Insurance Agency Inside Sales

The pandemic and other catastrophe losses have hurt many insurers hard in 2020, particularly related to writing events cancellation and workers’ compensation. Also, small business premiums, suffering by shutdowns and bankruptcies are likely slow to recover if many more retailers, restaurants, and personal services outlets close down. Likewise, life insurance premiums are projected to decline by 8% in the U.S. for 2021. Consequently, in this challenging environment, how well your insurance agency sales team finds new prospects and renews current customers will determine your future success.

Inside Sales is a process of acquiring sales prospect information, contacting, pre-qualifying, and setting up appointments for follow-up by a company’s in-house direct sales personnel.  Generally, a company uses the inside sales process to maximize the time and efficiency of its in-house sales team, to increase sales conversions.

An inside sales agent (ISA) is part of the inside sales function of an insurance agency.  Basically, an ISA serves as a business development representative, specifically to increase the productivity of the in-house insurance agents. Generally, the ISA does not visit prospects in person, unlike the in-house agents who are constantly attending policy appointments or walking the client through the renewal process.

Traditionally an ISA conducts business with prospects over the telephone (i.e., telesales).  However, the technology allows and is now expected by insurance prospects, to be accessible via email, text, Skype, Zoom, and other forms of online communication services.

Sales Lead Generation Process

Most insurance agencies have a formal sales lead generation process, where appointment setting is the final stage before passing off to the in-house sales agents. Generally, insurance agencies do this via an inside sales staff or outsource insurance inside sales services to an external provider. Accordingly, the latter option is usually a better investment, offering lower costs, greater flexibility, and less risk. Consequently, the strategy to outsource insurance agency inside sales services is an effective way to identify qualified prospects, educate them, determine needs, and schedule sales appointments for the in-house sales agents.

Outbound telemarketing, email, and texting are primary methods for insurance inside sales appointment setting. Basically, appointment setting is all about finding interested buyers and sellers, with the financial means, need, and interest for your insurance services.

Streamline Sales Process

When you outsource insurance agency inside sales services you streamline your company’s sales process. For example by outsourcing, your insurance agency scales by lead demand reduces costs, improves sales productivity, and produces more policy closings. Also, an insurance agency manager understands that in-house sales agents are better suited to sales closings rather than doing lead prospecting.

Given the investment, it’s important that insurance appointment setting results in closing new business. So, instead of simply trying to talk to as many people as possible, our insurance agency inside sales services focuses on talking to the right people, pre-qualified with the need, interest, and means to qualify for a policy. Consequently, the sales appointments we set are of high quality and your in-house sales agents have better opportunities to close more business.

Business Development

An insurance agency manager understands that time is money. So your in-house sales agents have limited time and are constantly trying to keep up with the demands of their schedules and closing policies. Consequently, when you outsource insurance agency inside sales services, (prospecting, qualifying, and appointment setting), you address a key challenge of business development.

The purpose of outsourcing and having insurance agency ISAs as part of your sales team is for leverage.  In brief, an insurance agency is faced with a never-ending list of demands.  So, by using ISAs, you leverage prospecting, lead generation, follow-ups, and scheduling appointments.  Consequently, your insurance agency is likely to see more policy closings, increased revenue, profitability, and ROI.

Prospecting

Your insurance agency needs a constant flow of sales leads and appointments for your in-house sales agents. While your in-house sales agents follow up on leads and appointments, they also have to divide their time generating new prospects, qualifying them, setting appointments, etc. Consequently, since the closing of a sale (i.e., commission) won’t happen without meeting the prospect, your in-house sales agents will always prioritize meetings and closings over prospecting.

You outsource insurance agency inside sales services to dedicate a specialized staff (ISAs) to focus on the prospecting of sales leads. Conversely, your company’s in-house sales agents do NOT spend time on prospecting leads. Instead, their specialized sales skills focus on nurturing these pre-qualified sales opportunities into new customers. In brief, by specializing in the production of sales prospects, you improve the overall efficiency of your company’s sales process.

The lessons to be gained are that your in-house sales agents should focus on what they know best: your company, products, and services. Conversely, when you outsource insurance agency inside sales services you focus on what they know best, leveraging their expertise in prospecting, lead generation, and appointment setting.

Your Sales Pipeline

Outsourcing insurance agency inside sales services (B2B or B2C) is a solution to this dilemma.  Specifically, this is the “front-end” of the sales development process: prospecting, lead generation, and appointment setting. Basically, our insurance agency ISAs search for prospects in a variety of listing sources, perform outreach activities to qualify potential policy clients, and schedule sales appointments. Accordingly, this feeds your sales pipeline and allows your in-house sales agents to focus on sales closings rather than sales prospecting.

All of these factors reduce your company’s total sales costs, while allowing your in-house sales agents to focus on generating opportunities quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

Outsource Inside Sales Services From Us

Inside sales strategies are designed to help your insurance agency narrow down the universe of potential sales prospects. However, sales prospecting and qualifying leads using your in-house sales agents can be very difficult and unproductive. Because of technology, personnel profiles, data sources, and conflicting sales priorities, your in-house sales agents are not the right fit to daily reach new customer prospects. Rather, the better solution is to outsource insurance agency inside sales services to Nexus Teleservices to generate sales prospect leads and appointments for your in-house sales agents.

When you outsource insurance agency inside sales services, your company leverages our resources and experience to increase the flexibility of sales operations. Generally, it takes time for an insurance agency to set up the in-house sales resources for a new market or growing sales program. Conversely, by outsourcing to us, your company can respond much faster to these market opportunities.

Additionally, your decision to outsource insurance agency inside sales services allows your business to significantly lower costs related to hiring, training, and maintaining sales personnel. Because we have already hired and trained sales personnel for our clients. As a result, your insurance agency has rapid access to this personnel, particularly when starting up new activities.

Finally, the decision to outsource insurance agency inside sales services reduces your company’s risk of failing to take advantage of new business opportunities. Specifically, this strategy reduces lost revenue, taking advantage of new market opportunities, or scaling to meet additional demand. Basically, you are mitigating the risk of not being flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions.

How We Can Help

When you choose to outsource insurance agency inside sales services from Nexus Teleservices, we can help you in the following ways:

If your insurance agency is struggling to generate the level of sales opportunities you desire, we encourage you to outsource insurance agency inside sales services from us. Because of our experienced and trained ISAs, we will help you streamline your sales process to be more productive. Basically, if your in-house sales agents can sell to pre-qualified sales appointments, then we will both be successful.

Company Resources and Risks

A dedicated inside sales team for any company is an investment of resources and entails risks. Consequently, we take a consultative approach in its insurance agency inside sales services to minimize your company’s investment and risk. Accordingly, our staff reviews with your company throughout each step to assess results and, if necessary, make adjustments. Finally, we offer your company low minimums, flexible pilot programs, and customized pricing methods to help your success.