Greetings, Readers of the InsureMe Agent Blog!

Just wanted to let you all know that we've been experiencing some technical difficulties here at the Agent Blog, which are keeping us from cleaning the SPAM from the comments and making it difficult to publish some of our posts.

The wonderful folks in our IT department are working on the issue, so please bear with us while we sort this out. And if you could turn a blind eye to those unsightly SPAM comments, that'd make me feel better. Unless you want free ringtones or something...then by all means, click away.

Hmm. On second thought, don't. :)

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

The home insurance drama continues.

In an article reported by The Advocate in Louisiana, Allstate has officially ticked off Insurance Commissioner, Jim Donelon.

The mega-insurer says that Louisiana state law allows the company to drop basic hurricane coverage—including hail and wind damange—for 30,000 policyholders in 18 coastal parishes. Donelon maintains that a state consumer protection law prevents insurance companies from changing or dropping a policy if a homeowner has been insured for at least three years and filed no more than two claims not considered "acts of God".

Allstate's legal representative, Lorrie Brouse, said that the law deals only with policy cancellations and nonrenewals.

"We're not disputing the statue. We're saying what we're planning to do doesn't apply [to it]."

In his rebuke, Commissioner Donelon said that the consumer law doesn't allow insurers to "gut" policies and that Allstate wrote policies with full knowledge of that law. He expects the issue to be settled by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Check out the full story courtesy of the Insurance Journal here; also be sure to take a look at the thread of comments following the article. Feel free to leave your thoughts and impressions via comments. I'll keep an eye out for updates and post them here!

[POST AMENDED AND UPDATED 7.31.2006]

[8.2.2006] Check out an update of this story via the Insurance Journal, here.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
 

I'm fairly sure that many of my posts here at the InsureMe Agent Blog have said something along the lines of, "do it before your competitor does" or, "make the change before the competition does."

I realized this afternoon that I've lost focus a bit.

Yes, you always want to supersede your competition. It's insurance sales—that's the nature of the beast. But this recent post from Creating Passionate Users snapped me out of the competition funk. Because it's not all about the competition. In fact, it's not even remotely all about the competition. It's about providing a rewarding and memorable experience for the consumer.

So take a look at the Creating Passionate Users post, see if you can draw some parallels, and try to realign your focus...keeping the competition on the periphery, of course.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

I came across this little story by way of the Insurance Coverage Law Blog today, detailing the events of a class-action lawsuit against American Family Insurance Company. The named plantiff, Manuel Hernandez, died in 2004...but counsel continued to try the case as if he were alive—effectively keeping the plantiff's death a secret.

An Arizona attorney happened upon the truth in March and filed a suggestion of death on behalf of American Family, complete with a copy of Hernandez's death certificate. Consequently, AmFam wanted to know how long the client had been dead. However, counsel has referred all questions to the [dead] client.

Here's an excerpt from the Madison-St.Clair Record:

Millar [Hernandez attorney] has confirmed the death of his client, but he has not answered questions that American Family Insurance submitted about his knowledge of it.

Millar objected to the questions, arguing to [Circut Judge] Stack that American Family Insurance should submit them not to Hernandez's attorney but to Hernandez himself.

Yeah. I'll definitely be filing today's entry under "Peculiar Postings."

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

How many times has this happened to you: you go on a sales call and realize you forgot your calculator. Then comes the onslaught of mental math anxiety (MMA).

Say goodbye to MMA forever with this high-tech pen calculator. (Click the link to see a video of the pen in action.)

Okay, probably not the most practical invention ever, but still worth checking out.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

[Hat tip]: TechEBlog

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

In a recent post on Seeds of Growth, author Dave Free introduced a new form of ADD that seems to be emerging: Customer Attention Deficit Disorder. It seems that customers are no longer paying attention to traditional marketing techniques. Instead, they are paying attention to their friends, family and co-workers. The opinion of people they know carries a lot more weight than the opinion of someone doing the advertising.

Here at InsureMe we have been focusing a great deal of our attention towards our consumers and the experience that they have with us. We want to be remarkable and we want our consumers to share how remarkable we are with others. Viral marketing is becoming more and more important to a company's success as described in Free's post, as well as in this post by Megan.

So...what makes you stand out?

[Related Article]:

Successfully Marketing Yourself & Your Business [InsureMe Agent Resource Center]

Posted by at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

There's a great article in the July issue of Health Insurance Underwriter magazine entitled, One Spouse Approved, One Declined—What Can I Do to Save the Case? Because, as author Phillip Sullivan points out, when one spouse is declined for health, life or LTC coverage, the approved spouse tends to refuse the coverage altogether. Sullivan refers to this as "cutting-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face syndrome".

Pre-qualifying the sale is paramount to avoiding CYNOTSYF syndrome says Sullivan. (That's the last time I use that acronym, I swear.) To that end, he recommends making a strong pre-qualifying phone call before heading out on a sales call.

From a time management point of view, I would rather know I have a potential underwriting problem before I arrive than to invest time in an appointment which will not result in a sale.

Thus, in his pre-qualifying call, Sullivan explains that not everyone can get long-term care coverage (for example) because of health reasons. Then he asks the prospects to share any serious illnesses or hospital stays that they've experienced in the past five years, followed by a list of medications the pair currently takes. And this, Sullivan enforces, is where you must know the health issues your carrier will not insure.

Taking into account the prospects' health information and your underwriting guidelines, you'll be able to determine whether one of the spouses is likely to be uninsurable. And Sullivan suggests that you bring up this possibility before you set up the sales appointment.

You'll want to say something like,

"As I said before, Mrs. Prospect, this is a health-qualifying product and because of the health problem(s) you've described with your husband, he may not qualify for the coverage."

And here's where you need to catch the CYNOTSYF syndrome before it even begins. (Okay, so I totally used the acronym again. Apologies.)

"Mrs. Prospect, you're not alone. I've had many clients in the exact same situation—where one spouse was insurable and the other was not—and I was able to find a solution to help both of them. If I could create a solution that would help protect both of you, would you be interested in pursuing that further?"

Sullivan maintains that at this point, it's essential that you keep the prospects focused on finding a solution rather than focusing on the issue. You can do this by stating the problem ("Without coverage, you could find yourself using all of your resources on your husband, leaving minimal protection for yourself.") and providing a solution (A policy that can work with the given circumstances). Discussing potential options with the prospects can make for a very rewarding (and profitable) sales call.

All in all, good thoughts from Sullivan. Start with the pre-qualifying call, identify problem areas from the outset and focus on shifting the prospects' emotions from the anger and embarrassment of being uninsurable, to the positive—finding a solution.

Easy as pie, right? :)

Share your sale saves via comments for the rest of us to "ooh" and "ahh" at.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

So, the Insurance Journal is selling its new publication, Insurance Journal's Top 100 Property-Casualty Agencies for 2006. They're selling it for $35. They should be selling it for $0.

Now, I'm not some crazy writer person who doesn't understand that companies need to make money. I don't write for free (though I've been known to barter) and I certainly don't expect InsureMe to start giving away insurance leads because it's the nice thing to do.

But we do a lot of stuff for a lot of people we don't do direct business with. We've put together two informational resource centers (one for agents, one for consumers) and three blogs: one for agents, one for consumers and one for affiliates. And there's absolutely no guarantee that the people who use these free resources will decide to partner with InsureMe.

And we're cool with that.

Because being giving and forthright with people is one of the many ways we show love to our industry and demonstrate that we're a great organization to work with. But I digress.

So IJ wants $35 for this publication that ranks independent agencies based on their 2005 volume. And they don't want you to share it with anyone. Rooted in industry's truly old-school frame of mind, this publication is "not for multiple distribution." Talk about taking two steps forward and one step back.

If the insurance industry is going to turn a new page, it will need to recognize the value in sharing information and co-creating with others—maybe even with competitors. (See Laura's latest post and our Tips for Agents category for more on this.)

Take the Web Marketing Association, for instance. They sponsor an annual Web Award competition and after the winners have been announced, the WMA publishes a list of the winners and their respective web URLs on the WMA site for everyone to see. They understand that learning from each other and gleaning best practices is what it's all about.

And that's why, on premise alone, organizations like the WMA get it right...and today, the Insurance Journal is getting it wrong.

[Bonus reading]:

Spark: Be More Innovative Through Co-Creation by John Winsor (Amazon)
John Winsor's blog

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

Good news out of the Southeast today: Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina have been named in the top five states for flood insurance growth, according to the NFIP. FloodSmart figures show that 80 percent of flood insurance growth is attributable to these Southeast states.

Insurance commissioner, George Dale is very pleased by the growing numbers and continues to encourage homeowners to purchase the extra coverage:

I am particularly happy to see so many coastal residents taking action now to prepare themselves for the next storm that may threaten our coast and I would encourage those who have not yet purchased flood insurance to please make that very important choice to get flood coverage.

While last year's active hurricane season more that demonstrated the need for flood insurance along the coast, I think we can also attribute this surge to the numerous insurance agents across the country working to educate clients and prospects about such issues. Well done!

[Source]: Insurance Journal

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

I know, I know. This is a blog for insurance agents and I probably shouldn't let the Faceless Realtor Guy get anywhere near our sandbox. But, just for today, I'm going to let him borrow my shovel. Here's the story:

I was talking to a friend of mine briefly this afternoon and she divulged that she and her husband had just celebrated the first anniversary of their new home. And to help them celebrate, their realtor sent them a gift card to their favorite restaurant.

Now this gesture says three things to me:

1. To remember such a thing, the realtor has got to be pretty organized


2. The realtor invests a good deal of resources into maintaining working business relationships


3. The realtor knew his clients well enough to know where they'd like to eat

Any way you slice it, the guy clearly goes above and beyond for clients. And if I can ever get over my fear of committment enough to buy real estate, I'll be asking my friend for this guy's number. And there's nothing like earning a referral that you didn't have to ask for!

So here's to you, Faceless Realtor Guy. Thanks for being our Salesperson of the Day.

What do you do to maintain relationships with your clients? Share your best practices, if you would, via comments.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

I found brief op-ed piece by way of The Desert Sun newspaper (Palm Springs, Calif.) this morning regarding Proposition 103, which more or less proscribes the use of ZIP codes in private auto insurance underwriting guidelines—instead using a policyholder's driving record, the number of miles driven annually, and years of driving experience to determine rates.

Prop. 103 happened onto the scene in 1989 after Californians noticed a sizeable disparity in insurance rates based solely on ZIP code. According to the editorial, in a quick survey of one insurance company, yearly rates in Palm Springs were higher by $326 than in Palm Desert's 92255 delivery area. Conversely, residents in nearby La Quinta saw cheaper rates by over $200.

As a result of Prop. 103, AAA now plans to base its rates on the abovementioned criteria, giving ZIP codes in the back seat.

Insurance companies, not surprisingly, have opposed Prop. 103 from the beginning, saying that ZIP codes are an essential factor in assessing risk and determining cost. The Desert Sun admits that where a policyholder lives can have an affect on their risk, saying, "[...] Where one lives has some bearing on the potential for an accident and auto thefts. Communities with more inexperienced drivers and heavily traveled roads often do see high accident rates. Some communities suffer higher crime rates."

But does a driver's ZIP code really warrant increased car insurance rates?

The Sun contends that ZIP code is pretty irrelevant when compared to other factors.

By far what determines if one will file an insurance claim are other factors. More experienced drivers usually have low accident rates as they are better able to avoid and respond to a road hazard, both state and national transportation statistics show. In addition, those who drive more miles usually have high accident rates as they put themselves in harm's way more frequently.

Indeed, many people go years with out an accident despite living an an area where collisions are frequent. Requiring that good driver to pay a higher rate hardly is fair or equitable.

The editorial ends with a call to action: for other insurance companies to quit fighting Proposition 103 and follow AAA's lead.

I'm inclined to agree with the editorial, much as I've sided with consumers on underwriting issues in the past. It occurred to me this morning that if insurers can tell us that they look at claims on a "case-by-case basis", why can't consumers demand that insurers set rates on a case-by-case basis, rather than lumping drivers into broad categories like ZIP code, occupation and education level?

I'm sure someone has an opposing viewpoint. I'm all ears.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

Today I learned how to make the A-List as an insurance agent, should I ever have the urge to become one. Helen Thompson at Advisor Today interviewed a very successful California based agent, Robert Fakhimi, and picked his brain for some helpful tips for new agents.

He shared what made his agents successful and I really took notice of the fact that he encouraged teamwork. "Work with other stars" was number two on his list of tips. Not only do I believe this to be true, I have witnessed what an impact it can make.

A few months ago I called a prospective client (we'll call him John) and after spending close to half an hour answering questions about our service John expressed his concern about signing up. He had been selling insurance for more than 20 years and was not completely convinced that internet leads were successful.

I got in touch with another agent (we'll call him Bob) that I was sure would be willing to speak with John and made sure both had the other's contact information. When I spoke to both of them later in the week I was very pleasantly surprised at what I heard.

John decided he would sign up with us and also gained some very good advice from Bob, who has been with us for quite some time. John felt much better equipped to handle internet leads.

Bob also received some great new ideas from John, who is a veteran agent. He was very thankful that I had asked him to speak to John and asked that if I ever had another agent that wanted to speak with someone to please give that agent his phone number.

As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. At Fakhimi's agency they bring this a little closer to home. There are a group of agents in the office that meet every few months to brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other. The agency has more than tripled in size in the last five years so something is definitely working.

Feel free to leave your feedback and if you try it out, let me know how it goes.

[More tips]

Tips for Success: How Good Agents Become Great

Insurance Agent Success Stories: Tips from the Pros

Posted by at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

I've been reading for the better part of this afternoon. Lots of good stuff, but nothing so inspirational that I had to drop what I was doing and feverishly type up a blog post.

And then I came across this image of Hugh's:

What kind of hope do you sell your prospects?

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
 

I'm such a dope. After last month's post equating insurance sales to green eggs and ham, (which referenced a post from sales blog Landing the Deal,) author Dan Tudor took the time to respond to my question. And I just now saw it.

My question to Dan? How can you be persistent with a prospect without annoying them?

His response started with a quote from the great Babe Ruth:

It's hard to beat up a guy who never gives up.

And that's really what it's all about, right? Not giving up?

Dan went on to say that being persistent with prospects doesn't have to be annoying, unprofessional or bothersome (although it certainly can be).

If you approach a persistent request to do business with a professional, upbeat and even informative technique, your prospects won't mind hearing from you.

At first blush, he makes a good point. But upon closer examination there seems to be one thing separating my opinions on persistent sales tactics from Dan's [or so I suspect]: a generation gap.

To be blunt, my generation doesn't have the patience or the tolerance for such persistence. And while this isn't the best testament to my usually winning personality [har], I barely have the patience for someone who greets me at the store entrance. If I need help, I'll ask. If I want a collapsible basket to use while I shop, I'll grab one. I think it's fair to say that younger generations have perfected the aloof vibe to a T, and if we want something, we will come to you.

However [big however], most sales people don't sell solely to younger generations, especially in the case of insurance. Which is why, as we've mentioned before here at the Agent Blog, it's important to know who you're selling to. Sales tactics aren't one-size-fits-all. They're not even one-size-fits-most.

So, if I had to tack anything on to Dan's closing green eggs reply, I'd say, be persistent, be professional and know your prospect.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

Tiffany left a great comment under our recent post, Need Prospects? Give A Little [More]. (Be sure to check it out if you need a refresher.) Tiffany's comment goes as follows:

Good article, but I would have liked for him [marketing consultant, John Graham] to connect the ipod, starbucks, sieko, etc. scenarios to insurance. What can agents do? We can't offer freebees if our parent companies don't offer them?

My thoughts go something like this:

Insurance companies need to get it together. They are consistently picked on by analysts as lagging behind in technology, marketing, etc. In fact, recently the Insurance Journal reported that top insurance companies are still missing the mark when it comes to their homepages [more on this later, possibly.]

But insurance companies can't "get it together" at random. They need someone like you to do their homework, get peers to rally around forward-thinking ideas and pitch these ideas to the management team.

This is just one of the ways that we at InsureMe improve our processes—from big things like our business model to the smaller day-to-day things like the physical space in which we work.

Be the spark that ignites innovative change; other people will certainly gravitate towards new and inspiring improvements. And while the insurance industry may be slow to change, remember that those who step out of the box first are likely to carry significant weight in the marketplace.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Check out Penny's article on online insurance shopping over at the InsureMe Insurance Blog.

It looks like fewer and fewer consumers are turning to their telephones to shop for insurance. But you knew that already. The question is: are you poised to take advantage?

Don't forget to check out the Online Insurance Marketing section of our Agent Resource Center. And for more on web marketing, check out the InsureMe Affiliate Blog.

[Full disclosure: this photo is utterly strange.]

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

That's what sales blog Landing the Deal asks in a recent post.

Landing the Deal author, Dan Tudor, threw up a link to the Top Seven Signs Someone Is Lying to You; I'm sure you've heard most of these "signs" before: avoiding eye contact, making inconsistent statements, uncomfortable or nervous body language, etc. Most of us know when we're getting the run-around. What we don't often know is why, or how to get the prospect back on board. And really, that's what it's all about, right?

When I was in sales, it was fairly easy to tell when someone was fibbing, and after awhile I learned that most prospects would lie to me for one of three reasons:

1. I was doing a crappy job of appealing to the prospect's needs and wants
2. The prospect really, truly didn't want what I had to offer
3. The prospect desperately wanted to get back to Jerry Springer [which, in daytime telemarketing is more common than one might think.]

But usually, I had to decipher between reasons one and two—which meant scaling back the sales pressure and getting back to basics: establishing the prospect's habits, the capabilities they demand from a product [price, flexibility, etc.] and then demonstrating how the product can both accommodate current habits and satisfy the prospect's wants and needs.

Did this tactic work every time? Of course not. But I saved quite a few sales with these kinds of white liars just by slowing down and explaining to them my truth.

What are your tactics? How do you save the sale from white lie limbo?

[Related articles]:
Interpreting Your Clients' Body Language
Educating Your Clients...One Step at a Time
Successful Closing Tips: How to Complete Your Lead

Posted by Megan Mahan at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

BtoB Online published a short little something today following a Dallas poll in which 46 percent of respondents said that angry bloggers should be ignored or managed by the customer relations department.

I'm not going to lie to you—these poll findings elevated my blood pressure quite a bit. And if you're not entirely sure what the findings have to do with insurance sales, allow me to make the connection for you.

Ignoring angry clients is like shooting yourself in the foot. Repeatedly. Why? Not only can consumer criticism foster the necessary change you need to improve your business practices, but, as you may have noticed, people are talking. They're talking about their experiences with companies and the business people they interact with—the good and the bad. And people are spreading these experiences—good and bad—all over the blogosphere.

By now you've probably seen or at least heard of AOL's poor customer service after patron Vincent Ferrari was badgered for cancelling his account. And, despite the fact that blogs like The Consumerist are relentlessly criticizing AOL for its business practices, the company [which did release an apologetic statement after the Ferarri incident] doesn't seem to care what anyone else is saying about them. Tisk, tisk.

But back to the question at hand: what should you do with the angry people? Well, you should talk to them. Whether you've received an angry or critical comment on your blog, or a consumer calls in and complains about your business practices, my advice is to listen to your critics and engage them in an open dialogue. Because even if you're unable to come up with a solution that makes everyone happy [which is most certainly the case sometimes], ignoring complaints altogether can put you in an AOL-esque world of hurt.

So fear not the critical comments. Face them. Explore them. Learn something. [End rant.]

Posted by Megan Mahan at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

I don't know about you, but I'm totally riveted by the story of Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt—the two elderly ladies charged with life insurance fraud and federal mail fraud, with possible murder charges to come.

Here's the latest:

Yesterday, a magistrate judge denied the women bail, saying there was "probable cause" that they were responsible for the deaths of two homeless men. The women, 73 and 75 respectively, allegedly befriended two homeless men, who were later killed in unsolved hit-and-run accidents, and then collected over $2.7 million from the men's life insurance policies.

The duo's lawyers contested the judge's decision, saying that neither of the women were considered dangerous, nor were they considered flight risks.

I appreciated this dry commentary from David Rossmiller at the Insurance Coverage Law blog:

The lawyer for one protested that his client poses very little risk of killing anyone. He might have also pointed out that the alleged killings were six years apart, and by that standard the next one could be as much as five years off. Also, he could have pointed out that there are millions of people in the L.A. area who were not killed by her and that statistically, if you have a home and a life insurance beneficiary that is not her, you are entirely safe.

Jokes aside, it is a disturbing story. We'll keep the updates coming.

[Related posts]:
Two Elderly Women Arrested for Life Insurance Fraud [5.23.2006]
UPDATE: Elderly Women Arrested for Life Insurance Fraud [6.9.2006]

Posted by Megan Mahan at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

Well, I trust that everyone had happy and safe Fourth of July. Don't ask me how, but I managed to sunburn my hands. We're talking swollen, sore fingers and little water blisters. I was unaware of the sunburned hand phenomenon, and until last night, I was equally unaware as to how uncomfortable it could be. Needless to say, today's post is going short and sweet so I can crawl back under my desk and whimper.

Penny sent me this featured article from Insurance News Net last week and I think it's worth taking a look at. It's all about giving, says author and marketing consultant, John Graham, in order to receive.

Graham presents various giving scenarios, and aptly demonstrates the power of "free," the power of personalizing the purchase and the power of enhancing the purchase, to name a few. For the most part, I really liked the article. Graham seems to understand that today's prospect expects a lot more from goods and services. And if you can't give the prospect what they want—if you can't appeal to the stories today's prospects are telling themselves—I'm sure you have a competitor or two who can step in and help.

Check out the story here and let me know what you think.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

British insurer, Musicguard, is getting it right.

The company [part of the larger Pavilion Insurance company] has been providing specialist musician and musical equipment insurance for the last ten years, and their new product—DJGuard—is now on the market to meet the needs of DJs, VJs, clubs and other establishments.

DJGuard came in response to customers who voiced a need for such a product. Musicguard also operates under a "create your own cover" philosophy, which allows customers to select the elements of coverage they need and avoid paying for superfluous coverage.

"The ability to mix and match benefits to create a tailor made policy enables an individual solution for every customer," said Pavilion Marketing Director, Giles Rees. "It's a refreshing change to 'like it or lump it' all inclusive musical equipment insurance policies."

A company that listens and responds to the needs of their customers and gives customers freedom of choice? Refreshing indeed.

[Source]: PRWeb

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)