Page 69 - The UnCaptive Agent

42 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

Even if you decide that specialization in personal
insurance or business insurance will be your business
strategy, let me encourage you to work hard to sell every
policy every client needs. Don’t let another agent have
revenue that should be in your agency!
Of course, selling everything to every client is a pro-
cess, and it’s likely you won’t sell all needed policies to
every client at once. But as you build your sales plan and
retention plan (more on that in Chapter Six), be sure
to plan to cross-sell every client every policy they need
to purchase. Make sure every policy you are licensed
and contracted to sell are listed on your checklists and
website, and that you and your employees are trained
to ask for that business routinely.

Working Outside the Box

Increasingly, founders of agencies will also ask them-
selves whether they want to build a traditional business
with a brick-and-mortar location or whether they will
create a purely digital agency. Traditionally, service
businesses have been constrained by the need to access
their clients in person. As I built my books of niche
commercial lines twenty-five years ago, I discovered
that this wasn’t really necessary. I developed clients in
a number of states who I got to know very well just
through phone conversations. Today, with video capa-
bilities, you can add a much more personal touch to
those kinds of relationships.
In our business, we use a telepresence robot to allow
both remote employees as well as clients to attend
meetings in person in our offices. They can literally
roam anywhere in our building that a person can. Over
fifty percent of the world’s population now has a capa-
ble computer in the palm of their hand, and those