X-DATING EFFECTIVELY

X-dating is the name of the game. If you anticipate to grow; if you expect to even maintain last year's volume in this price cutting market; then you'd better believe X-dating is a must.

Expiration Date! Renewal Date! Anniversary Date! Call it whatever you wish. But without a pocket full of X-dates, you are "whistling Dixie" while some direct writer or, even worse, your fellow association contemporary, is marching off with your share of the market.

If we ask ourselves "what is an insurance agency"? I think we all could agree that it is purely and simply a "sales organization." Certainly it does a great many other functions, but first and foremost a sales organization. When an agency ceases to sell, it is doomed to failure.

So, if we are going to succeed as a sales organization in this highly competitive environment, we've got to not only find prospects, but also obtain the expiration dates of those prospects.

It seems to me the greatest question in the agency business today is "How and where do I find expiration dates?"

Most agencies look through knotholes and find that their vision is so impaired that all they see are a few measly referrals. Our peripheral vision is cut off by the knothole, sources of new business are stunted and we stagnate ourselves in the abyss of no-growth.

A solid through-out system of X-dating not only removes the knothole, but also the wall around it, and consequently we find a fuller and clearer picture of what it means to have a viable prospects that have provided us with the date of our next closed sale.

Our agency primarily solicits commercial insurance and has utilized an on-going X-dating program for the past four years with a great deal of success.

We entered the independent agency system five years ago from the direct agency system of Allstate Insurance Company. It took about a year to realize that for our agency to grow and succeed, we must actively solicit commercial business. Our previous experience as direct writers taught us a valuable lesson about writing insurance, and that simply is this: Very little happens without an X-date.

As an agency, we decided we wanted our producers selling from a reservoir of preestablished X-dates, not spending a great deal of time playing the numbers game on the telephone generating the X-date. So we use our office personnel on a rotating basis 15-20 hours per week calling for the X-date.

For the Dallas market, we investigated several sources that offered a comprehensive listing of businesses to solicit expiration dates. We wanted a source book that would provide several essentials that would profile our future client, such as industry, business name, owner's name, address, telephone number and size of firm via number of employees. With this information, we are able to target prospects by industry, size and city location. After determining the profile of those prospects that best fit our objective, we begin the numbers game of calling. Our staff is instructed to ask for the owner or president of the firm only. It's important to approach the individual who will make the decision.

If the owner refers her to another person, that's fine. It's much better to be referred by the owner than a direct call, anyway.

The telephone dialogue is candid and straightforward by identifying who she is and why she is calling, such as the following: "My name is Sally Doe, with the XYZ Insurance Agency, I'm calling to see if you would be open to a competitive bid on your firm's commercial insurance when it comes up for renewal." The response is either "Yes" or "No"-if it is "No" thank him kindly and hang up. If it is "Yes," request the expiration date so that you may document your file and contact him 60 days prior to the renewal date.

Sounds pretty simple, and it is. But keep in mind that is tedious, monotonous and negative. A female calling is a plus, because our experience has shown that it is easier for a female to get through to the boss than a male, and also females tend to be more patient and tolerant of the routine.

Statistics show that for each hour of calling, approximately 15 owners will be reached with an average of one or two X-dates obtained. Twenty hours per week of calling will generate around 30 expiration dates.

These expiration dates will be given to the producer for placing in a calendar suspense for the future follow-up 60 days prior to the expiration date. Nine to 12 months of conscientious X-dating will provide 50-plus leads per month for well over a year.

A systematic X-dating program does not guarantee the closed sale, but it most certainly guarantees your producer plenty of firms to call on which have an immediate need. And if that's not half the battle, then you are just whistling Dixie.