At recent sales meetings you’ve been discussing the pros and cons of using a telemarketing firm to generate more appointments and increase commercial lines revenue opportunities. Calls come into the agency from telemarketers pitching deals and promising all kinds of paybacks.
As a manager, you want to make an informed decision about whom you hire. But choosing a telemarketing firm based solely on the deal they offer or the promises they make is a bit like picking a dentist because they’re offering discount tickets, or a law firm just because they have the biggest ad in the phone book.
Rates and anticipated returns are two elements you’ll certainly want to evaluate. But what other considerations should your decision be based on? Here’s a list of key variables that should be useful in guiding your research: Personnel - Who will actually do the calling for your agency? Will there be consistency or will many different people be calling in a boiler-room environment? Is there a high caller turnover? What’s the average caller’s tenure? Is all calling done “on-site” or do they use unsupervised “tele-commuters”?
Training - Do they take the time to understand what may set you apart from other competing agencies? If you're targetting larger companies do they have the experience and skill to communicate with C Level decision-makers? How will the telemarketing firm go about conveying your agency’s competitive advantage?
Timing - When will calls be made so that they’re able to best reach busy decision-makers? Are they able to make early morning and early evening calls? Are they in a favorable time zone? Does their software enable them to set alarms and schedule calls most effectevly?
Experience - Do they understand the insurance sales process? Issues around workers comp; risk management; safety engineering? Do they have a good handle on realistic “hit ratios”, dials, completed contacts and appointments generated?
Who will own the data after the program is ended? - A wealth of details and intelligence can be gathered during the calling process: x-dates, current agents and carriers, decision-makers' names and titles, e-mail addresses, insurance concerns, and buying attitudes. When the program ends, will you get to keep this valuable intelligence or will the telemarketers retain that for possible use with other agencies?
How are leads qualified? Are the appointments that are set for you solid, reliable selling opportunities? How do they avoid situations where someone schedules a meeting just to get the caller off the phone? Are the callers speaking with actual decision-makers? Are x-dates and other data accurate?
How are you billed? Are you required to pay for a whole year up-front? Can payments be broken-up into installments? Can you pay by credit card?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Not all agencies are the same – Differentiating your agency and communicating its competitive advantages
If you’re like most successful agency owners and executives, you want your agency to stand out from the rank and file. To that end you first need to identify your competitive advantages – the special expertise, services, products and other factors that set you apart from the competition. Then you have to effectively communicate and promote those advantages so prospects know why it’s worth their time to meet with you - so they want to meet with you.
At PMA new teleprospecting clients fill-out an Agency Questionnaire from which we develop a tailored Phone Approach and Agency Fact Sheet so their Business Development caller has a good sense of their culture and strengths. Some agencies, particularly smaller ones, find it hard to come up with differentiators that will give them a marketing edge to magnetize prospects.
Larger agencies may have access to more markets, sophisticated on-line tools and other resources. But what can a ten-person agency do to establish themselves as “go-to” authorities and position themselves as the agency of choice? Quite a bit, actually.
Here are four examples of how smaller agencies can leverage resources and create strong, unique identities.
Collaborate, Educate, and Communicate
➢ When CSRs are knowledgeable about coverage issues, customers come away feeling assured and confident about the agency’s expertise. One well-trained CSR was able to show a customer that their umbrella policy did in fact cover a claim that another agent mistakenly thought wasn’t covered. Not only was the customer delighted with the reversal of fortune, but that whole family became staunch advocates, spreading the word about the agency’s competency.
➢ Another agency, in conjunction with a local hospital’s Travel Nurse offered a series of presentations with tips and caveats for vacation and business travel that helped establish a strong identity for the agency and gave them a meaningful competitive advantage.
➢ In collaboration with the local Chamber of Commerce and a Professor of Community Development at a local college, another agency co-sponsored a series of “Keep our Downtown Strong” meetings that examined successful business development tactics used by other communities. The information sparked initiatives that helped to strengthen the town’s economic base and the agency enjoyed considerable positive publicity and recognition.
➢ One agency that we know of reaped lots of positive PR when they helped organize an innovative loss-prevention presentation for the local school district that involved a regional carrier with special expertise in school insurance and a number of vendor experts on topics like school violence and job applicant backgound checks. The program quite successfully raised awareness of their independent agency as risk management experts in the community.
At PMA new teleprospecting clients fill-out an Agency Questionnaire from which we develop a tailored Phone Approach and Agency Fact Sheet so their Business Development caller has a good sense of their culture and strengths. Some agencies, particularly smaller ones, find it hard to come up with differentiators that will give them a marketing edge to magnetize prospects.
Larger agencies may have access to more markets, sophisticated on-line tools and other resources. But what can a ten-person agency do to establish themselves as “go-to” authorities and position themselves as the agency of choice? Quite a bit, actually.
Here are four examples of how smaller agencies can leverage resources and create strong, unique identities.
Collaborate, Educate, and Communicate
➢ When CSRs are knowledgeable about coverage issues, customers come away feeling assured and confident about the agency’s expertise. One well-trained CSR was able to show a customer that their umbrella policy did in fact cover a claim that another agent mistakenly thought wasn’t covered. Not only was the customer delighted with the reversal of fortune, but that whole family became staunch advocates, spreading the word about the agency’s competency.
➢ Another agency, in conjunction with a local hospital’s Travel Nurse offered a series of presentations with tips and caveats for vacation and business travel that helped establish a strong identity for the agency and gave them a meaningful competitive advantage.
➢ In collaboration with the local Chamber of Commerce and a Professor of Community Development at a local college, another agency co-sponsored a series of “Keep our Downtown Strong” meetings that examined successful business development tactics used by other communities. The information sparked initiatives that helped to strengthen the town’s economic base and the agency enjoyed considerable positive publicity and recognition.
➢ One agency that we know of reaped lots of positive PR when they helped organize an innovative loss-prevention presentation for the local school district that involved a regional carrier with special expertise in school insurance and a number of vendor experts on topics like school violence and job applicant backgound checks. The program quite successfully raised awareness of their independent agency as risk management experts in the community.
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