Beef up About Us pages 

Your About Us pages are important to all types of insurance prospects.  They want information that gives them security.  Most agency sites have an About Our Agency page.  But when we do Web Page evaluations for agents, we often find that the content on the page is shallow and unconvincing.  

Buyers who value relationships want to know who started the agency, how long you have been in business, what your values are.  Relationship customers are buying you rather than just your products and services. 

Buyers who place more emphasis on the transaction itself look for credibility so they can feel confident about doing business with your agency. Why are you qualified to sell me this?  What companies do you represent?  These are the types of questions in their minds. 

Your About Our Agency pages should reflect your agency’s personality and beliefs.  Do they?    

10 new rules for the customer experience

Target Magazine recently published an instructive article about customer-centricity.  That is, the new paradigm in which the customers, not the product or brand, is the focus.  The article, authored by Darcy Bevelacqua and Michele Fitzpatrick (both are associated with Harte-Hanks, a world-wide direct and targeted marketing company), put forth ten rules that indicate what today’s customers demand from retailers.  

As a local retailer of insurance services, how does your agency stack up with these rules?  Here are the rules.  If you would like a copy of the complete article, including comments on each rule and a couple of specific ideas on ways to comply with each rule, send me an e-mail. 

Rule #1:   I want it my way. 

Rule #2:   I want the same service regardless of the channel, i.e. at the agency, on the phone, online, etc. Rule

#3:   Know me. 

Rule #4:   Communicate relevant information. 

Rule #5:   Listen to me. 

Rule #6:   Make it easy for me to do business with you. 

Rule #7:   Surprise and delight me. Rule

#8:   Innovate and change. Rule

#9:   Be reliable. 

Rule #10: Stand for something other than making money.   

American football and soccer 

I recently saw an interview on Emily Rooney’s Greater Boston show on our local PBS station.  Emily (yes, the daughter of 60 Minutes Andy) made a comment about the popularity of football, baseball and basketball and the relatively modest attention Americans give to the New England Revolution, our major league soccer entry.  She asked the Revolution broadcaster about the reasons why.  She raised this question:  Is the reason because Americans like lots of scoring, high scoring and don’t appreciate 1-0 games? 

The Revolution announcer’s response was interesting.  It was a clear, simple response.  He said when you think about it, American football games often are low scoring games.  He went on to offer this perspective.  He said a 14 to 7 game is really a 2 to 1 game…only three scores plus extra points over the course of sixty-minutes. 

I have never thought of it that way.  The only scoring difference between a 2-1 soccer game and a 14-7 football game is the numerical value placed on each score.   

On Sunday, our Revolution takes on the Houston Dynamo for the Major League Soccer (MLS) championship in Washington, DC

We’ll take a 1-0 win any time!  

Ask these questions and open up new business 

Here is a sample checklist.  Asking questions that create conversation about risks is a most powerful sales approach! 

You need to identify who is sales-ready 

 It is the job of whomever is the marketing head in your agency to work with CSRs and producers to identify who is sales-ready for a second, third or fourth product.   

Successful ROUND OUT and UPGRADE contacts can add hundreds of dollars of commission income every year.  But they require consistent application and continuous improvement business processes.  

These processes begin with quality information about each customer that leads to meaningful conversations with customers.  You must establish your agency and your people as a valuable resource when it comes to insurance, and then offer relative, thought-provoking ideas.  Meaningful conversations about ideas may not result in an immediate yes, but will always solidify your relationship with the customer, and increase referral activity. 

Be nicely persistent if you feel the customer is at-risk because he or she does not have a specific coverage. Ask these questions over and over: ”Are your needs being met?”, “How are we doing?”  “How can we help you?”  “Is this coverage that you would like us to add right now?”  

The same principles and actions apply to your GET MORE new business prospects as well as to existing customers. Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, Inc., and author of “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale” (McGraw-Hill Cos., 2006) says in the October 2007 issue of BtoB Magazine:   

“It is estimated that of all the leads in the sales pipeline, perhaps 80% are lost, ignored or discarded by sales.  Effective re-engagement with these leads helps you recapture revenue from many of these folks, and in the process you get more out of your investment.” 

One metric that Carroll cites from a client experience:  15% or more of 2,500 lost, ignored or discarded leads turned out to be hot leads who indicated they were ready to talk to a salesperson.  Of those 7% actually bought, resulting I n $1.2 million in added revenue.

Hunter says shut up, listen and sell 

In the October 2007 issue of BtoB magazine Mark Hunter, nationally recognized professional sales trainer, made this compelling point: “contrary to popular belief, to be a successful salesperson, it doesn’t matter how much you know about your product or service…the only thing that matters to be successful in selling is your ability to shut up and listen.” 

He goes on to say that asking questions during a presentation to a prospect is most important, and he recommends short questions like “Why?”  He says short questions promote long answers and long questions encourage short answers. 

Hunter puts forth a goal for every sales call:  talk only 20% of the time. A contrarian recommendation:  prepare the list of questions you are going to ask before you make a sales call.  Most salespeople spend their time planning and developing what they are going to say. 

I found another recommendation provocative.  Hunter says that half your questions should be ones that help the customer “see and feel the pain they have.”  In short, get the customer to think about the risks they face.  

This approach to personal selling is a technique that we often apply to advertising and direct mail creative assignment. Asking pain questions works.  And it works especially well for insurance presentations because your products and services are all about protecting against risks and achieving freedom from worry.