Pre-Launch Playbook
The Agent Portal is a new tool of ASNOA's which will help you manage your agency at launch and all throughout your time in our network. The portal will help provide you things like business analytics, ways to manage your data, resources from ASNOA, and much more. This exists as your one-stop shop for everything related to your relationship with ASNOA. There's a full learning course on the portal in your Learning Management System, and more is being developed all the time based on agent feedback.
Your Learning Management System is your place to learn all about the tools you'll be utilizing as a new independent agent. Your AMS (Applied Epic), Comparative Rater (EZLynx), how to interact with each ASNOA team, how to service your clients, how to write commercial lines, and even carrier trainings are all housed in this system. ASNOA is constantly developing this resource to add more courses for you to take to help you better run your business. Courses are developed by both ASNOA as well as our carrier and vendor partners.
ContentSnare is where you will be providing ASNOA all the documents that we need for you to get setup as an agency with independent carrier appointments. After watching the tutorial video on ContentSnare within our Learning Management System, you'll receive an invite from the system itself to start uploading your documents. These documents help our licensing and contracting team (Agency Services) to submit you to our carriers for producer and direct appointments.
Your team here at ASNOA is always here to help answer your questions and guide you to success. Our team is composed of over 30 support team members who are consistently working to extend your agency and help you succeed in the independent channel. To see all of our team members and find contact information for each department, you can head over to our Team page on the website.
As we get closer to launch, there are two key dates to keep in mind.
Planned Agency Launch Date
Early into your journey we'll try to establish the date you plan to open your doors and get started with your agency. The reason why this date is important to us at ASNOA is we will do our best to coordinate your trainings, contract dates and "Go Live" dates in your software to line up with that launch date. If or when that launch date changes from your original estimate, we'll update our timeline for you as well.
Contract
Before you're allowed to quote and bind business, you'll need to sign contracts with ASNOA. These documents will be sent to you by our leadership team and must be executed in order for you to be paid by our accounting team. Contracts can be signed any time that you are able to sign them (are not bound by any other contracts).
To see a full timeline of what your first 3 months of onboarding should look like, download this resource.
One of the first advantages you’ll notice about the Independent Channel (IA) is picking a place to call home. You get to decide how to invest your capital and what your expected return should be. No greater capital investment at the beginning than your shop. You can invest in a storefront, or you can rent a Regis shared office space, but we are not a “work from home” organization. You’ll have mandatory requirements from LexisNexis as well as expectations from ASNOA. In addition, a physical location is required by LexisNexis, the company responsible for running your MVRs (Motor Vehicle Records) and C.L.U.E. (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) reporting.
Website
Having a digital presence is no longer an option for insurance agents. Getting a website established as soon as possible should be a top priority. At the very least, as soon as possible you should get a domain (GoDaddy is a great place to start) and plan out when you'd want to launch your website. ASNOA has a few recommended vendors for website creation and maintenance, including Musselwhite Marketing.
Email
Email is your primary method of communication with not just ASNOA, but more importantly, with carriers. As such, a professional email is required, typically created during website development. Personal emails are not acceptable.
- DO: name@yourdomain.com (e.g. john@insurance.com)
- DO NOT: hotdog111@gmail.com
Phone
Your primary communication with your clients will likely be over phone, so having an effective phone system in place is both necessary and a great opportunity to create a good experience. Start thinking about things such as:
- Investigate VOIP options (RingCentral, 8x8, Cisco, etc.) VOIP is more common than phone lines,and often allows you to also setup a soft-phone on your personal cellphone, and receive and make calls from your computer.
- Setup a voicemail that is clear, concise, and professional. Do not use the default that comes with the system.
- Make sure you keep your voicemail inbox from becoming full. Few things are more frustrating for clients than attempting to reach you by phone and being unable to even leave a voicemail.
This is the list of documents you are responsible for providing our agency services department to initiate the carrier submission process. The most important thing to remember is accuracy in the documents. All of your documents should have the exact same information written on them. This includes business name, any dba, address, npn, fein, etc. If any document doesn’t match the other, the carrier can reject the submission and we must start all over.
Documents will be collected via Content Snare. Please keep an eye out for the initial email. However, if you'd like to review what all these documents will be ahead of time, you can download this launch documents checklist to begin working on collection.
As an independent agent, your marketing will no longer be done for you like it may have been before. Whereas the freedom of creating your entire own identity, business and marketing plan may seem exciting to some, it can also seem daunting to others. Here’s a checklist of what items you should think about as you develop your agency.
- Develop a tagline. What is it that you provide? (e.g. “peace of mind” “great prices”)
- List your core features and offerings.
- Identify and write down your target audience. What are their demographics, their lifestyle, where do they read and shop? Figure out what their pain points are so that you can best market to them specifically.
- Conduct a situation analysis. What are your competitors offering? What are your differentiators, and what makes you better?
- Detail what marketing pieces you will use you reach your audience. What marketing materials will you need? Who or what service will you use to get these created?
- Establish your estimated marketing budget and work within it.
ASNOA has a number of blog posts that go into depth about many of these items, including links to other resources. Help is always right around the corner.
A big part of your brand is the visual look and feel! Are you trying to appeal to a wealthier
audience? Having a luxurious visual look that resembles other brands they might frequent will help you stand out. Looking to be the neighborhood insurance go-to? Something friendlier can help your clients feel reassured. Here are some of the key brand elements you should consider.
Brand Materials
- Logo. This should always be first, since the colors and fonts for everything else will be derived from this primary piece.
- Business Card
- Company Envelopes
- Letterhead
- Website Favicon
- Facebook Cover & Icon
- Twitter header & icon
- Linkedin cover & icon
- Branded “swag” (mugs, pens, notebooks, t-shirts)
- Website domain name. We recommend using .com for websites (as opposed to .net, .io, .org, etc.)
- Brochure / Pamphlet
Where to get started?
There are a number of places that you can start developing these materials. Once you have the logo designed, something as standard as VistaPrint can be a great resource for things like letterhead, pamphlets and envelopes.
- For developing a brand identity start to finish, ASNOA recommends DesignHill. With varying tiers and many different options, this would be an easy way to keep all your brand assets in one place.
- If you just want a logo designed, Upwork, Dribbble or Behance can provide you with some high quality candidates at market-value prices. Upwork in particular has a vetting and proposal process that can help you find the designer with the right portfolio.
- If you’re part of your chamber of commerce, finding a local designer is a great way to establish connections in your community and develop a long-term relationship with someone who can help you not just with materials you request, but brainstorming as well.
Your presence on the web is arguably more important than your presence in your community. Over 90% of millennials begin their search for a product on Google. Your brand will need to appear in Google searches for your area, or else marketing will always be painfully manual work. Here are some tips to start going in the right direction:
Develop a Strong Website
Here are a few discounted vendors that ASNOA recommends for website development.
- Musselwhite Marketing. Musselwhite Marketing is a family-founded agency that can both build and maintain a website for your agency. Based out of California, Charles and Linda Musselwhite use their past insurance experience to work with each one of their clients personally and develop a website plan that goes beyond just putting something on the web. Get in touch here.
- AgencyRevolution. Agency launch date rapidly approaching? AgencyRevolution is another partner of ASNOA’s that can help with prebuilt solutions that can be spun up quickly at low costs. With several tiers of website development and maintenance, AgencyRevolution can help you build a website that matches the look and feel of your agency within a couple weeks. Get in touch here.
- Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. Tech savvy and want to build your own website? Luckily, with tools like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, building your own website is more doable than ever before. Though ASNOA does not have any special partnerships or discounts, all three of these platforms consistently run deals and promotions throughout the year that you can take advantage of.
Google MyBusiness
Whether you have a website or not, you shouldn’t waste any time getting your Google
MyBusiness page setup! This page will drastically influence how you appear for local searches and add you as a location on Google Maps for people to navigate to. This also provides valuable information for clients such as hours, phone number, reviews, and more. If you can, stop reading right here and take 15 minutes to setup your page right now! Here's Google's Guide on setting up your page.
Social Media
In addition to your Google MyBusiness page, social media platforms are an important part of SEO strategy and a place for new clients to discover your business. Once you start developing a client base, social media is also a great place to keep them informed with updates about your business, insurance in their area, and more. The platforms we recommend you setup are:
- Facebook Business Page
- Twitter Business Profile
- LinkedIn Business Page
- Youtube Account
- OPTIONAL: Instagram business page, Yelp page, TikTok
If you have prospects that you'll be ready to market to right away, we can help you get those prospects into Applied Epic, your new Agency Management System. Getting your prospects in the system right away will help you be able to save history on them, quote them in comparative raters, and send them marketing emails if you get an email marketing system setup. More details about importing prospects will be given by our education team, but it's a good idea to start getting your prospects compiled into an excel sheet so that it's an easy import.
For more details about importing prospects, watch the course in your Learning Management System.
Select the RIGHT carriers
Carrier Selection will occur early in your onboarding process. A conversation between you and your State Partner/Onboarding Specialist will take place, where you explain your desired markets and we will compare that with current carrier partners that are open to appointment in your area. ASNOA will leverage our partnership with the carrier to put you on the inside track to appointment, and do our best to facilitate appointments as quickly as possible. No appointment is ever guaranteed, as it is up to the individual carrier and their local representative to finalize the decision, but we’ll ensure your submission is prepared and delivered with the highest chance of success.
It’s not the amount of carriers that will determine your success, it’s the close rate with the carriers you represent.
-
Production Requirements
Each carrier will have a certain level of production (premium and policy count) required to earn and maintain the appointment. ASNOA will provide general guidance to each carrier’s requirement, but these totals can fluctuate and are ultimately determined by local representation. 4 new policies per month is a common standard to expect. Production requirements should be considered when determining your carrier selection as failing to satisfy said requirements may result in permanent termination or restriction from appointment. Make sure you have enough business to feed all the mouths you invite to the table.
-
Shared Codes (Producer) vs. Direct Codes
The ASNOA business model is built on direct codes. We want you to be the face of your business and would like to have minimal to no interaction with your insureds. Direct codes offer a slew of benefits, not limited to: your brand and information being represented on dec pages, the opportunity for bonus compensation, your own rep/underwriter, and potential for marketing funds. Shared codes still grant you the authority to quote/bind/issue business directly, but it is issued under an ASNOA agency (typically Allegiance Insurance Services) without the benefits listed previously. The benefit to shared codes is the lack of a production requirement and ease of access. See more regarding requirements and details of shared codes here.
-
Carrier Appetite
Carriers may have a broad product offering, but nearly always have an area of focus. Preferred personal lines (typically min 100/300 auto limits and approx. $300-750 Coverage A – TBD based on local housing prices) are the apptetite of many carriers, but some have non-standard auto, specialty housing, collector car, etc.. as their preferred appetite. Ensure your business plan aligns with the carrier with which you are conversing (of course we will assist with matching carriers to your planned target audience). For example – Travelers PL will be interested in preferred business, where American Modern will want to know about specialty housing only. The Commercial world is even far more diverse. You will not want to discuss roofing contractors with Liberty Mutual or hair salons with Berkshire Homestate.
-
Business Plan Integration
Your business plan will need to be built with your marketing plan on top of mind. The carriers are looking for a basic resume and marketing plan that speaks to your target market and plan of action to recruit business from that market. ASNOA has a convenient template for your use, but feel free to create your own from scratch. Classic details of a business plan such as “expenses, capital reserves, demographics, etc…” are all fine to use in a plan, but carriers will rarely invest much time into their review. They want to know who YOU are, and HOW you will generate profitable revenue for their desired appetite.
-
Importance of Lead Generation
A five step approach is often well received by an independent carrier representative when transitioning from a captive/exclusive carrier. The three topics of discussion can reassure a carrier rep that you will have both an immediate flow of qualified leads, and a consistent plan for the longer term. These topics are:
1. Attritioned customers and quotes not at your captive (that are not part of your non-solicit/compete)
2. Converting your previous book of business once your non-solicit/compete expires
3. Referral sources and partners
4. Personal efforts (knocking on doors)
5. Digital Presence (Website, Social media, etc.)
As with any new business, there are some basic standards of operation that will help you communicate and stay connected with important information. And with any professional service, there are standards of professionalism. Here are some very basic and standard operating behaviors you’ll want to ensure are incorporated into your agency – from the very first day of your agency.
- Professional voicemail with availability for message, professional email address (SEO and a perfect website is a plus, but at least a professional email is necessary to start)
- Responding and living in emails to not miss communications from the ASNOA team
- Taking trainings seriously — be prepared for your meetings, be at a computer, don't be in a distracting environment, etc.
- Review your already-provided materials (such as this playbook!) for common information or tips things like marketing, training, etc.
You will participate in several meetings throughout your first year as a new agent. ASNOA has a succinct and effective plan for your success. This plan is comprised of a cadence of meetings with our team that will allow you to learn and properly incorporate all the best practices we have identified in the last forty years. Attending and engaging in each of these meetings will be pivotal to your success.
Within the timeline to launch is a document that details the average onboarding timeline for a new affiliate with the cadence of calls that will take place. During your onboarding, there should be at least 6 calls with your agency success manager. After you've launched your agency, we'll have a recap call every month for your first year to help guide you through all the hurdles that come in your first year as an independent agent.
If you'd like to review it again, you can view the onboarding timeline in the Timeline to Launch section, or you can download a print copy of it here.
Policy Day: Making sure you can put it all together!
"Policy Day" is meeting that you'll hold with your Agency Success Manager, Maggie Kobel-Livingston, immediately after you sign contracts and launch your agency to ensure that you can write your first policy successfully from start to finish. This meeting will cover topics such as:
- Are you completely comfortable in Applied Epic?
- Do you have everything you need setup in your comparative raters?
- Do you have what you need to actually quote, bind and issue with a carrier?
- Do you know how to ensure that your policy is downloading in Epic?
- Do you know how to onboard your client?
This meeting helps make sure that everything is totally ready to go for your agency and you can get started writing business confidently!
ASNOA does its best to make sure that your onboarding is smooth and you're always aware of what your next steps are. In your initial call with your state partner, you should be discussing what your Planned Agency Launch Date is, and most of our onboarding will be built backwards from that. Your training, appointments, and contracts will all coincide with when you plan to launch your agency.
For a visual of what your onboarding will look like, go ahead and download this document that details your timeline. This will help you keep track of where you're at within an example three month onboarding process.
Referrals can be one of the easiest ways for you to make passive income at ASNOA.
ASNOA rewards you referring people into our network, and for each agent that you refer that becomes an ASNOA affiliate, you receive 10% of our override for the entire time that this agent is part of our network. Refer an agent in one conversation, and you might make passive income the rest of your career!
Read more about referrals and submit any referrals through our page here.
ASNOA has a new plan to help you recruit the top talent in your area. “Pocket Agents” are producers in your agency that are provided the opportunity to own their book of business. You host them using appointments within your agency; from time of hire, through their agency launch with ASNOA. Your Pocket Agent will receive the same back-room support your current agency enjoys, and we’ll do the heavy lifting to ensure both you, and your Pocket Agent, are in a position to take full advantage of the new opportunity.
In most ways, a pocket agent will exist just as a producer in your agency, but because they want to run their own agency, they have additional reason to prove themselves to you and to ASNOA.
To learn more about pocket agents, talk with your Agency Success Manager or Partner.
The purpose of wholesalers
Sometimes in personal insurance, and often in commercial insurance, you’ll need to partner with a wholesaler to find a market for an uncommon or complicated risk. GA’s & MGA’s are the place to go. MGA’s (such as BTIS) typically “hold the pen” for their carrier partners, meaning the can underwrite risks directly. GA’s and wholesalers typically submit risks to a carrier for review. You are allowed to partner with any wholesale channel you’d like as an ASNOA affiliate, just remember to submit the override form and still enter the policy into Epic for your tracking (even more important than a standard policy for E&O protection). We do have some preferred Wholesale channels as well.
NBS (Nationwide Brokerage Solutions) is our preferred Wholesale partner. They offer many unique support measures to ASNOA as well as many enhanced compensation plans. If you did not partner with them when launching your agency, simply ask your state partner for an introduction. We have our own rep and onboarding process to get your familiarized with their processes and products. Here is a general information doc as well.
What to expect with wholesalers
- Commissions. If using someone other than NBS, you will likely receive the commission directly. After receiving, you will complete the wholesale override form and submit any invoices on that page.
- E&O. Entering data immediately and completely in Epic is very important when dealing with a wholesaler. Your exposure is often increased due to the nature of the submission process.
- Niche Markets. Many wholesalers will offer niche markets, sometimes even as a “direct” appointment. Be sure you talk to your State Partner about these opportunities, as many Insuretech and Specialty carriers offer the same direct appointment through ASNOA, where you’ll get far better representation and compensation.
- Delays. from commission distribution to accord submission return-time, wholesalers typically move at their own pace. Expect this going in, and prepare accordingly.
Who else should I work with?
ASNOA tries to work with many different technology and vendor partners in the insurance space to provide you with quality discounts to run your agency the way you want to. On our discounted solutions page on our website, we list all of the discounted partners we have in a number of categories, including:
- Education partners
- Email marketing & CRM partners
- Website development partners
- Insurance Technology Partners (Raters, lead generators, etc.)
We're constantly adding to this list, but feel free to reach out to marketing@asnoa.com if you have additional questions about our partnerships, or have other vendors that you'd like to work with that you don't see listed.
Communications from ASNOA
Our goal at ASNOA is to set you up for success, and that involves communicating to you important notifications about your agency, your carriers, or opportunities that might help you. Throughout your time as an ASNOA affiliate, you will receive various communications from ASNOA, but the main ones to look out for will be:
The ASNOA Advantage
The ASNOA Advantage is our monthly newsletter that goes over the most important announcements happening in our network, with our carriers, and with our teams. If it's important or urgent, it will be in this newsletter. If you only read one communication monthly from our team, this would be the one.
The Breakfast Brew
The Breakfast Brew is a monthly newsletter specifically from our Education Team, and it goes over any adjustments made in the LMS, new courses that are coming out, and new training or education opportunities either with carriers or with the systems you use. This newsletter is less focused on urgent, important matters and rather on your growth and development as an agent and agency owner.
License Renewal Notifications
Per your Agency Alliance Agreement, you need to provide ASNOA each year an updated copy of your producer, E&O, and Entity licenses. 60, 30, and 15 days out from the expiration of any of these licenses you will receive reminders to renew these licenses and send them to our Agency Services team. Because these are part of your contract, you cannot unsubscribe from these emails.
New Carrier Opportunities or Pilot Opportunities
Another communication you might get from us is notifications when we have a new, high-value carrier or vendor opportunity that we'd like you to pilot. ASNOA doesn't just pilot new carriers or vendors with everyone, we hand-select each agency we trust to partner with new carriers. Be on the lookout for new opportunities!
The Agency Services / Licensing Team at ASNOA helps you with all of your agency, appointment, and licensing information. Along with helping guide you to provide the information we need to get your agency setup with carriers through ContentSnare, Agency Services will help you with all the carrier appointments throughout your entire time at ASNOA.
In addition to carriers and appointments, Agency Services collects and reminds you to maintain your different producer, entity, and E&O licenses, all of which you have to keep up to date not just for ASNOA's sake, but for the carrier's sake and for your ability to write insurance in your state.
To see the whole Agency Services Team, you can view them on the website here!
To email them, you can reach out to support@asnoa.com, or submit a ticket through our ticketing form and if it's relevant to Agency Services, one of the team will get back to you!
To get started with ASNOA, one of the first things that will happen is an invitation to one of our platforms, ContentSnare. ContentSnare will act as your guide on what documents you need to provide the ASNOA Team in order for us to setup your agency and begin to get you started with appointments.
If you refer back to your Onboarding Timeline (which is in the Agency Success section), you can see that the ContentSnare submissions can take upwards of a month and a half to complete, but we need that to be done before anything else with your carrier appointments can happen.
To see what launch documents you're going to need to provide, you can download this checklist and get started on gathering them. The faster you can provide these, the faster we can get you up and running!
What will the carrier appointment process look like?
During your Onboarding, you and your state partner will put together a list of carriers that best fits your business plan, local area, and what you plan on writing (for more on that process, read the section on Carrier Selection under Agency Success).
Once Agency Services has the list, we will begin the carrier appointment process. The process is in a few steps.
- We will send you paperwork to fill out for each carrier you wish to be appointed with. We will utilize the information you've provided through ContentSnare to fill out the majority of it, but some information (like your signature) we'll still need you to complete.
- Once we've gotten the completed paperwork back, we'll finalize the package and send to the carrier for the appointment. Though turnaround times vary, as a very general rule of thumb, you can expect the following:
Shared / Producer Codes = within 1 week
Direct Appointments = 4-6 weeks - Once appointed, there will be a bunch of training to do for the carrier's portal, product guidelines, EZLynx guidelines, and more. Just getting the code doesn't mean you're fully ready to write.
Shared Codes (or Producer Codes) are a way for you to get immediate access to write insurance through someone else's setup. Producer codes help provide you with a way to immediately start writing clients without having to go through the 6-8 week process that a direct appointment can sometimes be. Shared Codes also don't have production requirements or quote requirements for your agency, meaning that unlike a direct appointment where it's "use it or lose it," a shared code can act in the future as a way to semi-permanently have access to a carrier or coverage that you might not need all the time.
HOWEVER, there are still rules in place for maintaining Shared Codes! Before you get setup with Shared Codes, you will have to read and sign our Shared Codes Acknowledgement Form agreeing to how you will use them. You can download that document through this link.
Hiring new staff is an important part of any agency growing. Our Education Team has some tips on how to hire new staff, how to train them, and how to create good profit-sharing splits, but the Agency Services Team is more concerned about helping get them setup with appointments so that they can be valuable producers for your agency.
The first thing that you need to do with any staff that you hire will be fill out our Staff Intake Form on the website so that we can distribute the info to all the correct team members. A couple important things to note as you fill out that form:
- Your new staff member will have to have their own professional email with the agency. A gmail or yahoo email address isn't accepted by most carriers.
- Your staff member will need to be able to provide their proof of licensure to our team in order to begin carrier appointments as well, so make sure when you fill it out you're ready to upload their license information!
One of the items that ASNOA will ask for from time to time is copies of your insurance coverage. This is part of your contract with ASNOA.
Your E&O License should meet the following requirements:
- Deductible no higher than 5000
- Coverage limits at least 1million
- Additional insureds
- Allegiance as well as local ASNOA Entity (AZ, NE, CO, MO)
Here's some examples of what it will look like:
Buying & Selling Agencies
As your agency grows, you may find that you acquire someone else's book of business, or perhaps you eventually look to sell yours. The Agency Services and Executive teams at ASNOA will help guide you through the entire process, but you can prepare yourself for what this will look like by downloading these quick guides on the buying and selling process.
- Buyer Portfolio
- Best Practices when Purchasing an Agency
- Purchasing an Agency Checklist
- Selling an Agency Checklist
- Seller Portfolio
For more detailed questions about the M&A process, you can submit a ticket through our ticketing form and someone on our team who's familiar with your question will reach out to you!
ASNOA has an Education & Training team which will help you both through onboarding and all throughout your journey as an affiliate with courses, trainings, Q&A's, one-on-one help and more. Specifically, Education helps train on our various softwares like Applied Epic and EZLynx. Lead by Laura Hamilton, ASNOA Education is proud to boast of some of the foremost experts on Applied Epic in the world, with some of our leadership team even being on the board for Applied.
To see the entire Education Team, click here to see each member!
To reach out to Education, you can submit a ticket through our ticketing form or through support@asnoa.com and the training team can help you. Reasons to reach out to Education include any questions about Epic, the Learning Management System (LMS), or questions about EZLynx.
The ASNOA Learning Management System (LMS) is pioneering the industry! Receive specialized training, advance your knowledge, and set yourself up to maximize your income potential. This platform offers exclusive carrier training, specialized learning paths, and all the educational resources needed to ensure elevated performance, and agency success.
Click here to sign into the LMS using the credentials that you received shortly after your down payment.
If you reference your onboarding timeline (the document in the Agency Success section), you'll see that training takes place during most of the onboarding process. You will first receive your ASNOA Onboarding learning path, Department Orientations, in the LMS immediately as soon as you login. These orientations will trigger some other parts of the onboarding process, so make sure to watch them right away!
Approximately 2 weeks before your launch date, you will receive Epic Essential training in the LMS. You will "Go Live" in the system dependent on a number of factors, including:
- Your agency launch date
- Your progress towards carrier appointments
- How close you are to contract signing
Additional LMS learning paths will be available as your work through your onboarding with ASNOA.
The Breakfast Brew is the newsletter of ASNOA's Education Team! In this newsletter, the Education team groups for you all of the updates that have happened to the Learning Management System over the past month — new courses, adjustments to courses, new paths from carriers — as well as a ton of other content! It's a one-stop shop for everything related to training and Education at ASNOA!
Here's an example of what you can expect to see in the Breakfast Brew, check it out here!
Account Imports
Chances are you may have some prospects you'd like to get into the system to begin to market to. Before importing prospects, do make sure you aren't violating any non-competes by marketing to them. Once you have them though, the Education team can help you with importing those clients into Epic. Some basic things that can be mapped for an import include:
- Client Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Email Address
- Date of Birth
- Drivers License Numbers
Please Note: You cannot re-import clients into Epic to update properties. Every import creates new records, even if it's someone you've imported before. Because of this, the Education team works with you to make sure each import is done right the first time; there's no easy way to bulk update clients!
Epic Reporting
Along with the Agent Portal, most of your daily reporting is going to come out of Applied Epic. During your Go Live session, the Education team will help you setup the reports in your account. The basic reports you'll be setup with include:
- Book of Business
- Client List (most helpful when you understand how to adjust for the filters you need!)
- Cancellation Report. This report shows you policies that were cancelled either via download or by the agency.
- New Business Reporting
- Expiration Reports (+60, +90). Essential to understand what business will be expiring soon!
- Producer & Production Reports. Provided to you once a month by our accounting team, you can also check yourself how your individual producer are performing.
Most standard carriers will send a policy download of data after the policy is issued. This data will update Epic reports and ensure that commission is paid on time.
The LMS has a learning path to walk you through the process. Once completed, please register for a training session. The link will be at the end of the learning path.
Additional training available at https://asnoa.com/asnoa-university/ scroll down to Epic Weekly Help Session and register.
The Commission Cycle
The main question most agents have, especially when just getting started, is when will I get paid? The answer has to do with how carriers pay on commission. In general, because you're utilizing the Allegiance instance of Epic, policies come through to Allegiance, get reconciled, and then get paid each month to the agents. Generally speaking, AIS will receive commission from the carrier about 30-45 days after the effective date. The average time that we turn that around and pay agents will be within about a month of receiving the commission ourselves. What this means is that you will be paid about 50-75 days after the effective date. Here's some examples
| Policy Effective | Paid to AIS | Paid to Affiliate | Total Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1st | June | July 15th or sooner | 60-75 |
| May 15th | June | July 15th or sooner | 45-60 |
| May 21st | June | July 15th or sooner | 40-55 |
| May 25th | July | August 15th or sooner | 65-80 |
Your Producer Commission Report is an aggregate report with all policies received and processed in the agency management system, Epic. The report is delivered on the 1st of each month to the principal's email address, but if you'd like other people to be added we can add additional recipients. On time of being received on the first of the month every month, here's some additional detail:
- Available in your 'My Reports' section of Epic so that you can customize it and run it whenever you need
- Total will equal agency percentage – 85%
- Report separated by producers and branches so that you can see how each part of your agency is doing in addition to seeing the overall production
- Defaults entered for New Business and Renewals
Your monthly invoices will list the actual expenses that are paid through ASNOA or Allegiance, such as:
- ASNOA – Technology Fees: Epic, EzLynx, LMS, etc.
- AIS – Insurance Fees: MVRs, Service Fees, Wholesale Overrides
These will always be delivered on or before the 15th of the month. The invoiced amount will be swept the same day as commissions are deposited. The annual expense reported wil;l be delivered at year-end for your tax purposes.
The Oustanding Commissions Report is one of the most important reports to pay attention to!
This report details policies that Allegiance has been paid commission on by the carrier, but cannot be located in Epic to actually be reconciled and paid. Very often, the policy is either sitting in suspense or not downloaded from the carrier. It is your responsibility to make sure that all of your policies are associated with your agency!
Each month, between the 5th and 15th, the Outstanding Commissions email will be sent* with both Outstanding Commissions for your state as well as ones under shared codes. You need to be checking BOTH reports.
If you have anything on the Outstanding Commissions Report, you need to:
- Locate the policy and ensure it is downloaded in Epic and associated to the right client
- Email oustanding@asnoa.com with the policy number to confirm it's been input so that the accounting team can reconcile and pay you
Make sure you are being paid on all the money that is owed to you!
*this will likely change to be downloadable inside ASNOA's Agent Portal.
If you're appointed with a Wholesaler, MGA or other brokerage, that commission is also required to be tracked for override. When writing Wholesale business, there are two steps you should take:
- Even if it doesn't directly download, you should make sure that your Wholesale policies are recorded in Epic so that you have an accurate Book of Business.
- The override must be submitted to ASNOA, which you can do through this link or directly through the wholesale section of the Agent Portal.
- If you have any questions, please read these wholesale guidelines.
- Override submission applies to any commissions received directly by you, your agents, or agency. Though this most commonly occurs during the wholesale process, it applies to all commissions (wholesale, direct, brokered or otherwise) where commissions are not paid directly to ASNOA
An Independent Insurance Agent is a trained and licensed professional with strong customer and community ties. They provide quality service and competitive prices while providing access to coverage from more than one company. The ability to quote and write insurance with multiple different insurance companies helps you keep clients by continually providing competitive rates and tons of options.
Unlike other insurance agents, your clients don’t need to change agencies if their insurance needs to change.
Start Building Your Brand around these ideals
- We are local community members who see you as a neighbor, nor just a policy number
- We will assist you when you have a claim
- We work as your consultant to determine your insurance needs, not just as policy pushers who are trying to meet quotas
- Offers one-stop-shopping for all lines of insurance.
- Can periodically review your coverage to keep up with your changing insurance needs, and proactively change your insurance companies to make sure that if your rates go up or coverage changes we can still keep you on the best carrier to fit your needs
These are great ways to bring customers to just any independent insurance agent, but why should they choose YOU specifically? Try to think about each one of these steps as part of building your brand:
- Tell your story. What ties you to that area, that community, that line of work?
- Do you pride yourself on being an insurance educator? Educating people on their policies is a service many agents provide, and helps your customers feel more at ease and confident that you are looking out for their best interest.
- Are you involved in the local community?
- Are you a family owned and operated business?
- Do you specialize in a certain market?
Pre-Interview Questions
Nailing a carrier interview is based on one premise: you need the carrier more than they need you. When talking to your local rep, you need to sell them on why they should want to give you the appointment. Have the following things ready to present to the carrier rep during the vetting interview. They may not ask to see them, but knowing them and having them ready to present will show the carrier that you are taking this process seriously.
- Be prepared to show a Business Plan. This is your overview to the carrier of how they fit into the way you run your business.
- What are your marketing initiatives, and how will you succeed?
- What is your planned monthly quote volume?
- How do you plan to sustain yourself financially for the next 1-2 years while you get off the ground?
- Do you have plans to add any additional producers?
- Do you have any plans to add a CSR or office manager?
- Be prepared to show your previous agency's loss history. The carrier will want to know that you've been successful before.
Post-Interview Questions
Once you've gotten appointed with a carrier, here are things that you should ask the carrier because these are things you need to know in order to be successful. Knowing your carriers inside and out is crucial to your success as an independent agent, since being able to work with various products and get the most out of them is your core value offering to a client.
Commissions, Costs & Quoting
- Can you provide me a current commission schedule?
- Are there any additional bonuses available at the local level?
- What type of additional compensation is available if I remarket my old book after the my non-compete is up?
- Are there any additional MVR costs?
- Are there additional costs to use the service center?
- How do I ensure I'm getting your most competitive quote?
- Are there specific rater defaults or settings I should use?
- Do you have any cheatsheets or guidelines you can give me to ensure I'm getting the best quote?
- What is available a la carte vs. what is required as packaged products or discounts?
Education & Training
- What kind of training is available, and where can I access it on my own time?
- How should we keep in contact during the onboarding process?
- How do I schedule check-ins or trainings if I need them?
- Should I call, or email you?
- Do you have a scheduled timeline for onboarding?
Marketing
- What kind of marketing resources are offered on the portal?
- Is there a local agent listing that I could be added to online?
- Is there any free social media content that I can use?
- Do you have any co-op money available to help me market my agency?
- What kind of co-op or cost sharing programs are available, and how do I qualify?
- Are there any producer or marketer courses that you offer?
Support
- If there is a technical issue with your agent portal, who should I contact?
- Do you have a service center that I can take advantage of?
- What is the contact information for your underwriters or service center?
Training is always available on a carrier's agent portal, whether it's hands on from the carriers or a series of navigation videos. You should become acclimated early on with each agent's portal and log-in often. Don’t forget to explore the carrier resources that are available, oftentimes these portals are full of resources that agents overlook.
Talk to your carrier representative about product guides. Review products offered (may vary by state). Product PDF’s and handouts are often available if needed.
Collect the Right Data
In order to get a good quote, you need to make sure you're getting the right data. There are a number of ways to do this.
- Use quote sheets, many of which you can find in your agent portal.
- Create a great form on your website which captures all the information that you need for a quote!
- Use EZLynx PURL.
Define your target market! A typical Independent Agent will target households with multiple drivers, multiple vehicles , and a home to package. Use your preferred data capture method to gather quote info for these types of households and prepare to quote and upsell on umbrellas, toys, rental properties, their business, life insurance, etc. Your options are endless.
Home Best Practices
- Understand your carriers Coverage A binding authority
- Be aware that what breed of dog they have might affect the rates
- Not all carriers are willing to take trampolines and pools, and even those that do may have different rates for those coverages
- Know the comprehensive UW guidelines by carrier
- Know the infrastructure of their house — roof age, plumbing type, and how recently updates were done can affect rates
- Talk to your carrier rep about their inspection process
- Use emails and input where you can, not just to e-sign, get the client set up to online billing and download the carrier app for self-service
Auto Best Practices
Here are some best practices to follow when writing personal lines products.
- Take advantage of early quote discounts, if applicable.
- Pay attention to your limits, prior limits are an especially important factor in rating.
- Length of ownership on vehicle can affect rate, so make sure you capture how long they've had it, not just how old the car is.
- Always offer Telematics
- Offer only pay in full or EFT options
- Know your carrier specific discounts, which might not always appear in your comparative rater. Knowing who your best carriers are for auto policies already helps you better read the quotes.
- Be sure to know who offers paperless discounts
- Use emails and input where you can, not just to e-sign, get the client set up to online billing and download the carrier app for self-service
Set Expectations with your Clients
Coming from the Captive World- quoting will look different on the IA side. Let your prospect know that you are going to do research for them which can take some extra time. Take the time to research all carriers and options rather than sitting down to quote bind and issue on the spot. You create loyalty and provide an educational approach when the proposal is ready.
Sample standard SOP
- 1 Add your Prospect into Applied Epic
- 2 Close Activity
- 3 Edit / Add Contacts
- 4 Quote in your comparative rater, narrow it down to which carriers are the best fit
- 5 Complete the quotes on that carrier's website to ensure you have all the right discounts applied and parameters input
- 6 Present to client (video proposals are best!)
- 7 Get the insurance signed and the payment squared away
- 8 Enter the policy into Epic
- 9 Follow Up on Download
- 10 Attach all Documents and Emails
A comparative rater is a tool for an independent agent to input specific details about a client and receive back real-time quotes from all the carriers in the rater.* This then helps you narrow down which carriers you're going to focus on for a specific customer and give ballpark estimates if you're meeting with them in-person.
*Most comparative raters, like EZLynx, are personal lines only.
Why use one? A comparative rater helps with:
- Ensuring you are asking the right questions to your prospects right away
- Creating home or auto packages in 10 minutes or less
- Meeting your carrier's quotas for quotes per month (if any)
- Creating confidence to your clients that you are truly finding them the best rate that you have available
- Giving confidence to you that you are quoting with up-to-date rates, since carrier rates fluctuate so often
- Giving you the ability to switch between applicant and co-applicants
ASNOA primarily uses EZLynx as our comparative rater for personal lines, and additional EZLynx setup and training can be found in the LMS, in addition to LIVE EZLynx sessions hosted by the Education department. https://asnoa.com/asnoa-university/
In addition, here's a document detailing some Tips & Tricks, so go ahead and download this and keep it handy.
Crafting a Strong Proposal
- Utilize a Digital Proposal. Give your prospects and in-depth look at your proposed insurance plan and immediately win them over using a well-designed insurance proposal template. Some carriers will offer a digital proposal tool already, but even without one of those tools you can use free recordings such as Loom or Zoom.
- Present a proposal with options. Present a finalized proposal from your top 2 or 3 carriers. Each carrier proposal will look different, and you will have access to them directly in the carrier portal. Make sure with each carrier's options you know what tools you have to present the options.
If they accept, make sure their Onboarding is memorable.
Make sure that following a successful close, you don't just forget about your client. Make sure you've answered all these questions for them:
- How you can contact us
- What to do if you have to file a claim
- Our referral program
Lastly, it's always a good idea to include a link to leave you a review, since reviews are a huge component of more people finding you online. Having a welcome kit that includes all of this is a great idea.
Utilize a CRM to stay in touch!
CRMs are a powerful tool to keep in touch with your clients and make sure that they don't forget about you or their policies. ASNOA offers discounts with multiple different CRM offerings, some of which also link up to Applied Epic. The benefits of a CRM include:
- You can use the client and policy data in your agency management system to deliver personalized communications throughout the customer lifecycle.
- Increase retention
- Gathering reviews
- Asking for referrals
- Sending out an agency newsletter
- Send out important communications such as office closures
- Cross-sell campaigns
- Deepen customer relationships
Create a solid workflow
Servicing can be hard, but here are some tips that help with juggling all of the steps necessary.
- Automate your workflows. Email reminders, policy renewal tasks, lead follow-ups, etc. can all be automated with software.
- Define the roles in your agency if you have staff. Who is responsible for what aspects or clients?
- Create an environment of reliable data. Being able to trust the data you work with is key to not doubling up on work.
- E&O Proof your agency! Make sure you're documenting absolutely everything. Here's an article on how to best do this.
Utilize your Epic Reports!
- Activity Report. This report shows what Open Activities you have for your current or prospective clients.
- Cancellation Report. This report shows you policies that were cancelled either via download or by the agency.
- Past Expiration Reports. This report shows you the policies that didn't renew in Epic. These policies need to be renewed. Check suspense for the download, request another download, or manually renew the policy. If it's a true non-renewal, then you can cancel it.
- Policies in process submitted suspended report. This report will show you policies that were not issued in Epic. These policies will need to actually be issued.
- Unassigned Suspense Items by Branch Code. This report will show policies that were downloaded into suspense with your agency branch but weren't downloaded into the actual client. They will need to be assigned out of suspense.
Utilize Software
-
Activities in Epic
Utilize Epic's pre-built activities and add your own as a way to manage your daily workload. Whether it's adding a phone call reminder to your insured, endorsing a policy for a vehicle change or following up on a reinstatement, you will need to live in activities to assure your process is in place. Activities help give you reminders as well as track activity on your clients so that you can see what's been done.
-
Attachments in Epic
You can store all quote sheets, dec pages, emails, change requests, additional correspondence all under attachments. Never use a file cabinet again, you can thrive in a paperless environment by using attachments in EPIC. Retain signed applications and trailing documents under attachments in EPIC! Here's an article from our training team deeper explaining attachments and why you need to be utilizing this heavily.
-
Go Paperless
Having to rely on physical documents is one of the primary ways that agencies continually slow themselves down. Utilizing either Applied Epic, a CRM like Better Agency or InsuredMine, or even utilizing good organization in a tool like Microsoft Teams is key to making sure your agency is operating fully digitally. This makes servicing easier, pulling up client information easier, and keeping track of all your resources easier.
Utilize Other Resources
-
Servicing Apps
There are a number of apps developed in the insurance space that help your clients self-service. ASNOA works with a number of these Apps such as Glovebox, CSR24, and Applied Mobile.
-
Virtual Assistants
Virtual Assistants can transform the way you operate and service your clients by providing you, the agency owner, with on-demand, pre-trained staff. Companies like CoverDesk have created virtual workforces of insurance-trained professionals that can help service the clients that you write.
-
CRM & Voip Systems
Having a good CRM can take a lot of the manual work out of reminders, policy check-ins, and scheduling from you. Not only is it a constant touch-point with your client, but it helps you cater to multiple generations by giving you ways to interact with your clients via email, phone, text, and more. Always collect emails and mobile numbers for texting capabilities. Insurance is driven by personal relationships, but clients may want more digital options to manage business.
-
Service Centers
Check with each carrier on whether this is an option or not. If it is, the service center helps free up a lot of your time to be able to focus on writing new policies instead of servicing existing ones.
Create a good experience
Top Agents stay up on trends, they are active on social media, create videos, digitalize as much as possible and stay in regular contact with customers. Making sure that your agency is easy to work with, enjoyable to work with, and has the feel of a cutting-edge agency keeps your clients happy.
- Create a strong onboarding. Clients like to feel like they've joined an agency that will take care of them. Get off to a good start by having a series of welcome messages and touch points.
- Be prepared for claims. Some carriers download claims into Epic, other carriers reach out to notify you, other send a claims letter. Be prepared to help your clients through what's usually the worst insurance experience.
- Cross-Sell where possible. People don't want to be sold to all the time, but they do like convenience. Bringing all their insurance under one roof is easier for you and for them.
Create a Renewal SOP
Renewals are managed differently as an independent agent. Now that you have options, you can retain your clients at renewal. Whether it’s a rate increase, unfavorable claims experience or life change, you can remain their agent. What will your remarket process look like?
You will hear on repeat, the importance of entering a policy into EPIC and following up on the download. The download is also vital to the renewal process. There are reports in EPIC that allow you to stay on top of your renewals such as:
- Exception Report. This report will show you renewal policies that downloaded with an increase of 10% for Pl and 5% for CL. We use this report to remarket the RWL renewals.
- Expiration Report. This report will show you policies that are due to renew in +90 or +120 days.
Carrier Renewal Tips & Tricks
- Contact carrier to reorder insurance score
- Increase deductibles
- Review Coverage A
- Telematics!
- EZlynx graph view- can be used as a retention tool
- Carriers offer additional retention tools, talk to your carrier rep to discuss
- Send out Personal Insurance Reviews
- Use it as an opportunity to cross-sell
- E&O Proof your agency
- Write 12 month auto policies vs 6 - bundle with the home
Applied Systems Epic
Applied Epic is a powerful Agency Management system used to manage your clients, policies, and commission. For the remainder of the time you are with ASNOA, Applied Epic is the base of where you will be managing your business. There are a lot of reasons we utilize Epic instead of other Agency Management software, including:
- Applied Epic is utilized by over 50% of insurance agents in the country, with integrations into some of the most common comparative raters, and the vast majority of carriers work with Epic before any other agency management system when it comes to policy downloads. Epic might not always seem to be the most cutting edge, or the easiest to use, but it is the industry standard when it comes to carrier support.
- Having all agents on one management system gives ASNOA the ability to help you with training, system support, and accounting. Our training and education team is not only able to give you detailed support of your system, but we can also help you setup new employees, help you run reports, help you utilize the system better, and more. In addition, by having everyone use Applied Epic, our accounting team is able to manage and reconcile the policies that come through in a streamlined way.
- Because we have worked with it for so long, ASNOA has members of its executive team on the agent board for Applied Systems, which gives us the ability to bring up issues or suggestions from our agents. Members of our team such as Kathy Bova, our VP of Operations, and Laura Hamilton, our Education Director, are constantly bringing up agent concerns, suggests, and issues to the highest level of Applied.
For in-depth training on Applied Epic, we’ve got an entire Learning Management System (LMS) which goes through every section of the system. Even once you’ve completed your onboarding training, you can still go back and re-take any section in the LMS about Epic.
If you have any questions or issues with Epic, you can always submit a ticket to the ASNOA team through the Support Tab in your Agent Portal.
EZLynx is ASNOA’s preferred personal lines comparative rater. EZLynx is preferred and recommended because:
- EZLynx is owned by Applied Systems, and even though the EZLynx team and Applied Epic are managed by different teams, EZLynx still works with Applied closer than most other raters
- EZLynx, similarly to Epic, is the industry standard of comparative raters and thus has the most carriers that work with it. Though there are constantly new companies coming out with comparative raters of their own, most carriers choose to work with EZLynx before trying to setup integrations into other raters
- ASNOA’s team knows EZLynx very well also, and is able to help you with troubleshooting, setting up defaults, and more. Whereas we do work with other raters and try to provide guidance and troubleshooting, we know EZLynx best.
Under Development...
Under Development...
Under Development...