Will Penny Named March’s e-Marketing Agent of the Month

By Adam DeGraide – CEO and Founder of Astonish Results

Like farms and restaurants, insurance agencies often become generational businesses, handed down from grandpa to father to son. In some cases, this means keeping the same office for decades. And while it’s good to have a rich local history, family entrenchment can actually work against you. Agency processes and insurance marketing tactics that were effective for 50 years are now completely obsolete.

About a year ago, Will Penny, owner of the 79-year-old Penny Insurance Agency founded by his great uncle, felt “weary from a tough economy, tired of the ‘same old, same old,’ and frustrated” with his lack of success in making changes. To put it bluntly, insurance had gotten stale for Mr. Penny.

Fast forward one year later and Penny Insurance Agency just earned Rough Notes’ e-Marketing Agency of the Month for March 2010, including an article entitled “From Stuck to the Fast Lane.”

What happened over the course of 12 months was not just a new website, better customer service tools, and sales training, but a culture shift that started with Will Penny himself. And it happened fast.

By embracing every aspect of change Astonish Results brought to the table with a positive attitude, and even adopting some of his own new processes, Will Penny shook his agency to the core. Now Penny Insurance is pulling business from 500 miles away – simply a pipe dream one year ago. Besides attracting new leads, there’s renewed vibrancy and passion throughout the agency, and people are actually excited to come to work.

Whether you just opened an insurance agency or your great uncle started it 80 years ago, a positive, open-minded perspective is absolutely critical. Attitudes are contagious – especially those of company leaders.

One of the most underrated qualities of the Astonish Results system is the staff’s unlimited commitment to positive thinking; something we try to instill upon every insurance partner we work with. I encourage you to read the Penny Insurance Agency story. If you’re not as “psyched” to go to work in the morning as he is, it may be time to re-think your strategy and give us a call at 888-899-1936.

The Penny Insurance Rough Notes article “From Stuck to the Fast Lane” can be found at:
http://www.roughnotes.com/rnmagazine/2010/march2010/2010_03emarketing.htm