Insurance agent 411

If you did not catch the article on property 360, here is the link for the top insurance commercials of the year.

Top commercials

Last night was the first round of the 2012 NFL draft. I love the draft. You do research, and everybody has a different opinion, and in the end it is a crap shoot. You generally have one pick in every round.

I was thinking, why not a draft for Insurance markets in your office. If you had one pick in each round for a large stock carrier, a mutual, a personal lines market and a specialty carrier, who would you choose.

Your answers are anonymous.

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Choose wisely, and I hope your team makes the Super Bowl.

Are your customers addicted to price?

Do you almost always sell based on price?

I was talking to a property manager the other day and he said ” That all sounds nice, and I think your coverage advantages are great, but my customers are addicted to price” not just insurance, but my services, landscaping, oil, and every other service they buy.

OK, this is disturbing. Disturbing because we spend lots of money and time on improving our product to protect the assets of our insureds and tons of money on customer service, but apparently nobody gives a shit, they just want the cheapest price.

I know there are objections, and people will throw Chubb at you as a prima facia example, but even my Chubb clients, all call and question the price relevant to the product. They hear that Pure is cheaper, or Chartis, and they want a price alternative.

Get used to it, it is the world we created, and that we live in. 90% of all insurance sales are price driven.

I guess we should just strip it down, not service it and ship it out.

Sad news from the insurance industry.

Well not exactly new, but Julia Ybarra has done a terrific job with her blog dedicated to issues that effect the Massachusetts insurance agencies.

More about the blog:

Who are the people behind Agency Checklists?

Like most independent insurance agencies in the Commonwealth, Agency Checklists is a family business. In 2010, my father, Owen Gallagher, and I, Julia Ybarra, decided to start a website that focuses on issues and information that could help agents to be more informed and competitive in the changing Massachusetts marketplace.

Why?

While both of us are lawyers, my father actually began his working career in his father’s insurance agency, The Thomas F. Gallagher Insurance Agency, in Hyde Park. And while we do not now own an insurance agency, we do still have family members who continue to run other insurance agencies in the Commonwealth and who give us great insight into the challenges and changes they face as independent agents.

Add to the fact that my father has spent the majority of his legal career dealing with insurance issues and that before becoming a lawyer, I worked in publishing, and now you can see how we came up with the idea. Thus, Agency Checklists was born.

What makes us different?

We know that there are a multitude of excellent publications out there for insurance agents both regional and national. And while interesting and informative, they often seem well, generic and removed from one’s daily business environment. With Agency Checklists, we focus on Massachusetts and only Massachusetts. It is vital to know what is happening in insurance nationally, but we think it is just as vital to know what is going on right here in your own neighborhood.

5  Things I do not understand about Insurance

1. Why do people get Jewelry appraisals for twice what they paid for the jewelry?
2. Why do insurance companies insure boats, when everyone drinks and drives?
3.  Why have I never met someone who went to college for insurance?
4. Why is everything uninsurable taken over by the government, aren’t they broke enough without bailing out more losers?
5. why are all our competitors our best friends?

Insurance is the ultimate form of gambling. Like Vegas, it is based on the law of large numbers.

Yes you can get insurance on the perfect NCAA basketball bracket.

Fox, Yahoo and many of the other networks and websites bought insurance in case one of their customers got 63 correct. They offered up from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000.

The odds of doing it is 35.4 BILLION to One. I would take that risk if i had a $1,000,000.

You can insure any event. You get a million, if you hit a spot with furniture Bob’s mug on it, or you get the money back from Jordan’s, if the Sox win the World series. ( like that will ever happen, it has been 80 years hasn’t it?)

Hole in One, weather, 4 inch pucks in 3 inch openings. Insurance companies will insure anything.

By the way, after the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament, there was only a 5% chance of you winning. After the next round, everybody was out.

” I Gotta Guy”

Ever heard this? Of course you have. Everyone says it. When you talk to a prospect, who could use your help and your expertise, the first thing they say is “I Gotta Guy”.

This frustrates the hell out of me and I am sure it frustrates you too.

IA had an article today that talked about the “IGG” syndrome by Andy Thompson Read more .

Andy talks about overcoming this common objection. I gotta guy, is just an excuse for a lazy prospect, that does not want to spend time doing what might be best for them.

Fight through this objection and be” that Guy”. Apparently no one wants to get rid of you.