How to Identify & Convert the Low-Hanging Fruit in Your Book of Business

Learn the top insurance sales tips to efficiently and effectively grow your business. 

Growing is the goal for most insurance organizations; going for low-hanging fruit is an easy way to do so. Low-hanging fruit refers to the easily accessible fruits on the lowest parts of a tree. In business, a low-hanging fruit is an easy win. 

One resource you may not be thinking of referencing is your current book of business. Learn how to identify and convert these opportunities with ease.

Lead Generation Ideas: Three Groups To Target

A strategic approach is the key to saving time and maximizing sales. These three groups in your book of business are full of low-hanging leads just waiting to be closed: 

1. Cross-sells
2. People turning 26 
3. People turning 65 

Here’s how you can quickly and easily find these people in your book of business and take action accordingly.

Cross-Sells

Cross-selling, or selling to existing clients, is one of the most cost-effective and easy ways to build your book of business. Why? 

Retaining customers is five times less expensive than getting new ones. Plus, you’re 89% more likely to sell to an existing client who has already had a positive experience with you.

There are two main ways to identify cross-selling opportunities: running a cross-sell report in your agency management system (AMS) and conducting a client needs assessment (CNA). Optimize your approach by using these two tactics together. 

Run a Cross-Sell Report in Your Agency Management System

Before you use a CNA, save time by running a cross-sell report in your AMS. This report will show you who’s missing certain types of coverage in a simple, straightforward report, saving you the time and effort of manually sorting through your data. 

For a successful and complete report, your book of business needs to be stored in an organized, centralized platform. Here’s an example of what a cross-sell report looks like in AgencyBloc’s AMS+ solution:

Cross-Sell Report in AgencyBloc

Running this report in AgencyBloc takes seconds. Simply create the report, save it, and then run it again whenever you need to. 

Some cross-sell opportunities you may find in AMS+ include clients that have:

• Life insurance with you but not health insurance, and vice versa
• Group health insurance but no dental or vision coverage
• Life insurance but no annuities
• Life insurance but no short-term disability coverage
• Original Medicare but no cancer insurance

Use a Client Needs Assessment to Find Cross-Sell Opportunities

A CNA is a questionnaire you can use during an appointment to identify your client’s coverage gaps. Ask questions about your client’s children, family, and life to ensure you’re recommending the best insurance options. This will be especially helpful when you look for people in your book of business who are turning 26 and 65, which we’ll discuss next. Be sure to take detailed notes on your conversation in your AMS. 

Pro Tip: Before your conversation, send a Scope of Appointment (SOA) form to ensure you stay compliant. 

Turning-26 Crowd

As you know, 26 is the age when dependents must find their own insurance. This group is likely made up of your client's children and grandchildren. Although many may receive coverage through their employer, it never hurts to check in case they fall into one of these categories:

• Don’t have access to coverage through work
• Still in school pursuing an advanced degree
• Freshly graduated, working at an internship without benefits
• An independent worker or freelancer
• A solo entrepreneur 

Use your agency management platform to keep track of your clients and who in their plans will be turning 26. In AMS+, you can create notes and activities to help you track these details. Then, you can use other tools to help you act on these details when the time is right: 

• Set task reminders with Automated Workflow. This feature is triggered by a specific event (such as a client or one of their family members turning 26) which automatically creates a task on your dashboard so that you don’t forget to reach out.
• Run a Custom Report or use our Saved Search feature to find who is turning 26 in your book of business. With this feature, you can find generate a list of potential leads in real time. 

Pro Tip: Using the Saved Search function, you can run the list once and pin it to your dashboard. Then, you’ll have a list to work from that’s updated automatically.

Turning-65 Crowd

You can approach this group in many of the same ways as we discussed in the turning-26 section — Automated Workflows, Custom Reports, and Saved Search features in AMS+ will also come in handy. 

These features help you proactively track and transition clients who are about to age into Medicare. Use a CNA during these meetings to ensure your new Medicare clients get all the coverage they need. You will need to send an SOA to these clients, too. Read this blog to ensure yours are compliant: The Medicare Agent’s Guide to Electronic Scope of Appointment Management.

Pro Tip: Set up an Automated Workflow to nurture these customers into their new coverage. For this to be possible, you must have an agency management platform with workflow automation capabilities like AgencyBloc.

Here’s how a new Medicare Client Workflow could look:

Trigger: A contact’s status updates to New Medicare Client.

• 0 days after: A welcome email is sent to the client and a notification is sent to the agent of record to reach out and welcome them.
• 7 days after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to check that the client has received all of their information.
• 1 month after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to reach out to see if the client has experienced any problems with prescriptions or visits.
• 3 months after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to check on how things are going.
• 6 months after: A high-priority task is created for the agent of record to reach out and make sure the client has everything they need.

Customize your workflow to send emails and task assignments of your choosing. Integrate carrier-specific or policy-specific informational emails within your workflow to give your clients extra educational resources. If you choose this route, narrow the scope of who will receive the emails by utilizing recipient filters. 

Additionally, you can add contact-specific information with variable data. Variable data often appears like this: [FirstName]. It allows you to personalize messages while only having to write one email. Each time the email is sent, it will pull the data from the contact’s profile and insert the appropriate information where indicated. Here are some examples:

• [FirstName] becomes Alan
• [PolicyNumber] becomes KDUW2897324092
• [BusinessPhone] becomes 555-393-3399

AgencyBloc’s Agency Management Platform is the Easiest Way to Find and Convert Your Low-Hanging Fruit

Without a streamlined approach, your low-hanging fruit can easily go unnoticed, and those growth opportunities could be lost. If your current system isn’t allowing you to identify your low-hanging fruit, it’s time to find one that does. 

The first step to converting your low-hanging fruit is identifying them. The best way to do this is with an industry-specific agency management platform — but you shouldn’t just choose any platform. You need one that securely stores client data, keeps it organized, and has tools to give you actionable insights on that data. AgencyBloc’s AMS+ has many different features that allow for this: 

• Insurance CRM. Using AMS+ Insurance CRM, it’s easy to manage client relationships. You can use workflow automation, text messaging, and email campaigns to market to clients — and track every communication, task, and activity in one central place.
• Online meeting scheduler. Schedule meetings quickly and easily with our Online Meeting Scheduler. Then, automate the reminder process to reduce no-show meetings.
• VoIP solutions and text messaging capabilities. From call queues and voicemail drops to video conferencing and text message campaigns, communicate with your leads and cross-sell opportunities with minimal effort and maximum impact.
• Compliance management. AgencyBloc’s AMS+ offers pre-built compliance documents to ensure you’re up to date with ever-changing industry rules and regulations. Easily capture ACA Consent to Contact and Medicare Scope of Appointment (SOA) documents and automatically store them for continued compliance. 
• Reporting and data analytics tools. AMS+ is equipped with robust data analysis capabilities — easily run reports to identify sales opportunities, check in on leads, track commissions, monitor retention, identify cross-sell opportunities, and more. 

When you choose AgencyBloc’s Plus Suite, you get access to our suite of solutions that can support your entire enterprise from sales enablement and quoting processes to client servicing and retention to commissions management.

This blog was previously posted on January 31, 2018, and has been most recently updated and republished on May 15, 2024.

Posted by Allison Babberl on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 in Lead Nurturing & Automation Software

1. client retention
2. data management
3. lead nurturing
4. selling