I HAD QUESTIONS, YOU HAD ANSWERS

04/01/2009 8:10am

Welcome to my third entry in to the beelerinsurance blog. In my last post I called on my readers to help me and I want to thank you for your overwhelming response.  I received 50+ responses; many from GA agents, some from GA non-insurance business owners, and a few from GA consumers.

I also want to thank Eddie Emmett of FYI Insurance News & Views for sending my blog post out in his email.

By the way, if you are in the insurance business and haven’t heard of FYI you might be living under a rock.

But now that you are out visit his website at www.fyigeorgiaviews.com

Ok, in my last post I told you about a dilemma that I had with a local business owner whom I have done business with for 10+ years. If you have not read the post please click here to read the post.

To refresh your memory, the prospective customer had questions about their homeowner’s policy back in November 2008. I invested some time with them to resolve their questions on their policy even though it was with another carrier/agency.  In return they agreed to allow our agency to quote their personal insurance package at the next renewal in April 2009.
I was happy and I thought they were to.

As the story goes, I contacted them in March 2009 only to be disappointed about what I learned.
                             

Again, if you haven’t read the post click here

So, I asked readers of the beelerinsurance.com blog to help me by telling me what they would do in this situation. I’ll post a few of their responses here:

            Captain Answer award goes to our first listed reply

Each agent in Georgia is required to have 3 hours of ethics continuing education each year. While that is intended to remind the agents of their responsibility to the industry and their customers, it should also serve to help them recognize the ethics of the customer. It seems that this customer has committed two ethics violations.
1) Not calling and cooperating with you after you had invested considerable amount of time trying to help them understand their coverage’s.
2) “right now saving money is the only thing I am concerned with” infers that they are not concerned about not being honest with you and the insurance companies. WOW! What about when they have a claim.

I vote for #4

Will H - Seasoned & Well Respected GA Sr. Underwriter

            A close second goes to this reply

I would ask some more questions about what they are basing their decision on, are their coverage or service issues involved. It could be they see insurance as a commodity and see no real intrinsic value in an agent, even though you showed them value in pointing out the flaws of the other agents quote

I sell commercial trucking insurance over the phone and have beaten many local agents simply by helping the insured come to the realization that their agent was not bringing anything of value to the transaction

Go back to the prospect and ask them for help and say something like “I need your help. I have pointed out the other agents mistakes in the quote they presented but have not gotten an order. Have I missed something”?

Base your response on their answer, if they push back and say it is only money they are concerned about then ask for a “last look” at the quote from the other two agents. Get their quotes and see if you can point coverage mistakes and/or see if you can beat the price. If they give you this opportunity contract with the insured for the order by asking them “If I can provide more coverage or similar coverage will you sign up with me?” If the answer is no, then close your file and wish them luck. Good luck and good selling.

Mark W – Georgia Agent

I am the President of a Professional Sales Training company and a client of mine referred me to your blog post. On your post, your frustration was obvious, but not unusual. I don’t know if you would like to spend a little time on the phone with me, to see if we can help you with your selling efforts, but if so, you can call me.

Al S – Georgia Sales Training Firm

I’m surprised that you made so many contacts as the customer seemed to “not  be that into you”! LOL....

Yes you can spend a lot of time trying to educate customers, but if they don’t have the character to recognize your good qualities, move on. You are a busy guy and have lots to do.

Scott F – Georgia Agent

I am not in the insurance business but it seems that the business owners should have at least allowed you to quote their policy but I understand their need to “just save money”. Things are really tight right now.

But, I wouldn't’t want to pay for a policy that might not pay me if I have a claim.

They should at least fix the errors in their policy.

Linda D – Georgia Consumer

So, you can see that I am overwhelmed at the response our readers had. If you have a topic you would like to see discussed or have a comment you would like to share with me email at chris@beelerinsurance.com

By the way, I choose option 4 thanks to the good feed back from my readers.  I’ll be posting again soon. I am working on some tax tips for my next post.

Have a great day!!

Chris Beeler