​I’d like to introduce you to one of the most effective, affordable, and versatile tools in your insurance agency marketing arsenal:

The clear plastic sign.

(It’s also one of the most overlooked tools)

Clear plastic signs can convert any old piece of paper into a marketing message that automatically speaks to everyone who walks in your door!

You can get them online for under 10 bucks or maybe even cheaper over at your office supply store. To save further still, you can get mesh banners – which are a little flimsier, but still much better than no advertising at all!

​A lot of agents think sales and customer service are two separate aspects of running an insurance agency.

I don’t – I think great customer service is a sales strategy.

If your entire book of business is thrilled to do business with you, loves interacting with your agency and feels appreciated as a customer you won’t need to prospect – you’d have a sales force of customers doing it for you!

Kelly Blue Book

​There’s probably a lot of ways to use this app on the job, but one instance where it really comes in handy is when you’re trying to help a client decide whether to purchase collision and comprehensive coverage.  Faster than you could do on kbb.com, this app will give you a value for any car super fast. Bonus tip: take a screenshot of your client’s car value in this app by clicking the home and power buttons at the same time.  Then go to your photos and you can email it to them directly.

Life Foundation

This life insurance needs calculator from the Life Foundation is a great resource for helping a client determine how much they really need to keep their family afloat. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, but it’s a good tool from a great organization.  Bonus Tip: Recommend this app to a prospective client before meeting with them – it might put them in the right mindset going into the meeting and you don’t have to worry about them being pitched another company’s policy from the app.

Insurance Journal

Not too many bells and whistles with this app, but as one of the largest and most long-standing news publishers in the insurance industry, Insurance Journal is a great resource.  I personally use RSS feeds and Twitter to get information from Insurance Journal and I don’t use this app, but it seems to be pretty simple. It’s basically just news feeds, but I like the way they break down information into regions – since there’s already so much information on IJ it’s helpful to narrow it down in this way.

So you want to get hired as an insurance agent?

I can help.

I’ve been working with insurance agents for years. Thousands of agents from every corner of the globe and I understand how they think.

Understanding what motivates a hiring insurance agent along with his or her fears makes it easy to make the right impression and get the job.