I already have a CRM. Why would I need this?

The short answer: You may not need it. Keep your CRM, because it’s the right place for your clients and policies. Formation is for what a CRM may not watch: your own carrier contracts, recerts, licenses and call-backs. If your CRM already tells you every morning what’s about to slip, you’re set. If it just waits for you to remember to look, keep reading.

Your CRM isn’t the problem

You probably don’t need another reason to dislike software, and this isn’t about replacing yours. A good CRM does its job. Open a client, and there’s everything about them.

But think about the last thing that slipped in your office. It probably wasn’t a client’s phone number. It was more likely something like this:

• A carrier contract sat for two weeks, and nobody noticed until you went to write the business and couldn’t.
• A recert came due, and you found out in a hurry.
• A missed call said it was important, and the sticky note got buried.

None of those belong to a client record. They belong to your agency. That’s why they end up in your email, on a wall calendar, on a sticky note and in your head.

What your CRM holds, and what it may not

In fairness, some insurance CRMs do more here than others. AgencyBloc, for example, lists agent management and compliance management in AMS+. So don’t take our word for it. Ask your CRM company to show you, using your own carriers and dates, and ask one question: will it tell me in time, without anyone remembering to check?

Why trying harder hasn’t fixed it

You’re not disorganized. You’re keeping track of too many dates in too many places, and none of them reminds you.

Agency license, your license, AHIP, each carrier’s recert. Every one renews on its own schedule. Whatever system you’ve tried only works if someone keeps it up to date, and that someone is you. During AEP, that’s the first thing to go.

What Formation does next to your CRM

You enter a contract or a license once. After that, Formation does the remembering.

You tell us what “too long” means in your office. For example:

• No word on a contract in 14 days
• License renewal inside 90 days
• Recert due inside 45 days
• Call-back not returned by end of day

Every morning, Formation checks everything against those rules. At 7:00 AM, you get a short email with only what needs you, and the same list is on your Today screen. If everything’s on track, you hear nothing.

Your CRM keeps doing what it does. It can even show up here: Formation can put your CRM’s calendar on your Today screen, next to your Google calendar, if your CRM offers a calendar feed like AgencyBloc’s.

It’s running at a real agency

Formation runs every morning at an independent Medicare & final-expense agency, tracking 17 carriers, every recert date and every missed call. Here’s what the owner said:

“I don’t know how I would have gotten through AEP without it.”

When your CRM is all you need

This isn’t for everyone. You can skip it if:

• Your CRM already tracks your own dates and tells you what needs you, and you’ve seen it do that with your own carriers.
• You have a few carriers and a license or two, and nothing’s slipping.
• You won’t follow any system at all. Formation does the remembering, but someone still has to put the dates in and act on them.

If you’re thinking about setting something up yourself instead, we wrote an honest comparison of your options. For some agencies, we aren’t the right answer.

What it costs

Builds start at $5,000, and most agencies invest $10,000 to $18,000, paid one piece at a time as it’s built. Monthly upkeep is one flat price, with no charge per person. See what’s included at each level, or what a few hours a week are worth with your own numbers.

Questions agents ask