Why would you want or need an agency brochure?
A majority of agencies have not yet developed an agency sales brochure. They simply haven’t recognized the need for one. Still others have a brochure, but have done so with no expressed purpose in mind. They assume a brochure will add to their agency’s image.
A few agencies have developed and used an agency brochure as an integral part of the marketing strategy.
Before you create a brochure you must be clear about its use and purpose.
You want your customers and prospects to remember why they should do business with you instead of with your competitors. That’s what a brochure should and CAN DO. It will introduce some prospects to you it will reiterate your uniqueness and benefits to others.
If you agree on the purpose of the brochure you must NOW concentrate on the key issues to include in it. The integral items that you want to include in your brochure are:
1) Service Differentiation
2) Company Differentiation
3) Personnel Differentiation
4) Price Competitiveness
Why is price last? Because he who lives by Price dies by Price!
First, concentrate the prospect on what you can do differently for him than either your competitors or his incumbent agent. If you can’t think of anything, call us for help. One sign of a floundering agency is the inability to identify (or develop) points of differentiation that permits them to sell themselves. Remember YOU CAN’T SELL INSURANCE IF YOU DON’T SELL YOURSELF FIRST!!
The second critical point is differentiation, both your agency and your carriers from your competition. This is a snap against direct writers – you have many more benefits than they.
The third point of differentiation is to stress the professionalism (i.e. designations) and experience of your procedures, staff and principals. The image you want to leave is that you are a virtual encyclopedia of insurance knowledge compared to your competition.
Finally, price must be considered. Your best path to selling price competitiveness is to assure maximum value for the customers insurance dollars.
Where do most sales brochures go?
That’s right, most brochures find there way into the trash – without ever being opened. The key to the success of a brochure is the cover. The best covers we’ve seen or designed arouse the reader’s curiosity. Don’t say “Specializing In Commercial Insurance Of All Forms”. Instead say, “We Can Provide You A Risk Manager On Your Staff At No Cost”. The first title states a fact, the second causes the reader to ask “How?”. He must open and read the brochure to realize the answer.
A mistake still made in many agency brochures is the concentration on what the agency can do rather than a concentration on the customers needs.
Your size, longevity and history is of great importance – to you. But it is only tangentially important to your customer. His greatest concern is whether you can answer his problems. Concentrate the body of your brochure on stressing benefits that the customer should consider important to him. Cite examples, identify and counter expected objectives. The brochure must act as either a mechanism to gain entry to a prospect or as a supporter of a sales call that you have made. If it performs these functions you can virtually multiply your sales through this marketing tool.