Tag: Client Retention

Episode 242: Using Data to Power Your Agency Profit with Sherif Gemayel

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Having discovered that our stories are eerily very much alike, it is my privilege and honor to sit down with Sherif Gemayel. Sherif is an industry expert who once owned a successful tech-enabled agency in Canada and later started the tech company Trufla before selling the agency. Sharing how he used innovative technology to bolster agency profit. Sherif introduces the True Mobile platform, a game-changer for insurance policy servicing, which integrates AI-powered intelligence, real-time quoting capabilities, and agent-client interaction tools. The discussion delves into the advantages of independent agents over big tech companies, the challenges and opportunities in the insurance industry, and the key role of quick decision-making. Join us as we uncover the dynamic intersection of technology, customer service, and agency success in the insurance landscape.

Highlights:

  • Sharif Jamail founded Sharp Insurance, a successful tech-enabled agency in Canada, and later started the tech company Trufla before selling the agency.
  • Comparing independent agencies to tech companies as distributors, not builders.
  • Speed matters more than price in insurance. Fast quotes win opportunities.
  • True Mobile app: first in North America, AI and renewal intelligence for agents, focuses on customer relationships.
  • Measure ratios, analyze, follow up important.
  • Emphasizes 80/20 rule and independence in insurance.
  • Industry faces the challenge of data standardization, using carrier APIs to enhance value. 

About Sherif Gemayel:

With over 15 years of experience in the insurance and technology industries, I am a serial entrepreneur and an insurtech visionary. I founded and sold Sharp Insurance, one of the most innovative brokerages in Canada, and launched Trufla Technology, a leading provider of digital solutions for brokers.

As the CEO of Trufla Technology, I lead a team of over 140 experts in insurance software development, AI, data management, app development, and UI/UX. We deliver a complete digital transformation solution for brokers, enabling them to compete and grow in an ever-evolving digital landscape. With over 200 clients spanning the globe, our mission is to be the technology that powers the broker channel. I am passionate about disrupting the traditional way of distributing insurance, using trends from other industries to guide me through this uncharted territory.

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Website: http://unstoppableprofitproducer.com/

Virtual Events: http://www.uppfaststart.com/

Email [email protected]

Podcast: http://unstoppableprofitpodcast.com

Virtual Training: http://uppfaststart.com

In Person Training: http://beunstoppablebootcamp.com

Episode 202: Cloning Your Clients (Part 2) with Kevin Donlin

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I am excited to have Kevin Donlin back to continue our conversation about client attraction and retention.   If you missed our last episode with Kevin, please go back to Episode 199 for more golden nuggets.
In part 2 of our conversation, Kevin and I discuss continued business growth and retention strategies through personal connection, technology, and recognition.   Learn the importance of newsletters, niche market strategies and effective endorsement letters for sales.  This episode is packed with information that you are not going to want to miss.

Highlights:

  • Retention is a form of connection and the best way to do that is to connect with your client in a personal way.
  • Using technology to keep notes on your customers so that you can connect with them on a personal level will help you set yourself apart.
  • Put about 50 to 70% personal information in the newsletter and about 20 to 30% about your industry.
  • Get your clients’ names in your newsletter as a form of recognition. Create your own form of People magazine.ds
  • Utilize “Funnel Vision”, pull ideas from other industries to attract and retain clients.
  • Pick a niche that not only highlights who you are going after but your unique qualification as well.
  • Client testimonials, success stories or even tragedies (with consent of course) can help you share the importance of insurance and generate sales

 

About our Guest:

Kevin Donlin has been involved in marketing since 1994, when he sold one of the first ebooks online, payable by check and you had to mail it to a post office box. That was e-commerce in the beginning!

From 1995 to 1998, he was Webmaster for FedEx.com, where he worked with the pioneers of online marketing.

Since 1998, he’s been a copywriter and marketing advisor for clients in North America, delivering sales gains of more than $1 million on multiple occasions with direct mail and online marketing.

He’s been interviewed by ABC-TV in Detroit, Fox and NBC News in Minneapolis, CBS Radio in Los Angeles and New York, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, and too many others to list here.

He’s the author or co-author of 5 books on marketing, and he’s joining us today to share some of his latest tips and tactics to grow your insurance agency.

https://clientcloningsystems.com/

Free Client Cloning Kit: https://clientcloningsystems.com/free-kit/

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Website: http://unstoppableprofitproducer.com/

Virtual Events: http://www.uppfaststart.com/

Email [email protected]

Podcast: http://unstoppableprofitpodcast.com

Virtual Training: http://uppfaststart.com

In Person Training: http://beunstoppablebootcamp.com

Episode 199: Cloning Your Clients with Kevin Donlin

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Kevin Donlin is a copywriter and marketing advisor who has helped clients all over North America increase their sales by more than $1 million on multiple occasions with direct mail and online marketing. Join us as Kevin shares his latest tips and tactics to help grow insurance agency businesses with an emphasis on testing and direct response marketing. This episode is filled with golden nuggets that you will not want to miss.

 

Highlights:

  • If your marketing is done right, it makes selling easy. Take 90 minutes of your day to focus on marketing.
  • Send a thank you note. It makes you and what you’re selling tangible.
  • Review your day. What did you learn what went well? What didn’t? What can you do better tomorrow?
  • Direct Response Marketing – you want to get people to react, call, schedule an appointment, or request a quote.
  • Use the words of the buyers, the words of the clients, the words of the market.
  • Utilize an endorsement letter as peer-to-peer marketing strategy.
  • Make your breakthrough by pulling ideas from other industries. Very few are.

 

About our Guest:

Kevin Donlin has been involved in marketing since 1994, when he sold one of the first ebooks online, payable by check and you had to mail it to a post office box. That was e-commerce in the beginning!

From 1995 to 1998, he was Webmaster for FedEx.com, where he worked with the pioneers of online marketing.

Since 1998, he’s been a copywriter and marketing advisor for clients in North America, delivering sales gains of more than $1 million on multiple occasions with direct mail and online marketing.

He’s been interviewed by ABC-TV in Detroit, Fox and NBC News in Minneapolis, CBS Radio in Los Angeles and New York, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, and too many others to list here.

He’s the author or co-author of 5 books on marketing, and he’s joining us today to share some of his latest tips and tactics to grow your insurance agency.

https://clientcloningsystems.com/

Free Client Cloning Kit: https://clientcloningsystems.com/free-kit/

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Website: http://unstoppableprofitproducer.com/

Virtual Events: http://www.uppfaststart.com/

Email [email protected]

Podcast: http://unstoppableprofitpodcast.com

Virtual Training: http://uppfaststart.com

In Person Training: http://beunstoppablebootcamp.com

Episode 159: Acre of Diamonds

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Are you scrabbling around for new clientele or are you taking advantage of the prospects that are already in front of you?  Too often we let slip through our hands the opportunities to expand what we already have.  And today I am going to talk to you about how to go about doing that so that you are cultivating from your acre of diamonds.

Key Takeaways:

  • If you have 800 clients, you have about 80,000 opportunities already within your grasp
  • It is your duty and responsibility to protect everything that people work hard for, so aim for having 3 policies per client. This increases retention drastically.
  • Be proactive instead of reactive. Add additional lines of business on proposals and follow-up.
  • People buy with their hearts, not their minds, so you must emotionally engage with them.
  • Discover your potential clients’ preferred method of communication and use that.
  • Create a new client welcome kit that strategically gets them the right information at the right time as a beloved new client
  • You want to have top-of-mind awareness with your clientele but you also want to have top-of-heart awareness as well.
  • Employee 60% relationship building, 20% insurance information, and 20% fluff into your newsletters
  • Incorporate a referral program to increase your maximum ROI
  • Use tactics that will grab their attention.
  • You will never know how much you can do until you put the maximum effort out there

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 158: Training Your NEW Service Team Member

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If you want to have a world-class business, you have to have a world-class team.  The two ways to ensure this, are through leadership and training.  Today’s topic is focusing on training, specifically client retention. How do you do that? By ensuring your service personnel receives the training that they need to be successful and I am going to cover what the first 4 weeks can look like within your organization.

Key Takeaways:

  • Just like an athlete, training needs to occur every day.
  • Training is the fifth of 8 essential segments to “growing” somebody up in an insurance agency business
  • The first initial onboarding of a new service member sets the tone for success. Ensure you are prepared for their first day.
  • Set goals for the first week of training and assign mentors
  • Evaluate the member at the end of each week and if they are not meeting expectations ask them what can be done differently to help them achieve their highest possible level
  • The second week is all about gaining confidence in the agency systems.
  • Start accountability at the beginning but ensure that this is all about support for success.
  • Always ensure that the new member knows the reasons why behind the processes. Do not hesitate to reinforce and reiterate.
  • Week four is all about building upon the learnings of the first three weeks.
  • Reinforce the See, Do, Teach philosophy – One day they observe; the second day they put it into practice, and the third day they teach it to somebody else. Repeat until they have it down.

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 138: Your Unstoppable Brand with Selah Hirsch

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Brand Strategist, Selah Hirsch knows all about the importance of establishing your brand.  Are you able to talk about what you do, how you do it, and why it matters?  If not, then today’s episode is for you.  If you think you have it all established, then you might just learn something new.

Highlights:

  • Everything in branding has to be highly intentional and strategic in order to shape the beliefs of our customers
  • A brand needs to attract new leads, convert more sales and retain more business.
  • Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client to learn how to talk to them rather than at them.
  • Three critical questions to ask yourself about your ideal client.
  • Every single person on a team needs to be in step with the ideal client to the agency because that will just help create a team culture that is committed to serving the client
  • A look at a brand differentiator and the three questions to ask yourself
  • You need brand identity however you also need to look at how it can grow and change to have you stand out from your competition
  • Have “Top of Heart Awareness”

Resources Mentioned

Sign up for virtual training at http://uppfaststart.com

Become Unstoppable: http://beunstoppablebootcamp.com

About my Guest:

Selah Hirsch is a brand builder! As a Brand Strategist through her company Express My Brand, Selah specializes in high-impact brand development. Every day she works with brands to strengthen the way they talk about what they do, how they do it, and why it matters.

She brings magnetic energy and vision to help business owners and teams breakthrough the generic and discover their better, bolder brand. Her high-energy presentation style includes powerful stories and hands-on moments, leaving a memorable impression and handles for practical application.

When Selah isn’t building brands, you can find her cheering on her husband Michael in Ironman triathlon races, volunteering at Loveworks Leadership, and chasing her three high-energy kids around.

Email: [email protected]

Social Media: @expressmybrand

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 127: 100 to 1 Million

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The main goal of any business plan is to obtain new clients and keep them on as clients.  But in order to achieve that you must reach 100% of the marketplace utilizing 100% of the ways. This week I am going to share how to take your recruitment and retention results to an even higher level.

Highlights:

  • Don’t rely on email to reach your market. If you are not deleted, it may be a long time until it is read
  • Take on the mindset of a consumer.
  • Design a marketing campaign and use all venues within your reach include phone, snail mail, email, text, video, and run the gamut
  • There is power in the human voice, it helps with a connection so don’t be afraid to call or use voice broadcasting
  • Research on how a certain marketplace likes to communicate and build a campaign around that
  • When do you start reaching out to your lost souls, referrals, and wind backs? Day zero.
  • Everything starts with two things: decision and action

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 124: Winning Back Your Lost Souls

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Are you aware that one of the top sources for your business could be those “lost souls”, clients that have left to seek greener pastures?  But we all know that the green grass may not be as green as they thought it was.   In this episode, I share with you some of the strategies that we have implemented to ensure that we are not passing by those past clients that have left us but may not feel like they could return.

Highlights:

  • Once they have left, people may be too embarrassed to reach out again for their insurance needs
  • The story that told me everything that I needed to know about dealing with lost souls or win backs
  • Designing a road map to pursue lost souls at day zero
  • The key trigger words that you can use to entice people to respond back to you
  • Learn about a sample letter that I have used in the past to reconnect with past clients
  • Giving incentives just to provide free quotes
  • Understanding the lifetime value of a client
  • A look into the process we use to upon cancellation of a policy

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 118: Monthly Newsletter (Encore)

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If someone asked YOUR client about YOUR agency in a grocery store, how would that conversation go? Would there be much of a conversation? Is there any type of ongoing dialogue with YOUR client except when you want/need more money from them?

What is your very best method of consistent communication with your clients, friend, prospects, and emergency contacts? In our Living Agency Laboratory, it’s HANDS-DOWN our agency newsletter. It is the most talked about, generates the most referrals and gains us tremendous credibility in the eyes of all who read and talk about our agency.

I received a call recently from a client who shared a story where they were at a charitable fundraiser, talking with someone about insurance. The other party mentioned that they were insured with Stromsoe Insurance Agency, that one of the things they LOVED about the relationship with the agency is the newsletter. The “other party” actually said “it almost seems like Stromsoe Insurance Agency is too good to be true, they are over the top”.

Highlights:

  • The formula for the content of an effective newsletter
  • Use themes to help format your monthly content
  • The benefits of a monthly newsletter on retention and relationship building
  • Developing that top-of-mind awareness in consumers
  • Frequency of newsletters and alternatives such as postcards and blogs
  • Looking at the various means of distribution
  • Building loyalty within your current customers

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

Episode 108: The $882,000 in Your Bank Account Podcast

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After transitioning from working in the Insurance industry to retirement, our guest, Chuck Blondino, could not stop thinking about insurance.  In order to continue his love for this field, Chuck has moved on to helping other independent agents as a speaker, writer, and consultant.  Listen as we talk about what unequaled excellence can mean for you and your agency.

Highlights:

  • Out of about 27,000 sub-locations surveyed, 45 – 50% are struggling and another 30% are too busy to make recommended changes
  • The commonalities of the top tier agencies
  • How communication relates back to retention
  • Getting better at communication digitally with staff and clients as more online communication will be commonplace
  • The power of sharing your own personal stories to connect with others and increase retention
  • The influence that media and competition is having on insurance oversimplifying it with repetitive commercials, and the importance of connecting with agents that are local, not global
  • The necessary components to assist you with expansion
  • Understanding the monetary difference between 85% and 93% retention is significant

 

 About Our Guest:

Chuck Bondino is the Former Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs for Liberty Mutual Business Lines and Safeco Insurance.  He has created the “Customers For Life” marketing workshops.

In his career, Chuck has traveled to see thousands of independent agents at their offices and presented to thousands more sharing the growth tactics and thought processes proven to work by the fastest growing independent insurance agents in the country.
Today Chuck continues to seek ways to help independent agents reach their full potential and happiest lives as a speaker, consultant, writer, and thought leader.
Chuck is also a lucky husband, proud father, playful grandpa, and frequent golfer.

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckblondino/

 

Until next time, get out there and make a difference, be unstoppable, and leave no regrets!

 

Mike Stromsoe
The Unstoppable Profit Producer
Call 800-770-9984
Email [email protected]

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