Using CRM Technology to Increase Sales

In today’s, fast paced .com world there are countless tools available on the Internet to help insurance agents get organized and increase sales. I am constantly baffled when I speak with agents who have not taken the time to learn about these tools. Using CRM Technology to increase sales is a great way to help them build relationships and stay in touch with their clients.

Every CRM  (Contact Relation Management) will allow you to keep track of basic information on your clients and prospects. However, I recommend that you purchase a system specifically designed for life and health agents.  Many agents tell me that they are not able to track everything they need with many of the widely used CRM’s. Another solution, is to find a CRM that allows you to create custom fields. With custom fields you can track virtually any information you want.

An Auto Dialer will save you time:

BusinessETouch Dialer page

Since insurance agents are on the phone a lot. I recommend getting a system that has an integrated dialer so you can make calls right from the CRM with a click of the mouse. This will automatically keep track of all your calls and give you easy access to all the saved information on that client. A dialer will also allow you to load a list of calls and easily call through the list. It should also automatically send a follow up email when needed. All with just a click of the mouse.

Automated Systems will make your job easier and help you build relationships with your clients:

Automated systems can make your job easier. Keeping track of everything you do with your clients can be a daunting task. Your CRM should automatically save a permanent record of all emails and save them to each client’s file. It should also automatically save a permanent record of every appointment. And of course, it should also save documents to each client’s file as well.

Some CRM’s will also automatically send an email on a saved date in your system. This is a great feature for Birthday Ecards or policy review reminders or any situation where an email needs to be sent on the date of an event. This allows you to set up the feature once and then it happens automatically for all of your clients. And mail merge will put any information you need in the email. This will assure that each person receives a personalized message.

Date and time stamped notes and Email Campaigns are a must:

In today’s litigious society is very important for every agent keep good notes on everything he does with his clients. Having date and time stamped notes that can not be edited or deleted can save you thousands of dollars if you ever get sued. Your CRM should also automatically save all emails to each client’s account. There should also be a permanent record of every appointment.

Drip Emails allow you to send an email at a future date and time and Email Campaigns will automatically send a series of emails at predetermined intervals. I recommend that your Email Campaign should send marketing emails to your clients no more than once a month. And at the very least every quarter. I set up an Email Campaign that sent an email every month. The campaign consisted of 9 emails that promoted the products I sold. I had 2 months with recipes and 1 email that just talked about what a great agent I was. Every month when my email went out I would receive 3 to 5 people that responded asking for a quote. What was interesting, was that most of the time the quote wasn’t even for the product that the email was promoting. That is the beauty of email Campaigns. They put you in front of your clients every month. So when they needs something they just click reply on your email and you have a new sale. Click here to read an interesting article on Email Campaigns.

Text Messaging and a good Calendar are important when Using CRM Technology to increase sales.

Surveys show that 95% of text messages are opened in the first 5 minutes so having a CRM that will send text messages is a must in today’s market. Text messages reminders are also a must have feature. Receiving a text message reminder is a great way the appointment isn’t missed for both you and your client. Agents that are Using CRM Technology to Increase Sales will all want to embrace text messaging from their CRM.

Of course all CRM’s have a calendar to keep track of your appointments. Some will allow you to send a link to your prospects that will show them what times you have available and they can schedule an appointment with you using that link. Other calendar features like color coding and being able to see everyone listed on a particular date field is a really nice feature. For instance, being able to see everyone that has a birthday or policy date in a particular month is a great feature.

These are just a few of the features and benefits that are needed when Using CRM Technology to Increase Sales. If you are not using the above mentioned CRM features, you are wasting your time and energy on tasks that can be easily automated with a good CRM. I highly recommend getting a CRM today and take your business to the next level today.

Marc Montgomery – Bio  

Marc Montgomery has 40 years’ sales experience and embraced the technology that computers and the internet offered from the very beginning. CRM (Contact Relation Management) technology brought many time saving features that could help increase sales. However, he found that many CRM companies had quality programs, but were difficult to use and lacked the basic features that life and health agents needed. So in 2008 Marc started BusinessETouch where he built an easy to use system that included all the features that he found were missing from the Mega CRM Companies.