An industry leader created quite the buzz this week when he called upon fellow brokers to stop relying on past success and begin developing strategies to meet future consumer needs.
“This used to a place where people were able to make a lot of money with very little effort, but the landscape is changing,” said Adam Mitchell, owner of Mitchell & Whale Associates. “So what used to suffice as good enough, whether that was a sign on Main Street or an ad in the Yellow Pages, is no longer an option for modern business.”
Mitchell provides three possible reasons for broker complacency: apprehension over technology, satisfaction with current income levels and the unawareness that businesses may be suffering from a multiyear, long-term decline.
As a result, brokers are not investing in strategies that will make their organizations more competitive.
“I think many brokers spend a lot more money on golf than on actively marketing and buying good tools for their business and their team,” Mitchell said.
There are simple steps that brokers can take to position themselves more prominently in the market, however. The first is to invest in an appealing, user-friendly website, which now serves as a modern day business card – “and you wouldn’t hand someone a business card that your four year-old coloured on craft paper.”
One of the site’s main objectives should be conversion, since brokers have a 400% higher closing ratio after making contact with a client in 60 seconds or less. It should thus be an imperative to examine what happens when someone fills out a website form, and look into where that request goes, who answers it, and the speed of response time.
“If you can dedicate resources to talking to them, it turns into policies, which turns into revenue,” Mitchell said.
He also recommends Google AdWords Express as a valuable first step towards localized digital advertising at a cost-effective price.
Brokers should devote themselves to strategic planning of some sort, however, since the market is more competitive now than ever.
“It’s all starting to change because the marketplace is no longer Main Street. It’s online,” Mitchell said. “And on top of that, brokers are spreading into every small town and city and popping up everywhere.”
