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PEOPLE ARE FUNNY about investments and insurance. It pays to respond quickly when they want a quote.

But how do you do that when you have more than 5,500 independent agents selling your wares? Kestler Financial Group Inc. (KFG) faced that challenge a few years ago.

Founded in 1992, the firm specializes in securities, annuities and life and long-term care insurance. Each agent sells at least one of the products from carriers featured by KFG.

The trouble was that other companies were offering the same things.

“Our business is very competitive,” says Jason Kestler, a vice president at Leesburg, VA-based KFG. “We're promoting the same products that our competitors are and paying the same commission.”

Another problem was that it often was hard to reach busy agents.

“Typically the most accessible agents are in the field working with clients all day,” Kestler adds.

The solution was a multichannel communications program, including everything from videoconferencing to e-mail. What's more, each field agent has an in-house marketer at KFG. There are 27 in the company, and all maintain the personal touch.

“If one of our marketers is on the phone with an agent and they pick up that a child was sick, they might follow up and check in to see how the child is doing,” Kestler says. “That builds a comfort level. So when the agent calls in they know their point of contact and have a common bond.”

But that's only one form of communication. Others are driven by various triggers.

Case in point: a potential agent (or “recruit”) responds to a postcard or e-mail, and requests information. Three days after the material is sent, a marketer checks in with the recipient. Follow-up calls are initiated in a similar way.

If the recruit asks for a quote, he is asked some profile questions via e-mail. If he doesn't respond, a call is triggered and a marketing rep tries to determine what type of agent the recruit is, and his main lines of business.

“If we identify a life insurance agent, not long-term care, we'll see if the agent is interested in long-term care,” Kestler says. “If not, we'll focus on life insurance and try to win their business.”

And once agents are in the fold, KFG wants their input.

An advisory group made up of a dozen reps is brought into the office for a two-day meeting four times a year. After wining and dining its guests, KFG picks their brains about what's happening in the field, and how the company can make their lives easier.

“Those focus groups have been very helpful,” says Kestler. “A lot of times we're blinded by working in the office, and by what we're hearing from the insurance companies that aren't necessarily out in the field. By bringing the field into our office, we hear their stories and then our marketers can share that information with the rest of our agent base.”

Another communications channel is weekly videoconferencing. This is used to train internal marketers. “Sometimes it's us training them and then other times it's them training us,” Kestler notes.

For example, if a marketer is having a difficult time getting an insurance product approved by the carrier, KFG needs to know why.

“We're all about relationships and being able to see the person over the phone tends to build that relationship a little bit stronger,” Kestler says.

Videoconferencing also enables the agents to question the carriers. And that isn't the only form of contact between those two groups. “A lot of times when we have the quarterly advisory committee come in, we'll allow that group to pose questions to our insurance carriers,” says Kestler.

All videoconferencing is held at KFG's facility. Important information gleaned from the sessions is funneled to the field after the conference via company newsletters.

KFG also reaches its client base through direct mail and e-mail. For example, it may use e-mail for an advisory on new legislation. And if a receipt confirmation is not received, the same material is sent via direct mail.

“We can see who has opened what e-mail at any given time,” says Kestler.

E-mail serves several uses for the company. It's used for promotion and to fulfill quote requests and send the KFG newsletter. And the system is user-friendly: Internal marketers can send professional-looking messages without knowing HTML code.

And it works. Clickthrough rates can be as high as 24%, and open rates often hover around 50%.

“The trackability of e-mail made us take a look at how we could add incentives for our brokers,” Kestler says. “Our e-mails now include sales information, personal incentives and selling tools.”

And the company's survey and form tool allows it to gather information from agents regardless of tight schedules or different time zones.

Kestler sends “request-a-quote” forms to both agents and recruits. “Request-a-quote is really putting our name on top of their desk first,” says Kestler. “There are much faster ways to get quotes, but e-mail has really helped us get into places we haven't been able to get into before.”

E-mail newsletters are another medium used by KFG to keep its reps up to date. The Kestler Connection is sent to existing agents twice a month and to recruits once a month. The total circulation is 60,000. The e-zine includes questions that can be answered at the click of a button.

On the Web, KFG offers a buffet of offerings, between 50 and 55 investment and insurance products. The site helps agents sort them out.

Among the many Web-based tools are the FMA Advisor, providing financial services information; Encompass, which helps create compliance-approved reports on clients' securities accounts; and NetExPro, an account management platform providing real-time quotes.

The others include S&P Fund Advisor for reports on mutual funds; Personal Wealth Solutions, an asset allocation tool; and Prospect Digital, a general online marketing resource. It provides sales-oriented updates and automatic birthday and holiday cards. Plus, agents can use it to maintain their own Web sites.

Those are not the only conveniences. Agents can submit requests for quotes to be handled by the internal case-management team. The rep will be able to track the progression of his submission on the site.

And if the agent does sell a policy or investment product? All he has to do is submit paperwork. The company does the rest, letting him track its progress along the way.

For starters, an e-mail is generated saying the application was received. The agent then receives updates as the form moves from underwriting to processing and finally back to the agent's desk. The rep also is advised about his commission, which is deposited automatically into his checking account.

Moreover, if an agent needs information about the client, it will be available by logging on to the company's Web site and performing a simple search. He can then review the application, the history of contact between the company and client, and contents of all mailings.

Which tools does KFG use for its multichannel efforts? Campaigns are run through SalesLogix, its client management systems software. And ExactTarget provides an e-mail portal to agents.

And the results? KFG's business is up 42% over the last year. And agents are happier, Kestler says, because “use of the Web and e-mail has opened up accessibility for our company outside of core business hours.”