Tips for New Independent Agents to Find Prospects

New independent agents may find a shift from being a captive agent to going independent difficult. It is a whole new world. If you are looking for a cop-out to success, there is no way. However, these four tips will help you on your journey to success.

1. Pick a niche:

Insurance is a highly competitive market. Being an independent agent, you must be accustomed to that fact. Without being demoralized by the excessive competition, you can use it to your advantage by choosing a niche. When choosing a niche, you must consider your interests, the market demand, and the level of competition.

Firstly, narrow down the sectors that are of your interest. For example, if you’re an animal lover, consider pet insurance. If you’re particularly business savvy, how about commercial insurance for small and medium businesses?

Secondly, with some secondary research, find out the market demand for each of the niches you have listed. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has some resources on global insurance statistics that could be of great value, especially for new independent agents.

Thirdly, assess the level of competition in those niches. Quite obviously, you will pick the niche with high demand and low competition.

2. Build your expertise:

Prospects love independent agents who are reliable and who can build their confidence with vast knowledge and effective communication. As a new independent agent, you must build expertise in your niche to gain clients’ trust and confidence. You should also be well-informed on the insurance market and advise clients to the best of your knowledge.

For example, if you pick travel insurance as your niche, you must know insurance packages in that niche in and out. This way, when a client contacts you for travel insurance before a family vacation, you will be able to cater to all their needs. Your expertise and knowledge about travel insurance will help you to offer a comprehensive package fitted just for them.

3. Become a resource:

Whether it is online or offline, you must use your expertise to provide useful information to clients and prospects. You can use your knowledge to write blogs to provide advice and insights on your specific niche for your online target audience. New independent agents struggle to get and convert prospects. Offline, you can be a legitimate source of information for your clients. By giving out useful information, you will be able to make people aware of your expertise. It will also help establish yourself as an authoritative figure in your niche.

4. Use social media:

New independent agents must use social media to share opinions and advice. You can reuse your blogs and share them on social media. Social selling can be beneficial, especially for insurance. Since many people post about their dissatisfaction with their insurance carriers on social media, building your social listening skills can be useful to help those individuals out of their problems. LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to learn about and start social selling. LinkedIn even has a social selling index that measures your ability to establish your professional brand, find the right people, engage with insights, and build relationships on the platform. As a new independent agent, we suggest you use LinkedIn and Twitter to find and help prospects.