It’s time to explore how we can grow your insurance and advisory businesses in 2019 and beyond! What does it take to get your business to the next level of success and impact? What do you need to know to grow your business in these transformational times?
Over 30 years ago, Jay Abraham taught me there are only three ways to grow a business. I have used what Jay taught me to help my insurance and banking clients take their organizations to the next level. It provides a growth mindset that helps you transform your insurance and financial advisory business.
I believe that insurance and advisory services are going to enter the age of infinite possibilities. Are you ready to seize new opportunities new technologies can provide your team? Understanding these three simple principles can transform how your insurance and advisory firms provide products and services.
As you read through this today, consider how you are doing business today. Is what you’re doing conducive to building a healthy, thriving advisory business? One that grows through deeper relationships with your best clients?
Many times, when I work with new clients who have been in business for more than three years, I take them through a marketing assessment to see how they are doing business today. It’s amazing how much things have changed over a short time. Not always for the better.
It’s critical to help them see what has changed. What’s working and what strengths should be leveraged to grow a more successful insurance business. They need to change from insurance agent to trusted advisor. Successful agency leaders need to teach their producers how to build strong relationships with better clients.
For success you must know the three ways to grow your business.
The first way to grow your business is to increase the number of clients or customers you have. This is the most expensive way of growing your business. Many insurance organizations fail because they invest so much money getting a new client. New client acquisition is the foundation of the old economy.
Sell, Sell, and Sell some more and, ultimately, you grow your business. In most cases this growth strategy is the strategy your competitors choose as well. It ensures over time the commoditization of your products and service.
Associated closely with this way of growing is adding additional people to your sales and marketing process. You need to invest money and resources to grow this business. Many times, it’s about adding new customers and saturating your market with similar products and service that are easy to service. In insurance it could be selling many similar home and automotive policies to your clients.
For many organizations It’s counterintuitive to think less is more when serving clients. Most agencies fail because they don’t know who their best clients are and why. Its critical to grow your insurance and advisory business with the best clients for your business.
The second way to grow your business is to increase the average dollars per sale. This can be a profitable growth strategy if you understand the key metrics and critical success factors of your business.
What do clients value from your firm? Are you able to add additional products or services that can help your firm grow successfully? Is your insurance business set up to cross sell different products and services? How do you decide what advisory services you can provide your clients?
If you want to leverage this, you need to better understand your clients’ current and future needs. Most successful entrepreneurs try to increase sales while increasing value of the purchase. How do you earn more of your client’s business? This second strategy can help you increase average dollar value per transaction.
Many times, my successful clients have put together a more complete solution for their clients than their competitors. They know their clients better. They grow through educating clients to what options might be available to them.
The third way to grow your business is increase repurchase frequency. If you sell products that are consumed this can be a great way to grow. Many consumer product goods fall into this category. This also can be the secret of providing you with unlimited growth for your insurance business. I’ll be sharing more on this over the coming weeks and months.
How do you sell by not selling? Trusted advisors don’t sell. The educate their clients to possibilities that they may not know about. Are you investing time in your client’s future?
I recently had an interesting conversation with my insurance agent. He asked me how I was planning to protect the intangible assets in my business for future generations. A great question and one that could change our relationship forever. He was positioning himself as one of my trusted advisors.
I explained most of my intellectual property resides between my ears today. He wasn’t certain what to say next. What he could have done is ask a follow up question for clarification. I was ready to buy additional insurance coverage. I was meeting with him. He missed an opportunity to sell me short and long term disability insurance for both myself and key members of my team.
Now we’ve discussed three ways to grow your business. Are you beginning to see the possibilities for increased revenue in your insurance business? What happens when we begin to combine these different growth strategies? There are endless opportunities to grow your business.
Want to learn more about Jay Abraham? You can find many great free resources from Jay here!
Next week I’ll share how to apply these ideas to grow your insurance and advisory business.