3 Things That Will Get You Audited by OSHA

Does the Occupational Safety & Health Administration send a chill up your spine? 

Do you have that 1 client that is a total safety disaster?

OSHA was created under the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970 to "assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women".

If you've ever been audited or have been a part of a client's audit, then you know it's becoming more of a shakedown to get money for the DOL than a safety oversight procedure.

Business Insurance reported yesterday that while injury reports are up, OSHA still expected to see more. What does that mean? Get your checkbook ready.

Here are 3 Incidents that trigger a mandatory OSHA visit:

What can you do to help your clients prevent an audit and more importantly avoid the above incidents?

Education.

Get your clients assistance with their Human Resource practices to ensure employee satisfaction. Not only can this identify potential whistle blowers it can also help you retain top talent.

Safety training for employees and managers must become a part of the client's culture. Because it can be costly for them, consider providing it to them as a value added service. To ensure utilization, owners can tie managers compensation to employee safety.

And all of the precautions in the world, their updated Incidents Log, and their timely reporting will mean nothing to an auditor if they don't have documentation of write ups on these incidents.

-R

How NOT to ask for a Referral

The greatest compliment you can give me is a referral. That sounds like something Jimmy Stewart would say. Which means it's as dated as the reference.

Passive Email

What's worse? Seeing that statement after your email signature. That says to me, "I'd like a referral please, but I'm too afraid to ask you."

It should be scary, and it should feel awkward, and you should be embarrassed. Why? You didn't do anything to earn it. All you did was YOUR JOB. 

Social Media

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are platforms for sharing information. They're also informal and the wrong place to ask for something so personal. 

Spam

Unless you're Jimmy Stewart, who died before email was created, you shouldn't be emailing someone for a referral. The one exception would be if you're buying referrals. "Send me a referral and I'll give you a $50 Amazon gift card!" And if that's how you're doing business I'll pray for you tonight. 

Your commission is your reward for administering the transaction of insurance. You shouldn't expect anything more. 

It's like the tip jar that appears everywhere in NYC from fast food joints to shoe stores. Yes, shoe stores. Come to Broadway & Canal.

The right way to ask for a referral is face to face or over the phone. And there is an art to getting a great referral. Here are a couple of ideas on how to get a well qualified lead.

By well qualified I mean you're not going to ask them if they'd like a FREE QUOTE. You're going to lead with helping them with a challenge they have that you can solve. 

You Saved them Money

If you've got amazing market access and/or you saved a client money without reducing coverages, that is worth a conversation. Call your client.

You Lowered their MOD

Not many brokers are talking about Risk Management let alone taking action. If you've put a plan in place like safety training to create a safety culture and it lowered your clients MOD, congrats! Get a referral for that.

You Solved their Problem

Do you have a specialty program that is unique to your client's industry? Call them and ask them if they have any friends in that industry that could benefit.

You Protected their Wealth

Did you or one of your services prevent your clients from making a bad decision with an employee like a termination or manager retaliation? EPLI doesn't cover everything, but you were there looking out for them. That's worth a referral.

If you do more for your clients than just being the middleman between them and the carrier then you're doing more than 90% of agents. That is worth a referral! Here is how you ask:

"Hi Mrs. Customer, did you know we (insert what you did for them) which resulted in you (saving money, not getting sued, not losing your wealth)? What does that mean to you and your business? Is there anyone you know that would benefit from that type of service?"

It's a soft market, you need to get creative. Or you could just put out a tip jar.

-R

 

 

 

A Doghouse on the Moon?

Some day someone is going to build a doghouse on the moon, and Joe Charczenko is going to insure it. 

Last week was the 3rd annual Business Insurance 40 Under 40 Broker Awards. The purpose of the event is to honor the men & women who are the future leaders of the insurance industry.

Charczenko and 8 of his colleagues from the Northeast Region were recognized at the Langham Place Hotel in midtown Manhattan. 3 similar events occurred in 3 other regions throughout the country.

What makes this award unique is that it's not a popularity contest or a last second event that's quickly thrown together. The vetting process takes months. 

Gavin Souter, Editor of Business Insurance Magazine, explained the process and that there cannot be multiple nominees from the same agency in the same region.

"Each nominee must produce 6 work references and 3 client references. Then we interview these references to determine who makes it to the final 40", Souter said.  "Submitting a flood claim is easier."

I talked to some of the awardees about what it takes to get ahead in this industry and put yourself in a position for future success. Their answers were all the same: Be different.

Andy Stergiou of Alliant Insurance Services Inc. didn't always have a unique market cornered with his specialty program he built. 

"I started out cold calling and picking up business that way." Stergiou went on, "Then I got involved in the associations." This is where his career took off. 

"I found an industry association that didn't have an insurance broker in it." What did he do? He found a massive gap in the coverage and then worked with another carrier to build a specialty program. 10 years later he has saturated that industry. "The rest is history."

Brian Courtney has been at The Safeguard Group Inc. for over 10 years. He uses a different strategy to get in front of his prospects. 

"LinkedIn", he said. "It's a great first impression and it gives you a lot of credibility." Courtney's niche is Cyber Liability. 

"Everyday there is a new story in the paper about a data breach. There's always something to talk about." I asked him if the biggest threat was 'hacking'. 

"The biggest threat is actually employees. They open an email with an attachment from someone they don't know. And that's it." 

The advice from everyone was very consistent. If you can be different and specialize you not only gain more knowledge than a generalist but also gain credibility. The insurer of the "Doghouse on the moon" put it best.

"You can fake success, but you can't fake significance."

-R

 

Producer Survey: Results!

The results are in! 

AND THEY'RE SHOCKING.

Let's jump right in. Here are your responses to "What you bring to a prospect meeting".

85% of you said that you bring your Business Card. WHY ISN'T THIS 100%??? How is the CEO going to remember your name and number, an email you sent? They get 100's of emails every day. Unacceptable.

Why is this important? Other than it being basic business acumen it let's your prospect easily get in touch with you. SO THEY CAN BUY FROM YOU.

53% of you said that you bring a Legal Pad. WHY ISN'T THIS 100%??? How are you going to take notes? The CEO is watching you nod and listen to their challenges but you're not writing anything down. Unacceptable.

Why is this important? You look like you're winging it. Taking notes shows them that you're paying attention. At least pretend to take notes!

0% of you said that you do a Live Technology Demo. I assume this means you don't have technology at your agency. Otherwise your client should see it. (Tip: it helps you stand out compared to the guy who didn't bring a business card and isn't taking notes)

WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER?

It doesn't matter if you don't work on commission. If you do, it means everything. 

As a producer your job is to get the organic growth. Which means you need to close your referrals. If your presentation is weak than you will not get a call back, even if you did give them a business card.

WHAT SHOULD I BRING TO A PROSPECT MEETING?

Ask Zenefits, ADP, and PayChex reps. Because they're the ones grabbing the market share from under everyone.

"Yeah but their Customer Service stinks and they don't know insurance". Maybe, but they're the ones who just got the BOR. 

HOW CAN I WIN THE BOR OR PROTECT MY BOOK FROM THESE COMPETITORS?

  1. Understand what their challenges are as a business owner and what this costs them - Legal Pad
  2. Demonstrate your solutions and give them "Leave Behinds"- Technology Demonstration & Agency Branded materials
  3. Give them a way to reach you - Business Card

One of my clients just won a 220 enrolled group that had been with their broker for 16 years. They qualified them and then demonstrated their HRIS, Compliance platform, and document preparation services. The prospect called the next day to sign the BOR. He used the number on the business card.

Do you agree or disagree? 

I don't have all of the answers, but I do have 5 presentations today.

- R 

Producer Survey: Prospect Meetings

I ask agency Principals and Partners every single day if they're looking for organic growth. If they say 'yes', I typically have a couple of follow up questions I ask them to understand the WHY & the HOW.

But today I want to hear from YOU the producers. TAKE THE 2 QUESTION SURVEY. 

We will publish the results of this 2 question survey for everyone here on Errors & Omissions.

Please forward to friends and colleagues in the insurance industry!

- R