September 22, 2023 • 12 mins
Are you an insurance producer that wants to start going after bigger accounts to grow your book of business?
In this episode of The Preeminent Producer, our coaches tackle this topic.
...
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to stand out from the competition? Do you find it challenging to grow your book of business and create a fulfilling career?
Then welcome to The Preeminent Producer Podcast! Each week, we'll be tackling important topics, sharing proven strategies and insights from successful producers that are in the trenches and have traveled the journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
You'll discover what it really takes to become Preeminent & build your book of business, in a way that isn’t being taught anywhere else. Our hosts are experts in the field and have built thriving businesses by becoming the most trusted adviser to their clients. Welcome to your journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
Let’s dive in!
Ready To Grow Your Book Of Business?
For More Information go to:
https://www.thepreeminentproducer.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How do I go after larger accounts to grow my book
of business?
This is a question that wasposed by one of our clients
inside of our coaching programthat has really gone after a lot
of smaller accounts and that'swhere they've been so far.
But they recognize, hey, theywant to grow their book of
business and they want to goafter bigger fish.
So in this episode of thePre-Eminent Producer Podcast,
(00:20):
our coaches cover this topic, solet's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thePre-Eminent Producer Podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:48):
pre-eminent producer.
You'll discover what it reallytakes to become pre-eminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a pre-eminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know there's a lot of ways that you can find
out leads for larger accountsand you have your typical
sources where you can Google andlook for lists and talk to
other producers in your office.
The other thing is you canalways look at and these are
(01:29):
some old-school ways look atcertificates of insurance that
maybe your clients your smallerclients, if you have contractors
or such have been giving togenerals that they work for.
That's another good source oflooking for larger clients.
I prefer to really look forbusinesses by doing a Google
(01:52):
search or looking for themonline first and trying to find
out more information about theprospect so that I can determine
, number one, they're going tomeet our carers' appetites and,
number two, what I can pull offof the internet about them that
would lead me to go to offer asolution to a potential or a
(02:15):
probable problem that they arehaving.
So when you're dealing withlarger accounts, you really need
to try to get your handswrapped around.
What issues are they dealingwith?
And if you don't know thatwithout speaking to clients,
again, a good friend, google orwhatever search engine you use,
you can look up issuessurrounding manufacturers with
(02:39):
revenues over $10 million orsomething like that and you'll
find something.
The point here, as we've talkedabout before, is making sure
that, whomever you go afternumber one, it's a valuable
investment in your time You'renot wasting your time by going
after them.
And two, you know somethingabout them that's going to give
(03:00):
you something to talk to themabout and, hopefully and you
should have a solution forwhatever you're going to speak
with them about.
I hope that makes sense.
I'm sure, guys, you can jump inand maybe clean up some of this
or give other suggestions.
You have.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Sure, I want to back up half a step.
First of all, it's a noble goalto increase the size of your
average account and what mostproducers have been doing.
This is just a little while.
Discover that by doing so youironically get more time in your
hands, because there is thatphenomenon that typically the
(03:37):
smaller account generates morehassle and more questions, and
it's just that weird phenomenon.
You could write a jumbo accountthat really doesn't require
much service because they knowthe score.
So it's a really good goal.
A slightly adjunct to what yousaid there, christian, that I do
(03:59):
, and it's just basic, is Ialways I try to build up
databases of prospects to goafter and I guess I'm gonna
state the obvious.
But you can reverse engineer,okay.
I lead with workers comptypically okay, so it's really
easy for me to kind of reverseengineer based on average hourly
(04:23):
rates and number of employeesand, given a class code, what
the in California, what the purepremium rate is.
Then take the X mod.
I can figure out.
I need a database of these,let's say, 25 class codes that
have at least I'm just pickingnumbers here 25 employees or
more and that that will generatewhat my personal minimum
(04:45):
account size is so that, as yousaid, I think, a moment ago,
christian, I'm not spinning mywheels marketing and trying to
get in front of people that arenot gonna generate the kind of
income that I want, so that's areally good starting point.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One more thing that just jumped in, matt, and I'm
sorry because if I don't say itnow I'll forget it.
Okay, that's how I am ADHD baby, I'm like moving fast.
But the question of where tofind leads sometimes, looking at
your current book of business,your current clients, your best
clients, even if they're smallclients, look at what they do.
(05:24):
There's gonna be a connectionwith a supplier they have or
someone they have done work for.
Or again, try to find someconnection and then go to them
and say, hey, do you know anyoneat whatever a business?
You might be surprised that ifyou're able to help out your
current clients, they may bewilling to help you to say, yeah
(05:48):
, I know someone there.
Now, that's just another morselinto getting into that larger
account Again as a producer.
You gotta build on thosemorsels so that you can go in
and present a solution.
Sorry about that, I agree.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, I think there's a mindset here also.
There's an awareness, first andforemost, that you wanna build
your book of business there's.
You have to remember that bigfish swim in big ponds.
They're gonna be different thanwhere you're finding your small
accounts and you need to beprepared to go into those big
ponds and, as both Matt andChristian have said, you've
gotta do research, research,research to find out.
(06:24):
Then you have to be preparedand you have to mentally get
over the idea that, gee, can Iwrite an account that pays
$200,000 for their insurance?
And the answer is yes, you canit really.
If you can write an account for50,000, you can do one for 100,
if you can do 100, you can do200, if you can do 200, you can
do a million.
Believe it or not, and I'vedone all of those in my career
(06:45):
and what you will find is thelarger the sale, the more they
are typically not interested inthe premium, but they are more
interested in what you can dofor them, what you can bring to
them other than product andprice, and I think that's
critical.
The other thing is take a lookat yourself.
I was out with a producerrecently.
(07:05):
I was delivering a renewal.
She was along with me.
She is kind of a class clownand she's very bright and very
sharp and I think will do wellin this industry.
She's fairly new and when thisis all over, we come back to the
office and you have to saylisten, there's a switch that
you have to flip.
(07:26):
This is not funny, this is not.
This is we just ask, we just.
This guy just spent $500,000with us.
In other words, we just renewedhis premium and it went from
$400,000 to $500,000 for all ofhis coverage.
I love humor and I use humor alot when I have a longstanding
relationship with someone whounderstands when and where
(07:48):
that's appropriate.
That switch doesn't come on inevery meeting and it certainly
doesn't come on in appropriatetimes.
You have to be yourself, you'vegot to go out there and if
you're hunting big fish, youneed to make a very professional
presentation, like their CPAwould like their attorney would.
And you're entering that field.
As I see in every one of thesecoaching calls, if you're in a
(08:10):
large account, most likelythey're spending more money with
you than they are their CPA andtheir attorney combined.
Unless some catastrophe happensto them, then, who knows, they
may not even get around.
But see there are some of thathumor that didn't really fly
very well, but anyway, you'vegot to be prepared to go out and
make the presentation, to huntwith the big, big folks.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Go ahead then.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Okay, just real quick .
I'm going to talk about themindset, rick, because we've
talked about there's so manydifferent mindsets referral
mindset, bor mindset.
Our larger account mindset is areally good one to foster.
One other quick thing you hadmentioned that larger accounts
tend to be more interested inwhat you can bring to the table.
(08:56):
That's unique and what's there.
I was reminded of that in aprospect meeting that I had a
couple of days ago, earlier thisweek, and I had confirmed the
meeting via email and explainedlike hey, if you could have the
following things ready for ourdiscussion, it will help
expedite things.
(09:17):
Some of those were basic thingslike number of employees or
annual payroll stuff like that.
The guy came in so this is thefirst time I met this guy and he
came in and he said you know,matt, I got your email and he
said and I don't have thatinformation ready right now.
I really wanted to meet you andkind of assess our
compatibility.
He literally said and whatmakes you different?
He literally said that it wasperfect.
(09:38):
But it was a great reminder tome to keep that mindset of not
just coming in there with acertain agenda that I want to
drive and let's develop thesespecs and whatnot.
So we spent the whole meetingjust compatibility.
It was a great meeting andwe're going to move forward, but
I really appreciated and I toldhim that that that was the and
I think you'll see that withsome larger, more professional
(10:00):
accounts, you know where theyknow what's important.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, and this, the mindset, is what I wanted to
also say, matt.
That I think is so important.
The larger accounts are gettinga lot of calls all the time
from salespeople asking to writetheir insurance.
Okay.
Well, the smaller accounts I'msure they don't get near as many
(10:23):
calls.
Okay, because there's not a lotof commission in the smaller
accounts, right?
So if the larger accounts aregetting all those calls, you
have to be prepared todifferentiate yourself.
Why you comes back to circlewhat we just talked about what's
in it for them, what's in itfor that larger account?
So therein lies do yourhomework, do your practicing,
(10:46):
figure out your differentiation,figure out that you have a
solution for them before you gosee them.
Have a reason why you stand outfrom the competition.
It's like applying to a school.
You got to stand out from thecompetition.
There's a lot of otherinsurance agents fishing around
and you want to be the fish thatstands out.
(11:06):
But I do think mindset is soimportant when you go in after
larger accounts.
You're a hunter and you want totarget.
You don't just go hunting oneday, pick up your gun and walk
out in your pajamas and gohunting.
You prepare yourself before yougo hunting.
You target where the prey isgoing to be.
You target that prey with theproper ammunition.
(11:28):
So that's what it's like to goafter larger accounts.
But open your eyes, be aware oftrucks that go by that are
clean trucks that you'll beproud to say that's a client of
mine, maybe that if they meetyour career appetite they're not
a current client.
Obviously You've done yourresearch.
That's a great place to getleads too, of how to look for
(11:50):
those larger accounts.
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Preeminent
Producer podcast.
If you did, we would greatlyappreciate.
You like subscribe, leave areview, let us know what topics
we can cover in future episodes,and if you'd like to find out
more information on how you canget coached by our coaches, feel
free to visit us atthepreeminentproducercom.
Until next time, guys.
(12:14):
We'll see you in the nextepisode of Preeminent Producer
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of
the Preeminent Producer podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer podcast.
How do I go after larger accounts to grow my book
of business?
This is a question that wasposed by one of our clients
inside of our coaching programthat has really gone after a lot
of smaller accounts and that'swhere they've been so far.
But they recognize, hey, theywant to grow their book of
business and they want to goafter bigger fish.
So in this episode of thePre-Eminent Producer Podcast,
(00:20):
our coaches cover this topic, solet's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thePre-Eminent Producer Podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:48):
pre-eminent producer.
You'll discover what it reallytakes to become pre-eminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a pre-eminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know there's a lot of ways that you can find
out leads for larger accountsand you have your typical
sources where you can Google andlook for lists and talk to
other producers in your office.
The other thing is you canalways look at and these are
(01:29):
some old-school ways look atcertificates of insurance that
maybe your clients your smallerclients, if you have contractors
or such have been giving togenerals that they work for.
That's another good source oflooking for larger clients.
I prefer to really look forbusinesses by doing a Google
(01:52):
search or looking for themonline first and trying to find
out more information about theprospect so that I can determine
, number one, they're going tomeet our carers' appetites and,
number two, what I can pull offof the internet about them that
would lead me to go to offer asolution to a potential or a
(02:15):
probable problem that they arehaving.
So when you're dealing withlarger accounts, you really need
to try to get your handswrapped around.
What issues are they dealingwith?
And if you don't know thatwithout speaking to clients,
again, a good friend, google orwhatever search engine you use,
you can look up issuessurrounding manufacturers with
(02:39):
revenues over $10 million orsomething like that and you'll
find something.
The point here, as we've talkedabout before, is making sure
that, whomever you go afternumber one, it's a valuable
investment in your time You'renot wasting your time by going
after them.
And two, you know somethingabout them that's going to give
(03:00):
you something to talk to themabout and, hopefully and you
should have a solution forwhatever you're going to speak
with them about.
I hope that makes sense.
I'm sure, guys, you can jump inand maybe clean up some of this
or give other suggestions.
You have.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Sure, I want to back up half a step.
First of all, it's a noble goalto increase the size of your
average account and what mostproducers have been doing.
This is just a little while.
Discover that by doing so youironically get more time in your
hands, because there is thatphenomenon that typically the
(03:37):
smaller account generates morehassle and more questions, and
it's just that weird phenomenon.
You could write a jumbo accountthat really doesn't require
much service because they knowthe score.
So it's a really good goal.
A slightly adjunct to what yousaid there, christian, that I do
(03:59):
, and it's just basic, is Ialways I try to build up
databases of prospects to goafter and I guess I'm gonna
state the obvious.
But you can reverse engineer,okay.
I lead with workers comptypically okay, so it's really
easy for me to kind of reverseengineer based on average hourly
(04:23):
rates and number of employeesand, given a class code, what
the in California, what the purepremium rate is.
Then take the X mod.
I can figure out.
I need a database of these,let's say, 25 class codes that
have at least I'm just pickingnumbers here 25 employees or
more and that that will generatewhat my personal minimum
(04:45):
account size is so that, as yousaid, I think, a moment ago,
christian, I'm not spinning mywheels marketing and trying to
get in front of people that arenot gonna generate the kind of
income that I want, so that's areally good starting point.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One more thing that just jumped in, matt, and I'm
sorry because if I don't say itnow I'll forget it.
Okay, that's how I am ADHD baby, I'm like moving fast.
But the question of where tofind leads sometimes, looking at
your current book of business,your current clients, your best
clients, even if they're smallclients, look at what they do.
(05:24):
There's gonna be a connectionwith a supplier they have or
someone they have done work for.
Or again, try to find someconnection and then go to them
and say, hey, do you know anyoneat whatever a business?
You might be surprised that ifyou're able to help out your
current clients, they may bewilling to help you to say, yeah
(05:48):
, I know someone there.
Now, that's just another morselinto getting into that larger
account Again as a producer.
You gotta build on thosemorsels so that you can go in
and present a solution.
Sorry about that, I agree.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Yeah, I think there's a mindset here also.
There's an awareness, first andforemost, that you wanna build
your book of business there's.
You have to remember that bigfish swim in big ponds.
They're gonna be different thanwhere you're finding your small
accounts and you need to beprepared to go into those big
ponds and, as both Matt andChristian have said, you've
gotta do research, research,research to find out.
(06:24):
Then you have to be preparedand you have to mentally get
over the idea that, gee, can Iwrite an account that pays
$200,000 for their insurance?
And the answer is yes, you canit really.
If you can write an account for50,000, you can do one for 100,
if you can do 100, you can do200, if you can do 200, you can
do a million.
Believe it or not, and I'vedone all of those in my career
(06:45):
and what you will find is thelarger the sale, the more they
are typically not interested inthe premium, but they are more
interested in what you can dofor them, what you can bring to
them other than product andprice, and I think that's
critical.
The other thing is take a lookat yourself.
I was out with a producerrecently.
(07:05):
I was delivering a renewal.
She was along with me.
She is kind of a class clownand she's very bright and very
sharp and I think will do wellin this industry.
She's fairly new and when thisis all over, we come back to the
office and you have to saylisten, there's a switch that
you have to flip.
(07:26):
This is not funny, this is not.
This is we just ask, we just.
This guy just spent $500,000with us.
In other words, we just renewedhis premium and it went from
$400,000 to $500,000 for all ofhis coverage.
I love humor and I use humor alot when I have a longstanding
relationship with someone whounderstands when and where
(07:48):
that's appropriate.
That switch doesn't come on inevery meeting and it certainly
doesn't come on in appropriatetimes.
You have to be yourself, you'vegot to go out there and if
you're hunting big fish, youneed to make a very professional
presentation, like their CPAwould like their attorney would.
And you're entering that field.
As I see in every one of thesecoaching calls, if you're in a
(08:10):
large account, most likelythey're spending more money with
you than they are their CPA andtheir attorney combined.
Unless some catastrophe happensto them, then, who knows, they
may not even get around.
But see there are some of thathumor that didn't really fly
very well, but anyway, you'vegot to be prepared to go out and
make the presentation, to huntwith the big, big folks.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Go ahead then.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Okay, just real quick .
I'm going to talk about themindset, rick, because we've
talked about there's so manydifferent mindsets referral
mindset, bor mindset.
Our larger account mindset is areally good one to foster.
One other quick thing you hadmentioned that larger accounts
tend to be more interested inwhat you can bring to the table.
(08:56):
That's unique and what's there.
I was reminded of that in aprospect meeting that I had a
couple of days ago, earlier thisweek, and I had confirmed the
meeting via email and explainedlike hey, if you could have the
following things ready for ourdiscussion, it will help
expedite things.
(09:17):
Some of those were basic thingslike number of employees or
annual payroll stuff like that.
The guy came in so this is thefirst time I met this guy and he
came in and he said you know,matt, I got your email and he
said and I don't have thatinformation ready right now.
I really wanted to meet you andkind of assess our
compatibility.
He literally said and whatmakes you different?
He literally said that it wasperfect.
(09:38):
But it was a great reminder tome to keep that mindset of not
just coming in there with acertain agenda that I want to
drive and let's develop thesespecs and whatnot.
So we spent the whole meetingjust compatibility.
It was a great meeting andwe're going to move forward, but
I really appreciated and I toldhim that that that was the and
I think you'll see that withsome larger, more professional
(10:00):
accounts, you know where theyknow what's important.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, and this, the mindset, is what I wanted to
also say, matt.
That I think is so important.
The larger accounts are gettinga lot of calls all the time
from salespeople asking to writetheir insurance.
Okay.
Well, the smaller accounts I'msure they don't get near as many
(10:23):
calls.
Okay, because there's not a lotof commission in the smaller
accounts, right?
So if the larger accounts aregetting all those calls, you
have to be prepared todifferentiate yourself.
Why you comes back to circlewhat we just talked about what's
in it for them, what's in itfor that larger account?
So therein lies do yourhomework, do your practicing,
(10:46):
figure out your differentiation,figure out that you have a
solution for them before you gosee them.
Have a reason why you stand outfrom the competition.
It's like applying to a school.
You got to stand out from thecompetition.
There's a lot of otherinsurance agents fishing around
and you want to be the fish thatstands out.
(11:06):
But I do think mindset is soimportant when you go in after
larger accounts.
You're a hunter and you want totarget.
You don't just go hunting oneday, pick up your gun and walk
out in your pajamas and gohunting.
You prepare yourself before yougo hunting.
You target where the prey isgoing to be.
You target that prey with theproper ammunition.
(11:28):
So that's what it's like to goafter larger accounts.
But open your eyes, be aware oftrucks that go by that are
clean trucks that you'll beproud to say that's a client of
mine, maybe that if they meetyour career appetite they're not
a current client.
Obviously You've done yourresearch.
That's a great place to getleads too, of how to look for
(11:50):
those larger accounts.
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Preeminent
Producer podcast.
If you did, we would greatlyappreciate.
You like subscribe, leave areview, let us know what topics
we can cover in future episodes,and if you'd like to find out
more information on how you canget coached by our coaches, feel
free to visit us atthepreeminentproducercom.
Until next time, guys.
(12:14):
We'll see you in the nextepisode of Preeminent Producer
Podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of
the Preeminent Producer podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer podcast.
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