Should You Diversify Your Insurance Practice?

If you’re considering expanding your insurance practice to include new products, there are a few questions you should ask yourself first. Here are a few ways to determine whether expanding would be a good business decision.

Is your business financially stable? Are you thinking of diversifying in order to save a struggling business, or expand and grow one that’s already doing well? Sometimes, introducing new product lines can bring its own risk—and doesn’t always guarantee financial stability. In addition, it divides your business’ attention and resources—something you can better afford if your business is already fairly stable.

What would your investment be? Introducing a new product line comes with costs. Those include start-up costs, the hiring of new employees, and the development of new marketing campaigns, not to mention time and attention taken away from more proven core business to get the new initiative up and running. How much would your investment be, and can your business afford it?

Do the new products mesh well with what you currently sell? If there’s a lot of crossover sales potential, and if your existing customer base has a need for this product line as well as others you already sell, then it will be easier to get the new product line off the ground. If you’d be selling to an entirely new market and if there’s little opportunity for your sales team to upsell or cross-sell your new product to existing customers, getting it to be profitable will be more of an uphill battle. If you’re seeking to diversify, particularly if your resources are limited, look for opportunities that fit well with your current roster and customers.

Do you have someone on staff who can take the lead? If you have several salespeople working for you, look for a product that fits well with their expertise and experience if you don’t have the resources to hire additional staff. If you can assign an existing staff member to serve as the expert resource on your new line of insurance, you’ll be able to get it off the ground faster and with fewer costs.

Diversifying doesn’t always lead to more business and higher profits. It can, but it’s important to be strategic in choosing new insurance coverage to offer—especially if you have limited resources. Look for products that are a natural fit with your current offerings, that can be upsold or cross-sold to the same market, and that fit in well with the current expertise of your staff, and you should be able to launch the new product with a minimal amount of risk.

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