“Would you like home insurance with your auto coverage?”
While buying an additional insurance policy isn’t exactly like ordering fries with your burger, the strategy is the same; like any “retail” location, brokerages can increase sales significantly by cross-selling to existing customers.
But customer service representatives are often uncomfortable asking for additional business.
Enter Insurance Lead Generator (ILG) from Web Wizards Inc., a new, automated system that makes it easy for CSRs to capture qualified leads for cross-selling.
In a nutshell, ILG – the recipient of a 2011 Insurance Canada Technology Award along with its client Reider Insurance Services – guides CSRs through a series of tailored questions that qualify current clients, and ask to quote on additional policies. It then saves lead data for automatic e-mail reminders and follow-up by allocated sales staff.
“The system removes the shyness that some people have to ask for a client’s business,” says Richard McKenzie, partner, Garriock Agencies Ltd., Winnipeg and Gimli, Manitoba. The brokerage has been using ILG since September 2010 to assist in collecting personal and commercial leads from its Autopac customers.
“We have found these leads to be very successful in that they are being generated from consumers who are already familiar with our operation,” says McKenzie. “We follow up with each and every lead well in advance of their renewal date for an opportunity to provide a quote. These ‘warm leads’ have allowed us to focus our marketing efforts on consumers who have already placed some level of trust in our brokerage, just as they are receiving their renewal from the incumbent provider.”
McKenzie says the system has provided the brokerage with more than 900 leads since its implementation. And while they don’t all turn into sales, “the closing rate with a warm lead is substantially better than the results from cold calling,” he notes.
Western Financial Group in Brandon, Manitoba, has been piloting ILG since January, using it to generate business for personal and commercial lines, as well as life insurance. And while it is too early yet to gauge the results, “we know now that front-line staff are mandated to ask existing clients for additional business, and are acting on that mandate,” says Derrall Farmer, managing partner.
The system can be customized according to a brokerage’s specific goals. Each brokerage develops its own set of questions, and determines when and how CSRs ask the questions and deliver the leads at the back end. ILG can also automatically send out custom messages to clients a few days after their visit or phone call, to thank them for their patronage.
In addition, the system serves as a tool for evaluating staff performance, says Juliet Greenberg, Business Development Manager, Web Wizards Inc. “With the ILG system, you can track who in the brokerage is asking the right questions, who is converting leads to sales, and which staff members require more training,” she says. “In effect, the system serves as an accountability tool to measure and track staff performance while capturing customer data to be able to convert leads to sales.”
Whether the CSR is speaking face to face or on the telephone with the customer, ILG ensures that no stone is left unturned – or no additional coverage untapped – when it comes to generating warm leads to heat up business.
For more information, visit www.insuranceleadgenerator.ca.
Web Wizards Inc.
This channel of communication for delivering cross-selling questions has been developed by Web Wizards Inc. It is called Insurance Lead Generator (ILG) and it has been improving efficiencies in lead capture and management for Manitoba brokerages since 2010. www.webwizards.ca
