Blog + Magazine

Fourth quarter is an excellent time to start planning your long-term and short-term goals for your agency. Perhaps your agency is positioned to experience exponential growth in the next 12 months. Or, maybe you’re hoping to retire soon and need a plan for selling your agency. Whatever your goal is, your State Director is here to help you.

As we round the corner into the last quarter of the year, it’s important to reflect on your goals for 2019 and how much progress you’ve made. Are you where you would like to be yet? If not, the good news is, you still have a few months to get there. It’s also a great time to begin planning for next year, and adjusting your goals based on how successful your current year has been. 

The Federal Trade Commission reports that identity theft tops its list of complaints by consumers nationwide.

Insurance Journal recently published its 101 Sales and Marketing Ideas for Agencies*, and our president and CMO offered the following tips.

Smart Choice®, the nation’s fastest-growing independent agency network, has gained over 1,000 new agency partners in the first eight months of 2019.

Risk Placement Services, Inc. took an in-depth look at the commercial trucking and property markets in its latest “The Navigator” newsletter.

Agency marketing best practices by Virginia State Director Roger Gill, originally published in the 2019 Smart Choice Magazine, Issue IV.

There are several common misconceptions about millennials within the insurance industry. But independent agents can’t afford to write off millennial consumers. Millennial consumers will be the most influential market segment for the next few decades, so it’s critical that independent agents understand what millennial insurance consumers want in insurance.

In insurance, as in any sales business, there comes a time when the presentation is over and it’s time to close. Or, to put it another way, it’s time to get paid for your investment of time and hard work in looking for the best coverage options for your clients. When I asked the top agents in my region what made them such successful salespeople, they shared with me that preparing a  professional sales presentation is their top priority.

Tips for Insurance Agents Using Social Media Platforms for Online Marketing…

1. Be Consistent

Make sure to be consistent with your branding across all social media channels – use the same look, feel, profile imagery, etc.

2. Be Relevant

Make sure your content is relevant to your audience/client base. Before posting, put yourself in the audience’s seat and ask “Would I find this interesting or useful?”

Nick had finally started selling his company’s products on a steady basis. Now he was comfortable knowing that his commissions were going to be enough to cover his expenses. But something was nagging him in the back of his mind. How do I find more time to sell more so that I can actually save some money?