Shawn's a big boy now

I have moved to a Website. Wow! Go find me there! I will not be updating this. The Blog is part of the website. Just a better platform. Go check it out. Leave comments. It is the same address just drop the Blogspot. Now it is Shawnmwalker.com. If you are confused. Just google my name, forgot my name, take a look around.

http://www.shawnmwalker.com/

Sonic, Diet Coke, Cross Selling, and Social Media

I am tired today. I want to get off topic...write about something nice and easy. Sometimes I write about social media, sometimes I write about sales in general (read the older stuff). Lately I have been on the social media kick, but today I want to talk about cross-selling.

I like to try and get a drink at Sonic every afternoon. I get a Route 44, Diet Coke, with lime, easy on the ice. Two o’clock to four o’clock is happy hour, so the drinks are half off. I know I can get my drink for $1.04. I usually have the change ready and counted out.

Here is the kicker. EVERY TIME I order my Route 44, Diet Coke, with lime, easy on the ice, the person over the speaker says, “Do you want any cheese sticks with that?”

I always say no to the cheese sticks, but about 20% of the time I say “yes” to something else. Keep in mind; I never have the intention of getting anything but my drink, but the cross-sell still works on me 20% of the time.

So questions:
Do you try to cross-sell every time? Equally, if not more importantly, does your staff? What percentage of the time does it work? WHAT, you don’t know?
I am sure people come in wanting home and auto, but did you offer the life or health, the umbrella, the toys, did you ask about the toys? Do they have a business? (Don’t know how to write a BOP, learn, and earn the cross-sell.)

So we actually got a snippet of social media today on accident.

First, you all read about my love for Sonic and Diet Coke. They did not pay me to write about them and yet here I am telling you about their happy hour schedule and the exact cost of a Route 44.

Second, I have just used social media to define myself to a large group of people who seemingly shouldn’t care about my caffeine addiction; and yet, here you are still reading. Why are you still reading? Because I gave you something valuable to think about. That is social media done right. Provide value that keeps them coming back for more.

Please come back for more. Have a great day. Tell me what you think and forward!


Fun Clip On Social Media-
http://www.youtube.com/user/ImprovEverywhere#p/u/12/soAk3F0wX9s

comScore Report 2009 and 2010

So I wrote a Blog a few weeks ago, posted it for one minute and then pulled it off. I wanted to share some stats with you from the comScore report but was not sure if I legally could. (You know copyright stuff.) So instead I went digging for you to find the information elsewhere.

What is the comScore report?

"comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its 2009 Auto Insurance report. The 50-page report, which presents a detailed overview of the important consumer trends affecting the Auto Insurance industry, is based on both behavioral data from comScore’s panel of one million U.S. Internet users and a survey of 2,000 auto insurance consumers. Among the many topics covered in the report are the growing importance of the online channel, on which consumers increasingly rely to obtain auto insurance price quotes and purchase their coverage, and the synergies between online and other significant channels such as local agents and toll-free numbers."

Basically it's a stats company that measures a lot of stuff in the digital world and then sells the reports for $. Each year they do a report specific to the insurance industry and how customers are shopping online vs other methods.

So let's share some of those stats in a way I feel comfortable sharing them, with sources I feel comfortable sharing with you.

2009 comScore Report Says;
Q: In which of the following ways did you shop/obtain price quotes when you shopped most recently? (select all that apply)

I went online to quote 63%
I called/visited local agents who represent one insurance company 26%
I called/visited local agents who represent multiple insurance companies 25%
I called a toll-free number for quotes 18%
Other 3%

What does this tell you? You need an online presence. You need to be capturing more of the market. You need to be capturing a larger part of the clients shopping, and they are beginning their shopping experience online.

“While the online channel can reduce costs and increase efficiency for both insurers and consumers, it also removes the relationship building effect of working with a local agent,” added Levitt. “Accordingly, insurers need to find ways to cultivate customer relationships with those acquired through the online channel if they hope to solidify their brand loyalty.”


According to the Personal Line Growth Alliance the 2010 comScore Report Says:

72% of consumers have shopped online for Auto Insurance.
67% of shoppers last year went looking for a quote online (up 4%, see above)
22% went to a local agent with only one price point (down 4% from last year)
22% went to a local agent with multiple price points (down 3% from last year)

What does this tell you?
The percentage of consumers going online is still growing. Stop fighting the advice to go online and go! Not sure how? Go read my blog about my five baby steps.

Last and most important note: Independents are better closers than Captives. Captives have a better web presence than Independents, because they know people start shopping online.

There is another stat that shows a huge percent of consumers start online, but want to finish face-to-face with an agent.

What does that tell you?
When a person is done fooling around online looking for information, they are not going to the yellow pages to find a local agent. They are going to Google: insurance, agent, city name.

If they Google: "agent, insurance, and your city name," will they find you?
If they Google: "insurance agent and your state" will they find you? A worthy goal to work towards.



Links I used to write this:
http://personallinesgrowth.org/highlights-of-comscores/
http://www.comscorenetworks.com/por/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/4/comScore_Releases_2010_U.S._Online_Auto_Insurance_Report http://www.socialautopilot.com/blog/3-news/19-highlights-of-comscores-2010-online-auto-insurance-report.html
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/4/comScore_Releases_2009_Online_Auto_Insurance_Report

What I Should Have Done When I Started Blogging

I have not been content with the number of hits I am receiving on my Blog so I did what I should have done when I started. I Googled: “Increase My Blog Traffic.” This is where I found some great information: (http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsIncreaseBlogTraffic.htm)

I gleaned two suggestions and applied them in the last week. The very day I applied the following two suggestions, I got over 100 hits in one day. I encourage you to do the same.

1) Put your Blog address on your signature line, so on every email it is seen, forwarded, and shared. I have a quote shared from my blog posts that wets the appetite of the reader and then invites them to follow the link for more. (Provide value before the sell.)

2) Register your Blog with Google and Yahoo. The link above will help you do that. It took literally 30 seconds to do each one.

There you go. Get your Blog on and have fun watching your hits sky rocket this week.

Like what you are reading? Prove it. Here’s a few ways you can. The easiest is to leave a comment. The second easiest way to prove it: forward on my link. Third, share with me your success stories.

Top Five Social Media Steps You Need to Take Today

I had two agents read the blog and decide it was time to dive into the Social Media world. Good for them.

They wanted to know how to get started and this is what I told them. The first baby steps into the Social Media world:

1) Yelp- Don’t just register on Yelp, go get some people to make some comments about you. (Last night on The Office, Will Farrell made reference to Yelp.) The more people that comment on you and your agency, the more you come up. Go get referrals that way.

2) Get listed .org– I mentioned it before. I hear you can do this and the results take a few days to kick in. I.e., if you put in all your info and then look for immediate results later that day you will see failure, go back and look for yourself in a week and you will be happy with the results.

3) Facebook- Have you been reading my other blogs? Do I really need to dig in any deeper here? If you have not gone this route yet, shame on you. If you have and you don’t have as many friends as you ought to, shame on you. (How many friends should you have? Go read the blog, it will tell you.)

4) Google Local listings- Google runs this world. Others are trying to get a piece of the action but Google makes the world go round. The last time you went to find a business how did you find it? Everyone Googles everything. Bing, another search engine is spending lots of millions to own some of that market share. The thick of the plot: If Google is providing you a FREE way to get seen and listed as a local business, so they can put the Yellow Pages out of business, then jump on it and quit paying the phone book sales guy.

5) If you blog it, they will come- Make yourself look like a professional online even if you wear shorts to the office every day. A blog is slow moving. You have a captive audience and hundreds if not thousands of client emails to send your links to. Every time you write a posting, send it to your audience via email, Facebook, and link it to your website.

There is one problem with blogging. If you start down this road. You will start tracking your hits and become obsessed with it. Who wants to write at 6am and not see the hits they deserve for their labors? J/K

Need ideas about what to write about: Go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There are hundreds of ideas there. (Just a side note, when I take an idea from somewhere, I usually provide the link to that website. That way I am not plagiarizing and the original writer or source gets a chance at growing their hits as well, by people who follow their link from your page.)

Social Media is the New Cold Call

Jeffery Gitomer says, “Business social media is the new cold call!”

Some things to think about if this is true.

1. Cold calls were never fun to make. (Have you ever made a cold call? I have, it was not a good time in my life.) Isn’t it nice to know that there is a virtual, faster, and a much more fun way to do this horrible job?

2. Cold calls were never very effective. So, I’ll be the first to admit that your Social Media results may not be as good as the referrals you are currently getting, but I had an agent tell me this week that it is his social media network that is providing him some of his best leads. Why not ask your clients for leads through a number of different methods? What is the harm of proving yourself a professional “online” as well as in your conference room? How much faster can you prove yourself as a competent professional to your social following (as opposed to one by one in a conference room)?

3. Cast a larger net. Cold calls simply filled the leads funnel. Social media does so much more. When your professional social network is rolling, it sets you apart as an industry professional providing value before, during, and after the sale. Clients and prospects will be able to point at something and prove you know your industry, your policies, and your competitors' policies. It provides another point of value. Again go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There is value there! That agent provides value. THAT IS HIS COLD CALL! And does it pay dividends? You bet! (Rick, please post a comment, telling us briefly the dividends it pays to your agency.)

4. Cold calls almost never work. You want to find a nugget of gold? Get a reference. Want more references, talk to larger audiences. The perfect example is my buddy writing the aforementioned website. On the first day he was not getting 300+ hits a day. He was not getting paid by advertisers to write. And yet now he has a great ball rolling. He has industry professionals reading his stuff and regurgitating it. His writings alone stand on their own two feet now.

Potential clients asks him, “Why should I choose you as my agent, you can’t save me any money?" Response, “Does your agent understand the industry like I do, go read my website. Does he provide you that added value?” Trust me, my friend is no genius (above average maybe, jk), however, due to his presence he comes off as an industry professional, he comes off as knowing more about insurance than Joe at Halfstate, Jack at State Ranch, or Jonnie at Rancher’s Insurance down the street.

Does your online presence do that for you?

5. Cold calls serviced questions one by one. You don’t have to do that anymore.

“Oh I like your radio advertising idea Mr. Radio Sales Rep. But tell me again, how many people listen to your radio station? And how many people will hear my commercial?”

Why answer the same question 8,000 times on 8,000 different cold calls? Answer it once to the whole group via social media. Better yet, let some of your clients answer the question for you.

Read the Facebook posting below for ideas on how to do that. Get them talking.

Another Reason Why Social Media is Taking the World By Storm

So we know a few things about social media.

1. We know it is so popular because people like getting recommendations from friends, not companies. They trust friends. When a friend tells me to go get a Chicken Biscuit Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A because it is the best thing they have ever tried in the fast-food world: I go try it!
We ignore 100s of millions of dollars worth of national advertising paid for by Chick-Fil-A, but when a friend on Facebook says, “Hey you have to try this!” Guess what, humans want to try it.

2. This next bullet-point is a topic we have not touched before. It was a TED conference talk, but I don’t have the link.

SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS DEFINE WHO WE ARE, FASTER AND TO LARGER AUDIENCES.

In the isolating age of the Internet, we all want people we care about, who once cared about us, or who might care about us in the future, to know who we are and what we are becoming as life unfolds. We want people to know that we are:

A Lowe’s fan not a Home Depot fan, a Coloradan, a Texan, an Oakland A’s fan, a fan of an insurance agency, a video game fan, a fan of skiing at Snowbird, a dueling piano bar fan, a dad, a grandfather, a scholar, a fiction reader, a fan of Chick-Fil-A Biscuit Sandwiches, a willing protestor of Egypt (Egypt’s revolution began with 85,000 fans organized through Facebook), a gala apple fan, a political ally of a presidential candidate, an avid painter, a singer, a secret fan of tumble weed, and a Jerry Seinfeld fanatic. (This is a random list and is not about me in any way.)

We want to define who we are to the world and Social Media helps us do that in a newer, faster way to a larger audience.

1. Your clients want to tell their friends at the end of the day that they just saved $689 on insurance.
2. They want to tell their friends that they didn’t know independent insurance agents existed, but that they can do great things.
3. They want to tell their friends that their insurance agent is smarter than their friend’s agent.
4. They want to tell their friends how well their claim was handled.
5. They want to be define themselves through social media.

How do you facilitate that need?
How do you convince people that you are a professional online?
How does this agent (www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com) do that? These articles are funny, compelling, full of facts and free.
When it is time to buy, do they go find anyone, or do they find this guy?