In this month's Winning Strategies article, I want to examine the role of the agency CEO as it relates to the overall agency's sales efforts and results.
By Roger Sitkins
In this month's Winning Strategies article, I want to examine the role of the agency CEO as it relates to the overall agency's sales efforts and results.
One of my earliest mentors in this business, Don Eve, told me that all too often he saw agency principals who started off selling insurance and wound up running a business. How true! They started spending too much time in administration and gradually got away from what they really loved--selling insurance and dealing with their best clients.
With all the changes and challenges facing independent insurance agencies today, I believe that the lack of CEO involvement in the sales effort has become a greater problem than ever before. Now, this is not to say that CEOs shouldn't run their agencies. My concern is that they have drifted too far away from the sales and marketing part of the business.
What follows is my list of the various roles I believe the CEO should continue to play in the agency's overall sales and marketing game.
Agency sales meetings
In most agencies, the CEO also wears the "Head Coach of Sales" hat. It is crucial that someone assume this all-important role in the agency. Sales meetings should be held on a weekly basis, and the agenda should center on The Four Rs FocusTM.
Each member of the sales team should be asked to report on what he/she has done in the areas of Results, Relationships, Retention, and Referrals. What results did you achieve in the past week? What did you do to enhance your relationships with clients, prospects, insurance companies, fellow team members, and your centers of influence? What did you do, what "exit barriers" did you put in place, to improve your retention? How many referrals did you earn and generate this past week?
The Seven CEO Letters
There are seven specific instances that I believe warrant a personal letter from the agency CEO. They are:
1.Thank You for the Opportunity - This letter follows your producer's first visit with a new prospect. It lets the prospect know that you truly want to earn his/her business and that the whole team is behind the producer's efforts.
2. Welcome Aboard - This letter is sent to every new account the agency writes. It thanks the client for choosing the agency and emphasizes that everyone on the team is committed to meeting and exceeding the client's needs.
3. Pre-Renewal - This letter is sent to every "A" (top 5%) and "B" (middle 15%) account approximately 90 days prior to renewal. It explains that it is the goal of the agency's team to continue to earn the client's business and that the CEO personally wishes to maintain a relationship with the client.
4. Thank You for Renewing - This letter is sent to every "A" and "B" account once it has renewed with the agency. During a recent series of seminars I conducted for my friends at Auto-Owners Insurance Company, I asked the agents in attendance how many of them sent "thank you for renewing" letters to their top 20% clients. I was amazed that only about 15% of the agencies were doing so! My question to you: Are you taking your renewals for granted and not even having the courtesy to thank your clients?
5. Renewal Lost Business - This letter goes to every "A" and "B" account the agency loses at renewal time. It says you are sorry you have lost the account and asks the client to complete a confidential survey concerning why he/she chose to leave.
6. New Account Lost Business - If you have read these articles before, or have seen me in person, you know that I preach No Practice Quoting. I believe the best day to lose the sale is the first day. With this in mind, if a producer takes a prospect all the way through the selling process and the agency does not write the business, the CEO sends the prospect a letter asking for confidential feedback.
7. Claims Follow Up - This letter is sent on all claims (windshield claims, etc., excluded), asking for confidential feedback on the level of service the client received on the claim.
At first this may seem like a lot of work. However, all of these letters can and should be built into your word processing library. Depending on the particular situation, the producer, account manager, or other employee generates the letter. The CEO personally signs it with a handwritten P.S.
Visits to all "A" accounts
I firmly believe that the agency CEO should personally visit every one of the agency's "A" accounts, the top 5%. Why? These accounts normally generate 50% of the agency's commission income. They need to be over-serviced and over-wowed!
The CEO's visit helps make these accounts "Deep and Wide." Deep means we have relationships at as many levels as possible. Wide means we sell them all lines of coverage.
Visits to the agency's top 20 prospects
As you've read in this column before, each producer should make a list of the top 20 prospects to pursue this year. These accounts should then be placed in an MVP program - Mail, Visit, Phone.
The agency should create a list of the 20 best prospects for the agency as a whole. Next the agency should start a formal program of visits to each account by both the CEO and the producer who has "reserved" the prospect. The goal of these visits is to "wow" prospects, letting them know that they are a targeted account.
Visits to the agency's top 10 TANs
TAN stands for Trusted Advisor Network. I believe that every producer should develop a TAN that consists of at least 10 centers of influence. During the profiling process with existing accounts, the producer should identify potential TAN members (centers of influence). Normally they will be the attorney, CPA, and banker. The agency then starts an MVP (as discussed above) for the TAN members.
As they did with the overall agency's top 20 prospects, the CEO and producers should identify the agency's very best centers of influence, and the CEO should arrange to visit each of these individuals. The goal is to generate more TARs: Trusted Advisor Referrals, which we all know result in closing ratios over 80%.
Pre-presentation phone calls
Before the producer actually presents to a potential "A" account, the agency CEO should make a personal telephone call to the final decision maker. The approach is simply to let the individual know that the CEO personally has reviewed the work the agency has completed on the account, and believes the prospect will be very pleased with the overall program of solutions and services the agency has put together.
A member of The Sitkins 100TM started doing this and had phenomenal results. The most interesting thing to me, besides the great results it helped generate, is that the calls wound up averaging almost 15 minutes each.
Insurance company relationships
Our insurance companies truly are, or should be, our partners. One of the agency CEO's most important roles is to be the "Head Relationship Manager" with the key people at the agency's insurers. I am always amazed at the small number of agency principals who invest the time, money, and energy necessary to enhance these relationships. It all comes back to the concept of deposits and withdrawals. You need to make a ton of deposits so that when it's time for a withdrawal there is plenty of "money" in the account!
Personal book of business
The agency CEO should maintain a book of business. Why? First of all, to remain aware of what's happening in the marketplace. Second, I believe it's hard to coach a game you've never played, or have stopped playing.
To free up the time to perform all the duties outlined above, the CEO clearly needs to make a huge trade down of accounts. The CEO also must "take to the max" the concept of focusing on the "Vital Few" accounts vs. the "Trivial Many"!
One of the best examples of successful trading down is another member of The Sitkins 100. In a private planning session, it became clear that the CEO had way too many accounts--in this case, a little over 400 accounts. He decided to trade down 90% of his customers, keeping only the top 40 accounts. He had eight producers and needed to take on the role of sales manager. As you can imagine, he did lose some income. The trade down had the potential to cost him $24,000 (he paid himself as a producer). The interesting thing is that while he focused his efforts on his role as the CEO and the sales manager, he also made the time to visit each of his remaining 40 accounts. The great news is that simply by visiting them and rounding them out and asking for referrals, he generated more than the $24,000 he lost in the trade down. How long did this take? A little over three months!
So, yes, CEOs, maintain a book of key accounts.
There you have it--my list of sales-related duties for the agency CEO. Clearly, this does not cover every duty a CEO has. However, it does represent those behaviors that will help generate substantial, profitable results for you and your agency.
As always, it's your choice. *