Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance professionals

Recently, Jeb posted a couple reminders on good customer service–which includes keeping your customers informed of changes and owning up to mistakes when they happen. (Check them out here and here.)

The recent Menu Foods debacle is a great example of how not to handle a screw-up. I myself was a little shocked at how difficult it was to find information about the recall–including what brands I should avoid–on their web site.

Marketing Profs posted a great article on the subject today. Contributor Jeanne Bliss points to the Menu Foods saga as a missed opportunity for a number of reasons. Here’s the redux:

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You’ve got to read this article. It’s about the tens of thousands of young adults–or, ‘young invincibles’–living in New York City without health insurance. It’s a harrowing story.

It’s also great journalism. Few magazine or newspaper articles come as close as this one to presenting the complexity, convolution, and human and economic toll of our broken health care system. It does so by focusing on a group that typically goes without insurance–an uninsured group that has very few advocates: young adults.

Here’s the nut of the story (I know this is a huge blockquote, but there was nothing I could cut from it).

Compared with small children, uninsured young workers are generally ineffective as political sympathy-generators and are therefore typically viewed as a footnote to the debate. But health-care analysts will tell you that insuring children, while certainly noble, is a relatively easy goal. “What a lot of people don’t realize,” says Peter Cunningham, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.–based Center for Studying Health System Change, “is that most children are already eligible for some form of care. They either qualify for Medicaid or can be insured under their parents’ plan. So in many respects, it’s a matter of making the paperwork clearer, not overhauling the system.” The young invincibles, on the other hand, are an example of how the system bypasses some groups altogether. In this they are not alone–the poor have a long history of inadequate care, and increasingly, middle-class families are finding themselves priced out–though to understand their bind is to see just how ineffective the current system has become.

Many people in the insurance industry gripe about media coverage of insurance issues. And occasionally they have a point. This article is an example of the kind of reportage the insurance industry should champion.

Read the article.

As you know, InsureMe was at the annual AMSUG conference in Orlando last week. Having been back for a couple days now, I’ve been able to reflect on our experiences there–pinpointing what worked, what failed miserably, and how we can do better at the next trade show.

So for all you insurance folks who are going to be manning the exhibit hall at future events, this post is for you.

7 Considerations for Trade Show Success:

1. Make sure your team is on the same page. I’m all about personal accountability, but it’s a good idea to get your conference team together beforehand to make sure everyone’s clear on exhibit hours and guidelines, hotel check-in/check-out times, etc. I realize this seems to be a no-brainer, but I assure you it is a necessary step.

2. Get some extraordinary swag. If you’re heading to a big industry function such as AMSUG, you can bet at least one of your competitors will be on hand. Accordingly, your goal is probably to divert attention from their booth to yours. And let’s face it: people love their free stuff. If you can give attendees something fun and different, you’ll stand out. We learned that with the InsureMe stress balls; they’ve been a hit at every convention we’ve taken them to.

Tip: Look for promotional items that are action-oriented. They’ll catch the eye. And don’t forget to print your company’s web site and phone number on the goods. We totally dropped the [stress] ball there. Doh.

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Last Friday I posted about the importance of not leaving your clients hanging. The reason–beyond that it’s just a nice thing to do–is that it generates goodwill and often inspires more patience on the part of your customer.

The image to the right depicts a perfect example of exactly what you should be doing for your clients. (Sorry for the poor image quality–it was taken with a cell phone camera.)

Recently, the owner of the building that houses the Agent Blog world headquarters decided to do some remodeling.

For the past week or so, teams of construction workers have been tearing down drywall, ripping up carpet, and in general creating lot of dust and noise. Even through my enormous headphones, which engulf my entire head, I can occasionally hear the sounds of demolition.

Each morning I walk into the lobby of the building to see a new message posted on a dry erase board (the one pictured). The message describes what day will bring–loud demolition, quiet construction, dust, ceaseless banging, etc.

It’s a small courtesy, but it’s one that goes a long way toward building goodwill.

We’re back from AMS!

I apologize for my lack of posting last week; I couldn’t find a strong wireless connection to save my life! But we had a great time in Orlando–talked with plethora of great agents and industry gurus, improved our hand-eye coordination with the awesomely awesome InsureMe stress balls, and became well-acquainted with other vendors and exhibitors. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to say hello!

I hope to post a recap later this week, but for now, enjoy this fun tidbit from Landing the Deal, entitled, “Honking in the Tunnel.”

Because if you can get your prospects to have fun, you will enjoy great sales success. And that’s a fact. We’ve got a quite extensive prospecting list from AMS to back it up.

Until next time, how do you get your clientele honking?

Tip of the day: If a client is waiting–on the phone, in the waiting room, for documents to arrive in the mail–it helps to check in and update him or her on the progress of things. They’ll appreciate it and will likely wait longer (and with more patience) than they would otherwise.

If your reaction to this tip is “Duh! Who doesn’t do that?” then good for you. Keep doing what you’re doing. However, if my experience as a consumer is any guide, many of you probably need to be reminded.

1. Be gruff and authoritarian. You’re trying to sell a policy here, not make a friend.
2. Use high-pressure sales tactics. Be aggressive and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
3. Make sure your prospect knows how busy you are–and that he/she has already taken up a lot of your time.
4. Don’t actually listen to your customer. Pretend to listen by throwing in an occasional “m’kay.” And if you can get some other work done while they drone on, go for it.
5. Interrupt. Often. Finishing his/her sentences is also encouraged.
6. Tell the customer–whether it’s true or not–that they won’t find a better price anywhere else and that they should stop shopping around and just buy from you already.
7. In order to get things rolling, repeatedly ask for his/her bank information.
8. Question a male client’s masculinity when he doesn’t want to commit to buying from you.*
9. Assume that a reluctant prospect wants you to “take charge” and tell him/her what to do.
10. Act put-upon when your prospect doesn’t want to decide right away. Make sure they know how much time and effort it took you to generate a quote.

There you have it. Follow these simple rules and you’ll never sell a policy again!

* This actually happened to an InsureMe.com visitor recently.

Get excited–we’re heading down to Orlando this week to attend the annual AMSUG conference!

And, in case you didn’t catch our nifty email last week, we’ll be running a contest Thursday and Friday.

Here’s the scoop:

Our mascot, the I-Guy, to whom you’ve been introduced in past InsureMe videos, has gone AWOL. The first 50 agents who locate the I-Guy will receive $100 in free InsureMe leads.

As you can see from this video, he’s a rather squirrelly fellow and we look forward to his safe return.

So, if you’ll be at AMS this week, please stop by booth 426 and say hello! I’ll be there with fellow Agent Blog contributor Maribeth Neelis and we’re looking forward to shaking many-a-hand.

You’re about to embark on part two of Revamping Your Web Site: Dog Food, Welcome Mats, and More, as published in the January issue of the TAAR Report. To read part one, just click here.

Improving Your Web Site: Three Areas to Consider

Improvement #1: Content

Content is quickly becoming the staple of a reputable insurance site, and for good reason. Well-written, topic-focused content allows insurance shoppers to answer their questions quickly and independently, while simultaneously positioning you as an insurance expert.

High-quality, relevant content is important to search engines like Google, too. When Jane Consumer enters a search term like “health quotes,” search engines like Google scour those 8 billion web pages in search of content that is relevant to Jane’s search request.

Adding great content to your site is one way to gain recognition from search engines and position your site in front of prospects that are looking for what you have to offer. And with more than three out of five people using the web to find information, this is one area in which you don’t want to be lacking.

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One of the great things about uber-successful blogger Seth Godin is his ability to draw marketing lessons from the unlikeliest of sources.

His latest insight comes from listening to Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall album. Godin observes (1) that the crowd cheers the loudest when Neil sings the oldies and (2) that Neil strains more and sings louder to make the crowd like his newer tunes–but to no avail.

No surprise, the crowd likes the old ‘crowd-pleasers’ more than the new stuff, which hasn’t been vetted by the test of time. No amount of extra stage effort, Godin says, will make the crowd instantly come around to the new songs. That’s true. But the lesson Godin derives from this fact is counter-intuitive, and I’m not sure I agree with it: “It’s what you say, most of the time, not how you say it.”

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