Wholesale Brokers: How to Nurture and Improve Relationships With Retail Agents

For wholesale insurance brokers, relationships with insurance agents are essential to a thriving business. Your relationships with insurance agents are crucial, and agents rely on these relationships when looking to place difficult risks. For many wholesale brokers, the depth and quality of the relationships they form can make them stand out in the business. Here are a few ways you can nurture and strengthen your relationships with insurance agents

Be responsive. Everyone gets busy. But insurance agents value a broker who gets back to them quickly—it demonstrates the value they put on the relationship. A quick response is ideal; by the end of the day at minimum.

Provide expertise. You can always serve as an expert resource when insurance agents have specific questions. But you can also put that expertise front and center online and in regular content marketing strategies. Publicizing white papers, reports, and webinars on key areas of coverage that are of interest to your agents demonstrates that you understand their concerns and needs—and keeps you in front of them.

Assist with the sale. You won’t always be in a position to help the insurance agent directly in making the sale to an insured. But often, a wholesale broker’s specialized expertise is what’s needed—especially if the agent is working with a line of coverage they aren’t as familiar with as you are. As the wholesale broker, you can step in to answer the insured’s questions and help the agent identify and overcome some of the barriers to purchase. Once they see you as a valuable partner in the sales process, insurance agents are sure to rely on you.

As a wholesale insurance broker, your relationship with retail agents can be critical to the success of your business. Be accessible and responsive, freely provide expertise both online and in answering one-on-one questions, and demonstrate your value to the sales process as well as in market access. Go the extra mile to nurture and develop those relationships, and you’re sure to see all kinds of benefits.