Brent Kelly explains why insurance agencies need to submit complete, accurate submissions to underwriters on the first try. Ask your top 2-3 carriers what a perfect submission looks like, then deliver it: the full story, photos, and clean data. That first impression determines whether underwriters say yes.
Chapters
Alright, quick question for my agency leaders and agents out there. When you submit an application to insurance carrier underwriter, is that application on the top of the stack? Are they excited to get it or is it simply tossed to the bottom or maybe tossed to the trash can? Hi, this is Brent Kelly of the Sitkins Group with my profit tip helping your insurance agency become its best version possible. Now, we use a lot of acronyms at Sitkins, as many of you know. This is one of our favorites. It's toss. Let me go ahead, I've already kind of said it, but what does TOSS stand for? Well, it's top of stack submission. One of the things that seems glaringly obvious that you probably are aware of, but the question is not how much do you know it, how well are you doing it, is that our relationships with our insurance carriers or underwriters are vitally important. In fact, we always say there's two sales in every transaction. The first sale is made to the insurance carrier, to the underwriter, and the second sale is certainly to our client. So how are you doing in top of stack submissions? When you submit something to an insurance carrier underwriter, is it complete, is it accurate? Do you have a full story, do you have a narrative to where they know exactly what it is you want, what you're looking for, their opportunity, or is it simply, oh, we got another submission from this agent or agency that we know isn't going to do anything, or we have to go back and ask more questions, going to take more time and energy and it gets pushed off to the side because this is a huge determination, your results in this business. You know, we talked a lot of insurance carry underwriters, or if we have producer camps, we'll ask people how many have been an underwriter in the past. And those that raised their hand, the underwriters we talked to, say how important is the name on the submission? Right. The agency and agent, who it comes from, where it comes from of importance to you and how quickly and how effectively you work on it. And they go very important, it's extremely important. So people always ask, well, what does a top of stack submission look like? Well, obviously it needs to be complete, it needs to be accurate and you need to have a story, a narrative, images, photos, all those things that you probably know. It takes a little time and effort. But as an insurance professional, you are the frontline underwriter. There's underwriters that do the deep work, but you are the frontline underwriter, you are a risk advisor, you are an insurance professional. So what is a best submission. Well, let me give you some advice that is really easy to do, but most people don't actually do it. Why don't you contact your best two or three insurance carrier relationships, the underwriters that you work with frequently and say, hey, listen, we're always doing our best as an agency to provide complete, accurate submissions to you as an underwriter to make your job easier, to help you, help us and of course help our clients. What would a 10 out of 10 submission look like? If you were to see the perfect submission, what would it look like and what would that mean to you as an agency? And let them tell you how to design a complete, accurate and a top of stack submission for that insurance carrier. By the way, not only will that allow you to do your job better, allow them to do their job better, but guess what? It improves the relationship. You've made a deposit because you actually care enough to ask your underwriters what it means to them. And I can tell you when you begin to do that. When your submissions come in, of course we know that it's electronic mostly in today's world, but when the email comes in or the submission comes in online, guess what? You move to the top of the list. They look at your account differently and allows you to position yourself for your client differently. One of the things we always share and how agencies should position themselves is that we actually are going to represent you to the marketplace, not the other way around. Oftentimes agencies say, well, the marketplace will represent will bring everything to you. Now as a risk professional and what we're doing with our top of stack submission, we're going to represent you to the marketplace in a favorable light. So improve your relationship with underwriters, improve your relationship with your carriers, do your job at a higher level, be a risk professional, have top of stack submissions. First step, just contact your underwriters and ask them. So in the comments below, leave what you're going to do or what you do to have a top of stack submission. I'd love to hear from you and it'd be great sharing with the rest of the audience on this page. All the best to you in your success.
