Your ‘buddy’ that owns an agency down the street, the person you pal around with at those extravagant carrier retreats for making the President’s Club – he’s using Xdate. And while he might recommend a new agency management system you should check out, he is not going to recommend Insurance Xdate. He is going to keep that under wraps, because he is smart.
I have spoken to agency owners that go as far as not divulging the source of the prospecting data to their agents or appointment setters as they consider Insurance Xdate a ‘trade secret’ and do not want it going with the agent should they leave…bummer for us…
Until now all we could say for certain is that agencies using Xdate are indeed getting results because we have a 90% retention ratio and no one continues to pay for something that isn’t working, especially insurance agents…you are a shrewd bunch. But after some coercing and blackmail I was able to get a couple of our users to share how they actually make use of Xdate…anonymously of course.
Subscriptions:
Master Acct (annual)
+2 states
Carrier Search
This user is in the Philadelphia region. I could probably use his real name because he is too busy closing to care about our case studies, so he’ll never know, but I’ll go ahead and call him James. James got started in the early 90’s. His book fluctuates between $18MM and $20MM annually (his book, not his agency’s). He gets several client referrals a month, has excellent centers of influence and has networked his way to the top of the construction food chain, among other verticals.
Why would a guy like this spend ANY time cold-calling? Well, he doesn’t, he has an appointment setter for that.
‘I am an opportunist. Referrals are great and account for a big part of my production but just because it is a referral does not mean I want them as a client nor does it mean they want me as their agent. My time is more valuable than the revenue generated by the typical sub-contractor and my customer base tends to have a lot of service needs. So I use Xdate to target higher hazard classes in conjunction with the employee estimates for size and a combination of their mod trend to narrow it down to the low hanging fruit, the weaker markets that I can exploit. If it doesn’t generate at least $10,000 in revenue it isn’t worth my time so I need several lines in the water at all times.’
Have you seen an increase anywhere in the new business production cycle since using Insurance Xdate?
Hard to say. I have always used a service like this. In the early 90’s the bureau made it available on microfilm. I’d fall asleep copying it down on paper. Wake up, get a phone book and start calling. Then someone put it on a disc and charged for it. Then you guys put it on the web and made it even better. My telemarketer loves it and that is good enough for me.