A Good CRM A Crucial (And Overlooked) Part Of An Agent’s Tech Toolbox

Technology can help pull in potential customers who remain in limbo, but want to buy.

By John Hilton

Everyone knows that technology will remain a growing part of the insurance sales business. The pandemic only speeded up the tech revolution.

So why are advisors seemingly failing so bad at the basics?

"What is the number one digital tool that you need to run your agency, that you need to run your practice?" asked Luke Acree, president of ReminderMedia, a sales and marketing company. "I am blown away that what happens in this industry is we know it's a relationship-based business, but, for some reason, we don't really focus on getting a great customer relationship management tool."

Acree was part of a technology panel today during the Performance + Purpose virtual conference hosted by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

There is no way to scale your business and keep everything coordinated and moving toward the same goals without a strong, efficient CRM system, Acree explained.

"If you have a goal you want to hit, there's no way to hit that goal if you're not even first measuring the activity that you're doing," he said. "If you think of the phone calls, are you measuring the amount of phone calls you make? What you're saying on the phone? All of this can be done in a CRM."

Ask The Questions

A huge thing a CRM can assist with is surveying clients. HubSpot is a low-cost CRM that offers survey ability, Acree said. Survey Monkey and Qualtrics also offer free survey options.

"It's amazing to me that a lot of times people will hire coaches or consultants, which are great. There's a time and a place for that," Acree said. "But your best consultant for your business is actually your current clients. What's their experience? What are they responding to? You're going to get so many golden nuggets there to really implement."

The more important step is the first one when it comes to integrating a CRM, added Angela Silbernagel, director of marketing at Real Wealth Marketing. In other words, just get started with a CRM.

"If you use the CRM effectively you can easily switch to a different CRM," she said. "So I would spend less time trying to find the perfect solution and just find one that makes sense."

Likewise, advisors should integrate some form of a "drip marketing" tool, the panel agreed. The idea is to be in front of people so they are reminded who you are. But the content has to be good to be effective, Acree noted, and not just a steady stream of sales pitches.

"You can drip all day, but if you're not dripping with effective stuff, people are just going to delete it," he said. "They're not going to pay attention and it won't drive results for you."

'A Huge Differentiator'

Effective marketing messaging can be personal, it can be information-driven and it can be completely unrelated to the insurance products you are ultimately trying to sell, the panel agreed.

Acree and his wife are new parents of a baby girl, an example of a life milestone that creates an opportunity for an advisor to grow a relationship.

"If I'm an A list client for you, and you know that about me, also include in your social posts that you're automating out things about becoming a first parent," Acree explained. "You can include product information, like here's what you need to think of, Luke, when you have a little girl and you're thinking about college and those type of things.

"What I have found is that is a huge differentiator for people to really connect on that relationship level."

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.