NU Online News Service, July 30, 2:55 p.m. – One of the most critical factors for getting good results from a bank insurance sales program is a well-managed referral system, says James Campbell, a principal at Reagan Consulting, Atlanta.
"The number one priority is to define precisely what kind of leads the banks' employees should be looking for," says Campbell, whose firm studies the bank insurance market for the American Bankers Insurance Association, Washington.
"A lot of systems don't make clear what a qualified lead looks like," Campbell adds. "A clear definition of who is a candidate for life insurance products should be spelled out, and the bank should provide incentives to bank employees to provide referrals to the bank's insurance agents. There should also be some kind of reporting and tracking of what happens to each lead, so you can have a very tight and well managed referral system."
Referrals are especially important to the success of the advanced agents who cater to the bank's most profitable individual and business clients, Campbell says.
"Advanced agents are the most productive of bank agents by a significant margin, which is not surprising," he says. "These agents are typically selling through commercial or private or trust groups in the bank, marketing through existing relationships, so it's not a transactional sort of business."
