For Ron Cooperman, president of KCI Insurance Agency and the October 2006 Rough Notes cover agency, all it took was one Webinar. About a year ago, Cooperman and his marketing director/Web site designer were invited to view a Web seminar hosted by Alan Blume, CEO of StartUpSelling, Inc. The firm had developed an array of solutions to help insurance agencies use Web-based technology for lead generation and marketing services.

Blume believes that agents can greatly increase their chances for success by taking a new approach to prospecting. After investigating these methodologies, Cooperman agrees.  

Blume says his approach to prospecting is based on the concept of the three-legged stool:  

1. e-marketing and Webinars

2. Web site optimization, blogging and search engine optimization

3. “Warm” calls to registrants and attendees.

The first leg of the stool, e-market­ing and Web seminars, is the logical starting point for most agencies. In Cooperman’s case, the initial work was aimed at developing a large prospect e-mail list. Since KCI’s business is built around trucking and transporta­tion, StartUpSelling assembled a prospect list of more than 6,000 trucking accounts nationwide.

The next step was to establish a plan for a series of Web-based seminars, also known as Webinars. While some agents may be familiar with the Webinar concept and may have tried to use them, Blume believes that many agents do not use this marketing tool correctly. “The number one mistake people make is that they try to sell insurance and promote the benefits of working with their agency,” Blume says. The purpose of a Webinar, he says, “is to present educational content and skip the sales promo altogether.”

According to Blume, developing a successful Webinar that will be watched by the top executives at your prospects’ offices is not as difficult as you might think. StartUpSelling has developed a set format and best practice guidelines for most of the tasks involved. Speaker coaching and presentation methods, for example, are critical to the success of a Webinar. The content should focus on recent and relevant topics, with industry experts presenting the material. In Cooperman’s case, he uses lawyers, accountants and other professional service providers to present information during a 20- to 30-minute Webinar.

To encourage these experts to participate, Cooperman shares with them the list of prospects who attended the Webinar. Using this approach, Cooperman says, “Experts are easy to find.” At this point, he remarks, “I could do a Webinar every two days if I wanted to.”

The Webinar approach clearly is a dramatic departure from agents’ more traditional methods of prospecting. Among these are monthly breakfast meetings with local lawyers, bankers and accountants,  to exchange refer­rals; making presentations at local business events; and cold calling businesses listed in the phone book.

The Webinar approach, Cooperman asserts, is a much more efficient use of a salesperson’s time. Typically, he says, “We get about 80 people registered for a Webinar. Of that number, generally 50 or so will actually attend the 20- to 30-minute presentation.” Within hours of hosting the event, StartUpSelling is able to provide a list of attendees. In the meantime, Cooperman alerts his sales staff, so they can quickly contact each attendee. He notes, “They also contact those who registered but did not attend,” since they may still be interested. StartUpSelling also pro­vides copies of the slides and posts a recording of the Webinar to the KCI Web site.

When coupled with other prospecting tools like social media marketing and search engine optimization, Webinars can provide a constant flow of new prospects. Blume believes that this approach “can and will turn insurance marketing on its head.” In Cooperman’s case, he indicated that in less than a year, this approach has already led to over $400,000 in new revenue for this agency. But of even more value is the fact that “it keeps our sales funnel full,” he says.

Cooperman has experienced firsthand the consequences of not having a continual flow of new prospects because his agency, like so many others, was unable to break away from traditional marketing methods. From 2005 to 2009, despite the sputtering economy, KCI was able to maintain a level base of existing clients. However, Cooperman says, a number of his salespeople became complacent with regard to new business development activities. When the trucking business began to experience a severe contraction, he says, “There were no new prospects in the pipeline.”

At that point, Cooperman says, “The bottom fell out of our revenue.” He needed to find a new approach; and in the course of exploring his options, he attended a Webinar presented by StartUpSelling. Now, with the firm’s assistance, KCI does one Webinar per month and this, Cooperman says, “keeps the pipeline full all of the time.”

Although it takes time to coordinate the Webinars, Cooperman remarks, the results are worth the effort. “I am now able to provide our sales staff with prequalified leads,” he says. He can produce a list of 50 prospect names every month—people who have attended his Webinars. “When my sales guys call one of those prospects, the reception is unbelievable,” he declares.

Blume asserts: “This approach will end cold calls as agencies think of them.” Using his Web marketing approach, he says, agencies can “establish themselves as thought leaders. By providing valuable educational content to prospects, you are positioning your agency as an industry authority,” he says.

Blume says StartUpSelling’s system is designed to “position the agency so that prospects know your agency and are interested in speaking with you, rather than trying to convince prospects why they should talk to you.”

He continues: “If an agency uses Web marketing correctly, its agents will never have to make another cold call again.” Cooperman confirms this: “When our sales staff reaches out to a prospect, they already know us; therefore, every call is a ‘warm’ call.”

The key to the success of the Webinar approach, according to Blume, is: “If you want to sell more insurance, don’t sell insurance.”