So what's changed over the years?

After donkey's ages of writing this column, it's time to quit and let someone else wax lyrical about the need for marketing in the distribution of insurance through insurance brokers. No - it's not retirement, sorry! On occasions I will be back - as MacArthur said. (Wasn't that Arnold Schwarzenegger?-Ed)

Anyway,

So what has changed?

When I started writing this column - years ago - mobile phones were the si/.e of house-bricks; computers ran (compared with today) with the speed of the average sloth. No SatNav to speed insurers' business development people to their destination; speed cameras were hand held, resembling hairdryers; and direct writers wouldn't last (or so they said at the time).

And, specifically, in the insurance business? Regional branches and regional underwriters in every major city, and a raft of insurance companies with names that at least sounded like insurance companies. Brokers were still regulated by a 1977 Act. Pundits were professing the early demise of the insurance broker - some of whom are still professing today but with a slightly different message.

And, what hasn't changed?

The main thing is that the majority of people, including business people, still prefer to deal with an insurance broker. So, despite the onslaught of change, you must be doing something right! But let's park the complacency bit.

The impact of change on the customer is simply speed - everything we do is faster. The buyer can, in theory, walk into a brokers' office and walk out with a policy and certificate (if it's motor insurance), pay by credit card or whatever, and that's it for another year.

Whilst speed and computer efficiency have arrived, the process of getting and retaining customers is much the same. For most brokers an expensive Yell(ow Pages) advertisement; shop premises; and hopefully word of mouth gets the customer. So maybe every other retailing sector has got it wrong? For them it's called marketing and there is much you can copy without spending fortunes on expensive promotions and sponsorship.

Brokers have to get off their backsides to get and retain business, not expect it to drift in through the door. Obviously some do work hard, but others do find excuses. There's the appointment on the golf course which might - just might - produce a renewal or new business, but the exercise is good isn't it? Then there's the next 400 pages of FSA stuff. It is always easy to find excuses.

An American business consultant, Jed, told me years ago, and it has stuck so it's worth repeating:

"Results do not equal no results plus excuses."

I have written what seems to be millions of words on the subject of cross-selling, but have only come across a few brokers who practise it properly and in a planned fashion. Those are successful because they build sound long-term relationships with their customers by controlling all the insurance, not just an odd policy here or there. It seems so obvious but rarely does this happen.

Probably engraved on my headstone will be: "Cross selling is the ...." No holy thoughts here...cross selling, get it?

Anyway, back to the point and there is one.......

If there is one really important message I'd like to leave with you as I sign off as a regular contributor to this magazine, it is this:

"Don't ignore the existing customer in favour of the new".

"We treat them all equally," I can hear people saying. "If a new customer calls he or she gets the same service as an existing customer." Well, many have fallen into that trap, not the least BT if their current series of advertisements is anything to go by. But at least they seem to have learned from their mistakes.

You may have seen the BT advert on the television featuring Jeremy Clarkson. His message on behalf of BT?

"Have you noticed how some companies spend more time and money attracting new customers than looking after the existing?"

I have paraphrased very slightly as I cannot take shorthand. So what does it mean?

An existing customer has a track record with you (just as you have a track record with them. That record extends to their credit worthiness - do they pay their bills?. Do they have loads of claims and policy changes? Even, are they a nuisance? Will they renew with you? Probably, some 80% do every year.

A new customer has to prove that you will make some money during the year. Will the cheque bounce? Will he have told you the absolute truth? Will he be changing his car (or whatever) every five minutes? How will you know? Wait and see...... Will he renew with you? More than likely to be one of the 20% who don't - people who chop and change every year are likely to continue to do so (we call them promiscuous!). So you will have to make your money in year One to be sure. Are you sure?

Not only that, but people in general - me, you and your friends and relatives in non-insurance life - actually like dealing with people they know - it's human nature.

BT lost millions of customers over the last ten years and then woke up and have been trying hard ever since to make up lost ground. Don't make the same mistake.

So, deep down think 'looking after existing customers' by preference by creating a business bond. That means you are the broker for that customer, not one of several insurance providers. The good thing is that if you try, you are pretty safe in the knowledge that the other insurance suppliers will be sitting in their offices waiting for the next new customer, because unfortunately that is the habit of most. Don't be a lemming.

You can learn a lot from mega companies' advertising and promotional activities (like BT) by watching and looking below the surface (its called de-coding) and can often be very clever - or so the designers would have you believe.

Sometimes, however, you can watch an advertisement and puzzle over the product or supplier. One that currently puzzles me is from NU featuring a 43 year old woman who wants to be 17 again - don't we all? But by decrying everything financial the thrust of the message - she patently isn't a candidate for insurance or pensions or investment. "Leave that to me (sic) dad," she says. I leave it to you to decode the NU message - it's far too subtle for me.

Over and out - at least for the time being....