Understanding consumer behavior is a key to making sure your agency will continue to prosper. In this TED talk by John Gerzema, co-author of the book The Brand Bubble, he says there's an upside to the recent financial crisis -- the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending. How is your … [Read more...]
Data Wants to Be Free
A recent article in National Underwriter listed the top 10 technology trends for insurance companies. One of the trends was “Web Services and SOA Tools.” Here is how this trend was described: “P/C insurers operate a large ecosystem of systems and applications that integrate for seamless processing. In the past, companies had to hard-code integration between systems, which was costly, time-consuming, created challenges when applications … [Read more...]
Inquiring Minds Want to Know… What’s Happening with HIGH-TECC?
This is the time of year we traditionally start ramping up for our annual conference, HIGH-TECC. HIGH-TECC has been around for many years and is a highlight for many in the industry. The purpose of HIGH-TECC has always been to provide a forum for industry leaders and innovators to explore emerging technology and discover ways to use these advances to make selling and servicing more effective and more efficient—with the least amount of … [Read more...]
AMS Users Group is Gone
I am attending the AMS Users Group national conference in Nashville this week. It is a great place to catch up with agents and to learn what is going on with one of the largest vendors of agency management systems. It also provides me with the chance to talk with agents from all over the country and get a feel for how the Vertafore systems are actually working for them. You may or may not know that AMS Services re-branded all of the various … [Read more...]
Strategy First; Technology Second
In a previous post I stated the case for why an agency that wants to grow must have a comprehensive marketing system. I ended with this paragraph: Technology is available to help you manage your marketing system. The first step is to understand the need for marketing. Then, create a marketing strategy for the agency, implement that strategy, and monitor its effectiveness. If you do all of these things, you can't help but become more … [Read more...]
Create a Marketing System
Over the last few months, I’ve been working on a new marketing program for personal lines and small commercial business. (The personal lines program is scheduled to be released on May 1). As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how important a successful marketing program is for an agency's long-term health. It seems as though agencies are beginning to understand how important marketing should be, based on the phone calls I'm … [Read more...]
