Whether you’re feeling like you’re stuck in a bit of a rut with your insurance business, or if you’re always on the hunt for new efficiencies, there are lots of little changes that you can make which can ultimately make a big difference. You don’t have to necessarily go through a rebranding, get a new certification or do anything dramatic to see results. In many cases, continuing on relatively the same path that you’re on, but with subtle shifts in how you’re moving, can take you further.
These changes can apply to both insurance-related issues, such as the ways in which you market and sell policies, as well as to how you work in a more general sense. Sometimes, making little changes like adopting a slightly different schedule or investing in new technology can help you get much more work done. Shifting some of your focus too, such as prioritizing customer retention can also pay off.
In this guide, we’ll explore these and other changes you can make that feel small in terms of effort but can ultimately pay off in big ways.
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#1 Know When to Ask for Help
No matter how experienced you are, there can be times when you’re still unsure how to best tackle a work issue. You may know the ins and outs of insurance, for instance, but maybe you’re not sure how to best write an email that conveys your knowledge.
So, whenever you come across an area that you have some questions about, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Doing so can save you significant time and money that you might have otherwise put into trying to figure it out on your own. Some of the ways you might ask for help that will make a big difference with your insurance business could include:
- Asking other business professionals at networking events how they’re marketing themselves
- Getting a colleague’s opinion on how to handle a difficult client issue
- Turning to your clients for help in gaining referrals and positive reviews
#2 Try Shifting Your Working Hours
As an insurance agent, you may have some more flexibility built into your job than other professionals. Especially if you operate as a digital insurance agent, using tools like Wheelhouse to sell policies online at any time of day, then you don’t necessarily need to work strictly from 9-5.
However, you don’t want a complete lack of structure to cause you to effectively always be on the clock. While you can answer client emails day and night, or work on your marketing efforts during the weekend, that may not be the most effective, sustainable, or long-term business strategy. Instead, you may find that making small shifts to your working hours can lead to maximized productivity without working more.
For example, maybe you’re not a morning person. So instead of starting at 9, you start work at 11. Those extra couple hours to sleep or start your day more leisurely could help you get more done during the rest of your working hours. Maybe you don’t even need a full eight-hour workday, but could instead work from around 11-6, so you still end relatively early.
Or, you might find that if you have kids, you’re more productive if you work for several hours during their school day and then perhaps put in an hour or two at night after they’ve gone to sleep. Splitting up your work schedule so that you can have blocks of uninterrupted time can help you get more done.
If you have this flexibility, try playing around with your working hours to see what’s most effective for you.
#3 Dive Into and Understand Your Analytics
As you start assessing what working hours help you increase your productivity, you may realize that analyzing your insurance business leads to improved results. You don’t have to be a data science expert, but if you can get a little more analytical about your business and how you work, you might be able to improve your performance. For example, you might get more analytical by looking at:
Website Traffic
Tools like Google Analytics can help you analyze your website traffic. By looking at information such as where your website visitors enter your site from (e.g., search engines or entering your website directly) you can determine what you need to focus on to increase traffic. For example, maybe you realize you have room to improve your SEO.
Email Marketing Stats
If you use an email marketing platform like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, you can access built-in analytics. As you look at how different emails have performed, such as seeing what the emails with the highest open rates have in common, you may be able to improve your email marketing.
Accounting Trends
Getting more analytical with your internal operations can also help you improve your insurance business. For example, when looking at your accounting statements, you might realize that some of your best months have followed times when your expenses have also gone up. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should just spend more without regard, but perhaps you can identify how certain investments in your business led to more growth.
#4 Prioritize Retention
As you get more analytical with your business, you might find ways to attract more prospects. While it certainly can be valuable to improve your lead generation capabilities, one small change that can make a big difference with your insurance business is to prioritize retention. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision between lead generation and retention, just that you may want to focus more on retention than you have in the past.
Prioritizing retention can help you:
- Establish a solid baseline of revenue to help with budget planning and avoiding dramatic swings in income
- Spend less money sourcing new leads, such as by having to spend less on advertising to get to your baseline
- Grow relationships with existing customers so they eventually purchase additional coverage from you
- Gain more referrals and positive reviews from those who grow to trust your insurance business
So, if you feel like most of your effort has been put toward gaining new customers, try shifting a bit more toward nurturing your current clients and see if you can reap the benefits of retention.
#5 Invest in Tech
Another shift that can lead to significant gains in your business is investing more in technology that can help improve both your internal operations and how you serve customers. That’s not to say that you need to purchase all the latest devices and every new software release, but if you’ve been running your business on a largely manual basis, then you may benefit from investing in tech.
For example, insurance agents might invest in tech to:
Enhance Marketing
You may not have the time or expertise to learn all the ins and outs of marketing and the content creation components that go into it. While technology can’t handle all your marketing from start to finish, it can help you vastly streamline your work and be more effective. For instance, SEO research tools like Ahrefs and Moz can help you identify topics to write about that would be relevant for your audience. And content creation tools like Canva and Piktochart can help you create graphics that look great, even if you’re not much of a designer.
Improve Customer Experience
Other types of technologies can help you both improve your marketing while also strengthening customer experience. For example, if you add a chatbot to your website, that might help clients quickly get answers to policy-related questions even when you’re offline. Or, if you use a tool like Wheelhouse, clients can easily generate bindable quotes at any time, and they can check these quotes whenever they need, rather than needing to set up a time to discuss rates with you. That efficiency can help shorten the sales cycle while leaving clients satisfied since they saved time and had more control over the process.
Work From Anywhere
Investing in technology can also help you get more work done by enabling you to stay productive whether you’re in the office, on a plane, or working from home. If you haven’t already, investing in technology like cloud storage solutions (many of which are free for a certain level of storage) can help you access documents from any device. And investing in hardware like a tablet or a lightweight laptop might help you get more done if you’re frequently on the go. Doing so could also help you facilitate shifting your hours to better suit your work style and needs.
These types of changes don’t need to be dramatic disruptions to the way that you’re currently working. Sometimes what seems like a small shift can have a big impact. And you don’t have to change everything at once. Start with one or two of these shifts and see how it goes, then continue to look for ways to improve your insurance business by experimenting and adapting.