How to Get More than Referrals from Your Leading Accounts

In this inaugural column, we’ll explore methods of putting your book of business to work for you. Your accounts, sitting around aimlessly in filing cabinets and on your hard drives, aren’t helping you to generate new revenue.

The push begins by considering what your accounts actually are: personal and corporate assets. Your client lists are valuable resources that generate a continuous stream of income, with a side order of intrinsic value. To producers, exclusive agents and others, they signify vesting and retirement benefits. To independent agency owners, they represent property that can be bought, sold, merged or bequeathed. Yet, some of these hard-sold accounts embody more than just these vital values. When carefully parlayed to your benefit, your leading clients can open up additional revenue opportunities for you. Here’s how to go about it.

The word “parlaying” means to maneuver an asset to great advantage. Therefore, each account that you close comes complete with current income, possible renewal revenue, potential retirement value, plus a few other kindly commission opportunities. These include cross-selling and ordinary referrals, of course; but select client files of yours can also dramatically impact the insurance-buying decisions of other consumers, businesses, and organizations. The more distinguished the account is, the greater it’s influence on others.

To take advantage of such an account’s potential, you must first recognize it as having certain desirable characteristics. These vary by agency, but usually include at least one of the following: holding an executive position in a large area firm; being part of a franchise populated with quality prospects; being a main supplier to a specific industry; belonging to any association packed with sought-after members; or simply being your first sizeable sale within a targeted industry.

Another sign involves the intangibleness of leadership. Natural leaders frequently exist within residential and commercial neighborhoods. These individuals can help you to make new sales in clusters. You may already have these insureds on the books, or at the very least, you know of prospects who possess them. These key accounts are more valuable to you than just their current year’s commission. On the most basic level, they open up new sales doors by giving you a powerful answer to the common prospect question: “Who else do you do business with that I know?”

When dealing with strangers, your answer to this simple query is often important. So, if the names you drop are meaningful, your prospect will be more favorably disposed to insuring with you. But parlay marketing is more than mere name-dropping. It’s a process that can lead to you becoming the No. 1 insurance professional for an entire neighborhood, business segment or group.

Here are multiple methods for identifying who to solicit and who to look for in your files.

Method 1. Take me to your leader. In every commercial neighborhood and community, there is a “natural leader” who publicly represents the interests of his fellow merchants. An issue like road construction often brings these individuals into the forefront as self-appointed spokespersons. They’re the ones interviewed by news reporters; making them easy for you to spot. The businesses that they “represent” may be a street of stores, a shopping mall, or even an industrial complex. And even though this person may not run the largest business in the group, the other merchants look to this individual as someone who is focused on the common good. That’s what makes this person an important client. In some cases, you already insure them. In others, you may have to aggressively solicit their business.

Once their account is securely on your books, approach other businesses within your insured’s sphere of influence. Use the tie-in that since you insure the local business leader, you are also familiar with the special hazards facing other merchants in the area. This knowledge, alongside of the interest that you’re showing in protecting their overall business community, can open many doors for you. And with each new business that you write, your position as the insurance person becomes stronger. Word-of-mouth makes a strong ally when your prospects are neighbors, even though your office may be located in a different neighborhood. Once you have written everything you can within the leader’s locale, start the process anew by applying the lessons you’ve learned to a fresh area, mall, or complex. Approach the leader of each new community by parlaying your success with the last. Point out how you’ve saved an entire neighborhood money or improved their protection/service, and the next group of sales will be that much easier.

Method 2. Go after the largest employer in your area. It can open up excellent parlay opportunities, even though you have zero shot at writing the firm’s insurance. This is often the case when the region’s No. 1 employer is a Fortune 500 company. So instead of targeting the business itself, target the personal insurance of its executives. You can learn who these individuals are by obtaining an annual report or checking their Web site. You can also go after its newcomers. Executives who transfer in from out-of-town always need a good personal lines/life agent, regardless if there’s an employer-sponsored insurance program in place. And the sooner you make contact, the better the chances of a sale. Learn who is transferring into town by subscribing to the firm’s internal employee newspaper and by regularly checking the company’s press releases on the Web. Once you’ve landed the account of at least one senior manager, the stage is set to use parlay marketing. You may even already insure a leading local executive. If so, ask your client for a simple letter of reference. Then use it to go after the business of other senior managers and any junior executives working in your parlay person’s department. The insured’s letter (or if you’re bold, just their business card) can open up doors for you in the firm’s executive suite. Many senior managers will at least talk with you if you do business with one of their peers. And most junior staffers will meet with you if you’re the pro who insures the boss.

Method 3. Franchises. Search for franchises with a growing presence in your marketing area. Some you already know. Others you can find by searching the print ads and Web sites of business magazines that target this type of market, such as Entrepreneur (www.entrepreneurmag. com). Don’t automatically assume that every franchiser has a formal insurance program in place. The only way to find out is to contact them and ask. You can either seek out the blessing of the central franchiser or solicit their franchisees individually. Create an agency-only “franchisee (or franchiser) package” that combines standard policies with special agency services as your hook to attract their business. This simplified package approach will help you become a franchise player without having to establish an official program with an insurer or general agent. Once participation in the program grows to a marketable level, you can approach a company or MGA with a nice-sized book of business.

Method 4. Leading suppliers. Primary suppliers of products/services to specific industries make for strong parlay lead-ins. For example, if you do business with an upholsterer of restaurant booths, you can gain access to the owners of the restaurants who use his services. Do a good job for a few restaurateurs (especially an industry leader) and you have the beginnings of a parlay marketing opportunity.

Conclusion. Parlay marketing is more than mere centers of influence, name dropping, or simple referrals. It’s a way to increase market share by using key accounts to your maximum advantage.

Alan Shulman, CPCU, is the publisher of Agency Ideas, a subscription-only sales and marketing newsletter. He is also author of the 1001 Agency Ideas book series and other popular P/C sales resources. He may be reached at (800) 724-1435, by e-mail at shulman@agencyideas.com, or visit www.agencyideas.com.

Class on Generating a Stream of Referrals