Archive for the ‘Insurance-Technologies’ Category

An excerpt from a Crowdsourced book on Social Tech which I’m contributing to.  The book is called Enterprise Social Technologies.. Chapter 7// Step Six – Integration with Sales.  (Btw, I understand that the author is now “getting some of the chapters back from the crowd and they are REALLY good… This book is going to rock.”)

The question then becomes, What is the corporate voice?  What best captures the spirit and essence of the organization?  Some companies use Meme’s like the Geico gecko.  Some use the CEO, like Zappos.  Others take a more traditional, albeit more Social, marketing and PR voice (e.g. Dell, H&M, Whole Foods, JetBlue).  Sadly, many more are silent, apparently either paralyzed like deer in the mesmerizing headlight of a thundering train, or worse, suffering from that nasty corporate disease with symptoms like arrogance, stubbornness, complacency, and greed – with a little fear.  Or both.

The problem with the health insurance industry

To be sure – I’m not perfect (too much debt, not enough savings, and battle daily a family curse of judgmental-ism (not that I’m making excuses).  MY SOLE OBJECTIVE with the following content is to perhaps give industry folks a wake-up call.  I will be curious on your take, so please don’t lurk and then Comment elsewhere….

It seems clear that the world is starting to see through our collective BS.  We can’t hide behind corporate-speak any longer.  “Oh, we’re a very conservative industry, filled with angry regulators.  We can’t do all that Social stuff….”  We must engage, become transparent, be humble, confess the issues mentioned above, and turn toward a more transparent culture.  If we don’t, it’s just a matter of time before the social Web takes us to task and potentially ruins us.  As I’ve heard many times before, we can either deal with our ‘sins’ privately in a proactive manner… Or we will be forced to deal with them publicly in a reactive situation.  The choice is ours.

Matter of fact, I’ll go a step further with the possibly bold statement that might create the firestorm.  This all might have just happened. The thought has occurred to me, and I might be out in left field, that the reason the health insurance industry just took what might possibly be a death-blow (at least on the major medical side of the business…lot of opportunity elsewhere)… might just be… because they did not have a voice, did not manage their online reputations either collectively or individually, and were thus were a sitting duck in a deadly world of viral information, gross misunderstanding of a very technical industry, and heated debate on two extremely sensitive subjects – health and money.

Think about it… With a few exceptions, many health insurance companies were (and still are) relatively ‘silent’ online wrt Healthcare Reform.  At best, they issued long and boring White Papers or Press Releases, often too late to have maximum impact, often watered-down with a lot of marketing/legal/compliance corporate speak, and often with little to no Social aspects to them – no Video, no ShareThis, no Comments, etc..  Thus, like McCain in the election, they appeared symptomatic as described above in blue to the public and were stomped on by an aggressive and hostile Social Media machine.  The public in turn did not engage with enough heat on their representatives to change their minds.  Although many will say, “The problem is that the Feds didn’t LISTEN to the public.  THEY were the ones that were arrogant and greedy – arrogant in that ‘We know better’ and greedy for power.”   True – I agree.  But perhaps if the insurance companies had been more transparent to begin with, the whole CF would not have started or might have been defused before it cost many their jobs and in some cases, their companies?  In the final analysis, we’re trying to solve a problem that has been created by lack of information in the hands of the consumer – how much do health-related services and drugs cost, how can I shop around, what are the financial impacts of my personal choices, etc.  If we had had good transparency instead of what is perceived as the silent treatment…

I dunno – like I said, I might be out in left field.  Am I?  Please Comment below.

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So, on a lighter note, I got to shoot my first MLS game a couple weeks ago.  Major League Soccer, YT on the sidelines doin’ my thing!!!!… Hilarious really.

See all the pics here. (Short-cuts to highlights in color at the top.)

There were a couple US World Cup Team Players on the field!  Too Cool!

Why a Professional Blog?  Let me count the ways… But first, let me break TWO BIG MYTHS.

“No time…” We’re talking an hour a week (depending on how fast you organize your thoughts and type). And you can always dictate the post to an admin and have them load it into the editor.  ‘Time’ is not the issue.

“Who cares what I have to say?”  First of all, it’s not just about the human audience.  Search Engine Marketing is a big part of it.  Second, your network cares what you have to say.  Your customers.  Your prospects.  Your business partners.  Heck..  Your Mom!

What’s your other reason for not doing a professional blog?  Comment below and perhaps the crowd can give advise.

So Why Blog?  What the ROI?  Here’s my take… And this is by NO MEANS everything.  Just off the top…

1. Search Engine Leads – Gain new and/or previously off-the-radar sales opportunities
2. Reinforcement of existing sales processes started through other means
3. Social Media Optimization – Establish Social Relevancy within Social Media Marketing
4. Establish hooks, interest, and engagement with prospects for when the time is right
5. Viral marketing and referrals with all-of-the-above
6. Competitive advantage, or, at a minimum, keeping up with the competition
7. Application of the knowledge and understanding gained from using the tool to client projects
8. Improved self-awareness and awareness of market perceptions
9. Use for free market research
10. Improved Web-content writing skills
11. Enhanced potential to write a book based on the blog history and your new skills (whole nuther optnty)
12. Improved public speaking and presentation skills for sales and marketing presentations – yep… odd but true
13. Potential to gain speaking ops at industry or local biz-dev events
14. Improved marketplace visibility for the blogger/organization
15. Great chance to understand Web analytics
16. Better success leveraging Twitter and Linkedin

Are you blogging?  Post a link and share your ROI stories?  If you’re not, hope you get started.  You’ll be glad you did.  Caveat – gotta do it right.

Btw, I’m working on Part 2 of my last podcast.  Nibby and Chris share thoughts on their blogs.  Couple great case-in-points.

Oh yeah, awesome event listening to Ken Blanchard last week.  Phenomenal teaching.  Terrific stories.  He laughed, he cried… Unofficially recorded the talk on my ipod.  Pretty compelling stuff.

Qwik pics shot this morning.  Love Spring and Summer in Northeast Ohio.

Took 45 minutes on this post, btw – including the pictures.

The game seems to have changed.  The art, process, career – call it what you want – of selling is being changed by Social Technology, even in the lagging industry of insurance.  Skeptical of this?  You have only to look at your most recent sales – or losses.  Whether B2B or B2C, do you have a sense that the buyers, BEFORE they decided whether or not to buy, engaged in an effort to “check you out online”? In this due-diligence process, what did they find out about YOU (B2B) or your product reputation and/or brand reputation (B2C)?  Was this act on behalf of the consumer as common just two years ago (2008)? How about 2005?  Even if it was common in those days, did it carry as much weight in the purchase decision?  I think if you really look at the trends, you’d have to admit that the selling process has changed.

Think about it.  How would you characterize the most recent selling paradigms we’ve seen over the past few decades.  As a B2B sales guy since 1988, I’d say I’ve seen three distinct era’s in 20+ years, certainly with convergence and overlap.  Generally speaking…

1. 80′s / early 90′s – Relationship selling
2. early/mid 90′s – Solution-oriented selling
3. late 90′s, 2000′s – CRM-based selling

What do you remember about the pro’s and con’s of these earlier phases?  What struggles did you have adapting to the changing paradigms?  Any funny anecdotes that come to mind relative to this?  How would you characterize what we’re seeing now with Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs and their impact on sales?  Consumer/Client rating?  Retweets, ShareThis, Recommendations?  Email marketing?  Podcasting?  Viral video?  Content syndication?

My own funny story… I remember when I was selling for ADP in Phoenix around ’91/92, a couple years into it, I got my first laptop and bought a copy of ACT!  That year I made President’s Club for the first time – a really big deal for me just starting out trying to establish myself as a capable sales guy.  Relative to my small patch in east Mesa on the rural areas to the east (Globe, Payson, Show Low) the tools definitely helped me get to the next level.  But I now had a new challenge.  “Where the frickin’ OUTLET around here???? I need a POWER SUPPLY for my laptop!!!” :-)  So much for McDonalds – not outlets!

Stories? Thoughts?

Selling from a hotel room at a conference.

Many are asking what I’m up to these days… Howzitgoin’ with WebWisedom… etc.

It’s actually amazing.  So much has happened in the first 4 months of business….  I’ve spoken at a couple conferences, attended a couple others, worked on a couple insurance e-Commerce projects, helped a client get a blog up and running (not quite public yet), made some mistakes, had some victories, put thousands of miles on rental cars (with a few exceptions, I despise the airlines and the whole airport scene), rebranded the blog, have a 2nd blog/e-com site in dev, worked on my first book and working on a chapter of a crowd-sourced book, invested in a MacBook Pro and so learned a bunch of Apple tools, created a viral video for an association – and oh, yeah, helped my wife with some major work on the kitchen, and helped the kids with college stuff.  Lot to bite off, eh?!?!

Here’s how things have netted out and the opportunities for YOU, my clients and partners.  My focus is on Social – Social Technology education, Social Tech strategies, and Social tactics.  I’m helping clients assimilate Social into their enterprise, their on-going sales efforts, and their marketing strategies.  Any Comments?

Social Tech Education – 1/2 day or Full-day Workshops

Myth-busting
Getting every level involved, speak with one voice, common language and vocabulary
Executive – Develop into Online Thought-leaders
HR and Ops – research candidates, listen, learn, share
Sales & Marketing – Socially Facilitated Selling versus Socially Directed Buying
Policy development to govern SM habits
Side-bar:
Executive Coaching – access to my tools, my monthly tips, my stream, and my schedule

Social Tech Monitoring

Brand, Reputation, Conversations – You… and your Competitors

Social Tech Planning

Research into You, your Clients, and their customers
Create a Plan
Ongoing accountability and coaching

Social Content Syndication

More on this later. Very special.

Social Tech Management

Basic:
- Consultation
- Strategy development
- Support
Advanced:
- Avatar
- Development
- Community/Network

Blog Consulting

Authors and Content Strategies
Technology Implementation, including Social Net integration
Promoting and Marketing
Ongoing Coaching

Related Social Tech Strategies Development Workshops

High-Beam/Low-Beam Leadership Training
Building a River of Information
Socially Facilitated Selling and Socially Directed Buying
E-Word-of-Mouth and Viral Marketing
Online Reputation Management
Revenue-on-Demand

Specialized Enterprise Social Tech Training

“Listening” tools and strategies
Concepts and strategies for Online Reputation Management
Collaboration tools and strategies – Wiki’s, Crowdsourcing, etc.
High-beam v. Low-beam Leadership and the impact on Enterprise Social Tech adoption within the enterprise
- critically important and perhaps the most needed today
Constituent-based Web design
- the vast majority of Web properties are designed incorrectly
Social CRM – this is really getting at the heart of things.  And this is where our customers and clients want us to go – for THEIR benefit.

Any Comments about any of these things?  What struck you about or within this list of Social Tech stuff?  It’s a lot.  Curious.

Kelle, my daughter, celebrating her 20th birthday.  Phew!  I made it through the teens!

Love this shot!

Favorite Myth/Cliche about Social that I heard this week:

“I don’t get twitter!  What would I want to know what someone had for breakfast?!?!”  Is that something you heard this week?  Is that something you said this week?  What’s your favorite?  Just so you know, as I crafted this post, I checked twitter.  Here’s a link to a story tweeted by someone I’m following that was right there on my tweetdeck timeline.  Is this helpful or is this ‘what someone had for breakfast’?  And this is just a little snippet I learned in about 60 seconds…

Change of Subject: Curious on your thoughts… What concepts does the phrase ‘Socially Facilitated Selling‘ bring to mind?  I’m writing a chapter in a crowdsourced book on Social Technology.  The chapter speaks to this concept of Socially Facilitated Selling.  It also will discuss Socially Directed Buying, more applicable to B2C sales and marketing.  Curious what your thoughts are on these concepts.  Might even be able to give you a mention in the book.  That’d be neat… Post your insight in the Comments below.  Join the conversation!

Speaking of books, I’m about 75% done with the book I’ve been working on through the Fall and Winter.  Hopefully I’ll finish this summer, then crowdsource the design of the book.  Those of you who’ve agreed to read the manuscript, really appreciate it!  Anyone else that wants to comment, here’s the topic of the book: How is e-Business like exercise?  Share a thought in the Comments.  If I use your Comment in the book, believe me, you’ll know!

Wanna see something really interesting?  Check out this article by the World Future Society that I saw in their email blast.  This is a great organization, fun to listen to, and always inspiring to contemplate.  One of these years I’m going to a WFS Summer Conference.  Join me?

105 MILLION TWITTER USERS.  Did you know that Twitter was the first Social Network that was adopted by middle-aged people First?  Interesting.

Last thought for today.  I keep hearing people use the excuse of ‘no time’ for not getting in the game of Social Tech.  What if I told you I could save you at least 30 minutes a day by optimizing your basic Web-browsing behaviors and practices?  Would you shift that time to writing a blog or just listening across your network of peers, associates, colleagues, and visionaries all around you?  Interesting thought that might get you started.

Thoughts on all this?  Please comment.  Remember – Lurking is Lame.  Join the conversation.  (This post took 45 minutes.  Good use of time?)

As I shared on Facebook this morning, it’s days like this that make me glad I live in Northeast Ohio.