If your marketing strategy hasn't changed in the past several years, it might be time to consider it. In this document, Jack Fries gives you seven tips for marketing more effectively in a hard market.
I recently visited a very successful agency and asked them how the sale of new business was going. I was admonished for knowing nothing about how difficult it is to renew and/or remarket existing business. When I asked what the agency was doing differently in the hard market, I learned that their marketing strategy hadn't changed in the past five years. Either the principals had never been through a hard market, or they’d forgotten how to succeed in one.
Just in case you've forgotten or have never been through a hard market, these guidelines can help:
- Don’t send incomplete data to your companies. This will delay policy issuance and cause your underwriters to view you as unprofessional or incompetent.
- Don’t send underwriters business they don’t want to write. Talk to them before you submit an application. Never try to 'cram one down their throat.'
- Pick your battles. Don’t ask for favors on every account. As a matter of fact, designate only one person in your office that can ask for the favors and have this person keep track of the favors requested, from who, and the outcome. If every producer in your office asks for a favor on an account, you might really need a favor one day on your largest account and not get it.
- Find out who has the final say on an account. Most underwriters have very little 'wiggle room' these days. Underwriting managers or company branch managers usually make exceptions. Get to know them. Visit their offices. Take them to lunch.
- Do a company survey. Ask your companies to rate you as an agency. Remember that a company’s perception of your agency is more important than reality. If you’re perceived as professional, you’ll be treated as such. The opposite also holds true.
If you’d like a copy of an Insurance Company Survey, please send a request to [email protected]
- Determine what the home office of your company expects of the branch office with whom you’re dealing. Have they told the branch that they need to reduce the number of agencies they represent? Have they said that they want the branch to non-renew 15% of the accounts? Have they instructed their underwriters to get an average premium increase of 25%? Unless you know the answers, you can’t deal intelligently with your companies.
- Work your renewals 120 to 180 days in advance. It’s far more difficult to replace an account after it’s been non-renewed. Take your renewal list to the underwriter and find out what’s not going to be renewed before you receive the non-renewal notice. That way you can remarket it and be more likely to find a market for your client.
These ideas aren't all that one can do to help in this marketplace. Not doing them will surely make your job more difficult.