Is it just me, or is all the snow in Denver getting a tad old?
At any rate, InsureMe will close early this afternoon on account of an incoming snow storm; we’ll be closed tomorrow as well. It’s for that reason that I’ll use today’s post to wish you all very safe, happy (and hopefully non-snowy) New Year.
Here are just a couple of things you can expect (and look forward to) from the InsureMe Agent Blog in 2007:
Industry analysts have taken a good long look at the insurance industry and have made predictions for challenges and opportunities in the New Year.
According to a recent article by Insurance News Net, “the battleground (or rather, the goldmine) for next year’s insurance industry will most likely be the demographic of retiring Americans.”
In accordance, analysts have pinpointed the following five opportunities to consider in 2007:
Tapping Middle Wealth: [...] “Producers and advisors will need to introduce new forms of advisory services and innovative income-generating protection products.”
Continued Convergence and Consolidation: “Consolidation of stock and mutual companies will continue and will push smaller players out of the market…”
Capital Management: “Steady capital management adherence will be vital to business growth strategies.”
Managing Risk: “Insurers will continue to improve their risk management frameworks, reporting, governance, and risk measurements.”
Aggressive Compliance Monitoring: “Compliance issues will be strictly observed with better documentation of processes and controls.”
As for challenges in 2007, experts suggest watching for the following:
Continued weakness in housing and mortgage markets
Additional litigation targeting title companies
Downward pricing pressure resulting from regulatory reviews
Check out the full article over at INN to take a look at 2007 highlights per market segment.
[UPDATE: 12.27.2006] Blog comments are back! Go crazy!
Hey guys and gals, just want to send along my apologies to anyone who’s tried to post comments to the Agent Blog with limited success. Not sure what the problem is just yet, but we’re working on it!
In the meantime, if one of our posts stirs in you a dire urge to express yourself, please do so via email at mmahan [at] insureme [dot] com.
Well, after being closed for three days last week (followed by a holiday weekend), it’s back to work as usual here at InsureMe. In catching up with my reading today, I was struck by this recent post over at Landing the Deal, which deals with overcoming psychological debt when it comes to sales.
What’s psychological debt? Sales veteran Tim O’Connor explains:
I was receiving a lot of positive feedback from prospects:
“Tim you are really good at this.”
“You are going to be really successful in this business.”
“You really know your stuff.”
Kind words, yes; but a sale, no.
I sought out my good friend, Larry, who was making over a million dollars a year selling insurance. I told him of my plight: lots of compliments, but no orders.
Larry, the insurance sales guru, told O’Connor that by educating prospects, lending his expertise and being friendly and courteous, he was building a psychological debt:
“They owe you, and the way they pay off the debt is with a compliment. Once you accept the compliment, the debt is paid.” And, thus, no sale.
To fix the problem, Larry encouraged O’Connor to refuse compliments from prospects. If you don’t accept a compliment, Larry explained, the debt still exists. “Now when you get an order and a compliment, say ‘thank you very much.’”
The subject of sales psychology is of great interest to me. I hope to read a little more about it and post my findings here. For now, read the full post to learn more about overcoming psychological debt, and see if it can’t help you convert a few more sales leads.
In case you’ve missed the news in the last 48 hours, we’re having some pretty crazy weather here in Denver. There’s about two and a half feet of snow outside my window here, which even has my cat a little awestruck. As a result, InsureMe has been closed for two days.
Nonetheless, I’ve been snuffing out some interesting articles and headlines for your surfing pleasure. Some may call this blog dedication. Others may call it cabin fever. I’ll let you decide.
I’ll be out of the office tomorrow, so here’s wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday. We’ll see you back here on Tuesday with more insurance news and tips.
Very interesting report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today (story available here via the Insurance Journal) which found driver deaths in minicars are higher than in any other vehicle–and more than double the death rates in midsize and large cars.
While the report findings are indeed interesting, I always enjoy reading the reader responses to IJ articles.
“Bulldogg” sure doesn’t know what to believe anymore–whether minicars are the way to go or if SUVs should rule the road:
WAIT A MOMENT, I was told (by the all-knowing media) that it was the SUVs that were killing people? I was told that small cars were the way to go, they were good on gas, good for the environment and safer because they don’t go as fast.
NOW, I’m more likely to die in a car crash in one of these “Environmentally safe” cars?
Who screwed up on this one and led the media astray?
In the most dramatic light, it almost seems as if people are going to have to choose between bigger, potentially safer vehicles for the personal welfare of loved ones…or safer (and more fuel economical) vehicles for the environment.
Definitely a thought-provoking article. Check it out here and post your thoughts via comments.
[photo of the Toyota Yaris courtesy of Jalopnik.com]
The final cut of our latest InsureMe video wasn’t ready when I left work last Friday afternoon, but it is ready now, and gaining traction on YouTube.
If you’ve watched the video, you know that it marks the final days of the InsureMe Insurance Blog.
Why slay the Insurance Blog? (Technically ’slay’ isn’t true to form–it will still be there and we may still use it.) In short we realized that no one wanted to read about insurance every day. We also realized that, even for a team of highly-trained copywriters, finding something consumer and insurance-oriented every day was quite a challenge.
Duh, you might be saying. We could have told you that. Yes, you could have. But we needed to see whether a blog would help us make our insurance mark on the Web–whether we could become remarkable, a purple cow–and distinguish ourselves from our competitors.
Purple we did not become with the Insurance Blog, but calling it a failure wouldn’t be accurate either. The blog allowed us to flex our insurance grey matter, better hone our writing skills, answer consumer questions, experiment with videos, and ultimately, figure out what would work (and what wouldn’t) in our competitive space when it came to reaching insurance shoppers. It also became a measuring stick of success for our other blogs, this here Agent Blog and the Affiliate Blog. (Which are doing quite lovely, we’re happy to report.)
So, yeah. We had to call it a day and move on with new innovative ideas. We’ll be focusing our efforts even more intensely on the Agent and Affiliate blogs, as well as our videos, most of which will be showcased here every Friday.
So without further ado, check out our sianara to the Insurance Blog. It’s worth a viewing or two, I think. Especially if you have a penchant for wigs, off-key singing and CEOs who shed articles of clothing in the name of video making.
Even those who don’t celebrate Christmas can surely appreciate the art and skill that went into making a Christmas tree entirely out of soda cans.
The making of this tree looks pretty arduous; there’s no disputing the fact that I lack the patience (and the free time) to complete such a task. If time and resources are keeping you from building your own soda can tree, you’re in luck. This one’s for sale on eBay!
Enjoy the photos and check back here tomorrow afternoon for the final installment of the InsureMe Insurance Blog Wrap-Up–the holiday edition.
A recent survey by Sun Life Financial revealed that 22 percent of all retirees are forced into retirement earlier than they’d planned on. The findings came via press release through the Insurance News Net today.
The survey also turned up the following figures:
The leading cause of early retirement (at 44 percent) is layoffs/downsizing, followed by personal illness at 32 percent.
69 percent of repondents said early retirement greatly affected their lifestyle and had to reduce expenses as a result
55 percent of respondents said they were ineligible for Social Security benefits when they were forced to leave the workforce
While the lack of financial preparedness of the Boomer generation isn’t exactly news, these new findings may prompt older adults to take a second look at their retirement plan. Which means more prospects for you to absorb. Take a look at the full press release at INN here, and check out the bonus links below to help you get good and excited about opportunity in this area!
Not much going on by way of industry news today (or at least nothing that particularly moves me one way or another), but I did like this post by David Rossmiller at the Insurance Coverage Law Blog, who linked to a long but interesting story in the Kansas City Star about common complaints in auto, home and health lines of insurance.
I read the entire article this afternoon, and I agree with David that it’s a well-rounded story. It could be considered a small PR nightmare for the insurers named in the article (especially with the headline, “Complaints burn insurance customers’ trust”), but then I suppose that depends on the size of the KC Star readership…and the speed with which the named insurers move to resolve customer complaints.
Anyway, if you have a minute, check out the article here and give it a once-over. I think it’s worth a look.
