We recently received an invitation to preview the brand new Insurance Journal website. Thanks to the IJ team for choosing us to be one of the very first to preview it!

Although their current site is well-organized and professional, the new site is much more intuitive, interactive and sleek.

Improvements include:

- Online database of past articles from the print edition so you can bookmark and/or share with others.

- Topic centers allow you to focus on one specific topic like top news, agent/broker info, pricing, etc.

- Forums where you can discuss industry news, issues and insight with fellow insurance pros.

- Twitter feeds pulled from insurance agencies, insurance companies, insurance associations and more. (This is my favorite feature!)

- Comment areas so you can comment on your favorite (or not-so-favorite) article.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. They have several other improvements, but you’ll just have to wait. They haven’t given the launch date, so bookmark their site (if you haven’t already) and stay tuned here for more insurance news and insurance business-building tips!

One of our favorite insurance industry publications is Agent’s Sales Journal. Their magazine is chock full of up-to-date news and insider tips for today’s insurance professional.

In an article from their November 2010 issue titled “Social Life: How Social Media Can Boost Your Business”, editor Christina Pellett covers 7 of the most popular social networks and how insurance professionals can leverage these tools from a business perspective.

According to a recent study, Pellett shared that 57 percent of insurance agents use at least one social media tool to engage with other insurance industry professionals and 59 percent use social media to connect with prospects and customers.

The great thing about social media (those listed here, anyway) is that it’s free. Yes, for some it can be time-consuming to learn and to integrate into your daily insurance practice. As the world continues to get smaller and more connected, however, the insurance pros who are not creating an online presence will be missing the boat.

Click here to read Pellett’s insurance agency social media tips.

Also, don’t miss their social media boot camp: 20 days to social media success.

MDRT recently conducted a study called the Generational Financial Confidence Study. I found the results of the study quite interesting and thought you insurance pros would find value in it as well.

In 2009 MDRT asked financial advisors to share a few effective strategies for closing the sale. The highest ranked response was “build long-term relationships.”

Next, they surveyed different generations to learn what sales strategies might encourage them to take action.

Two primary audiences identified in the study were Boomers and Generation X. Both indicated the same top three sales practices: “offer straightforward advice,” “create sample financial plan” and “goals-based planning”. However, ranked further down the list was “build long-term relationships.”

Insurance professionals and other financial services representatives take heed. Each generation responds differently to a variety of techniques, so make sure you’re engaging your insurance prospects based on what’s most important to them.

To learn more about this survey and also learn how you can better understand generational differences, visit the MDRT Generational Financial Confidence Study conducted by the Boomer Project.

If you’ve attended one of our insurance webinars, you probably know we’re an advocate of using a world-class lead management tool like Leads360. Their web-based software allows insurance pros to identify and track important metrics which ultimately leads to improving your overall sales process.

One of their recent whitepapers is titled “Six calls equals success” and it includes some vital statistics you need to keep in mind as a business owner:

After analyzing more than 15 million insurance leads, Leads360 learned that making 2 calls instead of just 1 increases the odds of reaching a lead by 87%.

Unfortunately, 50% of leads are rarely contacted that 2nd time.

They discovered that making 6 contact attempts resulted in nearly the highest possible contact rate, however, nearly 60% of sales people made less than 6 calls.

To read their full whitepaper, click here.

Have you assessed your sales process lately? Do you know the average number of calls your team is making to prospects? What is your preferred way to track calls and sales?

If you’re in Michigan and you’re looking for a career in insurance, Allstate wants you.

According to Insurance Journal, Allstate intends to open 40 new Allstate offices in Michigan and expects to hire around 200 insurance sales professionals by the end of 2011.

We’re always looking for insurance pros to connect with our consumer network in all 50 states, so this is great news! Whether you’re a captive insurance agent or independent, we can create a custom Internet lead strategy just for you and your area.

Do you specialize in a particular type of insurance? Are you passionate about a particular cause? Are you funny? As you build your insurance business, finding your points of differentiation is key to connecting with and retaining more prospects and customers.

Insurance agent Jason Cass knows how to use humor AND he’s not afraid to show it. Watch his most recent commercial:

Kudos to Jason for sharing his personality in a unique, memorable way. What makes YOU different?

Over at his blog Ask Tim, independent insurance agent Tim Dodge provides his view on the price versus coverage debate.

This is a popular topic for most insurance professionals. In our “Closing The Deal” webinar, HometownQuotes co-founder and CEO Hunter Ingram encourages insurance agents to ask prospects, “What’s most important to you? Price or coverage?”

If the prospect responds that coverage is most important, Ingram encourages insurance pros to deliver the best coverage options available, regardless of cost. If the prospect indicates that price is most important, Ingram recommends building a customized insurance policy based on what the prospect says is most important to him or her.

All prospects are different, so providing coverage options for both types of consumers is key to growing your business.

If you’re looking for a way to connect with qualified prospects in your coverage area, we can help! Click here to get more information.

Always triple-check your content for spelling, grammar, facts and so on. Once you’ve triple-checked the content, have a colleague or someone else in your insurance business review it for accuracy.

I’ve saved myself from embarrassment several times by triple-checking my work and having a colleague review the content as well. And I always question the professionalism behind a poorly prepared email message. Whether you’re communicating with a customer or a prospect, you ALWAYS want to give the best impression. Whether it’s a simple email, an insurance quote or your email newsletter, always make sure you’re putting your best foot forward.

We’re excited about the new design for our insurance agent site. As the next few weeks progress, we’ll be adding more features and more resources to arm you with the tools and knowledge you need to close more sales and grow your insurance business. We hope you’ll take a look around and let us know what you think! Here is a quick tour of our new site:

The HometownQuotes Insurance Agent Blog – Make sure you bookmark the new location of our blog, where we’ll be sharing company and industry news, business and marketing tips from our team of experienced insurance professionals and stories, insight and advice from readers and other insurance professionals.

Frequently Asked Questions – How do insurance leads work? How do I integrate Internet insurance leads with my current marketing plan for my insurance business? We get those questions often. Check out our FAQ section for an overview.

Sample Leads – If you’ve ever wanted to know what an Internet insurance lead looks like, visit our sample leads page to see an example of our auto, home, life and health insurance leads.

HometownQuotes is social! You can connect with us on:

Facebook
Twitter
Flickr

More social media channels are coming soon!

That’s right insurance pros, according to a recent Forrester Research survey, more than 4,600 consumers voted and a majority of them rated their interactions with independent insurance agents as less then enjoyable.

Ouch.

However, many independent agents received high scores as far as ease of service and meeting clients’ needs.

There’s an insightful blog post over on the Agent for Change blog through which American Agent & Broker Editor Laura Toops shares her perspective on this survey.

She ends her blog entry by asking “what’s your agency doing to build your brand perception with your customers?”

In response to this question, I can’t think of a better person to reference than Dale Carnegie and his best-selling classic How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Carnegie says there are 6 ways to make people like you & enjoy being around you, as follows:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other man’s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

Insurance agent or not, those are some pretty simple recommendations. I pose the same question as Ms. Toops. What is your insurance business doing to build a stronger, more enjoyable relationship with your customers? Please share your comments here!

[Image credit]