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| This Week's Edition of AOA E&O Prevention
Table of Contents
Excess & Surplus Lines - important to understand the good, the bad and the ugly
By Curtis M. Pearsall
Restitution By Insured in Fraud Case Did Not Constitute Covered Damages
By Elizabeth M. McGarry, Esq
Captives Role Set to Grow, Says Industry Expert
By Jonathan Kent
No Common Law First-Party Bad Faith Action in Florida
By Alan Fiedel, Esq.
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"Bringing the Best Together"
Brit Weimer
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________________________________________________________ AOA News, Views, Tips & More
How do you start calling your Insurance Leads - Prospects? By Don Dzubak of ParasolLeads. Acquiring insurance leads is one thing, calling your insurance leads is another. With a fresh list of leads in your hand, you might feel uneasy about when to call your leads and how to contact them. Obviously, your ultimate goal is to get them to purchase your insurance product. You have spent a good amount time, money and effort for these leads and you will make sure your first contact goes well.
Three important tips on calling your insurance lead 1. Keep it positive. Experiencing a couple of rejections in the first calls you make can sometimes affect the way you deal with your next lead. Rejections can be discouraging causing you to sound down and downright negative during the next call. While this is understandable, there are ways for you to overcome "fear of rejection". Do a little positive self-talk and convince yourself that you are providing a much needed service to your prospect. Remember that it takes a lot of guts to be into sales and you have to accept the fact that rejection will always be part of it. There is no reason to be discouraged and no reason to be too negative about the last conversation that ended without a sale. Always start the next call with a clean slate and consider the new lead as a fresh start. Regard rejections as means for you to find out why the lead did not want your service and to fine-tune your methods until you develop the best selling process to produce good sales results. 2. Avoid Mudslinging It's so easy to talk competition down! However, mudslinging does more damage to you than good. If you keep on talking about your competitors' negative aspects, it will only make you sound too desperate to close a sale. Also, it will lead your prospects to realize that you are in fact trying to "sell" them, instead of helping them find the best product or solution for their situation. Nobody likes to be sold. Instead of attacking your competitors' businesses, focus on the positive attributes of your own business and highlight or emphasize these to your prospects. 3. Try not to sound too boastful. Do not sound like an advertisement when you talk about what you have to offer. Avoid enumerating the awards you've received as an agent, or how great your business is. When it is time to contact a lead, try to be solution-focused. Find out what your prospects are most concerned of and try to sound more helpful by letting them know that you just have the right solution to their needs. Emphasize the positive aspects of your business that is most relevant to their current needs and highlight the distinct features of your business that meet their specific needs.
To learn of additional lead generation and marketing strategies and tactics, receive your FREE Ultimate Insurance Agent Marketing Guide here:
Donald J. Dzubak of Parasol Financial & Insurance Solutions
At ParasolLeads, our primary goal is to meet the needs of insurance agents by partnering and helping them land high quality insurance leads. To find out more give us a call today! Contact Donald J. Dzubak, Vice President Sales and Marketing - www.ParasolLeads.com - don@parasolleads.com or 1-651-730-6619. |
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Setting Up Your Site To Accept Online Payments By Cynthia Cavoto of Firebrand Social Media. Once you have your business plan and strategy in place you may have to get a programmer to make customized payment software that will enable you to process online payments.
If you have all this in place you will need to contact an "Acquiring bank" to complete the infrastructure. The problem is that you will have to confirm to a strict list of preconditions the banks lay down in order for a business to qualify for their online services.
It is possible that the bank you have your corporate account with may just refuse you access to their online payment services. The checklist of preconditions is sometimes endless and you will do well to ensure you satisfy all the requirements before applying to any bank. You will need to provide the bank with details that include: the nature of your business, where you expect the cash to flow in from, explain the details of all your products and services, assure the bank that you will deliver the products and services, explain your terms and conditions for online transactions, give a detailed estimate of your turnover, how many credit card or debit card transactions you are expecting,
(See how difficult it becomes)
You will also need to give the bank details of the secure server you intend to use, and if you do not own it you are likely to be turned down. The list goes on and on. In the end, many online merchants choose to set up an online merchant account with a third party service provider. This is invariably free to set up and with the least trouble.
Setting up your site to accept online payments is in fact, easier and faster using free payment processors than it is applying to a bank.
This month's EBook is entitled, "Twitter and Facebook's Influence on SEO".
Each month, we will feature a brand new Social Media EBook that contains valuable information on how you can harness the power of social media. Each featured EBook will contain a wealth of information that will include such topics as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Email and Blogging to name a few. Contact Cynthia at cynthia@agentsofamerica.com or www.firebrandsocialmedia.com. |
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Michael Mercer, Ph.D., provided AoA with Motivational Quotes and Joke-of-the-Month. He wrote the book "HIRE THE BEST & AVOID THE REST." Dr. Mercer created 3 pre-employment tests that many companies use to assess job applicants. You can read about the 3 tests, or subscribe to his "HIRE THE BEST Newsletter" at
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES
"People judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg."
- Good Reading
"Enthusiasm and persistence can make an average person superior."
- William Ward
"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderatanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate."
- Albert Schweitzer
"Never say never."
- Justin Bieber
JOKE-OF-THE-MONTH
I realize this is the joke-of-the-month. But, I seriously conducted a survey of many people. You will feel interested to know 100% agreed with these two statements:
1. "I want to make SO much that when I cash my check . . . the bank bounces!"
2. "And then, I do not want it taken away by taxes."
HIRE THE BEST - & AVOID THE REST™,
Mercer Systems, Inc. Michael Mercer, Ph.D. Book Author & Management Psychologist President - Phone = 847-382-0690 Website =
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 Excess & Surplus Lines - Important to Understand the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Curtis M. Pearsall, CPCU, ARM, CPIA of Pearsall Associates Inc.
Regardless of the status of the market, there is no doubt that the Excess & Surplus lines industry serves a vital role in writing tough / specialty business that the admitted markets don't have the appetite for. The utilization of the E&S market should increase as the market shows some indications of hardening since this is the time when standard carriers modify their underwriting appetite based on those segments of their business that have not performed so well. That is the "good " part. Unfortunately from an E&O standpoint, there is some "bad" and some "ugly".
Read More...
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| Restitution By Insured in Fraud Case Did Not Constitute Covered Damages
By Elizabeth M. McGarry, Esq. of Tressler LLP
An insurance policy did not cover the amount that the insured agreed to refund to a purchaser of subsidiaries to settle fraud claims. The Seventh Circuit held that if the insured could obtain reimbursement for the settlement amount "it will have gotten away with fraud." The court found that a covered "loss" does not include restitution paid by an insured, and is distinct from damages, which are expressly denoted as covered under the policy. Ryerson Inc. v. Federal Insurance Company, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7372, (7th Cir. April 12, 2012) (applying Illinois law).
Read More...
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Captives' Roles Set to Grow, Says Industry Expert
By Jonathan Kent of The Royal GazetteOnline
Bermuda's captive insurance companies are likely to see expansion as their parent corporations use them to deal with emerging risks, according to captive industry expert Andy Barile.
But as the captives take on greater and more complicated risks, captive managers and directors will need more expertise to avoid running into problems in an increasingly sophisticated environment, the veteran expert added.
US-based Mr. Barile, who has just celebrated 45 years in the insurance industry and advises companies on captive formation and management, says competition among domiciles is heating up as US states desperately seek revenue.
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No Common Law First-Party Bad Faith Action in Florida
By Alan Fiedel, Esq. of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
In QBE Insurance Corporation v. Chalfonte Condominium Apartment Association, Inc., Case No. SC09-441 (May 31, 2012), the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion last week in a Hurricane Wilma property insurance case, which originated in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The District Court dismissed the condominium association's causes of action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and violation of the font-type requirements set forth in Florida Statutes § 627.701(4)(a). Both the carrier and the condominium association appealed the ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
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| This newsletter is produced in conjunction with Agents of America, www.agentsofamerica.org. The contents of which may not be reproduced without the express written permission of Agents of America. Copyright 2012 |
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