A market penetration study at the state level can help an insurance defense law firm answer the perennial question, “How Can I Get on More Insurance Panels?”.
By “market penetration,” we are referring to an analysis that identifies which property and casualty (P&C) insurance companies have the leading market share positions within a state by line of coverage.
The Department of Insurance in many states publishes an annual report that identifies the top insurance carriers in the property and casualty sector. P&C lines of coverage that are typically identified include automobile, fire, homeowners, liability, medical professional liability, and workers’ compensation.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is another source for identifying the top carriers within your state. The NAIC publishes a market share report on the top 10 carriers by lines of coverage for every state. Market share data is provided by state for 30 lines of P&C insurance coverage.
In addition to your own knowledge of the local market, you can build a market penetration study for your state based on this data from state and national sources.
Whether you are using state and/or NAIC data, a market penetration study will guide you in your efforts to expand into new lines with existing and prospective clients. The types of valuable insights available from a market penetration study include:
- Market leaders by line of insurance coverage, like auto or homeowners
- Key coverage lines where your clients write insurance and handle claims
- Opportunities to cross-sell your legal services for new lines within existing clients
- Identification of your best targets for business development efforts
Study the market penetration data in detail. It is possible to organize data on the top carriers by line of coverage into one Excel file, which will then indicate the scope of services that a carrier offers in your state. For example, you may find that Liberty Mutual ranks as the #5 carrier in your state for workers’ compensation, #6 in passenger auto, and #7 in homeowner insurance. If you have Liberty Mutual as a client for auto liability cases, there may be additional business potential by “cross-selling” your legal services for homeowner or workers’ comp cases.
The challenge with state-level data is that the list will include both parent and subsidiary companies, requiring an advanced level of data analysis to get a true picture of the top carriers. The parent company almost always manages the panel for all subsidiaries, although there are exceptions to this. If you are working with a subsidiary panel, however, you should always be alert to a roll-up to the parent company level.
Interested readers can request an example of a market penetration analysis for property and casualty lines of coverage within their state.
You can also look beyond insurance carriers to the self-insured sector, particularly in sectors like retail, restaurants, and hospitality. Most large companies have some level of self-insured retention that is managed in-house, and they often maintain their own panel counsel program.
A market penetration study will give you a true picture of the top carriers in the state. The next step is to map this against your client list, so that you can target the best opportunities to expand your practice most efficiently.
The author is available to assist insurance defense law firms nationwide in preparing a personalized market penetration study with a focus on getting more panel counsel positions.
Insurance Defense Marketing Consultant for Law Firms
If your insurance defense law firm is asking how you can get on more insurance panels, give us a call. We have helped more than 160 insurance defense law firms in 37 states pursue new insurance panel counsel clients.
Legal Expert Connections, Inc. offers three key benefits to insurance defense law firms nationwide:
- We are the leading U.S. legal marketing agency specializing in the insurance defense market. We make it our business to identify who you need to contact at an insurance company, corporation or municipality to be considered as a panel counsel member. We accelerate your business development process by helping you focus on introducing your law firm to new prospective clients.
- You get a structured business development process. We guide your law firm through a proven three-step campaign that brings discipline, focus, and productivity to your marketing efforts.
- Increase revenue with professional, Bar-compliant legal marketing campaigns. We do the research to identify insurance panel managers, so you can focus your time on the business development process.
Contact Margaret Grisdela, an insurance defense marketing consultant, at 561-266-1030 or via email. Connect with Margaret Grisdela on LinkedIn. Visit our website at InsuranceDefenseMarketing.com.