Insurance agents universally recognize the need to “sell” themselves to current and prospective policyholders.  They “sell” knowledge, expertise and an ability to meet insurance needs to win and retain accounts.  Many agents excel at this part of their career, yet far fewer seem to recognize the other half of their sales role–selling the underwriter on a commercial account. 

Accounts are submitted to carriers with varying degrees of information.  Generally, less information means less chance of gaining a competitive quote (or a quote at all).    Surprisingly, many agents fail to realize this.  They spend a great deal of time winning the approval of clients, but find themselves frustrated when they can’t provide those clients with competitively priced products.  The key is information!

Applications (including iBIS) are designed to provide all the information required to quote an account.  We encourage you to ask questions and provide every detail, including delicate subjects like expiring premiums, loss history, driving records, experience & ability, etc.  If a carrier can’t determine what is really at stake by entering into an insurance contract with your prospect, it simply doesn’t make sense for them to provide a quote.  Consider this: would you sign a contract to lend an unspecified amount of money to a person you didn’t know?

In addition to a complete application, crafting an honest and thoughtful cover memo may generate the greatest return on your investment of time.  Applications paint pictures, but cover memos make them masterpieces.  What makes this client truly special or best in class?  Does your client prosper in good economic times and bad?  What good things should we know about the client in the past 7, 12 or 36 years versus just 3 or 5 years?  How proactive, hands-on or conscientious is the owner?  Make your painting more attractive to underwriters by adding highlights to your application with a cover memo.

Many reasons exist for not providing complete information on a submission–I don’t have time to enter every detail, I’m afraid to ask the client certain questions, I don’t think the information is important, etc.  Just remember, if you don’t invest time to effectively sell the account to your underwriter, you may be left with an interested client and no product to deliver.