Insurance Today

RESCPECT COMES WITH CONTROL

What is necessary to take control?

First, it is necessary for the producer to have a clear mental picture of the meeting in which the producer is in charge of the meeting not the prospect. Most producers whose goal is to present a quote are actually at the whim and direction of the prospect. The producer is responding to the prospect’s desire to gain information, to satisfy his curiosity, to answer the question… Is the present agent’s price as low as it should be?

How else can the prospect answer this question except to have another “quote messenger” take all of the time and effort to secure underwriting information, complete applications, distribute them to markets, compare the resulting insurance company’s proposals, select the one the agent feels is the lowest cost and deliver it some ten to fifteen days after the first visit…perhaps having invested between $1,000 to $2,000 of time in the effort.

Now who was in control of the scene as I just painted it? The Agent? NO the prospect of course!

But how can the agent be in control. Quite simply the same way any professional is in control; be it a lawyer, doctor, an architect or accountant. By deciding whether the agent is building and conducting a professional practice or merely a business of making a living.

The measure of the difference is simply not quoting until the prospect has agreed to be the agent’s client…and has turned over control of ALL of the insurance his or her company presently purchases and replaces ALL of the prospect’s present agents or brokers in favor of a professional. Just as individuals do when selecting a doctor, lawyer, architect or any other professional.

One might ask how can this be done ? Why aren’t agents and brokers doing this now? Well actually, some are, and picking up accounts which generate 10, 25 or 50 thousand dollars a year on all forms of insurance and do so on a regular basis a number of times a year.

The technique is based on the concept of ISU’s One Responsible Source™.

In the absence of realizing the true role or purpose of the independent agent or broker, many a practitioner has fallen victim to the "I can get it for you cheaper" syndrome and thus adding to the insured's impression that insurance is a commodity and price is the only differential.

This tends to relegate the "product" of insurance to a tangible status whereas the service rendered by an insurance agent or broker is the epitome of an intangible service. The inability of the insurance professional to understand this difference is the source of his or her failure to enjoy the respect which doctors and lawyers expect and take for granted.

Doctors do not sell diagnoses and operations or attorneys jury awards. They are paid for their knowledge and reputation…knowledge gleaned from years of study, practice, experience, specialization and mental efforts. Is this so different from the practice of a professional insurance agent or broker?

In much the same way as doctors are compensated for the knowledge required to write a prescription and the pharmacy is paid for the medicine prescribed , insurance professionals are compensated for their knowledge to recommend the proper policies including endorsements and the insurance companies are paid for the document called a policy.

When one selects a provider of professional services, it is based on emotions such as trust, confidence and beliefs – all intangible feelings.

Yes, the selection of a professional provider of services is an emotional decision and paying for knowledge is payment for an intangible. Thus the insurance agent or broker will not enjoy the respect granted to a professional until such time as he or she stimulates the most important emotions to the prospect at the time of sale.

And what are these emotions? All emotions can be described by five words: pleasure, security, status, profit and convenience. Which one is the subject of a later essay.

Insurance agents and brokers will not join the ranks of professionals until they change their behavior at the point of sale as well as the public’s view of the insurance agent and broker.

Thomas J. Ryan, CPCU
Chairman and Founder
ISU Group, Inc.