I’ve came across a good sharing article from Ken Varga which have 35 years experience in insurance agency building. Since Insurance agency have a quite similiar system and approach like a Unit Trust agency, the strategies shared amongst both industries were identical. Besides, Unit Trust industry is a “sunrise industry” in Malaysia compared to insurance industry; therefore there’s lot of knowledges and experiences could be shared together. Article below is all about how to retain our clients through some good methods.
by Ken Varga.
To motivate your clients to buy from you for decades to come and to brag about you to everyone they know, you must promise them a lot and then deliver even more.
For instance, if you’ve told your clients you would provide them with a proposal in five days, do it in three days. Or if you said you could help them save 10% on their premiums, figure out a way to save more, such as 15% or even 20%.
Another example is, instead of sending a birthday card or letter by mail, deliver it yourself and include a special gift. Or find out what problems your clients want to solve and provide them with the solutions.
By promising a lot and delivering even more, you’re separating yourself from the rest of your competitors. You want to treat your clients so well that they wouldn’t even consider doing business with anyone else, even if your prices are a little higher.
When you do this, you’ll become a Dream Protector” in the minds of your clients. So in addition to doing business with you for years to come, they’ll shower you with endless qualified referrals.
Sadly, while many authors, trainers, and speakers may have given you (and their readers, clients, or audiences) the same advice - promise a lot and deliver even more - most of them don’t actually do what they teach.
It’s extra-mile value that will inspire prospects to do business with you in the first place, and it’s what will keep clients buying from you over and over again, year after year.
The formula is simple. You demonstrate your willingness to provide real value up front, and people will fall all over themselves to do business with you.
Why?
Because it’s so unusual. There are too many businesses cutting corners trying to make a buck. The courtesy, ethics, honesty and value have too often taken a back seat. That’s no way to run a business. That’s not the way you should operate yours, and it’s certainly not the way I manage mine.
Have you ever purchased a product or service because the seller made you an offer so good that you couldn’t refuse?
In other words, they told you all the wonderful benefits you would get and how well they would treat you after you’ve bought their products or used their services. But after you’ve become their customer or client, they treated you with indifference or they didn’t contact you for many years or even ever again.
This situation has happened to me many times. And I’m sad to tell you this is the same way a lot of agents treat their new clients, committing one of the biggest mistakes in their entire business or career.
That’s right, as unbelievable as this sounds, after investing a lot of their valuable resources getting a prospect to become their customer, many agents completely ignore him or her and, instead, focus their effort and money on turning more new prospects into customers.
So, as you can imagine, a lot of their new customers, whom they’ve worked so hard to get, will end up leaving them.
What about you? Have you committed the same deadly error in the past?
If so, welcome to the club. I’m embarrassed to admit I have done the same thing myself. You see, in the early years of my career, before I fully understood the importance of client retention, my main focus was to get as many prospects to become my clients as possible.
I thought because I had so many new prospects to go after, I didn’t have to worry about the few that I lost. I reasoned I could get more new clients to replace the ones that had stopped doing business with me.
And believe it or not, for a short time, I was actually able to get enough new clients to replace the ones that left. But can you guess what happened to my income?
It dropped big time.
Back then, if I knew it costs at least six times more to get a new client than it does to resell to an existing one, and a 5% percent increase in client retention could net about 45% more profits, then I definitely would have taken much better care of my clients. That sure was a very expensive lesson for me.
As a general rule, once you have a large number of clients, you should invest at least 80% of your resources on servicing and reselling to your current clients, and the other 20% on getting more new prospects to buy from you.
Always remember this important truth:
In the insurance and financial planning professions, the real selling actually takes place after a prospect has become your customer.
Sadly, since many agents and advisors think the selling process stops once the prospects become their clients, they fail to treat them well enough to keep their business for life.
Let me share with you a story about a doctor who died and went to heaven to illustrate the point I’m trying to get across to you.
After spending many years in the peaceful and serene environment of heaven, the doctor got bored. So one day he approached St. Peter and said:
“St. Peter, heaven is a great place to be for eternity. It’s quiet, peaceful, and serene. But after being up here for so many years, I’m starting to miss all the excitement on earth. Is there anyway I can go back to earth for a while?”
“Oh no. You can’t go back to earth,” St. Peter replied.
“St. Peter, since the universe is so large, is there any place I can go to get some excitement?” the doctor inquired.
“Well, I can give you a 5-day pass to hell,” replied St. Peter.
“Hell? Is there really excitement in hell? And are you sure I can get back after five days?” the doctor asked.
“I heard there’s a lot of excitement in hell, and yes, you can return to heaven after five days,” St. Peter responded.
“Okay. Then please give me a 5-day pass to hell,” the doctor said enthusiastically.
St. Peter waves his hand, and a path opens up, which leads directly to the gate of hell. When the doctor reaches the gate, he knocks on it. The gate instantly opens up, and out comes a red carpet to welcome him.
Hundreds of cheerful people come to the door to greet the doctor. And for five days they treated him like a king. They wined and dined him, and took him to one party after another. Whatever he asked for, he got instantly.
So after five days, the doctor didn’t want to leave hell. But since his pass had expired he was transported back to heaven immediately.
Well, after wandering around in heaven for several months, the doctor ran into St. Peter one day. And before St. Peter could say a word, the doctor shouted…
“Hey, St. Peter! I’m bored again. Can you give me another 5-day pass to hell?”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. The 5-day pass I gave you was only a one time deal,” replies St. Peter.
“Is there another way I can go to hell?” asks the doctor.
“Actually, there is. But if you go this time, you won’t be able to come back to heaven for any reason. You’ll have to stay there forever,” St. Peter responds.
Well, after thinking about all the excitement and fun he had in hell, compared to the quiet and serene atmosphere of heaven, the doctor says to St. Peter…
“You know, St. Peter, I think hell suits me better. So please send me to hell permanently.”
Within a second, the doctor finds himself standing at the gate of hell. When he knocks on the gate, it opens up instantly, just like it did the first time. But instead of getting the red carpet treatment this time, a large hook grabs the doctor and throws him into a large bowl of molten lava where dozens of devils poke at him with pitchforks.
The doctor was yelling and screaming, begging the devils to stop poking at him and get him out of the molten lava. But they pay no attention to the doctor. Instead, they keep poking at him while laughing loudly.
The doctor suddenly sees Satan standing in a corner, who is also laughing loudly at him. The doctor gathers whatever strength he has left and yells at Satan…
“Satan, I don’t understand it. The last time I was down here, your people treated me like a king.”
Satan answers, “Yeah, that’s because then, you were a prospect. But now, you’re a customer.”
Listen, as silly as this story may sound to you, unfortunately this is how most agents treat their clients. Is it any wonder why they lose 19% of their client base every year?
To prevent this situation from happening to you, always remember the advice I gave you earlier…
When you look at your prospects and clients this way, you’ll go the extra mile to treat all of them extremely well… the way they deserve to be taken care of. And you’ll achieve success beyond your wildest dreams!
Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ken_Varga
05 May 2009, 8:31 am
Terima kasih en Zul kerana sentiasa memberi ayu inspirasi utk melakukan bisnes ini. Ayu dh pun berhenti dr bank dan akan fokus dlm Public Mutual. Ayu ingin berjaya seperti en Zul.
info2 dr kerjayapelaburan.com ini mmg best!!
05 May 2009, 10:40 am
Semoga Ayu akan berjaya bersama kami di Public Mutual. Success is for everybody…go find it.
21 May 2009, 11:59 pm
Nak jd unit trust consultant juge..bagaimana?
22 May 2009, 12:19 pm
Sudah tentu weera..hubungi kami segera!