Referral Selling and Increased Conversion Rates: Insurance

Using Referral Selling to Increase Revenue at an Insurance Company

Client Case Study

Situation

This California insurance brokerage faced increased competition and declining sales.  The conversion rate of prospects to clients was below 30 percent and Salespeople were not active in the community and were “dialing for dollars” with minimal success and low engagement.

 

Complications

  • No Collaboration: Account executives and brokers were not referring business between departments.
  • Weak Brand Positioning: Clients were unaware that the company was a full-service insurance agency.
  • Ambiguity: The vision and mission statements were not clear to every employee.

Approach

  1. Strategy Retreat: Held a strategy retreat to make sure the team understood the mission statement and set standards for referring business between personal, medical, and commercial lines. The company updated technology so that client information would be available to all.
  2. Process Changes:
    • A bonus program was instituted for the most referrals in a month
    • Referrals are tracked and reported weekly
    • There is an account handoff between the production and servicing teams
    • There is new criteria for hiring—insurance professionals join a referral organization
    • Everyone has joined community and professional groups and is actively networking to build relationships
  3. Referral-Selling System:  The brokerage:
    • Committed to a referral selling strategy from the top
    • Trained salespeople in referral selling methodology
    • Set up and tracked and rewarded referral selling metrics
    • Coached and reinforced behaviors

Results

  • 66% increase in conversion ratio of prospects to clients
  • More new personal lines customers have become clients than ever before
  • Clients understand what it means to work with a full-service insurance agency

Related Information

We originally engaged with LSA Global to help our subcontract administrators and buyers develop better negotiations skills. As manufacturers of satellites, we have many sole source companies to procure the required parts.

Our teams must be able to interact effectively with international companies. This environment uniquely challenges our team in their ability to create equitable contracts, while preserving and strengthening our supplier relationships.

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Vice President of Materiel

Space Systems Loral

What a refreshing change from the half-baked psycho-babble you normally get from training and consulting organizations. LSA gives you the practical and results-oriented assistance you need to define and reach your goals.

Their leadership, management, and sales expertise has been invaluable.  They think strategically and provide a results driven plan – not just a temporary fix.

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Director of Merchandising

ServiceSource has relied on LSA Global’s expertise for a variety of core initiatives, from strategy design and implementation, to business sales skills, to sales coaching. We recently engaged LSA Global to create a competency matrix for our inside sales team that will serve as our roadmap for employee on-boarding, development, succession planning, and retention.

This critical project had a tight timeline with high visibility. LSA Global completed the deliverable ahead of schedule and surpassed our expectations.

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Senior Vice President

Service Source

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Manager, Worldwide Sales L&D

AMD

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Senior Project Manager

Hyperion

We recently hired LSA to help us take our client delivery methodology to the next level as we continue to grow and help our clients succeed.

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EVP Client Delivery

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In an effort to establish a solid foundation of consultative selling skills for our client-facing teams that can be built on over time, we engaged with LSA Global. By understanding our business and our markets, LSA Global was able to design and deliver the relevant sales skills, tools, and processes that have established the foundation for our future success.

We are extremely satisfied with our decision to work with LSA.  Thank you!.”

Kevin Wiley
Chief Operating Officer

Nelnet

Seagate has always found LSA to be a highly valuable consulting, training, and coaching resource.

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Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

Seagate

LSA Global rocks! Thank you for helping our executive team get aligned by creating a powerful and clear strategic direction and go to market sales growth plan that we could all fully commit to.

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VP Sales

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Director, Global Sales & Technical Field Enablement

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Manager

Seagate

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SVP Worldwide Sales

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Director of Sales-Enterprise Accounts

Avid

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PHR, Manager - L & D

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LSA delivered exactly what we needed and exceeded our expectations.  Thank you.

Hinda Chalew
Vice President of Marketing

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