Insurance Agent Forum

[Josh Winter]

Has anyone heard of or currently use, astonish results? They are a company that builds insurance websites among a few other things. Just curious to here any one's opinions on their product and their company in general.

[SoCalBroker]

Owner of the company will be in our office next week. We'll be checking out their wares.

Will report back when done

[somarco]

I have a problem with any pitch that uses the word turbo as a hook.

[SoCalBroker]

It also irks me when a marketing company - who should know better, calls their target ... [agents] "Insurance Co's".

As if an Independent insurance company or Independent Agent are one in the same.

... odd.

Im going in with my skeptics hat on ... alas Im not too troubled with the word Turbo - LOL

[Josh Winter]

Yah the owner of the company lives in Windermere, Florida which is like 20 minutes from my office. They are ruthless and pretty cocky about their product. I sat through a webinar about it which was very brief, and he said since you work near where the owner of the company lives he can come out and do a live demo.

The crazy thing is I think its like $75,000 to put the program in place. Which I thought was insane. SoCal, let me know what you think once they come. That is crazy owner is going all the way to Cally to pitch this...

[SoCalBroker]

Hahaha - well we'll see.. He was coming out here anyways. Not a special trip for us.

So far their clients websites they referred us to look at are pretty rudimentary web 2.0 style sites. Nothing worth near $10 k even.

But interestingly enough - an SEO guru pitched us on a $68k 1.5 yr contract to get us better organic search. Could have sworn a crack boulder fell out of her nose on the way out. hilarious.

[YouGotMyMoney]

Originally Posted by Josh Winter

Yah the owner of the company lives in Windermere, Florida

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.

[warnerins]

Socal

Put a link to one of those sites, if you get a chance.

"So far their clients websites they referred us to look at are pretty rudimentary web 2.0 style sites. Nothing worth near $10 k even."

[SoCalBroker]

Here are a few sample sites for your review as well:

www.jakhotia.com
www.podmaska.com
www.nadlerinsurance.com
www.securityfirst.net
www.gulfcoastinsurance.com
www.paulmurphyinsurance.com

[bobson]

Originally Posted by SoCalBroker

Here are a few sample sites for your review as well:

www.jakhotia.com
www.podmaska.com
www.nadlerinsurance.com
www.securityfirst.net
www.gulfcoastinsurance.com
www.paulmurphyinsurance.com

I checked a couple of these out. Made me want to run out and buy insurance!

[Josh Winter]

Owner of the company called me today and emailed me trying to get a hold of me so he can come buy and present his stuff...these guys seem desperate...

Also, Bobson are you serious or no?

[Markingriffin]

Josh, I like your car tag.

[Rebel-without-a-clue]

"hi, welcome to our virtual insurance office, when getting a quote is as easy as one.....two......three" LOL....

The same chick on every page..... thats some funny stuff.....

[Josh Winter]

Originally Posted by Markingriffin

Josh, I like your car tag.

Thanks, Mark!

[Cranson]

I haven't seen any more posts on astonish results. Has anyone used them? I'm talking to them on Monday.

[cparadiso]

All you peole have to much time knocking us who use astonish and astonish results we are to busy selling insurance to make believers out of you. Anyone who is concerned were the owner comes from has a complex. I have used them for 1 full year and have grown my agency with them almost double in size. they are expensive which is great for guys like me so not every tom dick and harry can afford them. keep questioning them and wasting your time being negitive you will never be our competition

[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]

I think most of us would agree that yellow pages is dead or if not its close. its important that we find new ways to market because the insurance world has had a soft market for quite some time and agencies are hurting with companies closing workers comp is way down because companies have cut backs, i promise you if you are willing to look outside the box and work hard astonish has a marketing tool that will make your agency alot of money, but along with them you need to work there system hard. They are the fix to your marketing issues if you keep an open mind on non traditional marketing and a great work ethic. Good luck i hope others look at there marketing system because of how much it has helped our agency grow and retain our current book of business

[1manshow]

68K for what?.....hmmm..... my current direct mail campaign is pulling close to 2%response...so 68K=approx 170K DM pieces @1% response=1700responders @40% current close rate x avg. comm. of $115 avg. Comm/piece of green business= $78,200 return

I'd be interested in the size of an agency that almost doubled in size in 1 year ! Were you located in a cave before you became the "insurance prodigy"?

[cparadiso]

Our agency went from 3 full time staff members to 6 full time people in less than 1 year with astonish. we have grown in a bad and soft market. i hope you continue to waste your money on your traditional non productive marketing you should be an underwriter with those wonderful math skills. Your thinking remain s to be out dated, open your mind a little your busy being negitive on the net why not market on the net? hey i have a better idea for you,try the yellowpages. I really dont have time to bicker with you because we are busy writing insurance, rather than throw mud balls at people who live in flordia.