Written by: Harrison Leachman, Content Marketing Specialist
There are three components of organic growth that an agency or broker needs to address to grow year-over-year:
- Acquiring new customers
- Selling new lines and emerging products
- Cross-selling to existing customers
It’s no secret that these should be major focus areas for growth, but most agencies have let selling additional products to existing customers take a back seat in terms of priority. According to the 2018 Big “I” Agency Universe Study, most agencies are focusing on renewals and retention, while cross-selling is consistently ranked the lowest in order of importance for growth approaches.
In the constant whirlwind of attempting to rake in as much new business as possible, it’s easy for cross-selling to get lost in the dustup. Seeking out additional products that your existing customers will be interested in is time-consuming work. It involves staying up to date with industry trend reports and matching emerging products to customers that you think will benefit from the coverage.
While proven difficult, the benefits of cross-selling are well worth the effort. Not only does cross-selling improve your revenue per customer, but it also helps make your customers ‘stickier’ - so they are less likely to leave you for another agency. So how can you cross-sell more effectively without digging through 100-page industry reports and sifting through your agency management system for eligible customers? The answer is data and analytics.
Data and analytics can help you get a holistic view of which coverages your customers already have and what other similar coverages in the market look like. Then, you can benchmark your customers with the coverages of similar persons to uncover alike risks and identify real cross-sell opportunities. Data and analytics can help you grow your revenue stream while putting you in the role of the trusted advisor – ensuring that your customers are properly covered for the commonly needed but forgotten policies.
[i] https://www.independentagent.com/Resources/Research/AgencyUniverseStudy/agency-universe.aspx