It can sometimes be frustrating when you see larger agencies with more resources and benefits than you possess.
They can invest in the latest technology for sales, marketing, quoting, and customer service. They have more financially beneficial relationships with carriers. They have the managerial bandwidth to solve complex challenges and soar to new heights. And they can offer more competitive salaries and benefits that give them an inside track on hiring the best talent.
Perhaps you’ve found that your agency has hit a growth plateau that is difficult to overcome. You know how to grow the business, but as it grows you have to focus less on selling and more on running the business. Eventually, growth slows or stops because you aren’t able to create scalable business processes.
Or maybe you’re a small to medium-sized independent agent, and your time is split between managing your team and serving your customers. You don’t have other senior leadership to lean on, you have less time to sell and build community relationships, and you have less revenue to invest back into the business.
But in truth, those things don’t have to keep you from growing into a larger agency.
The key is to find a partner that will allow you to become more efficient and profitable without sacrificing your independence or selling the business you have already worked so hard to build.
Joining an agency network can be a great tool to help agencies of all sizes gain exclusive benefits and maximize growth. We’ve highlighted these specific advantages below.
Download our free e-book here: The Independent Agent’s Playbook for Success – How to Solve Your Agency’s Five Biggest Challenges
Placement Services
As an independent agency owner, you wear a lot of hats. You and your team may not have time to develop deep expertise in every offering from every carrier, and you may not have the access you need to write policies for certain business owners or for coastal homeowners, for example.
With Renaissance, you get access to dozens of standard markets and specialty brokers and a dedicated Placement Specialist to work with you to market and place commercial lines risks. We can also help our members with placement on high-value properties and hard-to-place personal lines.
Members also have access to Portico, a small commercial comparative rater and submission platform. Getting access to multiple carrier options while entering the information only once is a huge time saver.
Whether you use this technology or let your placement specialist do the work for you, you’re able to transfer the transactional work to Renaissance so you and your staff have more time to engage with customers. Access to more markets also means higher retention, more new business, and increased growth – meaning you’ll win more customers, better serve those customers, and retain more customers.
Helpdesk Support
You’re an agent, not an IT professional. Rather than having to troubleshoot technology problems on your own, wouldn’t it be nice if you had a dedicated IT department to help, just like those bigger agencies have?
Renaissance offers dedicated onsite and virtual training services for all supported systems and even provides help desk support to keep things working as they should, saving you time and stress.
Analytics & Intel
You may not have a team of data analysts, but you should still get the data you need to make smart decisions. With Renaissance, you get a series of up-to-date data dashboards and reports giving you the ability to benchmark your agency’s business performance against peers.
Through added services and technology, you are provided key performance indicators that allow you to monitor and measure growth and opportunities. Use these proprietary data-driven insights and your dedicated Agency Growth Partner to implement strategic action plans to grow your agency and revenue. Our small commercial comparative rater, Portico, will give you multiple quotes quickly to save your staff time and have more options for your customers – a win-win for everyone.
Discounts
Who doesn’t love a good discount? Unfortunately, when you’re a smaller agency, you may not have the volume to earn discounted services, or you may get smaller discounts than a larger organization. As a member of an agency group, your collective influence can earn you discounted services from trusted providers to help you reduce expenses.
Examples of the types of discounts that Renaissance members might earn include technology services, agency management systems, outsourcing services, agency E&O insurance, loss runs, consulting services, web development, graphic design, and much more.
Staff Attraction and Retention
Every agency owner wants the best talent on their team. But with so many agencies (and carriers, brokers, direct writers, and new InsurTech companies) out there with varying levels of benefits offered to employees, you need a way to attract and retain the top talent.
Although your team works collectively toward your agency’s goals, your employees will need avenues that help them meet their individual goals as well – and, let’s be real, people typically want to work for businesses that are growing.
Thanks to the large agency perks that come with joining an aggregator like Renaissance, you’re more likely to attract top prospects by providing them with the best opportunities to succeed individually.
Also, by continuously offering education and training for your staff, you can keep them sharp and motivated. With Renaissance, members are offered topical webinars and seminars that everyone within the agency can use to their advantage.
Sales & Marketing Support
Insurance agents need effective marketing strategies to win in today’s increasingly competitive market. Gone are the days where walk-in referrals and advertising in the local yellow pages were sufficient.
You’re not just battling direct writers with billion-dollar marketing budgets, you’re competing for the same business as other local agents who have invested in marketing and are ranking above you in Google and getting great online reviews.
Luckily with Renaissance, you don’t have to bribe your nephew to help you build a website and develop a Twitter strategy. Renaissance offers website design and hosting help, as well as automated email marketing and customer outreach. With these added perks, you can increase your sales and retention, and feel proud of how your brand is represented online.
Finding A Trusted Partner in Growth
When you can gain access to the perks that larger agencies get, you can better compete with them. And if competing with (and winning against) larger agencies is your goal, then joining an insurance aggregator like Renaissance may be the best option for you. Agency networks offer these and so many other resources that can make your agency feel like a much larger one.
Ultimately, if you decide to join an insurance agency network, it’s essential that you choose one as committed to growth as you are. By viewing an aggregator as a trusted partner in growth rather than as a tool, you’ll achieve your goals more efficiently.
Renaissance Alliance is dedicated to its members and helps them achieve rapid growth and higher profitability through a comprehensive suite of exclusive benefits and services designed to enable their success, including:
- Individual dedicated Agency Growth Partner assigned to each member agency;
- Custom strategies to maximize growth;
- Proprietary agency data dashboards, updated daily to help members find opportunities;
- Research, development, and deployment of new technology to help members grow;
- 80+ full-time insurance professionals who are ready and willing to help and advise each member agency.
Review our member benefits and find out how joining Renaissance provides you substantial benefits and a trusted partner.