How to Build Your Insurance Book of Business

Insurance has always been a competitive industry, but its ongoing digital transformation has created additional pressures. Agencies must now compete with comparison websites and?InsurTech startups?that sell directly to consumers.

Fortunately, digital technology has also opened up new ways to add to your book of business and drive revenue growth. Agencies that incorporate technology into their marketing can gain an advantage.

Let’s explore the importance of building your insurance book of business and some effective strategies for accomplishing it.

What is an Insurance Book of Business?

An insurance book of business is a directory containing a detailed list of your agency’s past and present clients. In addition to t your clients’ contact information and policy details, it should include personal notes that give context to the relationship.

Adding new names to your insurance book of business is essential, as it represents your company's growth. Acquiring those new customers helps the agency increase its revenue, keep up with rising costs, and combat client turnover.

Keeping a thorough and up-to-date book of business is also highly beneficial. It’s one of the best tools for keeping track of details agents can use to personalize communications and build rapport with clients.

Reviewing a detailed book of business can also help identify opportunities for new transactions with existing clients. That’s why it’s helpful to include information like customer demographics, conversational tidbits, and potential future needs.

For example, an insurance agent sells a general liability policy to a new contractor who intends to scale their operation. When the agent consults their book of business a year later, they know to follow up with the client, ask about recent changes to their business, and pitch coverage for any new property or employees.

9 Strategies to Build Your Insurance Book of Business

Insurance agencies must leverage various marketing strategies to consistently grow their books of business. Here are some of the most effective techniques to consider.

1. Research Your Target Market

Researching your target market is a crucial prerequisite to expanding your book of business. It helps you create personalized marketing campaigns that appeal to your ideal customers rather than producing generic, ineffective advertisements.

Fortunately, digital technology makes gathering and analyzing customer data more accessible than ever. For example, if you know your target market, you can find information about their preferred communication channels to market to them more effectively.

2. Find Your Unique Value Proposition

The fact that consumers tend to see insurance providers as interchangeable is one of the primary reasons the industry is so competitive. Clients are highly price-conscious and often go for the agency that gives them the lowest quote.

Unfortunately, that makes competing on price a race to the bottom. Finding your unique value proposition is essential for standing apart from the crowd. Consider what makes your agency different and leverage that to build your book of business.

For example, if you worked in construction before selling insurance, you might benefit from targeting contractors and using your experience with the industry to inform your marketing.?

3. Offer Product-Specific Training to Your Agents

Insurance agents are responsible for closing deals with prospective customers and retaining existing clients. Therefore, their skills are one of the primary drivers of your insurance business’s revenue.

In addition to investing in their sales skills, consider providing them with product-specific training. A deeper understanding of the insurance policies they offer can help them become higher-producing agents.

For example, educating prospective clients rather than pitching to them is a highly effective?practice for selling. However, it’s only possible when agents can speak about their insurance products confidently and answer prospects’ questions.

4. Streamline Processes With Digital Tools

Consumer expectations are at an all-time high, especially for convenience. Prospective clients demand increasingly rapid responses and refuse to tolerate delays during the customer journey.

Agencies must recognize that those increased expectations stem from knowledge of what’s possible. Comparison websites and InsurTech startups can offer clients faster service, so agencies must adopt the same digital tools to keep up.

For example, providing a quote to a lead used to be a long and laborious process, but agents that use?Pathpoint?can issue quotes from multiple A-rated carriers in only a few minutes.

5. Create a Referral Program

Referral programs are one of the best tools your insurance agency has for expanding its book of business. Not only are they relatively low cost, but they’re also passive once they’re up and running.

In addition, referral programs generate high-quality leads and encourage client retention. Referred leads tend to have higher conversion rates because consumers trust suggestions from family and friends.

Meanwhile, clients who refer your agency to their network are often less likely to switch to new providers, as it can feel like going back on their recommendation.

6. Build Targeted Sales Initiatives

Your agency should always be working on acquiring new business, but don’t run marketing campaigns just to run them. Instead, build targeted sales initiatives that focus on accomplishing specific goals.

For example, you can create campaigns to generate qualified leads or increase traffic to the company website. Not only does that make for more effective individual campaigns, but it helps you build a cohesive, long-term marketing strategy.

7. Track Your Metrics

Tracking your metrics goes hand-in-hand with building targeted sales initiatives. If you have specific goals and plan your marketing efforts around them, you can monitor each campaign's impact and assess its effectiveness.

When projects have the desired outcome, you know you’ve developed an effective technique for reaching your target audience. When they're unsuccessful, you have the data you need to adjust your approach.

8. Speak at Online and Offline Events

Insurance agencies are relationship-dependent businesses. Building and maintaining connections with people is critical to their success, and face-to-face communication is the best way to leverage those skills.

Speaking at relevant events is a perfect opportunity to sell to large groups at once while positioning yourself as an expert. You can reach an even wider audience if you share the recording online and educating your listeners often generates high-quality leads.

9. Never Stop Prospecting

Insurance is a relentlessly competitive industry, and the current?digital transformation?is causing additional disruption. Agencies must be similarly relentless when pursuing new business to continue growing in the modern landscape.

Just as persistence is a crucial quality to have for?successful insurance agents, it’s also critical for your entire agency. Stay disciplined, try new strategies when you hit plateaus, and never stop prospecting.

Build Your Insurance Book of Business

Continually adding to your insurance book of business is essential for combatting client turnover and growing your agency’s revenue. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new marketing strategies to expand your client base.