SalesForce Advantage

MAINTAIN and RETAIN YOUR BUSINESS

cal — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:09:58 +0000

You may be in the insurance business; maybe primarily personal lines, maybe primarily business insurance, or perhaps life & health. No matter what your focus, or your specific job description, you should be in the business of building RELATIONSHIPS. Once we lose sight of that as one of the important things we do, the more work we have to do to keep the business we have and grow the business we need.

So how do we build relationships that will help us keep customers and have them send us prospects? I remember attending a Relationship Marketing Seminar years ago where the speaker, who I don’t remember, suggested the secret to building a strong, long lasting relationships is to communicate or stay in touch 4 to 6 times a year. I still see those figures used today. “No problem for most agents”, I thought. What with change requests, bill payment or questions, coverage questions, policy renewal processing, claims and all, the average contact number must easily be in the 4 to 6 range.

I was WRONG! on at least two counts.

First, the contact points I just mentioned are reactive so they don’t count! The only contacts that really count are proactive on your part and are unexpected by your client.

Second, take another look at the reactive contact points and consider how you define your best clients. I’ll bet, in addition to ‘no claims, no service issues and good premiums’, you could simply say ‘no problems’. That could be simplified even more by saying ‘no contact’. Those are the people that you have a good chance of losing to your competition who simply makes a contact and offers something like a lower rate ~ does Flo or the little Lizard come to mind?

In future newsletters, we’ll be exploring how you can effectively and efficiently contact your clients – all of them.

In the meantime, do two things for yourself.

1. See how many email addresses you have for your accounts.

2. determine your retention ratio based on your reports, not your carriers’ report. There should be a big difference – in your favor.

20 Ideas to REACHOUT and Write More

cal — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:16:25 +0000

1. Be approachable – at your office, with strangers, in public.

2. Pay attention and listen!

3. Network via business and civic groups.

4. Have an agenda for every appointment.

5. Develop a target market.

6. STAY IN TOUCH.

7. Never eat alone. You have to eat, so why not do it with a prospect? – You may make a sale and you get to write off the meal.

8. Do something special for all your clients at the end of the year.

9. Mix business with pleasure (don’t be pushy, but always be prospecting and let people know what you do).

10. ALWAYS ASK FOR REFERRALS! (but be sure you earned them first).

11. Support local youth sports teams.

12. Be a social butterfly.

13. Be true to your word!

14. Just ask – ask for the business and ask for referrals.

15. Use the mailroom – send prospecting letters out on regular basis.

16. Use your business cards – they do no good in your desk drawer.

17. Partner up with other professional that may also work with you clients.

18. Call on orphan policyholders.

19. Engage in good deeds, provide or volunteer for community service.

20. Return your calls ASAP (yes even service calls).

(Source: Market Advisor – January 2011 issue)
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25 New CPIA designees in SC!

cal — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 00:33:21 +0000

In the fourth quarter of 2010, 25 South Carolina insurance professionals completed the 3 day seminar series to achieve their Certified Professional Insurance Agent designation.

These Seminars are designed to enhance the ability of producers, sales support staff and company personnel to efficiently create and distribute effective insurance programs. Participants leave with ideas that will produce increased sales results immediately. In fact, The Insurance Success Seminars are guaranteed: Implement the principles covered in these sessions and experience a 20% increase in personal production within six months, or your registration fee will be refunded!

The three Insurance Success Seminars are entitled:

§ Position for Success (CPIA 1)

§ Implement for Success (CPIA 2)

§ Sustain Success (CPIA 3)

Kudos to them for taking the time and making the effort for professional and personal development. We wish them well as they use new ideas and resource to make them more effective in their chosen profession.

Questions for you: What great idea have you picked up at a seminar or conference and haven’t implemented yet? What is holding you up? How can seminar or workshop facilitators offer effective presentations that would result in a higher ‘change’ factor?

South Carolina Insurance Training Survey Report

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:48:54 +0000

PIASC and SalesForce Advantage developed an email survey for the independent agents of South Carolina to assess professional training and educations wants and needs. The goal is to determine what programs may be offered to help agencies grow and prosper through employee development efforts.

The survey focused on those areas of education not included in the Continuing Education classes now required by state licensing laws.

Thanks again for your interest and ideas relative to the professional training programs for South Carolina.

Al Charles, PIASC
Cal Yngve – SalesForce Advantage

1. CE credits are allowed for certain insurance product related courses in SC. How interested are you in personal/professional training that does not allow CE credits; i.e.sales, management, or human resources?

75% Somewhat or Very Interested

Comments:

It is my belief that you can never know too much about insurance. No matter what your capacity in the insurance industry may be, the more you know about ALL the different aspects of the business only makes you and your services more valuable to your agency, clients, and companies. Knowledge of how all areas work help you understand the “big picture” of what is taking place and why. It can only help you grow as a person and your client base will follow.
I’m very interested in any training that is related to Transportation, Warehousing, 3rd Party Logistics, Distribution, or like industries regardless of whether it allows CE credits.
Very interested in Management and Human Resources Training

2. What subjects would be of most interest to you?

Combined Moderate and (Most) Interest

100% – Sales Development (58%)
91% – Communications Skills (73%)
86% – Time Management (58%)
83% – Employee Management – Supervision (33%)
82% – Sales Management (18%)
81% – Agency Plan Development (36%)

Comments:

new insurance laws and legislation regarding insurance industry
I may be in a small group of insurance professionals, but to me each is as important as the next. Each topic above is by nature dependent on the other. To reach your optimum performance level in one area requires an equal amount of success in the other areas. In my opinion, you can only be as good as your weakest area above. When one link of the chain is weak, the rest will suffer as well.
Specific training on industry focus (see comments for questions 1)

3. What would you expect to pay for a full day (6 hours) workshop that includes workbooks, ‘take-away resources’, and morning and afternoon beverages?

58% – < $100
17% – < $150
$25% – <$ 200

4. How likely is it that you or someone in your organization would attend such a workshop?

88% in 2010
8.3% in 2011

5. Would you be more or less interested in attending such training if it had any of the following attributes?

100% – < 25 miles travel
64% – ½ days
57% – In the office
36% – < 50 miles travel
27% – Lunch included

Comments:

Obviously, time is money and the farther away you have to go the more it is going to cost. With the economy being the way it is now and programs “promising” to “make you better faster and easier” popping up everywhere, time away from the office and the expense that goes with it is sometimes hard to justify. There are so many of these types of seminars or “programs” already out there that it is hard to know if it is really going to be worth the time and energy spent attending.
I don’t really care how long or short it is, or where it is as long as it is meaningful and worthy of time spent.

6. If you have attended workshops, seminars, webinars or other forms of personal development with the hope of making a difference in your organization, please indicate which are most effective in producing positive change? (listed by # of responses)

Required CE classes
Live workshops
Live webinars
In-house workshops
Recorded webinars

7. What form of personal/professional development do you currently use in addition to present CE required courses?

41.6% – Industry Expert Workshops
25% – outside industry workshops
8.3% – In-house developed

Comments:

All of Above
Insurance Company provided training
on job training to suit individual office situations
Really a little of all of the above.

8. What else is important to you in terms of subjects, format, location, etc.?

Comments:

Stick to the subject, stay on task. Subjects that are relevant to the current industry.
Sales and sales management are extremely important
I would like to see development courses specifically geared toward agency management and the best possible workflows.
The most important training I need is any useful training that will help me be a better, well-rounded commercial insurance producer; and industry specific training for the industries that are my focus.
time management – personal and professional separation

9. Please provide any additional comments or ideas. For example, would your organization be interested in custom designed ’in-house’ workshops?

Comments:

Depending on cost
Yes
Possibly interested in custom designed ‘in-house’ workshops.
Cal, I have enjoyed and learned very valuable information from your class and presentation. I look forward to hearing about future classes offered