Laren Wyse has gone into the family business, and she’s a great success with Wyse Insurance Solutions. Her father was an Allstate agent and her brother is an Allstate agent. When she was very young she did general office work for her dad, but she didn’t go into the business right away. For 15 years, she worked in law enforcement as a 911 dispatcher. She fielded calls, often in times of crisis.
“I think my phone experience gave me a competitive edge in dealing with people when I first started selling insurance,” Wyse says. “I do what needs to get done. I am aggressive over the phone, which has also helped with internet leads.”
Last year, Wyse began working for her brother, mainly in customer service and as an office manager. She got her property and casualty license as well as her life insurance license in 2019. She opened her own agency March 1, 2020.
“It’s been a struggle, starting out during the worst pandemic in history,” Wyse says. “Internet leads are the way of the world. I have had to throw all the other marketing campaigns out the window. No more sponsoring teams and working with business. We’ve been working only with SmartFinancial internet leads.”
Wyse did what she knew would work by mimicking her brother, who told her about SmartFinancial. Now, she’s making calls and doing well with shared leads, well enough that she’s started buying exclusive leads too.
“It’s all about the process, the talk path,” she explains. “There’s a specific way to work shared leads.” In fact, Wyse has trained her team of producers according to very specific guidelines she’s put in place with the help of her SmartFinancial Account Manager. She requires her producers to aim beyond being the first to make the call.
“Having empathy sets you apart from other agents,” Wyse explains. “I try to put my team in the leads’ shoes. I make them imagine that they are shopping on the Internet and are expecting a rate spit back out at them, after giving over their information. In fact, they are probably annoyed with agents calling. I train from that perspective.”
4 Golden Tips for Insurance Agents from Lauren Wyse:
Stay positive and trust the process. Sometimes it takes a while longer than you hoped. It’s hardly ever a one-and-done deal.
Be patient. Sales don’t happen overnight. You need to build the pipeline, and that takes time. It takes the consumer time to trust you so focus on building relationships.
Keep things fun at work. Insurance is not fun or entertaining. I offer lots of incentives, like gift cards. It can be a grind and it can be stressful, so break it up with something upbeat.
Be consistent with leads and keep calling them. It can take over a month of working the lead to close. It’s a no-game. Nine times out of 10 the answer will be a “no” but if you’re consistent, there’s that one! You’re just looking for that one out of 10. So stay positive while hearing all the “no’s.”
