Anton Reed, Director, Sales-Marketing, Paradiso Financial & Insurance Services, Stafford Springs | Mastering the Virtual Insurance Office

A national trade publication has praised Paradiso for its Internet strategy to find, sell and keep customers. How did an insurance agency way out in Stafford get involved in such cutting edge marketing?

The combination of forward thinking and a belief that if you want to be better than the competition you need to take some risks in what you have faith and belief in. An agency in Stafford Springs is still in Connecticut and can write insurance from Greenwich to Mystic to Suffield there are no boundaries. Partnering with our digital marketing company, Astonish Results brought the agency into a whole new world and turned the agency from service-centric to sales-centric. They started by building us an online Virtual Insurance Office and then proceeded to coach and teach the entire team on how to be world class. Phone calls are recorded for training, emails are sent automatically to keep prospects engaged and the idea that the commercial clients outside of the insurance world are struggling with how to grow their businesses via the internet and that with my training from Astonish Results we can not only protect them but help them grow their business.

Independent agencies tend to be about personalized service to their customers. Does focusing on the Internet take away from that personal touch? Do customers become email addresses more than people?

No , not at all … personalized service is not replaced with emails. It enhances the relationships. It helps me stay in touch at a higher frequency and with greater efficiency. It gives me one leg up and helps accelerate the relationship from prospect to client to customer! We realize that no matter what we plant seeds so to speak by means of using the internet and having access to email addresses, we still have to water that seed so that it grows and matures so to speak into a strong relationship. One thing our president, Chris Paradiso stresses and entire staff prides themselves on and have a strong belief in is to create long-term relationships with each client and you cannot do that if you are communicating solely via email versus using the email as a tool to help you start the relationship or maintain and enhance your relationship as time goes on. The internet and email are wonderful tools if used correctly.

In a press release, your president, Chris Paradiso, says “agency owners and principals may know a lot about insurance, but don’t know as much as they should about marketing.” Is online marketing the only place for independent insurance agents to be advertising? Should they abandon traditional forms of marketing?

No, it needs to be a blended strategy. Marketing should always be blended, if all of your eggs are in one basket that’s all you will ever be.  Not paying attention to the Internet when 85 percent of consumers start their search for insurance online is short sighted; agencies that don’t master an online presence will not only ever grow but will shrink over time! So for us again, it’s just one tool of several that we find vital to our success.

There’s always been this impression that independent insurance agents join local service clubs like Kiwanis and Rotary and build their book of business through connections. Have page hits replaced face-to-face meetings?

Never.  But with a few clicks I can post a blog that speaks to these groups on my website.  The Internet helps enhance your relationships not replace them! Via the internet marketing and social networking we are able to optimize our time and efforts and reach a large amount of individuals … and generate traffic to our website (www.paradisoinsurance.com) and ultimately our agency.

Paradiso has increased its rate of converting visitors into leads by more than 14 percent. What percentage of those leads then become customers? What does Paradiso have to do to turn them into customers?

To date we are up around 90 percent, which is phenomenal.  It speaks volumes about the Virtual Insurance Office. In order to close those leads we have a system in place where we are contacting clients within minutes of receiving new leads. Each client is also emailed immediately. The traffic is generated but we have to be pro-active and work the leads as they are generated. It’s as though you have an enormous field in front of you, but you must harvest it in order to see results, so we earnestly work to make sure we are responding to all leads in the same manner whether it be for personal lines or commercial lines.

Your background seems to be more traditional insurance. What made you make the leap to a more non-traditional insurance agency like Paradiso?

If I could sum it up briefly I would say that when I looked at Paradiso Financial and Insurance I realized they were on the cusp of doing some things that no other agencies were doing. Their desire to change the game so to speak by partnering with Astonish Results and taking things to next level really impressed me. Also, the fact that there is unbelievable amount of freedom to build your practice versus being on the traditional or captive side where things are quite restrictive and sometimes cookie-cutter. Coming to Paradiso allowed me to expand my practice and offer a host of more options to my clients whether it is carrier wise or product wise. And lastly I realized from discussions with our agency president, Chris Paradiso, that I would be challenged in ways that I never had been … and with my expanded role here at Paradiso, which I am embracing, and our plans to grow and expand throughout Connecticut and increase our presence I knew that this was where I wanted to be, because we are building something very special.