Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...
Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ... Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...
piece away before opening the envelope. Avoid company-approved mailings and co-op opportunities. For the most part, these mail pieces are designed and witten to drive business to the company, not necessarily to your agency. Therefore, your objective should be to create a piece that makes the customer think your agency offers something that they’re not going to get through another agency. Maybe it’s the quote that you’ve included in your mailer, or the the superior customer service that comes with being a customer of your agency. The biggest reason you want to avoid co-op mailings is because of their cookie cutter appearance – they almost always look like junk mail and are filled with disclaimers. Have you ever noticed the fine print at the bottom of a co-op letter Most of it goes along with footnotes in the text of the letter and deals with exclusions, legal notices, etc. While they may be wellmeaning, but they look like one thing – a junk mail advertisement. As a recipient of these one-size-fits-all insurance mailings, I am disappointed by the lack of originality in them. Unfortunately, these mailings reveal something about the agents who send them out. I know an Allstate customer who – because of the mass agent firings in recent years – has three different Allstate agents and all of them send him the same bland letter on his birthday. He doesn’t even open them anymore because the letters are the same every year. This same problem happens when multiple agents solicit the same Zip Code using company-approved mail pieces. In instances like this, it is common for prospects to receive the exact same solicitation from each agent. There is absolutely NOTHING personal about form letters that look like advertisements. Many recipients simply throw them away, wasting the agent’s hard-earned marketing dollars. Co-op mailings often include your signature in the closing of the letter. At some point, you signed a camera card allowing the company to digitize your signature and use it on various documents, including co-op mailings. Unfortunately, it looks like a digitized signature and it’s blatantly obvious that you didn’t sign the letter. A properly targeted direct mail campaign includes letters that are actually signed by you. Your actual signature on a letter says a lot about you. It says that the content of the letter is something that is specifically meant for the recipient. It also says to the people receiving the mailing that they are important to you. The time it takes to sign each letter in blue ink is a good investment of your time because it tells the prospect that what they’re reading is personal. A real blue-ink signature will never be confused with the artificial black-ink signature found on co-op form letters. I know there are those who will disagree, but I don’t recommend using bulk mail or putting postage on envelopes with a postal machine. Instead, use a first-class stamp. Does this make your mailing more expensive Yes, it does, but it significantly increases the likelihood of the envelope being opened. I would much prefer having each of my individually stamped envelopes opened and pay the associated postage than save a few dollars and have 6 out of 10 envelopes thrown away unopened. At that rate, you would have to nearly double the number of letters in your mailing – significantly increasing your postage costs – to get the same response as your first-class mailing. I call this working smarter, not harder. Do you know the difference between First-Class Mail, Express Mail, Priority Mail, Certified Mail and Registered Mail Many people don’t and that can be used to your benefit. With all of the options available when you go to the post office, it can be easy for people to confuse First-Class Mail with Priority Mail and mistakenly believe that anything sent first-class is special or otherwise important. If you put a stamp on a letter and drop it in the mail it will be sent via First-Class Mail. There is nothing that says you can’t include the words “First- Class Mail” on the face of the envelope. Since it’s going to go first-class whether you specify so or not, I recommend you invest in a self-inking red stamp that says “First-Class Mail” and that you stamp it on the envelope to the left of the address of the recipient. Why Because it looks more important, and since many people associate “First-Class” with something above and beyond normal mail, their first inclination is to open the envelope when they receive it. One final trick is to include a photo of something that belongs to the customer on the envelope. I used to take photos of contractors’ work trucks when I was out and about and would send them a letter about commercial auto insurance. In the lower left corner of the envelope I would print the photo on the envelope along with a line of text that read, “Important Information Enclosed.” This increased the amount of time it took to print the envelopes, but after setting up a special template, all I had to do was drop the photo into the template and hit print. If you’re sending a mailing about homeowners insurance, many county assessment websites include photos of houses on the parcel’s webpage. It is almost guaranteed that when someone receives a letter with a photo of their house or vehicle on the front of the envelope they will open the letter – you can’t get more personal than this! Hopefully, you will now agree that what many consider to be one of the worst ways to advertise may actually be one of the best, especially if you put some thought into who your prospects are, what your envelope and letter look like and the timing of when you send it. Targeted direct mail is more complicated than just stuffing envelopes and sending out mass mailings. Finding the right target audience and sending personalized and meaningful correspondence to them at a time when they are most likely to act on it, will open the door to increased sales. Then, when they respond to your letter – and you will be pleasantly surprised at how many will – make sure that when all is said and done, you have taken every opportunity to cross-sell every line of insurance they need and you’ll be well on your way to growing your book! Ef Scott Brodbeck is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Master Certified Novell Engineer who is also a former EA and IA. Currently he develops technical marketing tools and provides marketing consulting services specializing in the profitable growth of insurance agencies. He can be reached via email at scott@scottbrodbeck. 36 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013
feature The Saboteurs By Dave Thorpe I wanted to write an article describing how low-level employees can sabotage a company in the eyes of its clients and do more harm collectively than an incompetent CEO might. I thought I’d start with a few personal experiences and build from there. First, let me say that I didn’t want to limit my study to just the insurance industry. And rather than limit this article to my own personal experiences and those of people I know, I decided to use statistics compiled by JD Power for credibility and to add a national perspective. Easier said than done. Before we get started on this endeavor, I have always found it interesting how few retired Allstate agents have kept their personal policies with Allstate. As a case in point, I know of no retirees – other than me – who have done so. They’re now with AARP, USAA, State Farm and others. In other words, they are insured with anyone but the company that feathered their nests and nurtured them during their insurance-selling years. Clients don’t simply leave companies for a few dollars after a 35 or 40 year relationship. They leave because they’ve been badly treated. Personally, I would love to switch to State Farm, but because I sold my agency to another agent – who still owes me a bunch of money – I don’t want to rock the boat. But let me tell you what got me going on this disloyalty kick. Twenty or so years ago, and during some national conference or another, the company awarded me a Rolex watch. It was recently stolen and I decided to make a claim. Because there were personal issues involved, including the fact I couldn’t remember exactly which Rolex model it was, I decided to make the claim directly to Allstate via myaccount.allstate.com. When I hit the claims link, a popup informed I had to make a phone call and provided me with a number to call. Let me digress for a moment so I can explain that I’ve been deaf for more than ten years. It may or may not have been due to my Marine Corps experience. To continue, the popup on the screen didn’t offer any options for the hearing impaired or deaf. Since I didn’t want to trouble anyone else with the claim, I decided to try conversing with claims using my closed captioned phone. I asked them to speak slowly so the captions would catch up on my phone screen. Instead, they tried talking over me and we ended up getting in a shouting match due to the deafness as well as mutual frustration. Finally, I got one particularly rude person to give me an email address. Four emails covering ten days and he never responded. I obtained the claims manager’s email address and tried again. Still no response. Then it occurred to me that if a company treated its deaf and disabled in such a cavalier manner, how were they Spring 2013 Exclusivefocus — 37
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feature<br />
The Saboteurs<br />
By Dave Thorpe<br />
I<br />
wanted to write an article describing<br />
how low-level employees can sabotage<br />
a company in the eyes <strong>of</strong> its clients<br />
and do more harm collectively than an<br />
incompetent CEO might. I thought I’d<br />
start with a few personal experiences and<br />
build from there. First, let me say that<br />
I didn’t want to limit my study to just<br />
the insurance industry. And rather than<br />
limit this article to my own personal experiences<br />
and those <strong>of</strong> people I know, I<br />
decided to use statistics compiled by JD<br />
Power for credibility and to add a national<br />
perspective. Easier said than done.<br />
Before we get started on this endeavor,<br />
I have always found it interesting how<br />
few retired Allstate agents have kept<br />
their personal policies with Allstate. As a<br />
case in point, I know <strong>of</strong> no retirees – other<br />
than me – who have done so. They’re<br />
now with AARP, USAA, State Farm<br />
and others. In other words, they are insured<br />
with anyone but the company that<br />
feathered their nests and nurtured them<br />
during their insurance-selling years. Clients<br />
don’t simply leave companies for a<br />
few dollars after a 35 or 40 year relationship.<br />
They leave because they’ve been<br />
badly treated. Personally, I would love to<br />
switch to State Farm, but because I sold<br />
my agency to another agent – who still<br />
owes me a bunch <strong>of</strong> money – I don’t want<br />
to rock the boat. But let me tell you what<br />
got me going on this disloyalty kick.<br />
Twenty or so years ago, and during<br />
some national conference or another, the<br />
company awarded me a Rolex watch. It<br />
was recently stolen and I decided to make<br />
a claim. Because there were personal issues<br />
involved, including the fact I couldn’t<br />
remember exactly which Rolex model it<br />
was, I decided to make the claim directly<br />
to Allstate via myaccount.allstate.com.<br />
When I hit the claims link, a popup informed<br />
I had to make a phone call and<br />
provided me with a number to call.<br />
Let me digress for a moment so I can<br />
explain that I’ve been deaf for more than<br />
ten years. It may or may not have been<br />
due to my Marine Corps experience.<br />
To continue, the popup on the screen<br />
didn’t <strong>of</strong>fer any options for the hearing<br />
impaired or deaf. Since I didn’t want to<br />
trouble anyone else with the claim, I decided<br />
to try conversing with claims using<br />
my closed captioned phone. I asked them<br />
to speak slowly so the captions would<br />
catch up on my phone screen. Instead,<br />
they tried talking over me and we ended<br />
up getting in a shouting match due to<br />
the deafness as well as mutual frustration.<br />
Finally, I got one particularly rude<br />
person to give me an email address. Four<br />
emails covering ten days and he never<br />
responded. I obtained the claims manager’s<br />
email address and tried again. Still<br />
no response. Then it occurred to me that<br />
if a company treated its deaf and disabled<br />
in such a cavalier manner, how were they<br />
<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2013</strong> <strong>Exclusivefocus</strong> — 37
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