Prospecting - Resources

Once you know, the prospecting opportunities available, it’s time to start talking resources. Agents have two main resources available that they can use for prospecting. One is time, and the other is money. In other words, what do you want to put into the effort? What can you put into the effort?

Let’s say you have plenty of time, but you need to keep your costs low. That’s okay; it doesn’t count you out of being able to promote your insurance business.

Another approach is community involvement at centers of influence within your sales territory. Keep your focus on contributing in a location where you’ll find commonalities with other people there. It could be senior centers, recreational clubs, shared interest groups, religious organizations, the list goes on and on.

Once you start interacting and getting to know the people there, conversation is going to naturally come up about what you do for a living. Be ready when it does with that quick elevator speech focused on how you help your clients. This method of prospecting does take time, but the cost is low and the chance of getting referrals and better retention down the road is going to be much higher.

Similar to community involvement, affinity partnerships are a great way to get your name out there and get referrals at a low cost. An affinity partnership is an agreement with a local organization or business that’s going to refer their clients to you. Think financial planners, CPAs, grocery stores, pharmacies, doctor’s offices. It’s really as simple as asking if you can put out some promotional materials at these locations. Affinity partnerships can also work online. An affinity partner can link out to your website from their own, as a means to generate leads.

Now, those are the options if you need to keep your costs low, but what if you’re the opposite? If you’ve got money to spend, but you don’t have the time to invest in some of those methods we discussed, you’ve got some great options as well.

The most well-known strategy is probably purchasing leads through a direct mailer. Targeted customers are sent a physical promotional piece that they can fill out with their information, and they’ll return it to you so that you can schedule an appointment.

You can create marketing pieces, like business cards, slim jims, or table tents, to put out local businesses. Then, there’s traditional advertising, like newspapers or magazines, spots on the radio, or even billboards. You can also do online advertising, like display ads, promoted social media ads, or Google search ads. And if you don’t want to create your own materials, there are third-party creative and marketing organizations that can create your materials and promote your insurance business for you, at a price, of course.

There are plenty of ways to market your insurance business with the resources you have on hand, whether that’s time, money, or combination of the two. Take stock of your resources, and think about which methods you want to try. There’s no right or wrong answer here. Your prospect and plan will be unique to you and specific to your strengths and your resources.

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