Things to Be Considered While Choosing an Insurance Broker

Insurance is one of the effective tools used to manage risks. Investing in the right insurance policy has always been a tough job for many individuals/companies. They often struggle to choose a policy that suits their personal or business needs.

If you are one of them, struggling to find the best insurance policy, choose a reputed broker who can tailor your policy based on your requirements. However, it is equally important to check for the reliability of the insurance broker/brokerage firm. Following are few points to consider while hiring an insurance broker.

Reputation of the firm: Reputation of the company is the primary factor to be considered for any business deal. You can get enough feedback from the businesses who already bought policies from the brokerage firm. Ask for referrals from the companies similar to yours and check the references for proper licenses and registrations. Knowing about the reputation of a firm is not a tough task as it easily spreads through the word of mouth if the company offers better services.

Credentials of the company: Not all insurance brokers/brokerage firms out there are good. You need to make sure that the brokerage firm you choose is secure, respected and well established. If you are from Ireland, note that the companies regulated by the Financial Regulator and registered with Financial Services Authority (FSA), Irish Brokers Association (IBA) etc. are considered to be professional and reliable as they maintain the integrity of the financial system.

After choosing a firm which meets the above mentioned criteria, it is essential to check the following things which are related to the services offered by the broker.

Independent & impartial advice: A broker never represents a single or a group of insurance companies. He works independently and hence is supposed to give impartial advice related to the insurance companies and their policies. In general, every broker plans to schedule initial meeting face to face with the client. This is the best chance to clearly identify the intentions of the broker. Make sure that he is neither referring a particular company nor suggesting a particular policy. Being impartial and making effective recommendations is the prime quality of an ideal insurance broker.

Need based approach: An effective insurance broker comes up with unique solution for different client requirements. He suggests the right coverage after clearly identifying the financial position, goals and budget of the respective individual/business. With vast knowledge and expertise in the field of insurance, he develops a structured and robust insurance program for your needs. A need based approach always helps you to achieve your objectives and make effective changes in your current financial picture.

Timely service: Insurance is like a parachute, you never know how well it has been prepared until you really need it. Regular renewals and reviews of existing coverage have always been a part of broker's job. So, it is always better to know how the renewals are handled before going for a deal. Through the initial correspondence and the timely responses given by the insurance professional, we can judge how good he is in serving the customer.

Insurance helps in managing risks caused by unpredictable events that may occur any time. Therefore, it is always better to select a professional who provides best service in the industry. Remember, insurance is a competitive industry with plenty of insurance brokers. Your investment will be fruitful only when it is processed through a reliable channel.

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Tips for Finding Medicare Supplement Leads

In a competitive insurance market, it can be a challenge for agents to land high-quality Medicare supplement leads. Medicare comes with very stringent guidelines, so the supplement leads should also be very specific to this group in order to be successful. The problem is that too many lead generation companies offer leads that do not come through for agents when it is time to follow up with phone calls.

To increase your chances for landing Medicare supplement leads that convert to sales, consider these helpful tips:

· Partner with organizations and companies who may work with people needing Medicare supplement insurance. Adult activity centers, retirement homes, and other non-profit organization that serve this group are great places to start. Offer something of value to them like a seminar on healthy-living as a senior and then add your "pitch" at the end of the presentation. When you can offer value and information to people, you are more likely to peak their interests in the product you are offering.

· Write a piece or a column for newsletters these organizations put out. It is the same idea of offering valuable information that the seniors can use, which will then make you an expert in their eyes, leading them to come to you when they have questions about insurance.

· Seek out reputable lead generations companies who have received good reviews from other agents. While many companies offer less-than-stellar Medicare supplement leads, you can find those who will provide the high-quality leads you need. It's just about doing the research and learning more about the company before purchasing leads.

· Consider going with a company that provides you with more than one type of leads package. When you can do all of your lead-gaining business with one company, you can really get to know the company, building a mutually-beneficial relationship that will result in better leads and prices for your business.

· Ask lead generation companies about the other agents to whom they are selling leads in your territory. You do not want to find yourself going after the very same leads as your local competitors. The fewer agents with the same Medicare supplement leads, the better.

· Before purchasing leads from a company, determine whether they offer the support and customer service you need to make the most of your business. Selling leads to you is one thing, but coming through with excellent support and additional information to help you is what makes a good lead generation service.

There is a great need for Medicare supplement insurance now in the United States as people are living longer and finding their Medicare is not covering all of their insurance needs. When you can connect with these leads, you will find the sales process is relatively smooth. The more challenging aspect is finding the high-quality leads in order to get to the sales process. Conduct some background research and get to know the best leads generation service and you will save time chasing dead-in-the-water leads and move onto growing your business.

GIC's Offer Predictable Investment Returns - And Some Have Insurance Benefits Too   Useful Tips for Selling Insurance   3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Important Insurance Trends Agents Are Missing Out On!

There are big changes in store for the insurance industry. With health reform being discussed, corporations providing fewer and fewer benefits and other changes, Americans are simply looking for ways to make sure they will be taken care of regardless of what happens. This means there are great opportunities awaiting the motivated and informed insurance agent. Here are three voluntary insurance trends that are becoming more and more popular so you can inform yourself about them and increase your commissions.

Lack of Communication about Benefits

According to a recent report, more than 65 percent of today's workforce is unsatisfied with the information they are being given by their employer regarding their insurance benefits. These workers would rather speak with a benefits professional (an agent with the insurance company that provides their policy) rather than the human resources department of their company. This is a great opportunity for an agent to speak with employees and explain their policies to them. When you do this, you can help them assess their insurance needs and see if they need to increase their policies to reflect any recent changes in their life.

Technological Advances in the Industry

It's difficult to do much of anything these days without using some form of new technology. Many insurance agents still believe that face-to-face meetings with their clients is the only way to conduct business. While this still has its place in the insurance industry, this is a changing trend as technology makes it easier, faster and more efficient to conduct insurance sales. The key to using technology, such as email, iPad applications and other technological advances, is to maintain that personal connection with your clients. If you aren't willing to embrace the new technology, you could be putting your success and your sales rates at risk.

Benefits Packages are Becoming More Important

In a recent survey, nearly 90 percent of employers said that the insurance benefits package that they offer to their employees is an important factor in an employee's loyalty and job satisfaction. In the same survey, nearly half of all employees that were surveyed said that the company's benefits package was one of the main factors in their decision to take the job. Employers often entice workers with an attractive benefits package which helps keep turnaround rates low and it improves worker morale. Unfortunately, with health care reform and other changes coming down the pike, many companies are slashing benefits or they say that benefit reductions are highly likely in the near future. This is where you can jump in and offer voluntary insurance policies that will help improve client loyalty and give you an edge on your competition. Offer your clients the options of supplemental insurance policies and other benefits that will help them feel secure through the difficult times and they will appreciate your efforts and your concern.

These are just a few things you can use to increase your success rate, your credibility and your client loyalty. With such uncertain times coming up, your clients will appreciate your willingness to help them out and they will remember it for years to come.

GIC's Offer Predictable Investment Returns - And Some Have Insurance Benefits Too   Useful Tips for Selling Insurance   3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

5 Tips for Better Insurance Agency Emarketing Subject Lines

It all starts with the subject line, it is the most important component in your emarketing message. The subject line will determine the success or failure of your campaign. Your email message will be given a few seconds of scrutiny before a reader determines if they will open it or discard it. Further, if they don't like the message, they may decide to opt out from future emails. Surely the subject line is worthy of great thought and consideration, measurement, analysis and split test variations. I tend to recommend educational subject lines with a call to action for a webinar, white paper or case study. These types of subject lines are different from those used for promotional offers, for example an email from a Groupon or Staples or Best Buy.

Tip #1 Keep it Short

Many emarketers consider ideal subject line length to be under 50 characters, with a 35 character target. However, the relationship between the sender and receiver can dramatically skew this rule. For example, if your insurance agency is well-known by those receiving your emails, and your subject lines pertain to complex topics, like healthcare compliance and mandates, longer subject lines can perform admirably. The best subject lines offer a glimpse of your important topic, whetting the appetite to learn more, resulting in an email open.

Tip #2 When Possible Target By Segment

Targeted messages will improve open rates. Targeting a specific message which is of key importance to a specific segment will yield. For example, "New OSHA Rules for Heavy Equipment Operators" or "Hours of Service Changes Effective January 1st" will speak to specific audiences, understanding this message is specific to them. These types of subject lines will be deemed relevant, as we will discuss in the next tip.

Tip #3 Make it Relevant and Interesting

Relevant and timely messages increase emarketing open rates (and click through rates). From my perspective this is often more about education and less about selling. Insurance agency emarketing should revolve around rapport building. Agencies or marketing organizations that spew out tens of thousands of emails, touting their new product, program or new and improved pricing will result in greater opt outs, spam complaints and potential "black listing" from ISPs. Consistency, relevancy and frequency should be the mantra for your insurance agency emails. For most insurance agencies, you should allow at least a week between emails to the same prospect.

Tip # 4 Make it Informative

Arguably this tip could also fall under a tip called "make it educational." The subject line should be able to promise informative and educational content, and fulfill that promise within the email body. Your first goal should be to offer interesting and educational topics germane to your target prospects. Once you are engaged in an ongoing web dialogue, your agency will have many opportunities to further engage with your prospects, and they will be more likely to buy since you have established this rapport.

Tip #5 Make it Honest and Keep it Simple

We all know about the "KISS" rule, in so much as simpler is often better. With emails we want them to be simple, easy to understand and to fulfill the intent of the subject line with your actual email content. Agencies should never promise one thing in their subject line (PPACA updates) and then discuss how they can offer the best service and rates for health insurance in their email body. If your agency is offering a webinar or case study for contractors, the subject line and content should match, delivering on the intent of your email.

Bonus Tip - Don't Bury the Lead

You've probably heard this old adage. It's good advice for news reporters, bloggers and emarketers. The subject should be the lead to your email story. This can include things like:

5 Critical Steps to for Your Next Renewal New Hours of Service Regs for Owner Operators ROI Based Wellness Programs for Small Employers Healthcare Mandates and Compliance Updates

These topics offer educational value and new and relevant content. They range from 41 to 47 characters in length including spaces. Leverage interesting and timely topics and ensue the subject line is your lead, and measure the results of your campaigns for opens, click throughs and opt outs. Whenever in doubt, leverage split tests to further measure your insurance agency emarketing campaign effectiveness.

GIC's Offer Predictable Investment Returns - And Some Have Insurance Benefits Too   Useful Tips for Selling Insurance   3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Insurance Agency Key Performance Indicators

KPI's are Key Performance Indicators, and are used by organizations to evaluate performance. They are quantifiable measurements that can help rapidly determine historic, current and future performance, predicated upon the type of KPIs used and the platform selected to use them. For example insurance agency KPIs might include the number of net new clients, net losses, renewal growth, producer quotations, average book of business by producer, agency revenue, and revenue by employee. For the purposes of this article, however, we'll focus on KPIs for insurance agency producers though these KPI's will also be a key subset for agency executives and owners.

Key Performance Indicators should reflect the agency's goals, and it's very important to select KPIs which help rapidly indicate the tactical and strategic success of your sales efforts. For example, Producer KPI's are noted below and might be very similar to the KPIs for many industry sales executives:

New Commission Revenue Renewal Commission Ratio of Net New Commissions to Renewal Commissions Average Book of Business by Producer Revenues by Lines of Coverage Total New Quotes Close Ratio (Ratio of Quotes to Closes) Closes by Lead Source YTD Revenue Growth (and year over year) Revenue by Employee

These Key Performance Indicators help measure your business, and offer indicators of past performance and future success. Year over year revenues compare current performance to past performance, while Web meetings and proposals are forward looking, an indicator of what your future business might look like. If your new prospect meetings have dropped by 20% over the last quarter from the prior quarter, you can be fairly certain that you will experience a drop in new business. However, if you experienced the same type of drop compared to a year earlier, you have a better indication that you are on track for comparable year over year sales.

KPIs can vary by agency, but if they are to be truly valuable to your agency, you must consistently and accurately define and measure them. KPIs should incorporate goals or targets to track and measure performance. For example, our company goal is to close 50% of our proposals and 25% of our web meeting prospects. We measure this goal against our KPIs for this category to track our progress. Your agency might have a goal to maintain a $1 Million book of business for each veteran producer. You might have a different goal for new producers. These goals should tie into your overall KPI tracking, offering rapid insights into the health of your agency, with strong indications of future performance. These KPIs can then be measured year over year - offering accurate historical insights into your performance in mission critical areas. Larger agencies should consider using KPI rollups, where the sales, marketing, accounting and service KPIs are tracked departmentally, with a few mission critical KPIs from each department rolling up to an executive list. This can be done manually or using an automated system.

What type of systems can be used for KPIs? Your agency can use anything from simple Excel spreadsheets, to CRM, to Agency Management Systems to sophisticated KPI dashboards. Selected Web metrics gleaned from Google Analytics or other web monitoring tools may also be used. KPI's should be kept to a modest number for optimum effect. For example, tracking 10 KPI's monthly is reasonable, but tracking 50 would result in information overload. This is analogous to the dashboard of your car. Your measurements might include speed, fuel level, RPMs, odometer, engine temperature and oil level. That's a total of six KPI's which can be tracked while driving. Some cars offer more sophisticated KPI's including, average miles per gallon, current MPG, tripometer, and distance to empty. These additional KPI's may not be displayed constantly, as they may not be deemed critical to your driving. Think of your insurance agency KPI's in the same way, closely monitoring only those which are critical to your success.

GIC's Offer Predictable Investment Returns - And Some Have Insurance Benefits Too   Useful Tips for Selling Insurance   3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Insurance Continuing Education - What Is That?

Insurance continuing education is something most insurance agents and brokers need to do from time to time. Each state puts in place specific requirements about when a person has to get continuing education. In addition, the states determine how much education is needed and what qualifies. In short, the goal of these requirements is to ensure those who are working in this industry are the most up to date on the laws, trends and changes occurring within the industry. Many agents brush them off and do not like to take them, but these courses can actually help even those who have been in the business for years to get better at what they do.

If you have put off getting your continuing education requirements, you may end up losing your license to sell or work in the insurance industry. The problem is that many people do not want to take the time out of their busy workday to actually go into this industry and make the commitment to the time it takes. However, most states have specific requirements for how many course hours of study you need to complete in order to keep your license. If you do not do this, you could end up losing your license. The state may not renew your license without the required courses. If you lose your license, you may have to start all over again with obtaining it and in the meantime, you will not have the ability to work.

There is no need to put off getting your insurance continuing education, though. In fact, some companies will work with you to ensure you have no problem getting your education in a simple and easy format. One of the biggest problems that insurance professionals have is dedicating the time off from their work routine to get into a classroom environment. Hands down, most people do not have time to take time off from work and not get paid, and get these requirements done. However, some companies have made it easier to work around this. They provide you with the materials you need, the access to the resources required and then you can use them whenever you can from any location. That makes it far easier for you to get the credits you need to succeed.

As an insurance professional, there is no doubt that you need to have access to all of the latest information and changes within the industry. You also need to make sure that every resource you require is available to you. Not getting your continuing education really should not be an option. Rather, you should focus on finding the right company to get your education from. Look for one that will work with you and around your busy schedule to make it happen. Of course, you do want to go to a trustworthy location so you are actually getting the information you need to have and that will benefit you.

For many people, getting insurance continuing education seems like a bother. Why do it? Why do you have to commit time and money into this type of learning when you already know what you are doing? It can seem very limiting but there are some solid benefits to turning to online resources to help you to stay up to date. You will not be able to fight the system, but you can make it work around you. The good news is that many people find that they can actually learn something and benefit their lives by having these types of programs. The only thing holding you back is when should you get started and whom you should work with to do so.

GIC's Offer Predictable Investment Returns - And Some Have Insurance Benefits Too   Useful Tips for Selling Insurance   3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor