Many things in life, and in business, are universal. The challenges we encounter, the solutions we find, and the decisions we make seem unique. However, no matter how odd your situation, someone has dealt with it before. In most cases, that someone is you, whether you know it or not you have experience that can help you deal with brand new situations.
On the surface the sale of your insurance agency appears to be a brand new problem for most owners. They think, ‘this is something I’ve never done before, I don’t know how to do this.’ These owners forget that selling is a universal concept; the process for selling your agency is the same as selling insurance products. As an owner, you go through this process many times throughout your career.
Identify What You Have To Sell
When you started out, you chose insurance lines to sell. You assessed your expertise, you identified your products and you made clear decisions on exactly what it was your agency sold.
When you sell your agency, your first job is exactly the same. You look at the agency, go over its history and assess it from top to bottom. Before you do anything else, you get a good picture of what it is you have to sell.
Identify Who You Want To Sell It To
Once you had identified the lines you wanted to sell, you defined your target market. If you sell benefits you targeted businesses based on employee volume, if you sell personal lines you looked at families and so on.
Selling your agency requires the same thought process. The size of your agency, your location and your products will help you to define your ideal buyer. Finding the ideal buyer is one of the biggest challenges in the whole process, before you can do that you need to know what kind of buyer you want.
Market Your Product
You’re also very familiar with marketing your products. You’re used to highlighting the value your experts can offer in terms of risk management or HR advice. You use your knowledge of your product and the ideal client to form how you highlight that value.
Selling your insurance agency involves the very same value proposition. You create a document that outlines the value and potential of your agency. That information is targeted at buyers that you think will be a good fit.
Make A Deal
Every client engagement in insurance starts with a conversation, usually a face-to-face meeting. That’s your opportunity to let the client see just how good you are and how you can help them. When you sell your agency, you’ll go into meetings with buyers, discuss your agency and the buyer’s plans. The goal of both of these meetings is the same, closing a deal.
When you approach selling your agency, it can be difficult to imagine how it’s all done. That’s why it is important to engage a financial advisor to help you through each stage. However, you should remember that you do know how to sell; you’ve done it many times before.
Learning from the experience of others can help to create successful insurance agencies. Download our Free Whitepaper which provides some valuable Words of Wisdom and the Do’s and Dont’s of a successful agency
