Hi Agents,

When starting a new insurance agency, success is never guaranteed and many start-ups are prone to failing. We all had to start somewhere in the insurance industry and some of us had to learn the hard way.

So, how does a savvy independent insurance agent avoid failure? Below are some brief takeaways that will help you lead your agency in the direction of success:

Right when you start your agency, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the marketing materials you “need”. These are all important parts of your agency but when starting out, will these purchases directly lead to new sales? Don’t waste money without planning out your marketing goals. A marketing plan is a great way to insure your agency messaging is consistent, the money you spend is going towards building revenue, and help with focusing your budget to invest in online insurance leads and live-transfer calls that will result in actual sales. Auto insurance leads are a great first investment because they usually close faster than other leads, resulting in immediate ROI!

When starting an agency, many insurance agency agreements require a retail office or location prior to opening. Opening an office includes furnishings, possible support staff, and monthly operating costs. Trying to keep up with the Joneses won’t get you more customers so keep it simple. Only purchase necessities and focus on 2nd hand items such as a desk or shelves from the internet. During the first year of business, agency owners should keep their fixed expense or overhead to a bare minimum. In doing so, there will be more available resources to invest in things that will result in sales such as inbound insurance leads.

You’ve passed your test and learned everything you need to know about the insurance industry. So you don’t need any further training. Wrong! No matter what industry you’re in, it’s always best to stay up on the latest trends and new developments that are happening. No matter how long you’ve been in the insurance industry, agents should always be on the lookout for additional and ongoing education, training and mentorship. Classes, seminars, conferences, or simply keeping up with industry news are all great ways to grow professionally. By continually working to make yourself a better agent, you’re showing your customers you are the best agent they should be working with!

One of the biggest perks to owning your own agency is having the ability to have more flexibility in your schedule. Sometimes it can be too easy to leave work for a personal event. A new agency is going to take more than 40 hours a week to be successful. As you start to build up interest in your agency, you’ll find working outside normal business hours is a great way to reach potential customers. It can’t be said enough that starting your own business will take all of your blood, sweat, and tears!

The Takeaway: These tips may seem obvious but it can be easy to overlook the small details that can make a big impact on your agency! Anytime you’re making a decision for your agency ask yourself “How will this decision impact revenue for the company?” That way you can prioritize needs and wants efficiently!

Find your next happy customer.

- Contactability

We don’t want you settling for plain old insurance leads.You know your business and the types of customers you are most competitive with. Our wide-variety of custom filters let you focus your sales efforts to ensure that you only receive prospects in the geographies you service as well as during the hours that work best for you. Custom filters let our agents have complete control of what leads and/or calls they receive.

When you partner with Contactability, you’re immediately assigned to an Account Manager who will be your best point of contact for getting started, answering questions, and helping you make the most out of the insurance leads and calls you’ve purchased. We’ve made it easy to access your account manager anytime via phone, email, or live chat. We set ourselves apart from the competition with our account management team that actually cares about your agency achieving success with their ongoing support.

Contactability was honored with the Leads360 Lead Industry Award for being the highest converting lead source in the industry. This award is a testament to the quality of leads we are able to generate and pass on to insurance agents. In addition to delivering verified, high-intent data leads, we’re also proud of the fact that we provide qualified insurance calls that have a 100% contact rate and are guaranteed to want a quote.

We pride ourselves on sending our agents verified, high-intent leads but nothing in life is perfect so we’ve implemented an agent-friendly return policy. We keep our return policy simple and transparent (read about it here). You can easily request returns on our Agent Center or by reaching out to your Account Manager. Your Account Manager will also work with you to make any adjustments needed so you have less returns, and more customers!

We built our agent platform with insurance agents in mind. Capterra awarded our Agent Center “Best Ease of Use” due to its ability to make agent’s jobs easier. Our user-friendly interface includes flexible call scheduling, built in CRM functionality, granular reporting, and access to call recordings for training purposes. New to technology? Your account manager will walk you through everything when you sign up!

There’s nothing worse than investing in insurance leads and live-transfer calls and not getting the ROI that you were promised. Our insurance leads and calls are value priced to help you grow your agency and achieve a competitive ROI. One unique advantage we offer, is our real-time bidding marketplace that allows agents to target and optimize their campaigns to maximize their ROI. We keep our pricing competitive in the industry by offering volume and carrier discounts, agent referral bonuses, special promotions, and a rewards program! Want to know what pricing would look like for your agency? Give us a call and find out what works best for you: (877) 323-7750

Another reason agents love working with us: limited lead and call distribution. Once a lead is bought, no captive agent from the same enrolled company will be competing with you for the same sale. This also applies to our live transfer calls which are truly exclusive, so there’s no competing with other agents. We want our agents to have confidence that the leads they invest in will result in more policies created for them!

The Takeaway: quality insurance leads and live-transfer calls, great customer service from our account management team, and a solid ROI for your agency are some of the main reasons insurance agents partner with us. But actions speak louder than words and we’re more than happy to prove it to you!

Find your next happy customer.

- Contactability