Tag Archives: other

05.05.13
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Keeping the circle going

How many people do you spend money with that spend money with you?

How often do you CHOOSE to spend locally when an Internet or national chain option are available?

Now I am by no means perfect but I take the fact that I am a local business very seriously.  I have a massive amount of gratitude for those people that choose to spend money with me and therefore enhance the lives of my family.  So what else can I do?  Well for me it comes down to a couple of basic things;

  • If you have resources why wouldn’t you share them?
  • I can make my “network” stronger by introducing the various members than I can by making it bigger just to be bigger. BTW if your network is stronger so will be your business, your relationships and your bank account.
  • maxing out the effectiveness of my dollars and time
  • Because you never know

Now I really try not to over think it, not much different than “What does your agent do for you” .  It took a while to develop but once it does it is just so easy and feels really good so why not *it is really good for business as well*  Here are two things I did this week;

Months ago, a good client introduced me to a new client of hers(see it is easy and good for everyone).  Fortunately they trusted me to set up some insurance for their new business.  This week their company, Georgie Porgie went live!  So you could find out and do nothing or you can give them 10 minutes and post their link on your Facebook and Twitter and buy something from them.  Not a lot of effort but compound that and the results can be massive. Seriously Why Wouldn’t you do this? They chose to spend money with you, they are nice people, they are local, etc.  What else do you need?  By the way, the person that made the intro is a friend and is really good at what she does, yes I make introductions of friends to her whenever possible.  Easy, right?

Another instance, same idea; I was having a contractor do some work at a little rental my family owns.  Yes, I happen to provide his insurance so again; why wouldn’t you spend money with the people that spend money with you?  He is also really good.  So he was coming over so I was going to be home anyhow, figured I would call on an HVAC/Plumber I also insure.  Now it gets good.

How do you maximize what your dollars can do?

Well I was having my pipes cleaned out anyhow and I was having some work done at the rental anyhow(they are across the street) so I figured let’s try and max this out.  I like them both, I trust them both and they both spend money with me so why not introduce them to each other?  Now two skilled tradesman who never new each other  know each other, my tub drains way better 🙂 and some windows have molding.  Not bad.  What happens now is up to them.

How many opportunities like this can you create for your customers?

Start from a genuine place of wanting to share, apply some effort and watch what happens.  Why not?

Again, just some thoughts.  Do with them what you want?

 

09.13.12
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Logic versus fear

Flat Hot Dogs

Logic or Fear?

Interesting dilemma, do you sell or buy based on logic or fear.  If you spend a few minutes looking up choking statistics you can make a strong case you buy these out of fear.  See statistically there are much worse causes than hot dogs.  Logically you or I can say well if the flat hot dog eliminates this risk than it makes sense.  But does it?  Maybe it makes more sense to think through the whole problem; is the person seated, did they take a reasonable size bite are there adults near buy who can supervise end or help if something happens?

Not much different than anything else in life.

So the insurance part; the hope from the insurance company side is that you buy more products or coverage because of the fear of the unknown.  Why else would they show you a courtroom?  Maybe they just ran out of ways to promote discounts.  Instead come up with your own base line of how much coverage you want or feel you should have.  THERE IS NO PRACTICAL OR IMPRACTICAL WAY TO COVER YOURSELF FROM EVERYTHING.  So do the best you can, apply some thought and basic logic, the results will be there.

 

07.09.12
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What does your agent do for you?

So the agent you hire, yes you actually hire an agent since a piece of the money you pay to the insurance company is paid to the agent, What do they actually do?

They gather your information and type it into a computer.  Then they hopefully come up with a competitive rate for whatever insurance you are looking for.  Next, they hopefully make it easy to place the coverage with the new company.  Now hopefully somewhere in there they think, that’s right they actually think about you, your home, your cars, etc and help you make a good decision.  An agent should actually ask you questions and not just about numbers.  Here are a few;

Can you right a check for $1000? $2500?  Are you comfortable handling this amount of damage before a claim is filed?

What do you own?  Do you have any collections that are special to you?  Do you own any other homes?  Do any family members live with you?

Do you have any preferences about how we communicate?  E-mail, text, phone, mail?

What else can I help you with?  Anybody I can introduce you to?

That is one I want to focus on, you as a policyholder play a significant role in the bottom line of the company you work with.  Are they treating you that way?  Is the agency making  you a part of the agency or just taking your money?  Would love to know what else the agent can do?

See rates will fluctuate and claims will  happen so I think there should be more to this relationship.  Heck there should be something in place since the reason insurance exists is so that when a bad instance pops up you have a human there for some help.  Since those don’t happen that often let’s do something more in between.