Insurance Agent Forum

[SoCalBroker]

Find Sell Keep ... hrmmm where did I hear that phraseology before? ... Ohhh thats right - in the 4 hr. Astonish Customer training session I just went through.

1. Luv Astonish - great tool. Our agency is a new customer

2. Im not ready to proclaim it the Google Slayer and SEO toolbox of choice for any and all agencies.

3. Astonish is great on many levels - love that its NOT < $45k

4. prolly shoulda put a disclaimer FindSellKeep you are an astonish person.

5. Using the car biz paradigm and ADP's idiotic purchase might not be somehting agents relate to. ADP buys a lot of Sh.... stuff and thats where it goes to die. What did ADP do with it after they bought it? If it revolutionized the car buying world and was THE best way ti buy cars - wouldnt somebody else have picked up the ball and ran with it?

6. SEO ... some interesting ideas, mainly standard "in the box" SEO practices, but leaps and bounds farther ahead than the typical Ins Agent is thinking - but out of the box - not quite yet.

7. Recipricol links exchange concept being touted as one example of revolutionary? Non Starter IMHO.

Astonish is certainly on the right course so far to help agents win and compete in the digital marketing arena ... but it is far from ALL THAT AND A BAG of CHIPs. Getting there.

Would I recommend you consider astonish - sure thing. Am I ready to declare it the greatest damn thing since sliced bread ... Not.

Originally Posted by findsellkeep

has anyone heard of marsh, berry? they recently published a comprehensive white paper that highlights the threats to ALL agency valuations.AND WHAT THEY NEED TO DO TO AVOID IT.

1. executive involvement and accountability
2. specific plan to drive organic growth- by at least 12% annually or lose value
3. producer compensation and diminishing returns from executive producers
4. client management systems
5. marketing strategies and investment in growth- at least 2-5% of revenue
6. leveraging technology to serve the modern consumer

The message: agencies that have been operating in a marketing and sales management vacuum- will be cooked. Sooner than later. So the real question here is not what Astonish or any other marketing company can do, the real question is "what's your plan?"

And by the way- does anyone think that use of the internet is a passing fad or that email marketing is not the most effective and efficient use of advertising dollars?

And why is yellow pages still the top ad spend? when was the last time any one reading this forum walked around the house or the office to locate a phone book? But...

Lastly, the current owners of astonish totally revolutionized the way cars are bouight and sold. They were rewarded for their efforts by fortune 500 ADP who BOUGHT THE COMPANY they built. Enterprise value 125 million.

That can buy a lot of crack- even the size of the rock you described in your post. My instincts tell me you are frustrated with your level of growth, SEO is probably foreign and a little scary to you. That's ok, and 68,000 is actually very reasonable for a carefully thought out SEO stratgey. most companies will not get involved for less than 10K per month.

I'm curious about the way people responded to the founders of google when they talked about using an academic indexing approach to connect the modern world. My instincts tell me most people just laughed.

But that's nothing compared to the first guy who thought he could capture a killer whale, teach it to do tricks, put on shows and make money from it. Imagine the initial reaction to that little piece of history. Forward thinking is not for everybody. Most of us want to cling to the past- and keep safe. Good luck.

[cparadiso]

Congrads to Astonish Results on your spread in July's issue of Rough Notes Magizine.

[johnhoefer]

We will be checking them out on August 4th with a one hour webinar. I am interested to see what they have to offer.

Thanks to Steve and Chris to speaking with me about them.

[cparadiso]

No Problem just remember that what astonish results does is gathers prospects and leads we as agents need to be on top of our game to sell the insurance. I find that many of the customers that reach me through there system have alot of questions and or are confused of what they have coverage and they are looking for sound advice. We at Paradiso Insurance have had great success with there system and all of there support Good Luck
Chris Paradiso

[OrlandoSEO]

Hello Guys, I run a small SEO firm in Orlando and we have several insurance clients. A little advice for you out their if you didn't already know. Be very hesitant of spending large sums of money and long term contracts on anything to do with online marketing that is not being spent as actual marketing dollars. You can generate a lot of business for 65k without a professional. On the off hand, if you are interested in marketing with a budget in reason and proven results, send us an email. We always give a comprehensive (I mean really comprehensive Optimization report) free of charge with no obligation. You can act on it yourself if interested, but we would do a better job . I hope this is not flagged as self promotion. Just a warning from an SEO company that although we would love you to sign a 10 year 100k per year contract , it is not in your best interest to do so. At least not without proof. That being said. I have nothing bad to say about Astonish. I was unaware of their existence until I was doing competitive research today.

[kmenath]

I think it's funny that you guys are arguing with Rough Notes' marketing agent of the year. Obviously he's doing something right that you're not. I don't think Astonish will work for everyone or will work for everyone in the same way, it's still about the effort you're going to put into it. But I'll acknowledge that something's going right. Congrats Chris.

[Pangaea]

Originally Posted by YouGotMyMoney

Enough said.

I suggest everyone heavily researches any company selling anything out of Florida.

Almost 90% of the products/services that come out of the Sunshine State are crap.

Just my opinion.

LOL, I have an office in Florida. When hearing about scammers in Florida I always say the warm weather attracts the roaches.

As for astonish results, I've seen their pitch and I'm not impressed I do the same thing they do and don't require you to max out your credit card in order to do it.

Their pitch is far too cheesy to appreciate anyway, too many buzz words and half truths.

[OrlandoSEO]

I am not going to bad mouth them because I have no personal experience with astonish, but I do run a small Internet marketing out of Orlando. My opinion is that astonish wants an extremely long contract and a LOT of money upfront. We prefer to do a money where you mouth is approach and offer clients the chance to scale up. Bottom line is that I believe they would have a good service if they cost about 10% of the price they charge.

[cparadiso]

Originally Posted by kmenath

I think it's funny that you guys are arguing with Rough Notes' marketing agent of the year. Obviously he's doing something right that you're not. I don't think Astonish will work for everyone or will work for everyone in the same way, it's still about the effort you're going to put into it. But I'll acknowledge that something's going right. Congrats Chris.

Thanks and keep an open mind Astonish is not for everyone but they have changed my agencies world. I hope and wish you all the best. Attitude is key to your success
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Originally Posted by OrlandoSEO

I am not going to bad mouth them because I have no personal experience with astonish, but I do run a small Internet marketing out of Orlando. My opinion is that astonish wants an extremely long contract and a LOT of money upfront. We prefer to do a money where you mouth is approach and offer clients the chance to scale up. Bottom line is that I believe they would have a good service if they cost about 10% of the price they charge.

Its nice to see people who dont knock there competition that shows class and I wish more people had it. Two thumbs up to you for having that class. Best of luck to you and your marketing company
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Originally Posted by Pangaea

LOL, I have an office in Florida. When hearing about scammers in Florida I always say the warm weather attracts the roaches.

As for astonish results, I've seen their pitch and I'm not impressed I do the same thing they do and don't require you to max out your credit card in order to do it.

Their pitch is far too cheesy to appreciate anyway, too many buzz words and half truths.

I suggest anyone spending money anywhere do there research before they purchase. But i srongly disagree that they will sell you on half truths. They have provided me with alot more than they have ever promised me. I just left a meeting in California in which i listened to Flordia agencies having huge success with Astonish and there company. Astonish is not for everyone I just think you should not bash a company without knowing them. Just think if everyone that got a quote from you and your company and didnt buy and they went out to the internet and bashed you for being a bad agent. That would be unfair because they dont even know what kind of agent you are. I m not tring to argue with you I am sure you are a good agent all i am tring to say is that you are better than the statement you made.

[Pangaea]

Originally Posted by cparadiso

Thanks and keep an open mind Astonish is not for everyone but they have changed my agencies world. I hope and wish you all the best. Attitude is key to your success
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Its nice to see people who dont knock there competition that shows class and I wish more people had it. Two thumbs up to you for having that class. Best of luck to you and your marketing company
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I suggest anyone spending money anywhere do there research before they purchase. But i srongly disagree that they will sell you on half truths. They have provided me with alot more than they have ever promised me. I just left a meeting in California in which i listened to Flordia agencies having huge success with Astonish and there company. Astonish is not for everyone I just think you should not bash a company without knowing them. Just think if everyone that got a quote from you and your company and didnt buy and they went out to the internet and bashed you for being a bad agent. That would be unfair because they dont even know what kind of agent you are. I m not tring to argue with you I am sure you are a good agent all i am tring to say is that you are better than the statement you made.

Don't know why you're making personal judgments, simple point is: THEIR SERVICES ARE GOOD. NO DOUBT. I just think that it's over priced. If you're going to spend 40k+ you might as well hire a in-house Internet Marketer for 40 hours a week for a year.

[HarryRenard]

Cparidiso-- If you crawled out of atonish's A** I bet you would double your agency yet again. I sure hope your on the payroll.

[cparadiso]

No personal judgements meant by anything i said please dont take it that way, The one thing about the digital marketing system is that it works 24 ours a day 7 days a week. I did think of that before i signed with the marketing company but what i love is it never sleeps and its constantly working. Good luck to you and your agency Chris

[JustinUpright]

I find it astonishing that so many newly registered people came out to talk about how great Astonish is. I would like So Cal to keep us informed on his results as I think all the others where employees with the company involved. If they are really agents names and states the sell in and maybe a website would give them some credibility as an agent.

[TomAmes]

I asked a friend of mine, who is in the web industry, to take a look at Astonish and give me some feedback. Here is what he said:

1. It appears that all their client websites look very similar. They are simply using a template and changing the colors around. Not much time or costs associated with recycling templates.

2. The exact same video clips (virtual agents) are being used on other agency websites.

3. It looks like their "custom system" is actually an open-source CMS called Dot Net Nuke. Though, I don't know how much they've modified the code.

4. My professional opinion is that their websites aren't really that professional. From a design stand point, they are hard to look at (cluttered, bad color schemes...).

5. I don't know how much they are marketing their client websites, via search engines and emails, but it would have to be an awful lot for me to shell out the cash they are asking for an open-source template website.

6. These guys are salesmen not web experts. No doubt about it, these guys know how to sell but what they are selling, in my opinion, isn't anything that great. For that kind of money you can get a well-known ad agency/design studio or hire your own internal web team to work full time on your web presence.

My final opinion:
I don't think these guys will have much of a market in a couple years after the "suckers" are taken. Then then they'll probably move onto a new industry and start over.

___________________________

That's what my buddy had to say and it was enough for me to stay away from Astonish Results.

[bbennyc00]

Met with the Astonish Results guys today. To be fair, their price is about $3000/mth. If you sign a five year deal, you lock in a price of $2750/mth for as long as you want. Their product is more than just a website. They offer a decent CRM program, SEO, PPC management, campaign design and management, website design, sales training, etc. etc.

Have to agree that I still have a 1000 questions and their sales pitch is about as cheesy as it gets, but the product is very good. Is it too expensive? Maybe. Is it right for every agent? Of course not. Will you double the size of your agency? Highly unlikely. But, will it make you a better agent and sales person? Without question it will.

If you have the time and the organizational skills, I think you are better off hiring experts in each of the fields they represent. Can you get a bettter website, CRM, or better SEO company? Sure you can, but if you are the kind of agent that has limited time, I think Astonish offers a good option.

Finally, I think it is worth every agent's time to meet with these guys and at least understand some of the marketing ideas that you could implement. At the end of the day, I'm sure 90% you will say it is too expensive, but at least you will get some great ideas. If you think that all you need to do is mass mail a postcard once a mth or put an ad in the local newspaper, my guess is that you are destined to be the same size agent if not smaller for the rest of your life.

[iswami]

All this discussion about Astonish has finally shamed me into registering and posting, vs. the lurking I have been doing previously. I had considered using them, but the all in price was over $100K (looks like it still is, since the 2750 a month for 5 years, mentioned by bbenny, totes to $168K).

What really bugged me was AR's hard sell, which boiled down to this: give us your money, or you are doomed to extinction. Before shelling out that kind of coin, I - like any other business person - might like to assess the risks to getting my return on investment.

What I have been looking for is some representation of ROI, and I'm not hearing it - not from AR, not from the agencies who have signed on with them. At the risk of seeming to patronize, let me remind that ROI is a (reasonably) objective measure that usually boils down to

R = {V(F) - V(I)} / V(I)

What I'm hearing instead is nebulous claims to success, again, both from AR, and from their agency customers. Let me explain my take on the claims cited here:

• "I doubled the size of my agency in a year." This doubling of size represents a doubling of personnel expense, not exactly a measure of ROI and not a measure of success. Maybe AR's system will double agency profit and produce an excellent ROI, but having to double payroll expense isn't proof of that. The extra people increase V((I) and mean that V(F) has to be that much greater to get good ROI..
• "Paradiso Agency was Rough Notes Marketing Agency of the Month." First off, congratulations to the agency. Recognition like this is good for business. But I prefer not to base an investment of over $200K* on a magazine article. Besides, if you will permit me to stir some off-topic controversy, I will note that President Obama just won the Nobel Peace prize. Enough said on awards and what they infer about actual results.

I have yet to see anyone touting AR address quality of business. We agents know that quality of business has a direct impact on service expense, insurance company compensation, and continuation of contracts. Rapid growth can stress loss rations leading to negative business consequences.

In short, I think 1manshow and findsellkeep has it right - what kind of ROI can I get investing $100K - $200K in alternative initiatives, and how does that ROI compare to what I can get with AR? I also think OrlandoSEO has it right, AR is overpriced for most insurance agencies.

Reading between the lines in several pro-AR posts (AR isn't for everyone) you will see that behavior change is a key to implementing their program. I have been part of several organizations that attempted 'culture change' and I can say from experience that organizational behavior change is hard. I'm not saying it isn't necessary for insurance agencies to move from a passive order taking culture to a sales culture, but I am suggesting that the hardest part of that will be behavior change - it's not a matter of this sales system or that sales system.

So the real questions are: Is your agency committed to culture and behavior change, and is the significant investment in AR the best way for you to effect that change?

My message to AR: quit condescending, knock off the hard sell nonsense, try to understand the insurance agency business a little better, and recognize that if I don't sign on to your service, I'm not necessarily doomed to failure. And then maybe we can talk.


*$2750 per month for five years plus the cost of 3 new employees

[bbennyc00]

I think iswami makes some valid points, but it is important to understand that AR is not just a lead generation machine, and I don't think it is fair to compare Astonish to other marketing "products." Rather, Astonish acts as a marketing department for your agency. Yes, they develop your website and manage your SEO and PPC, but that is just part of the product/service. If you view Astonish as a full-service marketing department their price seems a little more reasonable.

Moreover, the AR price is the same no matter the size or your agency's revenues. So, what is expensive to some might be very reasonable for others. Personally, I really think that an agency would need at least $750k in revenues and probably $1mm plus to justify the cost, but I have heard that some of their clients are much smaller, and of course, some are much larger. The largest agent in my area that utilized their services was in the $5mm range.

In the end, we decided to sign up with Astonish, and we did so after great deliberation. The deciding factor for our agency were the testimonials. To a person, every Astonish client I spoke to raved about the company. I spoke with about 10 agents all over the country, some where given to me by Astonish as references, but most I found on my own. Some of the best reviews came from agents that were not given as references.

Ben

[djohnson]

First off I want to point out the obvious. Anyone can create a username using any email address on this forum.

The majority of the posts saying Astonished Results are great are first time posters, which leads me to believe it is very possible that someone at Astonished Results is acting as they were an agent trying to defend their product. (Hey, if you can’t get good press make good press up right?)

If these users were truly agents that are Insurance Agents that are using Astonished Results then you would see their company name, phone number and a link to their website located under every post. This is web 2.0 marketing 101. ALWAYS include a link to your website with anything you do on the web or in print. For 75k or whatever their price is I would think they would tell them the basics.

I work for a large insurance company not to be named. I know from experience that getting in Rough Notes is NOT VERY HARD. All it requires is a little (10-15k) advertisement money spent on Rough Notes and they will listen to you. Lets face it Rough Notes is like any other media company. They are hungry and will listen to the hand that feeds them.

[Pangaea]

Originally Posted by djohnson

First off I want to point out the obvious. Anyone can create a username using any email address on this forum.

The majority of the posts saying Astonished Results are great are first time posters, which leads me to believe it is very possible that someone at Astonished Results is acting as they were an agent trying to defend their product. (Hey, if you can’t get good press make good press up right?)

If these users were truly agents that are Insurance Agents that are using Astonished Results then you would see their company name, phone number and a link to their website located under every post. This is web 2.0 marketing 101. ALWAYS include a link to your website with anything you do on the web or in print. For 75k or whatever their price is I would think they would tell them the basics.

I work for a large insurance company not to be named. I know from experience that getting in Rough Notes is NOT VERY HARD. All it requires is a little (10-15k) advertisement money spent on Rough Notes and they will listen to you. Lets face it Rough Notes is like any other media company. They are hungry and will listen to the hand that feeds them.

Wouldn't you care about a thread if it was almost as high as your own website for the search term?

[manager202]

Did you see any of the websites that they designed. Astonish is crack... Don't waste your money.