5 Performance Metrics To Grow Your Surety Business
In the insurance industry, strong client relationships are the foundation of long-term growth and success. Between nurturing connections, writing new business, and keeping existing clients engaged, it’s easy to lose track of your marketing efforts and even harder to know which ones are truly making an impact. By focusing on a few key performance metrics, you can gain clearer insights into what’s working and where to improve.
Quick Wins You Can Try Right Away
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Note two pieces of client feedback you’ve received lately.
- Look at the engagement on your last LinkedIn post.
- Check open rates on your last five emails.
- Establish a consistent block of time to focus on your metrics.
Why Paying Attention to Results Matters
When you track results, you’re not just collecting numbers - you’re uncovering insights. Even small observations can help you adjust your strategy, strengthen conversations with clients, and grow your book of business more intentionally.
Benefits of reviewing your metrics include:
- Prioritizing activities that give the best return on your time.
- Identifying client trends or behavior patterns.
- Fine-tuning your messaging, timing, or outreach strategy.
- Feeling more confident in your process as it’s backed by data.
- Sharing progress with stakeholders or colleagues when needed.
Not sure where to begin? Focus on the areas where you already spend the most time like sending follow-up communication, prepping for meetings, or staying in touch with existing clients. That’s where tracking even simple observations can make a difference.
Client Feedback Themes
Why it matters: Client comments, whether praise or concern, offer real-time insight into what matters most to your clients.
How to track it: Record short feedback snippets after calls, meetings, or email exchanges. Over time, these notes can reveal recurring strengths or areas for improvement. Look for repeated words like “quick,” “confusing,” or “flexible” to help shape your messaging.
Not hearing much from clients? Add a simple satisfaction question to your follow-ups like “How did we do?” or “Anything we can improve?” A quick question can open the door to valuable feedback. There are also many free survey tools, like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey, that make it easy to gather insights with minimal setup.
Follow-Up Activity Logged
Why it matters: Timely follow-up can be the difference between staying top of mind or getting lost in the shuffle.
How to track it: Keep a basic count of follow-up calls, emails, or messages you send after meetings or outreach. Use a spreadsheet or notebook to log frequency, messaging, and results.
Why log it? Tracking follow-up activity helps you identify which types of clients or transactions require more effort to move forward or maintain the relationship. For example, you might notice that newer clients need more touchpoints than long-term partners, or that certain bond types require more clarification before a decision is made.
Over time, these insights can reveal where you're spending the most time allowing you to adjust your process, set better expectations, and focus your efforts more efficiently.
Tool-Free Tracking Works
Whether you're tracking client feedback, follow-up efforts, or referrals, a simple spreadsheet or notebook is often all you need.
Start with what you have, focus on consistency, and build from there.
Referral Source Tracking
Why it matters: Knowing where your business comes from helps you focus on the most reliable relationships. It also gives you a clearer picture of which partners, events, or marketing efforts are generating qualified leads so you can double down on what works.
How to track it: Ask new prospects how they found you, and log their answers somewhere consistent, whether it’s a spreadsheet, notes application, or intake form. Over time, you’ll see which referral sources are bringing in the most solid leads.
The outcome: This can help you identify which relationships to invest more time in, adjust your outreach efforts, or even discover new referral opportunities you hadn't been tracking.
Want to take your tracking a step further?
The next two metrics, social media engagement and email open tracking, may require access to tools like social platform analytics or email marketing software. If you or your agency already use these tools, they can offer valuable insights. If not, consider this a glimpse into what’s possible as your tracking efforts grow.
Social Media Engagement
Why it matters: Likes, comments, and shares show what topics resonate with your audience.
How to track it: If you're posting occasionally on LinkedIn or another platform, write down which posts generate interaction such as comments, likes, or replies. If your social platform provides insights (like post views, reach, or click-through rates), these metrics can offer a deeper look into what’s resonating with your audience. But you don’t need analytical software to start, just note patterns in the types of posts that get attention.
Tracking Email Opens
Why it matters: Subject lines shape whether your message gets opened or ignored.
How to track it: If you use email marketing software, you can typically view open rates and see which subject lines or campaigns received the most engagement. These small details can reveal what style best connects with your audience.
Don’t have access to email analytics? No problem. You can still track response patterns by noting which emails receive replies, lead to follow-up conversations, or generate client action. It’s not about getting exact numbers but more about identifying which types of messages move the conversation forward.
How Merchants Bonding CompanyTM Uses Metrics
At Merchants Bonding Company, we use performance data to identify what helps our agents succeed so we can offer better service, resources, and support. For example, we track:
- Response patterns to customer interactions and experiences with our associates and technology platforms, including the Merchants Bonding Company HubTM and Rapid Access Program (RAP).
- Trends in the types of content formats our agents engage with most.
- Engagement across communication efforts to better understand which messages resonate with our audience.
We use these insights to support our commitment to delivering common sense underwriting and a first-class experience for all our agent partners. Learn more about our approach and the Merchants Difference.
When Should You Review Your Metrics?
There’s no one-size-fits-all timeline for reviewing performance. The best time to check in on your metrics depends on what you’re trying to learn or improve.
- If you're adjusting messaging, testing new outreach strategies, or evaluating the impact of a marketing campaign, you may want to check results more frequently.
- If you're looking at relationship trends or broader business development patterns, it may take more time to collect enough data to make strategic decisions.
Reviewing your metrics at least once a quarter can help you spot patterns early, make confident decisions, and stay aligned with your goals. The key is consistency. Choose a method that fits your workflow and commit to it.
Keep Learning With Merchants
Looking for more ways to grow your surety expertise? Visit our Talk Surety To Me content library for in-depth articles covering topics related to the surety industry and professionals.
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