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Life insurance is a highly competitive business and seems to be getting more so everyday. Instant quotes, coverage in less than 10 minutes and many other slogans abound in ads on the internet, TV and newspapers and it doesn't stop there. Nearly every agent I speak to is trying to find a way to shorten the sales cycle. As technology has grown more ways are available to agencies and agent now to process their cases more quickly. Cutting days out of the process at multiple point greatly reducing the overall time to place cases and therefore the time you spend on them. It starts with a well organized office, the worst use of time is trying to find something that was misplaced. Having a central point in your office for all data will save time trying to find files that may be in different places. Having a paperless office takes that one step further. Being able to access any document right from your desk not only saves time from getting the file or finding where it is, it also allows multiple people to be working the case at the same time and have full documentation at their disposal. If you have multiple offices this is even more important to avoid recreating the files in different offices, every office across the country being able to access files from other offices in real-time. Having all data and files located in a central database means not having to re-enter data at each step. Utilizing automation can notify agents, staff and the client of certain events you determine such as applications being returned, approved and so on. Sending automated emails to clients can keep them better informed during the process making them less likely to shop around and produce less calls to your office for status. There are other options from postcards, letters or calls to the client to inform them on these status events, but email is the quickest and by far most cost effective. An important first step in beating the competition and speeding up the sales process is to be flexible to the client, as this is where the sale starts. Find the right time to contact them, send their quotes via fax or email if they prefer to save not only time but postage. More offices are now sending out completed apps just needing the signatures whether they are doing this in-house or outsourcing it and then having the signature pages faxed back or picked up by the examiner. So how do you find the right time to contact the client? The easiest of course is if you can get that from them on the initial contact whether it be in a request to your web site, a message in your voicemail or other. That doesn't always happen so you need to use other methods to reach them. If you can submit applications electronically you of course not only save the time to send them in but the postage in doing so. Many offices are overnight packages to clients, including overnight return packages and then doing the same in submitting the cases. I'm sure I don't need to mention to those of you doing this how high of a bill you have. Not all companies will accept new submissions this way and not all clients are comfortable with email and fax but a growing number are and therefore using it after every opportunity will save not only time but money. Cutting down on paperwork saves time, man-hours, potential lost files, sales and E&O issues. Make sure you consider all the options available to you to speed up the sales process for you and the client, the time and money saved can be put toward new sales doubling the value of each minute and dollar saved. Having a central point for all data is a huge benefit to all offices and a near necessity to agencies with multiple office locations. Get VAM dB FREE More Articles |
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