Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance professionals

There’s no question; the health-insurance industry is floundering–millions uninsured, ever-increasing premiums accompanied by less comprehensive coverage.

And although President Bush’s health proposal has its critics, it addresses an issue that has long plagued Americans, particularly the 47 million uninsured.

His proposal, while vastly different from former President Clinton’s attempt at health-care reform, has one similarity. It guarantees to upend a health-insurance system that has covered most Americans for the last 60 years.

And even though change is inevitable, especially the reform of a faulty system, it has the tendency to incite fear and doubt.

But let’s not jump to partisan conclusions just yet.

The state of affairs…for now

The least expensive, most popular way to purchase health insurance is tax free through an employer. If an individual contributes, he or she is covered, regardless of health or age.

Because many partake in their employers’ health insurance program, the majority of uninsured Americans comprise lower-income families, children and minorities. However, in recent years the issue has ceased being one of socio-economic status or race and begun to affect middle-class Americans, many of whom are self employed or working for small businesses that don’t offer health insurance.

The uninsured masses either purchase individual health insurance, with no tax deductions, or remain uninsured and possibly dependent on government programs, such as Medicaid.

…Read the rest of this entry »

In what’s probably the most obvious headline ever written, today the Insurance Journal posted an AP story titled “Many La. Residents Reluctant to Rebuild on Coast.”

The article details a recent Associated Press analysis which found that tens of thousands of Louisiana homeowners have decided not to rebuild on their old stomping ground. In the 31 coastal zip codes affected the 2005 hurricanes, as many as two out of three homeowners said they won’t rebuild.

Some residents call the reluctance a “knee-jerk reaction” to “a little water.” Gun-shyness be darned–between the increased hurricane risk and home insurance rates, I don’t know that I’d be rushing back to rebuild either.

Despite the fairly obvious title, the article is an interesting read. Check it out here.

In other home insurance news, there’s a great recount of this Orlando Sentinel piece over at the Insurance Coverage Law blog.

The article discusses the growing home insurance problems in Florida, noting that out of the top ten most expensive disasters in U.S. history, the state has seen six of them (in 2004 and 2005). Then there’s the growing school of thought amidst residents who feel they’re entitled to cheaper home insurance. Check out the full post here for more great commentary.

Any other home insurance happenings we should be talking about?

[UPDATE]: Florida gets hit again with catastrophic weather

As we told you a couple weeks ago in the first Agent Blog Wrap-Up, we’ve got some new contributors to the Agent Blog. Put the names to the stellar writing by checking out the recently revamped InsureMe Agent Blog bios!

We hope to keep this page pretty dynamic as far as content and photos go, so check back often. And yes there is a marketing method behind the bio madness–we know that a more personable About Us section can help develop a relationship between visitor and author. We also know that relationships can lead to increased sales (or in this case, increased blog readership).

Of course, as you can tell by the photos, we also think it’s a good idea not to take oneself too seriously.

[Leave a comment with your favorite business movie to enter to win a prize from InsureMe! All comments must be received by Thursday, February 15.]

But because this blog is about insurance, I can’t justify talking about the latest blockbuster or the Dakota Fanning controversy. (I’ll allow myself a quick aside: Check out “Pan’s Labyrinth” if it’s playing at a theater near you. A+)

So let’s talk about business movies, a sub-genre that, believe it or not, is composed of quite a few excellent titles. (I suppose it depends on how strict your definition of a ‘business movie’ is–mine is lenient enough to include “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.”)

…Read the rest of this entry »

In this week’s Agent Blog Wrap-Up, we discuss an insurance company getting into banking, how to deal with jerks, why a business plan isn’t always necessary and discover that Rhode Island, does indeed, exist.

Very cool tip from LifeHacker about free podcasts from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), aimed at helping people start successful small businesses. The podcasts, which vary in topic, are designed to teach the basics, according to LifeHacker.

SBA.gov already hosts 9 podcasts, with more to come. Current topics include tips for creating effective business plans, how to finance a small business, and a checklist for starting a new business.

It looks like great stuff, and downloading each podcast couldn’t be easier. Check out the SBA Podcast page to get listening!

Every once in a while I read something that inspires the belief that things are going to be OK, that the apocalypse is not actually at hand.

The most recent morale-boosting article came from the Insurance Journal under the unlikely headline “R.I. High Court Throws out Lawsuit Based on Bad Job Reference.”

Not being a court watcher or follower of Rhode Island news, I nearly ignored the story. But the idea of a lawsuit based on a bad job reference caught my attention, so I followed the link.

Here the lede from the story:

Rhode Island’s highest court this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by a licensed nurse who sued her former boss over a bad job reference.

Here’s the follow-up graf:

Paula Kevorkian said Judith Glass, her former supervisor at the Pawtuxet Village Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, wrote a defamatory and malicious reference when she described Kevorkian as having “unacceptable work practice habits.”

Yes, the nurse’s name is Kevorkian. And the reason for the bad reference from her former supervisor? “Kevorkian was suspended from work for three days in April 1994 for allegedly failing to give patients their necessary medications, according to the court’s 12-page ruling.”

I swear I’m not making this up.

The Rhode Island court, in its wisdom, threw out the case, saying Glass was qualified to make such statements about Kevorkian and was not motivated by malice or ill will. She was just being honest. And who knows? Maybe she thought people’s lives depended on this woman not being in a position to dispense vital medication.

So the court made the right move and didn’t set a precedent that would have likely resulted in the cessation of the entire enterprise of reference writing. Well done, Rhode Island.

Yet in looking through the comments on the article, it seems as if many employers were already skittish about writing references for their former workers. That’s a shame.

Other people who posted comments focused on the plaintiff’s unfortunate surname. To whom commenter Todd Hitler replied, “What’s wrong with her name?”

A-B-C Always Be Closing–a sales concept depicted in Glengarry Glen Ross, and alluded to eight years later in Boiler Room. While highly entertaining, both movies portray the kind of salespeople you don’t want to be–despicable, manipulative, conniving (albeit loaded…until the end of the movie when they inevitably get what’s coming to them.)

The characters are amusing and exaggerated, but A-B-C is an actual theory and the actors’ methods not a far cry from what was taught to Xerox salespeople and followed religiously until the early nineties.

Today, most professional salespeople agree selling should be a buyer-centric experience, and your goal should involve building trust not closing the deal. Closing is an afterthought, which inevitably follows when you foster a relationship with the buyer.

Buying is more about you as a person and less about your actual product. In his article Charles Green discusses the three common mistakes of most salespeople.

- talking too much about yourself
- talking too much about your product or service
- pushing too fast to move to action steps

He explains that when a buyer decides to make a purchase it isn’t because they were persuaded by your rational arguments, but rather because they have begun to trust you so are comfortable with the idea of buying from you.

Think back to the last time someone tried to sell you on something. Did you by because you were swayed by their fast talking and wit? Probably not. You likely needed or wanted the product you purchased and were planning to buy eventually. Because they made you feel at ease, you chose them–not necessarily what they were selling, which you likely could have gotten elsewhere.

Your prospects need insurance and can get it from any number of agents. When you talk to them remember that the policy will sell itself. Your job is to get them to buy it from you.

Read the article.

Nice post over on Guy Kawasaki’s blog about the modern day business plan–which, in some cases, may include not having one. He highlights some findings from a report as published in this Wall Street Journal article:

…Read the rest of this entry »

According to an article via the Insurance Journal today, Mutual of Omaha has its sights set on market expansion–namely, banking.

The near 100-year old company could potentially market the new offerings to its existing policyholders. Which, at the end of 2005, included 1.5 million individual policyholders and more than 13,500 employer groups.

Mutual of Omaha president and CEO Jeff Schmid said the new offering would “be a base for extending electronic banking across the country.”

The operative word for the move, however, is “diversify.” By involving themselves in the banking market, Schmid added that they could broaden Mutual’s horizons for the future:

“We have the ability to build a company that complements Mutual over the next 10 or 20 years, that really has so much in common from a financial services standpoint.”

While the article notes that about three dozen other U.S. insurers have made the same move, I have yet to catch wind of it. Think in ten years we’ll all be banking with our insurer? Seems sort of strange, but not that far-fetched.

Personally, as a customer of Mutual of Omaha, I’ll be interested to see how they position the added feature to existing policyholders.

Photo from Flickr under Creative Commons license