It may be on your plan this year to master commercial insurance sales. Many predominantly heavy personal insurance agencies are looking to expand and grow their commercial insurance book of business. While both are in the Property & Casualty space, there are several differences you must master to boost commercial sales.
Personal lines business will call in and can be easy to attract. Commercial Insurance starts with a different approach.
In this blog we will show you how to start making the move to diversify your agency and boost your commercial insurance sales.
Step 1: Get Organized
This is an important step—but as important as it is, you can’t get stuck here. An initial plan will help you get started, but you’ll need to adapt and refine it over time. Basically, you can’t overplan your way to mastering commercial insurance sales.
Here are a few things to think through as you begin:
- Review your carriers – what are their appetites to make it easy to write and bind business?
- What is natural in your market place, what type of business can you do at volume?
- What are the core challenges these prospects may have and how can you solve them?
- Who do you know currently that you can start asking to quote?
You don’t need to overthink it. In order to get started, sometimes that last bullet is most important – just start asking. Also, for more advice, check out our How to Sell Commercial Insurance program.
Step 2: Lead Generation
Believe it or not, finding opportunities in commercial is not that hard. These are business owners that also want their team selling like you are. Business owners appreciate someone who is good at prospecting. This is where you need to focus on activity. The more activity the better. The truth is, the more you prospect the better you get at it.
Think about trying the following for 90 days to test and evaluate what works best for your commercial insurance sales process:
- Call certificate requestors
- Call past commercial clients to win them back
- Call past unsold quotes
- Attend networking and community events
- Call your attorney, accountant, and banker to set up meetings to see if they can be centers of influence
- Call your current commercial clients and ask for referrals
- Look at X date providers like Meet Leo
- Research lead providers like Bold Penguin
- Do drop-bys and calls
- Use AI to research targets
- Create your 20 prospect dream list
- Connect on LinkedIn
- Join associations
When you put the work in, finding commercial opportunity is easy – sitting and waiting for the phone to ring simply won’t work. You put the work in and it will pay you off with commercial insurance sales.
Step 3: Build Your Quote Process
Next up you will want to craft your quoting process. Learning what to ask and what you need can take some time, but lean on your underwriters for guidance. You can also build yourself a quote sheet (or check out our How to Sell Commercial Insurance Program and get our quote sheet to save yourself some time and effort).
One thing you will want to get great at is building your narrative that tells the story of the account. Every account has a story, telling your opportunity’s story will be key to getting your underwriters attention.
Step 4: Getting Your Quote & Negotiating Pricing
You want to keep your underwriters happy—and that starts with giving them clean, well-prepared quotes to review. Don’t waste their time. Provide a clear, straightforward application and narrative so they can focus on pricing and placement instead of fixing details.
As you get your quotes back, analyze them and figure out what’s truly best for your client—not just what’s cheapest. When you focus on long-term value, you’ll win more consistently. If there’s a carrier you really want to use, collaborate with the underwriter. Share additional information or ask about credits that could make the quote more competitive. That kind of partnership can make all the difference in commercial insurance sales.
Step 5: Quote Presentation
This is where things get good! This is your big show. In our How to Sell Commercial Insurance course, we walk you through the following steps:
- Build back rapport and review their core current challenges
- Share what you have found about their current insurance gaps
- Identify the carrier you have selected and why
- Present the prospect Option A
- Present the prospect Option B
- Provide an overview of the differences
- Share the pricing on both options
- Pause and let the client review the options
Conclusion
Mastering commercial insurance sales is a strategic process that can expand your agency and strengthen your portfolio. Getting organized, prioritizing lead generation, streamlining your quote process, negotiating effectively with underwriters, and delivering strong quote presentations will help your agency stand out in a competitive market.
The key is consistency—prospect regularly, use your network, and focus on solving your clients’ specific challenges. With steady effort and the right approach, you’ll not only grow your commercial sales but also build long-term relationships with business owners who trust your expertise. Start applying these steps today, and let your agency’s momentum build from there.
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