In 2015, Renado Robinson quit his job with Travelers to start his own independent agency in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Robinson had started his Travelers career in 1997 as the mailman. When he went off on his own, he didn’t have an agency license or any appointments with carriers, and his main marketing strategy was cold calling.
Early on, Robinson remembers meeting a prospect at their door. They told him they weren’t interested. Two months later, “I went back with a dozen donuts and said, ‘I’m just trying to sweeten you guys up a little bit,’” he recalls. “A month after that, they called me to write their homeowners.”
Robinson ended up saving the couple 40% on their homeowners policy, then followed up with birthday cards later that year.