If you're not, you don't need to read this post. Truth is most Agency Owners are feeling threatened and I speak to Principals all over this nation. What has 'em jumpy? Take a look for yourself:
- 73% of computer owners (virtually the entire population)
used the
Internet in the past year to find information on auto insurance.
- Consumers requested 38.8 million auto quotes online.
- Online policy sales are up 35%, 58% and 37% in the last few years.
- 65% of consumers rate the Internet as slightly or very important to
providing them with information to help make their buying decisions.
- 68% of consumers who do not have an agent-based policy have received an
auto insurance quote online. Even more sobering: 49% of consumers who
currently have their policy with a local agent have requested and received
an insurance quote online. LAST YEAR. (Yes: HALF of your
customers.)
- 52% of consumers have shopped for insurance in the last 12 months.
63%
of those shopped online(!).
- Five years ago, 74% of consumers purchased their auto insurance from a
local agent. If they've had their policy less than one year, only 53% of
consumers bought their policy from a local agent. (And, conversely, five
years ago, 4% bought their policy online. For those who have had their
current policy for less than a year, 29% bought it online. A 725% increase
in online purchase of policies. In five years.)
- ONE LAST THING: of the 38.8 million quotes that were requested online,
74% of those belonged to either GEICO, Progressive Direct or esurance.
My purpose for sharing these numbers is not to scare you with some doomsday prediction of things to come, rather, I want you to be aware of the tremendous shift in consumer buying habits. But I don't want you to sit there blurry eyed and wait for the END. What I do want, is for you to join the savviest insurance agents on the globe at the
Technology & Money Summit January 20-21st. The focus of the Summit? Bringing you technology that is radically changing how insurance agents sell insurance. So that you can unlock your agency's growth potential. By the way, we aren't focusing on the expensive stuff, we're focusing on
low-cost and free applications. For more information click the link above.