How to Select Your Insurance Advisor?

You must opt for a life insurance policy. If your finances allow, you must also get health insurance as well as home insurance. This way you would be able to save yourself from any sudden financial crisis. However, you need the best of persons when it comes to an insurance advisor. In this article, we will take you through five steps to hire the best LIC advisor in Delhi.

1. Always prefer a certified advisor

Your insurance advisor must have proper certification from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). This proves that he/she is not there to trick you or fraud you. Moreover, the guidelines laid down by this agency make sure that you are protected on all fronts. If a person is not certified by IRDA, legally he is not entitled to advise people on insurance. He may end up in jail. Therefore, before selecting an agent, make sure that he/she has all the necessary certifications.

2. He must be through with investment solutions

You must understand that insurance agents are much more than just a salesman. They must have a proper understanding of financial planning. They should be equipped with all the necessary information about the financial world, both domestic as well as globally. More importantly, your LIC advisor should have a proper understanding of your family and financial standing. This way he would be able to suggest you the best insurance for you. It is advised that you should first develop a good friendship with the advisor and only then allow him to enter your financial realm.

3. He must have a complete understanding of the product he wants to sell

The insurance advisor must have a thorough knowledge of all the insurance policies that his/her company sells. You should sit down and have a long conversation with him about the pros and cons of various policies. You must understand that every insurance company sells a hell lot of policies. Not all policies are meant for you. Your insurance advisor must suggest you the best policy for yourself after understanding your family and finances.

4. Does the follow-up?

He/she is a cheap insurance advisor if he/she forgets you after you have bought the insurance policy. This is not what a responsible advisor does. Even after you have bought the policy, you may have a hell lot of questions to be answered. He/she must update you about the product premium and all the necessary details to make the best of your insurance.

5. He must help you while fulfilling your claim

When a claim arises, an advisor plays a very important role. He is the sole contact person between the insurance provider and the policyholder. He must understand all the formalities that need to be fulfilled for a successful claim. If your claim is denied there was no point in opting for that insurance policy. A good insurance advisor will stand by you when you need him/her the most.

Bamboo Dreams by Yang Xiu-Lan and Ouyang Qian

I’ve enjoyed many of the recordings of Chinese classical music I’ve been able to hear.

This one is no exception, but is not at the top of the list either.

The basic concept was to center this collection around the theme of bamboo. The title is not meant just as a poetic image, but to really describe the contents.

All the tracks are related to bamboo, from “Heart Touching Sound of Bamboo” to “Bamboo Singing in the Moonlight.”

Also, the wind instruments used are made of bamboo, and there are ten kinds used here: di, xiao, sheng, Chinese panpipes, guan-zi, ba-wu, kou-xian, lu-sheng, bamboo leaf and hu-lu-si. Some of these are traditionally Chinese and others come from other ethnic groups.

The two most common are the Chinese bamboo flutes, the di and xiao.

The di is very common and popular in Chinese music. It resembles a flute. It comes in two common varieties: the bang-di which is soothing and soft and the qu-di which has a strong, high-pitched sound.

The xiao (or dong-xiao) is usually made of purple bamboo, yellow withered bamboo or white bamboo. Its sound is soft and pitched low, and it’s commonly used in concerts.

The sheng is very old, dating back to the early years of Chinese civilization. It’s basically a collection of bamboo flutes of different lengths bound together.

Bamboo is closely related to music in Chinese. They use the phrase “si zhu” — silk and bamboo — to refer to music and musical instruments.

It’d be interesting to know when this music was produced. The small pamphlet included with the CD is little help. One of the producers is old enough to have graduated from college in 1962. Then he went to study music at Fujiang’s College of Art – and there his bio stops. During the Cultural Revolution did he spend ten years on a pig farm learning from the peasants? Is this music officially sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party as it was during Mao’s lifetime? We’re not told.

The other producer, however, is listed as having some credits connected to Buddhism, so that implies this is a post-Mao product (though the current regime is not friendly toward any religion).

The flaw in this collection is that all the tracks are aiming at producing a mood reflecting the peace and quiet of a bamboo grove. They are slow and sedate. Beautiful in themselves, taken by one by one, but after a while you start to crave some variety, some contrast.

This is a good CD to play when you just want to lie down and space out. It’s not going to make you start dancing, but it’s more compelling than the usual New Age stuff people buy.

Prepare to be soothed if not particularly entertained.

Insurance Agency Lead Scoring

Many insurance agencies have not yet formalized their lead scoring system. This is a worthwhile endeavor for all agencies, and one which should be revisited every year, while tracking the return on investment of their marketing programs.

What is lead scoring? It is a methodology used to rank prospects against a scale, and then assign a value to determine interest level and distribution. For example, let’s say a trucking insurance lead appointment arrives at your agency. This lead is with an owner of 15 power units, they use company drivers, and they are unhappy with their carrier. Perhaps your lead scoring system falls on a 1 to 10 scale, and this lead is scored an 8. What might receive a higher score? And what types of leads are outside of profile, and what score would they receive? Perhaps prospects need to score an 8 to appear on your producer scorecards.

Is the lead distributed to producers by territory? Does your lead handling process vary by type of lead, product or prospect? For example, are commercial leads separated by large and small business, by industry or product? Are benefit leads parsed by groups over and under 50? And does your agency have a tracking system in place to determine how many leads showed for the appointment, moved into the pipeline, received quotes and ultimately convert into new business?

Salespeople, sales managers, producers and other business people often refer to prospects in vague terms such as: new, warm, hot, cold, likely, qualified, etc. These terms do little to better understand a sales pipeline or convey likelihood of purchase to other members of the team. Agencies can consider creating a simple prospect scorecard to resolve this issue and quantify their lead scoring. Formalizing lead scoring offers benefits such as:

Helps Producers create ideal attributes to form a buyer persona
Creates a simple numeric system to leverage your buyer persona
Assigns numeric values to rank your best prospects
Creates a simple qualification acronym to determine likelihood to close

What should be included in a prospect scorecard?

Use a prospect scorecard to quantify your approach to pipeline building. Some attributes of your ideal client might include revenue, growth rate, client type (business or consumer) and market niche. For example, are you targeting companies with $5m to $10m in revenue? Are your best prospects fast-growing firms, trucking companies, manufacturers or consumers?

If you’re selling to consumers, are they high net worth, middle-income, millennials or senior citizens? Are your prospects in a specific niche market such as banking, insurance, biotech, consulting, education, etc.? Create a scorecard with your ideal attributes and a customized qualification abbreviation to help you determine if you’re selling to an in-profile prospect.

Insurance agencies and brokers seeking to get to the next level with their insurance marketing and lead generation, but lacking the internal resources to achieve their marketing goals, can reach out to a proficient insurance agency marketing firm.