Wow, that is a long blog title! But I needed to get a point across. You may be following along with my blogs on the Perfect Phone Call. Please share them with your team. But be really sure to share this one! If you ever get the “I’m too busy excuse” (and you all know my blood boils when I hear that), here is a great story you can share with them.
As a licensed insurance agent you have passed a very hard exam to earn your license. One would say that you are on a different professional level then say a Starbucks barista right? I have a slight Starbucks thing. I don’t drink it every day but on car trips over 30 minutes, I probably have one in the car. Now I live in New England, we don’t get out of our car this time of year so the drive thru is a common thing! In fact, I will drive a bit farther to get to the Starbucks with a drive thru. Needless to say it’s usually a crowded busy drive thru mess on cold winter days.
So I was getting my coffee and the gentleman at the counter stopped me and asked, “Since it’s so cold outside, don’t you want a warm breakfast sandwich too?” I had to stop and think. Now, of course I did but I’m on a fitness challenge team so the disciplined side of me said no. But I had to stop him. I asked, “Just out of curiosity what made you ask me? There is such a long line and you looks swamped.” He said, “Well I thought you could use a warm breakfast sandwich, they are really delicious and our manager shared with us some interesting news. So many people will get their coffee here and their food somewhere else. The more you know we have, the better you do and the better we do. Plus if we sell only one item per customer, we have to double the amount of customers to get the same result. It just makes sense to ask even when it’s busy. If you are our number one priority while we have you, why have you pay more or drive out of your way for other products we have right here.”
I was floored. The 20 year old was so professional and didn’t bat an eye. He believed that adding a sandwich was the best thing for everyone, so he did it. He told me he does this is all day until lunch then he suggests snacks. So if he can ask me about my breakfast sandwich during the busiest time, why can’t we do it every day in insurance? The answer is we can, we just need to! Just like my friend.
This is something that Agency Performance Partners specializes in with our insurance consulting practice. If you are having a hard time getting your team in the account rounding spirit, call us. We love helping people recognize their performance potential.