Going Mobile: Using Tech Tools To Create A Mobile Office
It’s a new revolution. Thousands of agents and brokers have liberated themselves from their office desks, giving them the freedom to serve customers and sell their products from practically anywhere in the world.
For many agents and brokers, owning a physical office has now become an option. The evolving Internet allows an agent working on her farm in rural Montana or his seaside house in Maine to serve health insurance shoppers from Oahu and Anchorage to Miami and Milwaukee.
For good or bad, tech-savvy producers can also do business while they’re on the road or on vacation — without any drop off in service and sales volume.
Here’s how you can too.
Basic Ingredients
With an inexpensive cell phone and a $400 laptop, any agent can produce apps without ever having to step foot in a real office.
But that’s just a start. To have a mobile but fully functional office, you’ll need a few more tech tools:
Modem.
Most laptops today come with both a wireless and landline modem, allowing you to hook up to your office network as well as wirelessly access the Internet from many locations. Because your tools will be online, you’ll need reliable Internet access. Hotspots.
Most wireless modems need wi-fi hotspots to access the Internet. Some hotspots are free, others require a subscription service. If you already subscribe to T-Mobile or AT&T, you may qualify for low-cost access to thousands of hotspots around the world. -
Website, email and web-fax.
To begin freeing yourself from a physical office, you will need a fully functional website and email. In addition to advertising to web visitors, your website helps to generate leads and securely maintain documents and forms on line.
For example, let’s say your client needs a brochure or is ready to complete an application. You can give them the link over the phone or via email where they can download the document or complete an online application. You can also use your online fax service to send them a hard copy of the document or form.
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Internet leads and a lead management system.
Celent Research estimates that by 2011, 9 out of 10 individual health insurance buyers will use the Internet for part or all of their purchase. Internet leads are the most cost-effective way to keep a steady flow of serious insurance shoppers entering your pipeline.
But leads can quickly overwhelm even the best multi-taskers unless they have a lead management system that can automatically import, manage and track those leads. Ideally, your lead management system should work seamlessly with your quote engine and email autoresponder, to eliminate the hassle of manual inputting.
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Quote engine.
As discussed in this newsletter’s feature article, quote engines have become the indispensable tool for hyper-productive agents and brokers. They slash quoting and proposal time by 96% and increase productivity 25X.
More importantly, having a quote engine imbedded on your website and working with your email autoresponder is like having an army of lead-generating sales assistants who never sleep, eat or complain.
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Email autoresponder.
A top-of-the-line email autoresponder is your automated marketing assistant. It automatically sends a welcome letter to every new lead imported into your system, as well as to website visitors who use your quote engine. This welcome letter will help to introduce you and prepare them for your call.
But then your autoresponder really gets going. You set a schedule of how many days a month you want to “touch” the lead prospects, and your email autoresponder will automatically send them a marketing email — with no printing or postage costs. Combined with a quote engine, your emails can include personalized and up-to-date quotes.
On the surface, these tools may seem like a huge investment. But compared with the short- and long-term cost of maintaining a physical office, you can easily see that they’re a bargain.
Planning Your Escape
Whether you’re just starting your new one-person operation and want to stay mobile or looking to transition out of your current “land line” office situation, you need to plan your operation.
Many traditional operations who depend on a locale clientele that demand face-to-face office appointments may not be able to completely abandon their offices. But as more agents and brokers expand their geographic reach — and begin closing all their leads over the phone and Internet — the need for a physical office diminishes.
A popular solution for producers who occasionally need to use a physical office is to contract with an executive office suite provider. These firms rent out high-end office space in prime locations by the hour or day, without having to sign long-term contracts.
As the web becomes the source for most individual insurance policies, there will be less of a need for a real office. But the flip side of that coin is that your website becomes your storefront; so you’ll need to invest in a design that screams professionalism and trustworthiness.
Finally, although it is theoretically possible to go “totally mobile,” it’s not advisable. You’ll still need an office space with a mailing address and basic office equipment, either in an executive rent-by-the-hour suite or a home office.
Downside
There is a downside to this freedom. As mentioned above, because you can work from practically anywhere on earth there’s an Internet connection, you may be expected to work from everywhere. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a place where you can’t be reached for business.
You do have the choice to turn off your laptop and cell phone. But as your website and tech tools continue to churn out new leads and more apps, that can be a hard choice to make.
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