How to Increase Insurance Sales
Updated
Every sale in your office comes out of a short chain of numbers. To sell more, find the weakest number in the chain and work on that one first.
The chain
- Leads: people who could buy, from referrals, internet leads, walk-ins or your own book.
- Quote rate: the share of leads you quote.
- Close rate: the share of quotes that become policies.
- Policies per household: how many products each customer has with you.
New households = leads × quote rate × close rate, and each household can grow into more policies.
A worked example
Example. This month your office has 200 leads. You quote 50% of them, which is 100 quotes. You close 20% of quotes, which is 20 new households. Each household has 2 policies on average, so that is 40 policies.
Now improve one number at a time:
| Change | Quotes | Households | Policies |
|---|---|---|---|
| As written | 100 | 20 | 40 |
| Quote rate 60% | 120 | 24 | 48 |
| Close rate 25% | 100 | 25 | 50 |
| 2.4 policies per household | 100 | 20 | 48 |
| 250 leads | 125 | 25 | 50 |
Each change adds 8 to 10 policies. The cheapest one to move is usually the one to start with. Buying more leads costs money every month; quoting more of the leads you already have does not.
Find your weak number
Write down last month's four numbers. Then compare each with your own last three months. The one that dropped, or the one that sits lowest for the office, is your first target. Look by person too. One producer with a low quote rate can pull the whole office down.
Moving each number
Leads. Ask every new customer for a referral at the point of sale. Call your own book: customers with one policy are leads for a second. Before buying more internet leads, check which vendors already turn into policies at a cost you can live with.
Quote rate. Call new leads fast, the same day if you can. Set a daily quote goal for each person and make the count visible.
Close rate. Follow up every quote that didn't close, on a set schedule. Track which producers close the most quotes and ask them to show the rest what they do.
Policies per household. Review every customer with one policy. Ask about the products they don't have with you yet at each renewal and each claim call.
Keep the gains
New sales only build the book if customers stay. A rise in sales with a rise in cancellations leaves you where you started. Watch retention alongside sales, and see What is retention rate.
Track it every week
Sales move slowly when you look once a month. Check quotes, closes and new policies each week, by person, so you can step in before the month is over.
How Agency Edge shows it
Agency Edge shows quotes and conversion by person, sets activity tracking and goals with pace, and matches internet leads to the sales they became, so you can see cost per policy by vendor. See See your quote conversion.
See your numbers every week
Leads, quotes and sales for your office and each producer.