Nobody’s been accusing the insurance industry of creating an artificial “bubble” of growth. It ain’t the housing marketing. Ain’t the credit market. In fact, it’s starting to look like the deflated balloon the morning after the birthday party. According to AM Best, P&C sales just skidded through their second straight year of decline, for the first time since the ‘30’s. Rate reductions added to the industry’s “misery index” along with “the current recession, the credit crisis, the housing correction, rising unemployment and higher energy prices.”
Who’s hurting?
Traveler’s, the 2nd biggest US commercial carrier reported a 25% 4th quarter drop in profit.
Allstate, the largest publicly traded US personal lines insurer kept 3.6 cents of premium dollars, down from 4.1 a year ago.
Standard & Poors reported a 17% decline in their “Insurance Index” – after a 31% plunge last year.
AIG hasn’t posted yet, but we already know about their troubles – caused mostly by their “creative,” non-insurance divisions. Lord help us all if their insurance divisions report losses like some other major carriers.
AM Best reported that industry net income took an 80% nosedive from the previous year.
Commercial premiums took (another dive of) 6.4% in the final quarter of ‘09 – and HAVE DROPPED EVERY QUARTER SINCE 2004(!).
All of this, along with other forces, point to the eventual hardening of the market. But allow me to remind our readers of two things: 1) there’s an historical “drag time” between when those forces line up to push premiums up and when it finally happens, and 2) that “drag time” produces a phase of choppy waters that require skill and strategy to navigate. And, of course, when prices do spike, delivering those rate increases to a recession-battered marketplace will push your marketing skills to the limit.
And yet – and you’ve heard me say this before – NOW is the time for Marketing Rebels to rise to the top. THIS is the time that will “thin the herd” and we WILL say some agencies sink while others rise to the top.
As a case in point, my client, Joel Zwicker has used this period to make his agency ZOOM in sales. He’s an integral member of a $30 million agency with a strong personal lines focus. And in spite of a troubled economy, he’s used cutting edge marketing strategy to:
- Flood his agency with over 750 referrals a year
- Close 89% of every referral
- Get an amazing 7 to 1 ROI on a simple but powerful flyer
- Boost his retention by 13 points in one year, and,
- Increase his agency cross sell ratio by 15% in just 8 months
To find out more about just HOW Joel lit his agency “on fire,” he’s agreed to deliver a one-time-only webinar training, FREE for Rebel subscribers. If you want to register for this free training, either call The Insurance Marketing Institute at (800)606-0477 or click here: http://insurancemarketingwebinar.com/
Dominate Your Marketplace!
Michael