Does it feel like your insurance agency has hit a wall? This is a common challenge for successful agencies. Through hard work and dedication, agency owners build a thriving business. Then, the growth curve mysteriously flattens. The good news is it’s possible to break through this barrier and reach the next level with a few strategy adjustments.
Why Successful Agencies Hit a Plateau
When your agency is growing, it may seem like the sky’s the limit. Unfortunately, the same old strategies will only get you so far. Those strategies might have been exactly what you needed in the past, but your needs change as you grow.
Stalled agency growth often stems from two issues:
- You’ve exhausted your market. Let’s say you sell home and auto insurance in a midsize town where almost everyone needs coverage. You’re able to grow your business by finding customers who are dissatisfied. You’re successful – so successful, in fact, that you realize you’ve helped everyone you can. You occasionally gain a new client who’s just moved to town or bought a home, but this just makes up for the clients you occasionally lose.
- Your processes won’t scale. There are only so many hours in the day. If you’re working as hard as you can, you might not have the time or energy to support additional growth. Hiring more employees or adding better technology are two possible options, but both increase your overhead costs and it will take some time to generate ROI.
How to Break Through to the Next Level
These challenges are not unsolvable. There are a few things agency owners can do:
- If you’ve exhausted your current market, start exploring new ones. For many agencies, this means expanding from personal lines to commercial lines. Many agencies start with personal lines because these feel more familiar and they’re less complex. However, commercial policies provide significantly greater commissions. Also, the fact that commercial coverage is more complex means business owners are more likely to rely on insurance agents. The Big “I” 2024 Market Share Report found that independent agencies placed 87% of all commercial lines written premium but only 39% of all personal lines written premium. This is also a large market – there are more than 33 million small business in the U.S., according to the S. Small Business Administration. Agencies should also consider expanding into new niches, taking on hard-to-place accounts, and exploring new geographical regions.
- If your processes won’t scale, adopt more efficient technologies. The right tech solutions are a gamechanger for insurance agencies. For example, Indio provides a convenient digital insurance application process to help you say goodbye to PDFs and spreadsheets, whereas Comulate provides end-to-end agency automation for accounting tasks. Tools like these boost productivity, allowing agencies to take on more work without working more. They also reduce the risk of human error.
- Consider acquiring another agency. If you really want to supercharge your growth, acquiring another agency may be a smart way to go about it. In addition to growing your book, an acquisition could provide instant expansion into new markets.
Why Reinvent the Wheel?
At this point, you might be thinking that some things are easier said than done. You may …
- Want to expand into new markets, but you don’t have the experience and carrier connections necessary to pull it off.
- Be interested in agency acquisition, but the process is a little intimidating.
- Want new technology but feel unsure about where to start.
If these scenarios sound familiar, you probably could use some guidance from people who have a lot of experience in these areas. Heffernan Network provides that kind of guidance and support, so you don’t have to start from scratch and make expensive mistakes while trying to reinvent the wheel.
When you join Heffernan Network, you still run your agency on your terms. You also receive access to the resources and support you need to take your agency to the next level.
We offer:
- Access to carriers, including personal, commercial, health, life, excess & surplus, and specialty lines.
- The ability to earn high commissions with no minimum premiums or tricky contracts.
- Profit sharing, incentives, training and team building events for you and your team.
- Back-office support and new business fulfillment.
- Access to technology solutions, including Indio, Comulate, Applied Pay, Spark Advisors, and the HIB Marketplace.
- Networking collaboration with other agency leaders who face similar challenges.
- Guidance and mentorship to help you break through plateaus and achieve your goals.
Are you ready to take your agency to the next level? Contact us to learn more.
