Does the soft market scare you?
It should. Unless you have the tools to win. One of the most important tools you can have is a personal relationship with your customers.
I’m not saying you need to go jump on the trampoline at their house, and take them to a playoff game.
What I am saying is that you MUST, and I mean MUST make the FEEL as though you care about them.
Now whether you do care about them or not doesn’t matter to me (although it is helpful if you actually do care about your clients) but what matters is that they perceive that you care about them.
So here’s the tip:
HOW TO DEVELOP A STRONG LIFETIME RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
The secret to making them feel like you care about them, and developing a strong relationship is through a direct response newsletter.
That’s right, a newsletter that goes to your client every month.
Now I’m not talking about a newsletter that talks about insurance, deductibles, and coverages. That is sure to put your reader right to sleep.
I’m talking about a newsletter that gives them good tips, but more importantly it is entertaining, fun, engaging and personal.
It doesn’t have to be long either. It could be just 1 page to get you started. But this is CRITICAL if you want to lock your customers in to you, and make sure they don’t shop the competition.
Here’s some more on how to create a quality direct response newsletter:
If done right, you’ll create a newsletter that creates a relationship so strong that that your customers will feel guilty buying somewhere else. This tool also helps:
- Get more new clients
- Keep in touch with existing customers
- Sell more to existing customers
- Bring back Lost Clients
- Stimulate referral business
- Drive traffic to your website
- Reinforce your nice specialty
- Establish your expertise status
- Creates Word of Mouth
- Forges a strong emotional bond
Plus this tool…
Exploits The Single Most
Valuable Asset In Your Insurance Business
The most valuable asset is like the one your most overlook (95 of insurance agents I deal with do). It’s your list of current and past customers, friends, family, suppliers, members of your church or congregation or PTA – people you know and who know of you – especially people you’ve served well in the past.
I imagine you already know there is “gold” in that money producing list. But knowing that and turning it into a steady flow of clients are two different things.
Surveys reveal that 74% of all your customers are generated from a relationship. Either they have done business with you in the past or they are a referral from a satisfied source.
Think about that – It’s three-quarters of your paying customers.
The other 26% are wandering around looking for a new relationship. And ironically, insurance agents spend all their time and money on those 25%.
We’ve all heard it costs 5 times more to attract a new clients that maintain a current one. Since that is the case, why would you want to implement a system that targets he 74% and brings them back each month?
If you are complaining that retention isn’t what you want, you need to closer at what is really happening. You can blame the soft market, even the economy, but that doesn’t solve the problem.
What truly happens is that you are neglecting your “money-making” list and someone else is stealing your clients….they are working harder and better that you to solidify a strong emotional connection.
Here are some tips on creating your own newsletter:
1. Monthly frequency is VITAL. It is like dating someone. You would not ask your better half to marry you, if you never dated consistently. This is the science of forging this strong emotional relationship.
2. Entertainment. It’s got to be fun to read. Don’t talk about policy forms and insurance mumbo jumbo. Talk about American Idol, your personal life, the staff members birthday celebration, etc.
3. It’s got to be personal. This goes hand in hand with Entertaining. No one reads newsletters from banks. Why not? Because they stink! They aren’t HUMAN INTEREST. One sure fire way to get readership is to highlight a client of the month. That’s one secret that will increase readership more than anything else.
So now you’ve got enough to at least get a one page newsletter out each month. Trust me, your clients will love you for it. You’ll get all kinds of compliments, and your retention and referrals will go up!
Till next time,
Beach Broker!
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