Does Data Drive Your Decision-Making?

This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.

It’s popular to claim your business decisions are made using hard data but too often insurance stakeholders – from carriers to MGAs to agencies – make recruiting and process changes that are driven much more by gut feeling and instinct than by any real information.

Insurance companies that spend top dollar for broad industry marketing research but don’t have basic insights on their natural allies are like realtors advising you to bake cookies for the open house but neglecting more structural considerations. Sure, the cookies are based on good stats, but they’re not going to overcome the unknown problems – or expose opportunities – that lurk beneath the surface.

For AgentSync customers, much of this information is available through reports and data you can see through integrations with up- and downstream tech. If you aren’t using a single digital tool to manage producer licensing management, appointing, and onboarding, you can probably still find many of these data points, but it may take some legwork.

Hack your growth

If you’re looking to expand your business, you have two options: vertical or horizontal growth. To do either – or both – successfully, it’s imperative to operate with good data. If you’re working with a good producer licensing software, you’ll have data at your fingertips to identify both vertical and horizontal growth opportunities that offer the paths of least resistance.

In the case of a vertical growth strategy, seeing what lines of authority or lines of business your top agency partners hold and write business in is invaluable. Those adjacent lines are obvious jumping-off points for any vertical expansion you’re looking into. Knowing you have existing funnels for that business lessens your risks.

Horizontally, the data works as well. By having easy access to your partners’ licenses, you can see where they can sell beyond just the regions you are active in. So, if you’re considering adding a state to your personal map, seeing where your partner agencies already hold branches or where most of your producers are current on their licensure can help you decide where you can easily make gains with little additional effort.

Bulldoze your roadblocks

Onboarding is no one’s idea of a good time, trust us. That’s why it’s advantageous to have accurate information about each stage of the process (and hopefully make it less painful for everyone).

Your ability to accurately answer the following questions is your answer to whether you have good sources of data:

• What is your average timeline for onboarding? Since not all agencies or producers will finish onboarding, you may want to look at the timeline for most producers who do finish the process as opposed to a cumulative average. Yet, discounting those who fall out of the pipeline for whatever reason, knowing your timeline can give you an edge over your competitors or instruct you where to refocus your attention.
• Do you have a backlog of insurance agencies or producers in your onboarding pipeline? If you have a backlog, one obvious follow-up question is who on your team is responsible for getting those distribution partners moving through the system again? It should go without saying that stagnating in this process and not having a personal touch from a team member to provide some handholding to finish up could lose a potential partner permanently.
• Where in your onboarding process do most partners fall out? This information – easily gathered for those using a digitized, comprehensive onboarding platform – should drive a company’s priorities for where to devote architectural attention. Maybe the answer is greater automation, or maybe it’s less; sometimes snags in the process are areas that require human attention. Knowing what interrupts onboarding is key in deciding where to free up human resources or where to apply them.

Without producer license management software, how many places would you have to look to find the answers to these questions?

The friend of your friend is … your friend

Having easy access to data to verify not only where your agency and producer partners are licensed, but also which carriers they are appointed with, is another easy way to help you grow your channels.

If 60 percent of your agencies or producers are appointed with a particular carrier, why would you not explore opening up that partnership and owning part of that distribution channel?

Let integrations yield downstream data

AgentSync integrates with other pieces of your tech stack, and with custom reports you can mine those integrations for comprehensive data pictures. Find out the average time between a partner’s initial registration and their first policy binding to figure out your general speed to revenue, or calculate the specific per-producer timeline or per-agency timeline. Who is bringing the most value to your organization? Who uses the most resources and attention? If those answers don’t overlap, you may have insights into where to trim for more efficient value, or where to invest more attention or training to better-grow your organic revenue streams.

Not having insights into these data points is like dripping nickels in your process. Sure, you can still be successful, but you may not even know what your secret sauce is and how it’s happening.

If you’re ready to trade your guesswork for hard facts, sign up for a demo and find out what insights AgentSync can provide.