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5 Ways BOP Insurance Helps Grow Your Business

SAGESURE’S BUSINESS OWNERS POLICY INSURANCE UNLOCKS NEW REVENUE STREAMS FOR PRODUCERS

February 5, 2024 — |

The commercial lines insurance market is an untapped income stream for many producers, enabling them to increase revenue, expand their client base, and diversify their book of business beyond personal insurance. Currently, 12 million uninsured US small businesses represent $65 to $70 billion in opportunity, according to Verisk.

What Is BOP?

Business owner policies (BOPs) combine commercial property insurance, commercial general liability insurance, and business interruption insurance in a single policy to safeguard businesses against losses. BOP insurance policies can protect small to mid-size businesses from covered losses like fire, theft, and other insured natural disasters. This also makes it valuable for coastal businesses with catastrophe exposure.

How Can BOP Help Grow My Insurance Agency?

Adding business owners insurance to your book of business can help your agency tap into a new client base and increase your earnings.

According to the US Small Business Administration, nearly 99 percent of businesses in the US fall under the category of small businesses. Many small businesses need commercial coverage to lease property, secure contracts, and for other business matters. This means adding BOP can provide a strong alternative for writing business when the personal lines market hardens.

What Are the Benefits of Writing BOP?

SageSure’s partnerships with multiple carriers provide producers with commercial capacity in Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida, enabling them to serve small businesses even in hard markets.

Take our carrier partner SURE, for example, which recently launched its BOP offering in South Carolina. As the South Carolina market contends with the impact of rising rates, new business restrictions, and carrier exits, SURE’s BOP provides an essential market for small business risk where few are available.

If you’re eager to grow your agency, here are five reasons to consider quoting BOP with SageSure — and why many of our producers do:

1. Easy, Accurate Quotes

“Writing with SageSure has been so easy because your system is so easy,” said Allison Kindwall, Kinghorn Insurance of Beaufort. “It’s a very quick approval.”

Quick and accurate quotes give producers an edge over less responsive competitors. Approximately 90 percent of SageSure producer partners say our quoting platform is intuitive and easy-to-use.

Inside SageSure’s Agent Portal, you can quote-to-bind a small business property in under five minutes using basic information like the customer’s address.

When quoting, however, accuracy is as important as speed. Inaccurate or missing information on small commercial policies can result in underinsured businesses.

To assist with accurate data entry, SageSure’s Agent Portal platform embeds property imagery and tax assessor information. Additionally, Marshall & Swift / Boeckh’s replacement cost estimator integrates into the platform to account for inflation in building labor and materials, verify insurance to value, and ensure Coverage A limits reflect the property’s full estimated replacement cost. This reduces the risk of insufficient coverage.

2. Broad Risk Appetite

Many small business insurance offerings specialize in niche markets. Our broad appetite for risk in challenging markets is one of our key differentiators and provides capacity and reliability for small businesses in areas where coverage is needed most. 

SageSure’s commercial team has deep expertise in commercial risk across numerous classes to ensure broad appetite, tailored coverage, and competitive pricing, driven by a granular rating approach.

With SageSure commercial lines, producer partners have access to more than 300 business classes across eight industries, including restaurants, offices, wholesale, habitational, lessor risks, retail, service and processing, and artisan contractors.

3. Faster Rewards

Producers who write business with SageSure can earn rewards through the SageSure PowerUp Program (SSPUP) – and level up fast. Take Sunny Amin from Prayag Insurance in Texas, for example. He enrolled with SageSure in Q1 of 2023. By Q3, he’d written over a million dollars in BOP, earning Platinum level in SageSure PowerUp for 2024.

Small business owners have higher coverage needs than homeowners. And commercial insurance policies can cost four to five times more than personal insurance policies. As a result, producers need fewer policies to level up through the different tiers of SSPUP when they write BOP.

Participating partners have access to new products, recognition plaques, digital consultation and seminars, co-op marketing dollars, a business development fund, elite access to policy services personnel, and exclusive partner trips.

4. Multiple Coverage Options

“We’ve had other options in the past, but SageSure’s BOP makes writing business a lot easier,” said Benji Hill, Turbeville Insurance Agency.

If selling insurance for business owners seems like a logical choice for your agency, below are some of the types of insurance you can offer to help clients protect their businesses:

  • Commercial Property Insurance Coverage: Covers the physical assets and property owned or used by a business, including the building, business personal property, equipment, inventory, signs, fences, business interruption, debris removal, important documents, and more.
  • Commercial General Liability (CGL) Coverage: Covers damages and lawsuits over bodily injury, property damage, personal and advertising injury, medical payments, products and completed operations, premises liability, fire legal liability, and legal defense costs.
  • Equipment Breakdown Coverage: Covers the cost associated with the sudden breakdown of machinery and equipment. This coverage is essential for businesses that depend on machinery and equipment for their income. Coverage can include equipment, causes of breakdown, property damage, business interruption, extra expenses for repairing or replacing equipment, spoilage coverage, and service contracts and inspections.
  • Cyber Liability Insurance: Shields businesses from the costs of cyber threats and data breaches, including fines and penalties, business interruption, cyber extortion, data recovery, crisis management, and public relations costs.
  • Employee Professional Liability Insurance: Protects businesses and their employees against claims of negligence, errors, or omissions in the performance of professional duties. This is particularly important for individuals and businesses that provide professional advice, services, or expertise, and can help cover legal defense costs.

5. Reliable Partnership

Capacity remains a challenge in catastrophe-exposed markets. However, working with a partner who diligently manages exposure ensures stability – and that they’ll be around for the long haul.

For more than a decade, SageSure has specialized in coastal areas to offer a range of high-quality, competitive insurance solutions. Our partnerships with highly rated carriers help our partners grow and provide their clients with reliable coverage.

“SageSure has this relentless desire to find a solution to every problem that we’re facing at the coast,” said Jonathan Peel, Coastline Insurance, Southport, NC. “They ask the agents. They listen to our problems, and they come back with solutions. We’re not just another agency code and that really is special for an agent.”

Ready to see what BOP can do for you? Stay tuned for more new products launching this quarter, and get in touch with your SageSure account manager if you have questions about quoting BOP today.