Grow Your Independent Agency by Activating ‘Hit Teams’

In many independent agencies, production is left to lone wolves who professionally prowl among neighborhoods, businesses, and the Internet. These offices encourage their producers to work alone in pursuit of fresh sales, intentionally or otherwise. Such self-reliance works out well for certain agents, but it’s not for everyone. Others prefer prospecting and selling within a team structure, as it makes the sales process more efficient and enjoyable. And there is only one rule about teams: they must consist of more than one person. So, be as creative as you want when building them.

A “hit team,” in the context of this column, is two or more agency staffers tasked with targeting a particular policy or group of buyers. It’s not an assassination squad, as the name suggests, unless its sole mission is to target the business of a particular agent, agency or carrier (not recommended).

Here are three ideas for teams. There are many more as well.

Umbrella Hit Teams

A basic example of the concept is a personal umbrella hit team. Its mission is to cross-sell million dollar (or greater) policies to auto and homeowners insureds. The umbrella demands attention because it affordably protects insureds against jumbo lawsuits and is relatively easy to underwrite, rate and sell. It also enhances your retention ratio, because buyers of these policies tend to keep them.

Plus, they require you to gather basic details on any underlying policies that you don’t write, which you can simultaneously solicit. And of course, there are plenty of umbrella markets for you to use, including monoline.

Your hit team might consist of a personal lines producer, CSR, and marketing intern. Together, they identify the most needy and salable internal prospects, develop marketing materials (or review and modify existing stuff), and approach insureds with their message.

The producer handles any required outside visits, the CSR fields calls and emails and prepares quotes, while the intern manages and monitors all promotional approaches.

The umbrella team concept can also be used to target new personal and commercial lines prospects using the policy as a door opener.

New and Old

It’s classic sales management to team a new producer with a grizzled old veteran. How well this works out depends mainly on the personalities involved. If your seasoned pro is of the lone wolf variety, he won’t appreciate the hook up, as it distracts him from his primary job.

Plus, if he has poor work habits and is overly cynical, you don’t want these traits passed on to the next generation.

Still, a new-old hit team can be successful. Just don’t rush them headlong into selling together. Instead, start them off slowly with joint prospecting for leads within a niche market. This way, they both can learn techniques (traditional sources, pre-qualifying, etc.) and technologies (online tools and social media) from each other before jumping into sales.

New and New

Another potential pair up is a hit team composed of two new producers. They can learn the business together while working and competing in tandem. The art of production is something that’s best learned in the field, supported by helpful training and information. So, when you have two or more young producers in your agency, assign them a variety of hit team missions (both online and off) for teaching purposes and to generate leads and revenue.

Create Synergy

Working in teams helps you to get more from your staff. “Mix and match” producers, CSRs, and others to build temporary alliances to uncover new prospects and sales that might otherwise be missed. Synergy can arise from combinations of employees who have never worked together before. Hey, if alliances like these work on those reality TV shows, why not in your agency?