Since then, the market has changed. Today's brokers need to shift from being just master marketers to providing solutions that are sorely needed by small- to mid-size employers. Here are a couple of statistics that explain why your sales production, and book of business, is primarily in small- to mid-size groups. Approximately 95% of Americans work for an employer with less than 200 employees. Inside that number, the majority of employees work for an employer with less than 100 employees. The sweet spot for growing a never-ending stream of commission revenue is companies with between 20 and 95 employees.
Drive more sales faster
Do you have value-added sales technology? If not, invest some money and get a good platform that differentiates your agency. Results vary, but you should expect a 30% jump in sales production when your salespeople are selling on message and using the technology properly. The technology should pay for itself in a short time. Something is wrong if you do not see a quick positive result. That something usally ends up being one of two things.
First, your salespeople have not been properly trained to sell with technology. Second, you have a technology platform the same as all your competitors. If the second is true, then you're selling a commodity and should not expect a positive new sales impact.
Purchase a platform where you have total or limited exclusivity for your market. The big draw with sales technology is that it allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors, reduce your sales cycle time and clinch more agent-of-record letters in less time. It works well when you shift your sales behavior to this new way of selling.
Electronic marketing
Better value-added sales technologies offer your agency the opportunity to e-market to prospects and customers. This is the practice of sitting in your office and using sales technology to touch many more prospects in a short amount of time with high-value, high-frequency and high-touch materials thinly masked as marketing materials.
One entrepreneurial salesperson showed me a couple of his tricks for making his tech investment pay off. His name is Geoff and this true story happened a couple of years ago. Geoff grew up in a remote part of Wisconsin near the Upper Michigan Peninsula. This area is not a hot bed of business. Geoff knew of a few of those small towns with a school district and one or two factories. The problem was that his office was approximately 200 miles from these small towns — too far to make cold calls.
Geoff used a telephone call, e-mail and value-added sales technology to make contact with the benefits buyer in these few factories and school districts. His approach was aggressive, but it was also charming. He figured correctly that the broker on all these accounts was a seller with nothing to offer but relationship.
Over a short period of time, Geoff deftly sent high-value information pieces from his value-added sales network to these prospective buyers. At the end, he closed a few of these buyers over the phone and drove 200 miles to meet the new clients and collect his agent-of-record letters. This led to approximately $160,000 in net-new commissions in six months, which he would attribute to leveraging his technology. Geoff's experience is not unique.
Think differently
Perhaps the biggest appeal of value-added sales technology is its ability to present you with broad service appeal. Let's face it, to sell benefits today your prospect wants you to help with human resources, employment law, compensation, employee communications and employee benefits. It's what your customer does. Help them do that. The better technologies allow you to give your prospect that assistance, and sometimes personal assistance, through your technology partner in return for giving you the AOR on all employee benefit insurance lines.
I am convinced that while the market offers good and bad value-added sales technologies, the most important ingredient to success of any sales technology platform is your ability to get good training on its use. The vendor needs to have the experience to help you sell more and avoid the techniques that don't work.
Finally, think differently about how you sell. Value-added sales technology allows you do to that. The sales technology is an enabler to help you sell in a new way.
Craig J. Davidson, is co-founder of Davidson Marketing Group and the FutureOffice Network. He can be reached at craigd@davidsonmarketing.com.
