Over the course of a given day, thousands of distractions can come between you and your work. Even your best days can feel like a flood of mismatched moments: mobile apps, meetings, emails, etail, dinner plans, lunch breaks, weather checks, new texts, coffee mugs, chit-chat, phone calls, curve balls, unexpected, disconnected, did you lock the front door?
And here I am, about to tell you to pay attention to the news.
So maybe this article is about paying attention to the things that can help you the most. Maybe this is about finding information that could help you work smarter, when you finally get around to it. To be a more effective insurance professional, it’s important to be aware of the trends and data available in your industry, so you can apply them to your working day. Even a few minutes in the morning spent reviewing the news can give you a huge advantage in how you handle your workload.
Information can create a competitive advantage for your practice. It doesn’t matter how you receive the information—unless it’s from Beyond, of course, which makes it automatically awesome—as long as it’s reliable and provides some sort of insight. For example, Allstate recently published a study ranking the safest cities in America for drivers. 2012 marks the eighth year of the ongoing study, and the full results can be downloaded from the Allstate website. Where does your nearest city fall on the list? Knowing such data can help your off-the-cuff pitches and conversations, and it can also provide another way for you to frame auto insurance for a listener.
Awareness can also help you more effectively support current clients and target prospective clients. By analyzing trends, you can identify opportunities and decide where and when to put in the work. Did you know that business owners spend more money in transition periods? According to Curtis Kroeker at LifeHealthPro,
“69 percent of new business owners added an insurance provider or switched to a new provider entirely [when buying a business], and an additional 16 percent added or switched to new insurance products after buying a business. Finally, nearly 15 percent of business buyers extended the coverage provided by their existing policies.”
A business-focused insurance agent armed with this specific information can use it to target new business owners as potential clients. In a more general sense, by keeping up to date with similar data, you can pick and choose which leads to chase and which ones to leave behind.
Trends and news can even help you navigate your future, depending on how you analyze the information. According to a recent article by Matthew Sturdevant, the U.S. Census Bureau recently posted an interactive data and mapping tool that details health insurance coverage estimates for the nation’s 3,140 counties. Users can examine the data, currently accurate through 2010, using such filters as age, race, and income. In this particular instance, a health insurance professional could explore possible areas for relocation, or perhaps evaluate areas for opening up his or her own business.
The ultimate benefit to being aware of your industry is that you can make informed decisions. In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur said, “In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” (In French, of course.) Take note, career professionals: even though insurance centers on chance, you can still help yourself by being focused, informed, and prepared.
Are there any instances wherein your knowledge of the news has helped your business? Are there any news sources that have been particularly valuable? Let us know below.
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