Hardening P/C Market Shouldn’T Stop Growth In Life/Health Sales

by Emily Huling

A lot of agents are breathing a sigh of relief over the hardening of the Property/Casualty market, but not for the reason you think. Certainly when premiums increase, so do revenues. But the relieved agents figure that if they’ve survived this long without selling Life and Health insurance and financial services to their P/C clients, they don’t need to start now.

What a mistake! Now more than ever, agents need to do as much business in as many insurance areas as possible.

The relationship-building techniques that you should be using to retain and write P/C business during the hard market will also position you to write other forms of asset protection. Incorporate these ideas into your business practices and watch your business grow.

Form relationships based on trust. Trust is the glue that holds business relationships together through uncertainty, competition, and a changing marketplace. The foundations of trust relationships are:

• Mutual respect and understanding

• Consistent delivery of your business practices

• Shared objectives

• Strong interpersonal relationships

Let’s examine each element to see how you and your agency measure up.

Mutual respect and understanding are established when you demonstrate that you understand your clients’ businesses, challenges, and successes. Stay abreast of their industry, competition, and customer and vendor relationships.

Consistent delivery of your business practices is achieved when everyone on your agency team adheres to the highest standard of service. Give your clients no reason to doubt that you can deliver.

As your clients’ businesses grow and their needs change, learn their objectives so you can assist them in managing their own risk. Maybe it’s time for a client to hire a loss control specialist or human resources administrator. These changes affect their insurance program needs.

Maintaining strong interpersonal relationships is at the core of creating trust. People want to do business with people who care about them and are active in their world. Frequent client contact by your entire service team demonstrates commitment and professionalism. Stay visible by sending articles of interest, newsletters, and note cards or by attending business, civic, and community functions.

If you don’t have these fundamental elements in place, a client may lose faith in your ability to do the job.

Create Vertical Client Relationships. Account retention is higher when an agency writes more lines of business. The same principal holds true when more people in your client’s organization have connections with the people in your agency. In other words, involve the agency team in the handling of the account.

Here are some ways to establish vertical client relationships:

• If you need your client’s signature, have your CSR call your contact’s assistant and offer to bring the paperwork by to meet with the client or assistant.
• Invite your client’s insurance-handling team to lunch or for an after-work activity to get to know your team members.
• Everyone on the agency team should make personal contact when appropriate. For example, they might introduce themselves to a new account with a phone call or note with business card enclosed, or they might send a congratulatory card acknowledging a personal or business achievement.
• Have your claim staff meet their counterparts in your client’s office.
• The bookkeepers can meet the client to answer questions about agency-billed or direct-billed invoices.
• Producers should be acquainted with not only the key decision maker but also all of the other users of the insurance product, such as the people who meet with insurance company audit and loss control staff, the bookkeeper, president, CFO, and their assistants.

These contacts can keep your account-handling team informed and alert to any changes in the risk, threats to the account, and new business opportunities.

Be a Solution Provider. Agents who are solution providers can help their clients to identify and solve risk management challenges, answer a variety of questions, and refer or access resource information to help their clients in their businesses.

Solution providers don’t say 'I don’t know,' 'It’s not my job,' or 'That’s not our policy.' They uncover clients’ needs by asking, 'How can we help you control those losses?' or 'Tell me how our service staff can work with yours to get the information we need.' Here are several ways to become a solution provider:

• Ask open-ended questions that allow your clients to reveal their thoughts. Open-ended questions begin with 'who,' 'what,' 'when,' 'why,' 'how,' and 'tell me.' When you’ve heard their ideas, you can follow their lead and begin a dialogue that arrives at a solution.

• Use a frequently asked questions (FAQ) resource document. Most questions aren’t new to you. List the ones you hear the most, along with succinct responses. Include questions about coverage, carriers, payment and billing, and so on.

• When you can’t help a client, refer them to resources who can. Know which accountants, attorneys, and bankers can answer questions and offer assistance when needed. Learn which trade journals, Web sites, and associations can help your clients.

Make yourself invaluable to your clients by forming bonds of trust, maintaining vertical client relationships, and bringing solutions to them. Your clients won’t need to go anywhere else.