Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance professionals

Thinking of starting your own agency in 2008? Thinking that getting an agency web-ready is going to be a total pain in the you-know-what, so maybe you’ll work for the man awhile longer and start that agency in 2009?

Thankfully, 37Signals (creator of various business web applications like Basecamp, which is what we marketing folks use at InsureMe) sheds some light on setting up credit card processing online. Because paying insurance premiums online via PayPal just isn’t going to cut it.

Jason, kicks things off by telling us about merchant accounts:

First off, we have a merchant account. A merchant account is needed to accept credit cards. Every business that accepts credit cards needs to have a merchant account.

As you begin your search for a vendor, Jason recommends looking for a reputable company with good rates (they currently use account through Chase bank). While the rates might not make a big difference in the early stages of your business, they will affect your bottom line if your daily volume picks up.

The caveat: Getting a merchant account could provide a challenge. Take 37Signal’s experience when they were developing Basecamp:

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As we all ring in the New Year, it is a good time to reflect on your goals for 2008. I shared an article on Monday about how to set resolutions that stick that I hope was useful.

Each year, one of my resolutions is to find ways to give something back to my community through volunteerism. Working at InsureMe, we get plenty of opportunities to volunteer our time. But I also like to find some ongoing projects that I can do on my own.

If volunteer work is something you think you might like to give a go in 2008, check out these fantastic volunteer matching web sites.

Volunteermatch.org

Volunteer.gov

National Park Service volunteer site

Red Cross Volunteer site

The Nature Conservancy Volunteer site

Idealist.org

Find a volunteer opportunity that matches your interests and fits into your schedule and start 2008 off the right way.

‘Twas the day after Christmas when all through the office
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I hope your Christmas was safe and jolly.

Posting will be light for the next few days; we’ll get back to full speed in January. In the meantime, enjoy the last few days of 2007. You might check out this list of best-of-2007 lists. I’m nostalgic already!

Happy Holidays! For those of you working today, you probably are enjoying the slower pace, taking time to catch up on odds and ends and finally checking some dreaded tasks off that to-do list. Or maybe this is a chance for you to catch up on some reading and get yourself centered and prepared for a prosperous 2008.

In case it becomes a little too slow, I’ve compiled the following tid-bits for your consumption:

Get familiar with the top 30 open-ended questions.

Improve your sales vocab with the sales glossary.

Relax and check out this information about stress management.

Improve yourself. Read this blog post on how to be better at almost anything.

Set the right goals. Check out how to set New Years resolutions that stick.

And eat some food, hang out with family and friends and have some fun!

Anyone incorporating e-marketing into their sales and marketing toolkits should undoubtedly be concerned with their email reputation–because a bad rep can negatively impact your delivery rates.

But how do you find out if you’re the cream of the crop…or the crud at the bottom of the barrel?

The Messaging Times fills us in: create a free account with SenderScore, type in your domain name or IP address, and voilà–you’ll receive immediate feedback about your score. (Scores go from 0 to 100, 100 being the best).

So how’d SenderScore get so darn smart? Here’s an excerpt from their FAQ section:

ISPs and filtering companies provide us with data they collect from the receivers of your email. If someone who receives an email from you complaining about your mail to their ISP, by hitting the “Spam” button, for example, we get a report of that.

[...] ISPs and filtering companies also report data to us about how you look to them as an email sender. Multiple web mail, cable, and internet providers are currently contributing data to us, and we are collecting over 60 data elements on each of over 20 million IP addresses. Your email reputation is measured across 10+ indices plus a composite Sender Score.

As you’re planning your strategies and initiatives for 2008, don’t forget to check your e-score!

(Photo source)

The Insurance Information Institute (III) reports that a total of $3.2 billion was lost to phishing attacks in 2007. Victims lost $886 on average.

[Jargon decoder: Phishing is a practice wherein fraudsters acquire personal information, usually through e-mail, by masking as legitimate businesses or organizations.]

Judging by my own inbox, it seems that phishermen are getting savvier–or at least more aggressive. The number of e-mails I get that are purportedly from eBay has climbed 68 percent (by my own unofficial guesstimate). The III marshals some evidence to support my estimate: 3.6 million people were duped in 2007, up from 2.3 million in the previous year.

So, agents, if anyone asks for sensitive information over e-mail, don’t give it up, no matter how legit things look. E-mail doesn’t offer the same kind of encryption strength that a secure web site does.

Most, if not all, legitimate online entities know this and will not ask for personal information over e-mail. Pass the word to your friends, family members and clients.

I thought of our indie agents and insurance brokers when I spotted this Freelance Switch (FS) article about cheaply making your home office a better place to be. Because while we’d all like state-of-the-art offices with plasma screens and Herman Miller chairs, we’ve got to work with what we’ve got.

So without further ado, here are 10 ways to shape up your office on a dime, with some extra tips from yours truly.

1. Buy some plants. They’re pretty, emit oxygen and can lift the mood of your office. I used to have a plant on my desk until it grew some kind of creepy green mold and had to give it away. But our plant aficionado and affiliate manager April Hartmeister has lots of plants on and around her desk and it’s quite lovely.

2. Start a recycling system. There’s no sense in throwing away all the paper that you use in a day. Buy some color-coded bins and start recycling. Make sure to shred personal information, of course–but recycle the bits. You can find cheaper versions of stackable bins at local retail stores.

3. Clean up the wires. FS has three great suggestions for this:

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We’ve spent a large chunk of this week brainstorming new video ideas and creating scripts. Part of what we’re doing involves ad spots and YouTube, which I’m sure some of you have been thinking about too.

So, for this Friday’s post, I thought I’d have you watch a few of my favorite Trigon health insurance commercials. They’re good clean fun, and when you look at the frequency with which these videos are viewed, you can only imagine the positive affect they’ve had on the Trigon brand.

Check ‘em out, mull ‘em over, and have a great weekend!

How to Survive the Office Party

How to Feel Good About Giving Less

How to Recover from an Eggnog and Champagne Binge (Not that We Encourage Such Things)

How to Re-Gift Without Raising Eyebrows

How to Celebrate Festivus–’the Holiday for the Rest of Us’

How to Turn Your Boss Into an Elf

Eight fundamentals of being valuable in the sales world from the book Sales Tough.

Nothing interrupts the money hours.

The hours in the day when you can talk to prospective customers are priceless. So use that time to call prospects and sell. Save the administrative tasks, such as paperwork, to-do lists and emailing, for after hours.

Leaving on time feels early.

Sales isn’t for the feeble. The most successful sales people are so because they work long hours, on weekends and some holidays. Work-life balance is important to success as well. But adding some hours to your work week is a surefire way to close more sales.

Making contact always comes first.

Your desk might be swathed in paperwork, but that is merely a sign that you’re good at your job. Contacting potential customers should always come first.

Opening statements mean something.

People are bogged down by platitudes and meaningless sales jargon. You stand for something, and so should your statements. Make a strong first impression by being open, honest and direct.

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