When you are an independent and a one man show and you are talking to prospects who don't know you or the carriers that you sell for how do you get past them asking about All State, State Farm etc ... ?
- Your personalized excellent service. Its hard to compete against a State Farm guy that has an office staff, but usually then they don't talk directly to the agent. Talk about how they can call you and work directly with you, not the office help of the day.
- Not a one size fits all shop. Range of companies you work with to get them the best price. If something happens and situations change, you can help them by moving them to a company that specializes in things like young drivers or an accident or whatever. The goal here is that YOU have the ability to place their coverage with the company that is best suited to their needs.
No matter what you say, some won't deal with you, just like some won't deal with the 'big guys'. Perception is everything.
You didn't say what you are selling, regardless, I've noticed people have become a lot more suspect of one man shops, people working out of their house, etc. This isn't an issue when they never meet you or come to your office. However you conduct business though, you want to come across with a professional impression and attitude.
I have stolen the phrase "boutique agency" from Bob and thrown it around a little with some of my more reluctant clients. There are folks who just feel plain strange knowing that I work from home and do it all myself.
I'm working with someone like that right now, actually. She likes what I've got to offer, likes the policy setup, likes me as a person, feels weird about working with me because I work out of my house. I brought her into a desktop share, showed her my license information on gainsurance.org so that she could see the number of companies I represent, and then told her that I thought she'd be more comfortable working with me if we met up in person. She had an audible sigh of relief and really loosened up after that. We're meeting on Sunday to, in her own words, "finish up the application and get the ball rolling."
Just be a professional and accept the fact that you don't have a giant office building backing you, so you might have to go above and beyond once in a while. The great thing is, once these people see the level of service you're willing to give them, they're never going to go back to some brick-and-mortar shop where they can only ever get the receptionist and leave their agent unreturned voicemails.
The great thing is, once these people see the level of service you're willing to give them, they're never going to go back to some brick-and-mortar shop where they can only ever get the receptionist and leave their agent unreturned voicemails.
In general, I agree with what you said, but don't fool yourself with the statement above. It isn't just 'big agents' that don't return phone calls. In the years I've been doing this, I've always been amazed at how many agents don't return calls, even when it means more business.
Also, most people like having the phone answered when they call, not having to leave a voicemail at all. A lot of captive agents can do this because they have office staff. If they just want to pay their bill, they don't want to chase the agent down via phone tag.
Yeah, you're right. I think I got a little carried away on the pep-talk.
Still, I think the underlying point is valid - there's no reason not to give the highest level of service and professionalism possible. It just plain leads to more satisfied clients.
When you are an independent and a one man show and you are talking to prospects who don't know you or the carriers that you sell for how do you get past them asking about All State, State Farm etc ... ?
-S
You won't hardly ever find an AllState or State Farm agent who is competitive with anything except P & C.
You'll blow them away with life & health.
I actually found someone who had a Med Sup through State Farm recently and I saved them (husband and wife) over $2,000 per year on the exact same policy.
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J Scott Burke
Funeral Preplanning
Life Insurance
Medicare Supplements
Long-Term Care Insurance
Annuities
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee www.newburyfinancial.com
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