Keeping up with
Benefits Growth Network  
 

March 2012
Greetings! 

We're in the second in our series of topics exploring the continuum of the client experience. Last month we talked about agency marketing and creating an effective message. This month, we're talking about the next step: Prospecting. 

We covered each of these aras at BGNLive in January and are sharing some specific action items to improve the operations of your business, as well.

I hope you find some valuable take-aways from these articles. If you'd like to talk about any of them in further detail, please feel

free to contact me directly:   

Kevin@BenefitsGrowthNetwork.com

 


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Prospecting: Messaging

Use the same Marketing Messaging you created last month and turn it into materials for your producers to use in their prospecting activities:
  • Create 30 second commercials  
  • Create cold call scripts
  • Create email or mail campaigns
  • Create referral scripts
Obviously each producer is going to use their own wording in the delivery of each of these, but the foundation of the message should be the same across the whole sales team. And it should be consistent with your company messaging.

You want to be sure that prospects are hearing the same message from everyone they talk to about your agency. If prospects get different messages, they don't have a clear picture about your company and how you can effectively help them resolve their own business needs.
Prospecting: Job #1

Prospecting needs to be the the top priority in every agency. And we've moved into a more complex selling situation - producers need help to navigate and stay on track.

Work with producers to develop goals - both annual revenue goals and prospecting goals so you and the producer can manage their prospecting time effectively.

Producer Prospecting Responsibilities:
  • Use consistent agency messaging
  • Fill pipeline with viable prospects
  • Keep prospects moving through sales process
  • Maintain a full & consistent pipeline
  • Develop annual prospecting & sales goals and block out weekly prospecting time 
Sales Leader Responsibilities:
  • Bridge the transition between marketing & sales
  • Help producers create strategies for prospect accounts
  • Provide accountability - monitor & measure behaviors
  • Help producers plan & use time effectively
  • Hold productive and educational sales meetings
Download our BGN Pipeline Management Kit.

Is That Frog Soup I Smell?

I'm sure you have all heard the old folk warning of the frog in boiling water. Put a frog into a pot of cold water, turn up the heat, and the frog will sit there until he becomes frog soup, not sensing the severity of his situation until it's too late to take action.  

 

However, throw that same frog into a pot of water that's already boiling and he will somehow get out before his feet hit the bottom of the pot, the seriousness of the situation being painfully obvious.

 

Well, in many ways, you are likely in a pot of very warm water yourself - financially speaking anyway. Regardless of how aware you may or may not be, the pot of water that is your revenue stream is starting to boil.

 

100 Degrees - Health care reform is passed, which includes something called the "MLR." As a result, in many markets, carriers cut commissions. The heat turns up a bit.

 

120 Degrees - On the P&C side, you see year after year of soft markets. Your compensation drops just as fast as the premiums. And it gets a little hotter.

 








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Benefits Growth Network

As inconvenient as it might be, opportunity is most often placed on the other side of risk. 

 

-Kevin