Most agencies have at least 20% growth opportunities sitting within the data of their current book of business. Here's how you can leverage data to recognize that potential:

• Create a more efficient, cost-effective process for identifying and acting on upselling and rounding opportunities
• Uncover opportunities that you may have never seen or known about
• Augment your data with external data

External data can help you "fill in the blanks" of information about your customers to help you better understand their needs. By following these 3 steps, you can grow your book by 20% or more.

What Is External Data?

With so much talk about data lately and so many different versions of the term being used, one can easily become confused. At its core, data is nothing more than information, facts, and statistics compiled to help analyze or better understand current and potential future states.

Traditionally, the largest data source available to agencies is their agency management system, referred to as an "Internal Data Source" because the information is generated from within the business and entered by people who work for the company. And while it provides a large amount of information on your clients, it doesn't provide you with the full picture of who your clients are, what they may need or want at a given time, or what opportunities exist that help to grow your relationship with them.

This is where "External Data" comes in. External data comes from sources outside of your agency and provides information that's not readily available to you, such as risk characteristics, demographic data, business performance data, and more.

Until recently, access to this type of data and insights hadn't been readily available to agents. Now, tools such as DONNA allow agents to capitalize on the power of data by integrating with many "External Data Sources," aggregating information and layering it on top of what's in your agency management system. This process creates a comprehensive view of your clients, providing you with insights that give you a powerful competitive advantage.

The Power of Data Enrichment

When you enrich your agency management system's data with this outside data, you begin to develop a 360-degree view of your clients. This 360-degree view arms you with valuable insights that allow you to create tailored offers that are well-timed and well-received – increasing conversion, lowering the cost of goods sold, and increasing revenue.

Here are three examples of how you can use enriched data to increase revenue to help you get started.

#1 SMARTER RENEWAL OFFERS

An example of this is to build a renewal program around the business's performance over the past year. Leveraging public data such as IRS filings to track the number of employees and recent company growth can help you create a robust client profile well in advance of the renewal.

A business that has experienced significant growth over the past year is likely to be more open to expanding coverages and less focused on significantly reducing premiums. The opposite is also true. A business that has struggled financially may be at risk for shopping their policies to reduce expenses significantly.

Knowing this information allows you to respond appropriately and in advance of the renewal process. You can place an underperforming business in an automated nurture email program and proactively reach out with information on how to manage insurance premiums through deductibles, credits, etc., with the goal of getting them to renew with you and not the other agent in town.

This is certainly not the message that you would want to send to your high-growth businesses who you can expect to be more open to upsell and cross-selling proposals.

#2 EASIER UPSELLING

Layering risk and underwriting data from external data sources on top of your client data is a powerful way to quickly identify upselling opportunities that already exist in your book of business.

For example, a tool such as DONNA that alerts you if one of your client's homes resides in an earthquake or flood zone presents you with an opportunity to add additional policies that were not on your radar. A tool that integrates with the DMV service may notify you when your client registers a new vehicle allowing you to respond accordingly.

Data can also drive efficiencies in your upselling process. Here's an example: your AMS system has identified that a client is a candidate for an umbrella policy – you write both the auto and the home. But do they have the appropriate underlying limits, is their home insured to value?

Traditionally, the account would have to be manually reviewed for eligibility – a time-consuming task. A data analysis tool can automatically screen those accounts for you, identifying what needs to be addressed within the underlying policies and providing external data that help you evaluate the situation more efficiently by reducing the amount of time necessary for an account review.

#3 UNCOVERING UNKNOWN NEEDS

The more knowledge you have about your clients, the more effectively you can target marketing based on demographics, location, or online habits.

Demographic data such as age, sex, employment, education, relationship information, and behavioral data like website browsing activity, social media interactions, recent purchases can help uncover a vast array of unknown needs within your current book of business.

Let's say one of your clients, Lena, is thinking about buying a boat. She goes online and starts researching the best types of boats for families. She joins a Facebook group dedicated to sharing tips on family road trip vacations to lakes, and she buys a "Dummies Guide to Boating" on Amazon.

Without external data, you would never know that you have an opportunity to offer her information on watercraft policies and roadside assistance. Maybe you weren't aware that she had young children and may need life insurance. There are three additional policies you may be able to write.

Other examples include credit inquiries for mortgages, newly published Google Business listings for a new location or branch, and other life and business events that you would be unaware of without enriched data.

Armed with this knowledge, you can market to your insureds more effectively by offering personalized and tailored information at the correct times and in the right places throughout the client life cycle.

Conclusion

If you're like most agencies, you may have growth opportunities of 20% or more sitting within the data of your current book of business. By augmenting the data that exists in your AMS today with external data, you can quickly learn more about your customers that will help you better understand their needs.

We reviewed three examples of how you can use enriched data to increase revenue to help you get started:

SMARTER RENEWAL OFFERS – build a renewal program around your clients' business's performance over the past year.

EASIER UPSELLING –layering risk and underwriting data from external data sources on top of your client data is a powerful way to quickly identify upselling opportunities that already exist in your book of business.

UNCOVERING UNKNOWN NEEDS - the more knowledge you have about your clients, the more effectively you can target marketing based on demographics, location, or online habits.

Simply adding more data to your AMS isn't practical. Tools like DONNA now exist to do the "heavy lifting" of aggregating all of this data, making it easy for your agency to consume the results and take the next best action to serve your customers' needs. And last but not least, help you find those opportunities that exist to grow your agency by 20% or more!

Download the DONNA Short Take: "3 Types of External Data Your Agency Needs to Leverage Immediately."