the week. Finally, write a small daily plan each evening. This can include smaller items that you need to cross off your to-do list. Make sure your plans flow and don’t overlap.

Stop Multitasking

Multitasking might make you feel like you’re getting more done, but it actually kills productivity. By spreading your focus across different tasks, you will work slower, and you’re more likely to make mistakes. You’ll also feel stressed out and not nearly as creative when you do this. Instead of multitasking, focus on a specific task. Finish it and move onto the next one. This is another area where planning can help: It enables you to be able to work down your list and complete one task at a time.

Start with the Most Important Task Each Day

It’s normal to feel a bit anxious about your most important task of the day. If you put it off, that anxiety will creep into all of your work, making it hard to get things done. Avoid this problem by tackling the most important tasks first thing each morning, even before you check your email! Then, when you finish that task, you can check your email and handle other duties. It will be much easier to focus and fly through your to-do list once you get the pressing task out of the way.

Knock Out Tasks that Can Be Done in Two Minutes or Less

Once you finish the most important task, see which items you can complete in two minutes or less. These tasks are often pushed back, making it easy to fall behind. When you tackle them head-on, you can clear your to-do list quickly. That sense of accomplishment can make you even more productive.

Get Rid of Distractions

It’s impossible to be productive when you’re surrounded by distractions. Every time you’re distracted, you have to refocus on the task at hand, which can cause even the simplest of tasks to take twice as long. Text messages, social media, excessive noise, and internet use are all common distractions. Get rid of them so you can put all of your attention into work.

Make Use of Technology

Technology can help you boost your productivity quickly. An insurance agency management system like JenesisNow can help you streamline collecting leads and managing customers. You can even automate some of your daily tasks so you can focus your energies elsewhere.

Embrace First Call Resolution

You likely waste a lot of time calling customers back. You’ll save tons of time by embracing “first-call resolution.” Complete transactions during the first call so you don’t have to play phone tag over the coming weeks and months. When you complete everything with that first call, you can move onto the next customer with ease.

Time Management for Insurance Agents – The Key to Growing an Agency

Insurance agencies that use the correct time management strategies improve productivity and sales. If you want to grow your insurance agency, start by incorporating these time management tips. Stress will go down, and sales will go up, and your agents will get much more done.

Your insurance agents devote lots of time to recruiting and warming leads. Then, once they sign someone to a new policy, they likely go back to the drawing board, looking for new leads. While lead generation is a critical component of running a successful insurance agency, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. You can increase profits dramatically by cross-selling insurance to current customers. This is easier than trying to warm cold leads, and it provides value to your customers.

Here are a few tips to help your agents excel when cross-selling products.

Gather Customer Information

A successful strategy begins by gathering as much information from customers as possible. Your agents cannot recommend the appropriate products without knowing what their clients need. Your insurance agency management software will include several fields that help you get to know your customer base. Make sure your agents fill out each field so they know if clients are renters, property owners, run a business, and more. The more the agents know, the easier it will be to recommend the appropriate products.

Take Care of Initial Needs

Cross-selling insurance should be value-based. Some agents attempt to push additional policies on new clients, and that isn’t always wise. Agents can discuss additional products with new customers, but they need to meet the client’s initial needs first.

For instance, if a business owner contacts an agent to buy a new homeowners insurance policy, the agent can mention business insurance but shouldn’t push it. Instead, the agent should ensure the customer is satisfied by providing the requested homeowners insurance policy. If the agent pushes too hard during the initial meeting, the client might go with another agency.

Identify Opportunities for Cross-selling Insurance Products

Insurance agents should be trained to look for and identify opportunities for cross-selling insurance policies. This is easy to do with insurance agency management software. For example, our insurance agency management system, JenesisNow includes a marketing feature that provides opportunities for agents. Agents can access reports to discover additional policies clients need based on the information collected. Once an opportunity is identified, it’s easy for agents to suggest policies that add value.

Seize the Moment When Cross-selling Insurance Products

Cross-selling insurance is far different from cold calling prospects. Your clients are already interested in your offerings, so it’s really about seizing the moment when it arises. Sometimes, clients will open the door for you by making offhand comments about their life. For instance, a renter might talk about a break-in in the apartment building down the block. That’s an opening to talk about renter’s insurance.

Cross-sell During Check-ins

You can also create opportunities by checking in with your existing clients. Agents should contact clients before renewal periods. During the call, they can make sure that the customer is satisfied with the current policy. They should ask about the coverage, cost, and more to gauge the satisfaction level. If they are pleased with the current policy, they can then discuss supplemental coverage options. Supplemental coverage is generally easy to budget, so those who don’t feel like they are overpaying are more likely to sign up for an additional policy as long as it provides the necessary protection.

Try to Cross-sell When Policies Are Set to Expire

Your agents should collect expiration dates for policies clients purchased from other companies. They can then attempt to sell them policies when those expire. For example, if your client has auto insurance with you but homeowners insurance with another agency, you need to know when that policy expires. Then, when the expiration date is getting close, an agent needs to contact the client and go over the benefits of having homeowners insurance with your agency.

Set up an Email Marketing Campaign With Cross-selling in Mind

Your insurance agency should have an email marketing strategy in place. You can use email to educate your current clients about additional lines of insurance that you offer. This is the ideal way to build awareness. Then, when your agents contact specific clients, they will already be aware of their options.

Keep in mind that this will only be successful if you segment your email lists so people receive emails that add value. This way, homeowners won’t receive emails about renter’s insurance, and people who work for companies won’t get messages about business insurance. By sending people emails specific to their situations, you can increase your open rate and show that you can provide value to your customer base.

Cross-selling Insurance Is an Ongoing Process

Your agents shouldn’t give up after a prospect turns down a policy option. Cross-selling insurance is an ongoing process. While agents shouldn’t contact the same clients daily, they need to continue trying to cross-sell policies. A “no” today could turn into a “yes” months down the road. However, many clients won’t seek out additional policies. Instead, they will agree to sign up after an agent explains the benefits to them. Sometimes, it takes a while for the benefits to sink in fully, so agents need to stay on it.

Increase Your Revenue With These Tips

These tips will help your agency make more money. Cross-selling insurance is much easier than finding new clients, so educate your agents so they can begin the process immediately. Remember to take full advantage of your insurance agency management software to identify cross-selling opportunities to get the best results.

Ready to see how JenesisNow can help make cross-selling easier? Request a demo, today!