Working "On" Your Business Is Essential To Success
By
Once upon a time in the insurance business, it was enough to know your prospect, product and price. That, and a smile and a shoeshine, was sufficient to ensure at least a decent living if not a lucrative career. Today, things are definitely different.
Now, consumers have so many choices from so many companies, and they can purchase products through so many different channels. The only way to survive in this business–let alone be successful–is for agents to effectively use their time to market their business. In fact, integrating an effective marketing system as part of a comprehensive business plan is the only way to accomplish the primary objective of any modern sales organization: to turn prospects into customers, customers into clients and clients into advocates.
An essential ingredient for success is a keen understanding of the difference between working "in" your business and working "on" your business. Working "in" your business is plugging away at routine tasks that should be automated, outsourced or assigned to hourly employees. Working "on" your business is managing critical issues such as determining your market, its needs and deciding which carriers offer products and processes that will enable you to meet those needs most efficiently and affordably.
Unfortunately, many agents dont attain their profit potential because they spend too much of their day working on low pay-off activities. Determining to work smarter "on" their business is the only way to make it successful.
Selecting A Carrier. For distributors, selecting the right carrier is a critical decision, one that can make the difference between marginal success and spectacular growth. Thats because some carriers are far better at understanding the needs of producers. Some companies are light years ahead of their competitors when it comes to using technology to ease traditional tasks, such as application processing, from agents to the company.
Carriers that understand the power of the Internet and are fully committed to tele-underwriting processes and electronic application tools offer significant advantages to distributors.
Well-designed tele-underwriting processes can significantly reduce the time an agent needs to spend with an applicant–sometimes not much more than about 15 minutes.
Other improved processes like electronic preliminary applications result in policies that are issued far faster than in the past, an important contributing factor in customer satisfaction and an effective way to free up still more time for business development.
