Page 68 - The UnCaptive Agent

WHAT KIND OF AGENCY DO YOU WANT TO START? 41

As you build your niches, you will find it very helpful
to join industry or trade associations related to those
niches. If you are selling niche personal insurance, look
for organizations, clubs or groups focused on interests
you share, or you want to insure. When you join, don’t
be the guy that everyone sees through as a mere oppor-
tunist. Contribute of your time and talent, not just of
dues. You’ll make friends, have fun, be a worthwhile
member, and build your business.

Sell Everything to Every Client

Regardless of the types of products you intend to
focus on in your agency, let me encourage you to try
to find a way to sell everything you can think of to
every client. This will grow your income faster, reduce
your turnover (increase retention), lower your service
costs, increase your profitability (and ultimately your
agency’s value), and lower headaches or friction you
experience.
In our organization, we have agencies who only
want to sell personal insurance. I think this is as big a
mistake as my agency made by only writing commercial
insurance. State Farm™, McKinsey & Company™, and
others have demonstrated conclusively over a broad
spectrum of time that the more products you sell a cli-
ent, the higher the retention likelihood for that client
is. By selling both personal and commercial insurance
as well as life and employee benefits, you increase the
value of each client by raising your average revenue per
account. You also increase their lifetime value to your
agency (lifetime value is the total revenue per account
multiplied by the average number of years you retain a
client). Thus, you raise not only total revenue but also
total profits and profit per cent.