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Agency Acceleration Lab is the podcast for insurance agents and agency owners who want to scale smarter, not harder.
Hosted by Alex Branning, each episode breaks down real growth strategies, marketing systems, and client retention frameworks that help you attract better clients, increase lifetime value, and build a more predictable agency.
If you're serious about building a high-performance insurance business, you're in the right place.
Alex Branning
Hey guys, I'm here with Crystal. She was on a recent webinar and in a Q&A she was talking about the referral strategies that she uses. I love what Crystal does to maintain the personal connection that she is using to generate referrals on a very consistent basis. Crystal, would you mind sharing what you told me? How you are really building relationships by doing things like going to memorials and those types of hand-to-hand personal interactions.
Crystal Barker
Absolutely Alex. The first thing that I want to say is that what I see with the newer agents is they're wanting to do everything directly through the computer. I'm kind of from the old school. I've been doing insurance for about 10 years now. And believe it or not, even with the technology that we currently have, 10 years ago we were still doing face-to-face appointments and paper applications. All of the digital stuff that exists right now is not how we used to do it. We would literally have to carry 20 and 40 page applications with us and sit in the kitchen or the living room with each client.
I'm a Generation X and I was very excited to see the transition, especially during COVID, of all of the insurance carriers rapidly ramping up and getting all of the applications over to electronic. That makes it a lot easier for us to do things digitally. We're not so much face to face anymore. We may do Zooms or what have you. But it's not the same as sitting in the home with people. Trying to integrate a way to still be personal with people through the computer is what I figured has helped a lot. When you're establishing better relationships with clients it keeps the policies on your books much longer and it also opens up the door for the cross-sale. I do a lot of cross-selling. I do a lot of reselling to the exact same family.
How that looks is — you may speak to a person, it may be a complete stranger, it may be a lead, or it may be a referral. All three scenarios work. When you're first establishing that relationship with people, as you're fact-finding, you're also probing. As I fact-find with different clients I'm asking more details about the beneficiary. Is this an adult beneficiary? Is this your adult daughter, your adult son, your grandson? And getting more information about that adult because not only am I trying to put the person in the mindset of okay, this is really happening, I'm really about to write a policy — but I'm also doing that so that I can get an eventual cross-sale.
So you know, this coverage is going to be for you. But this is also very beneficial for even your grandson. And did you say his name was Ben? Or is that short for Benny? You know, you kind of are cross-selling at the same time. When they're talking about their spouse you're saying, okay so what we're doing first is just making sure that you get the coverage for yourself. And then you bring the spouse into the conversation, but not necessarily pushing to sell the spouse — just making comparisons of how this could benefit them too in the future. But right now we're just going to worry about you. And that's setting up that next step where after you've sold that policy, now you can bring up more about the beneficiary or the husband or the wife or the grandchildren. And then you're just working your way through that family dynamic.
You can also cross-sell for the future, letting them know, hey, let's not bite off more than you can chew right now because you never know how the future is going to look. Let's set you up with this policy and then we'll go over this again in the future. And then the future comes, you reach out to them, and they're like, you know what, I meant to call you and let you know I got a promotion at work, or so-and-so had another baby. And you just start those conversations personally.
I always try to put myself in their mind as not just an agent but a person. I love cookouts. I'm usually in town during this time of the year because I'm licensed in about fifteen states so I travel a lot. And so I'm like, don't forget to invite me. What do you specialize in? Barbecue? That's my favorite. Now do you do the beef ribs or do you do the pork? You know, you're just building rapport with them, letting them know it's okay to reach out.
The most recent example — earlier this year I had a client I wrote a mortgage protection policy for years ago. Over the years she grew with me because I told her back then, we'll start here, but in the future what you really want is going to be to aim for maybe an IUL or something like that. Then she did that years later. Then it was, hey Crystal, I'm wondering if I can get a policy on my parents. Can I do that? And I get that a lot.
A lot of Generation X right now are making sure their own policies are in order but they're also wanting to cover their parents. That dynamic exists and it's a good sell point. You can offer that to different clients — if you are concerned, you can go ahead and establish a policy for mom or for dad as long as they are aware and sign off on it. And if you want to be the payer, you can be the payer and the beneficiary. That puts little seeds in their mind. The more you explain little things like that, the more you get phone calls where they say, you know what, I'm concerned, I want to go ahead and get some quotes on mom. And I get this a lot — they don't want to fight with their siblings if something happens. They want their own policy so they can handle what they need to handle and move forward.
Some kind of way, because of making sure that I'm keeping in touch with people and sending a text here and there just saying hey, I'm checking in, how's your family — they might say, you know, dad's sick, I'm concerned. I'll say, no problem, I'm looking at his policy right now. If you have questions or if anything happens let me know. Nine times out of ten they're going to call me. And when they do I just start the claim. It's very simple.
It's something I've noticed — not a lot of agents are taught what happens at the end. So establishing relationships at the local funeral homes with the directors is very helpful. It's a way of getting more referrals. It's a way of them knowing who you are in the community. The directors at the funeral homes are always open to having agents around. Back in the 80s and 90s the insurance agents always hung out with the different directors at funeral homes — they were closer. But over time they don't see the insurance agents anymore. So it's good to go back to that.
And then because you went ahead and put the claim in, you're involved in the process. You can follow up and make sure things are going okay, they don't have any questions. And then they will let you know when the funeral is — and it's good to show up. Showing up to a funeral is really good business. It's a good look for you as the agent because all of their family members are there. They're whispering, who is that? That's the insurance lady. And then afterwards they will walk up to you. You don't have to go to them and pass out a card or anything because they've already gossiped about it. And because they're standing there at the end result it sells itself. The next thing you know they're like, can I get your information? When they're asking you for your information, you pretty much got sold. The rest is the follow-up.
Alex Branning
I love that. Can you talk a little bit more about referral partners that you really spend time building up? You mentioned funeral home directors. Are there other types of businesses that you work on building relationships with?
Crystal Barker
I work on building relationships with everyone really. One that's really helpful — two actually. Uber drivers. And okay, so across from my office I have a place, it's like a restaurant pub called Marlowe's Tavern. It's in the south and it's attached to a DoubleTree Hotel. There are bartenders there that have been there for years and they do an excellent job. So I go over there for happy hour when I'm hungry or whatever.
And they do a really good job of getting business to me. Not the random bartenders — I'm talking about when you notice that you frequent a place that has really good staff, where the turnover is not high and they get to know you. They know me as the insurance lady. When I sit down they already know to have a glass of Pinot Noir ready. And they literally pass out flyers. They're like, yeah that's Crystal the insurance lady, we have flyers, she's right over in the office complex across the street. I get referrals from places like that. It sounds odd probably, but you're establishing relationships with the people that you see on a regular basis and then they talk and they send clients to you. Uber is excellent too.
Alex Branning
I love that. Let's say you're talking to an agency owner who has been doing only tele-sales. They're going, okay Crystal, how do I get involved in doing this referral-based marketing like what you're doing? Can you outline a step-by-step on getting their feet wet into building this community-based referral marketing system?
Crystal Barker
People in tele-sales only are trying to get as many people as possible and I'm not sure how effective that is as far as retention. I think that slowing down a little bit and spending more time following up with people makes a big difference.
I have these little moving GIFs — I made them on Canva — that just have my face pop up and it says Crystal the Insurance Lady with an arrow and then it says I'm just checking in on you and your family. I send that a lot. It just pops up like boing boing and it gets your attention because it's moving. It's sweet and to the point and it opens up a lot of conversations.
I feel like the follow-up is so important during the process from the time you take the application to the time it gets approved. I send a little GIF that has some hands typing on a computer screen and it just says your application is being processed. I try to send that out maybe three days later just so they don't call me asking questions. But they got something — and it wasn't this long boring text that's like, hey Mr. Thomas I'm working on it. It's these cute little pictures that pop up and they're moving. That can be integrated into your system with Agent CRM. Little stuff like that makes people feel seen. They think it's cute. And the best part is your contact information is attached to it — your website, your phone number, your business hours. So when the subject comes up and they're talking to their friends about insurance they can just go to that and forward it to them.
While I'm taking an application I let them know that they can always send people over who might just want a quote. And whoever their beneficiary is — usually that's an adult — I tell them I would either like to meet them on a call if they have them around, or I make sure each person knows to text or email them my contact information. Because if they are the beneficiary they should know who I am. That opens up the conversation for the applicant to say, hey by the way my agent told me to make sure you have their contact information.
And then just say — if you have people that you think would benefit from something like this, let me know, or just tell them to give me a call. A lot of times it's about you bringing it up and saying it. I used to hear at conferences all the time, ask for referrals, and I would be like that feels weird. But it works. It definitely works.
Especially reminding them after they receive the policy. Hey, did you receive your policy? It came in a big white envelope. I'm just checking in to make sure you received it and to remind you to put it in a place where someone can find it if something happens to you. Bring up the name of the beneficiary again. Did you have a conversation with them and let them know they're the beneficiary and let them know about me? Once you do that a couple of times they will do it. They'll make sure that beneficiary knows about you. And a lot of times that beneficiary can become your client too.
Alex Branning
I love it. Crystal, you just gave a masterclass on building a community referral system, creating cross-sell and upsell opportunities within a family. And I love your idea of sending these custom GIFs. That is so creative and it doesn't feel like a boring check-in at all. I can't wait to get the text with the little GIF that says checking in. Thank you so much for taking the time to join the Agency Acceleration Lab. I really appreciate you. For those of you that want to get in touch with Crystal, you can find her as Crystal the Insurance Lady and you can check the playbook if you want to follow along on her journey. Thank you so much Crystal.
Crystal Barker
Thank you Alex for having me.