Today, I had the honor of being part of a customer panel for Insurance Office of America, who handles our commercial insurance as well as our benefits.
I joined four others and we fielded questions on how we viewed the industry and gave pointers on how IOA’s sales force could improve their effectiveness.
My primary contact at IOA is John Lahey. He has been the insurance agent I’ve done business with for almost 30 years.
For the first five years or so, we would conduct a bid for our business. John’s bid was always competitive and we would end up signing again with John’s agency. At some point, we determined that we could be effective if we would partner up in pursuit of finding the best insurance products to handle our risk. It has worked out for us.
When it comes to insurance, I don’t “prefer” John Lahey and his company. I “demand” John Lahey and his company. How does it work?
I suppose someday John will retire. When he does, if I’m still working, it will create a hole that will be tough to fill.
That’s the goal in our business relationships, isn’t it? To create such a relationship that a customer can’t imagine doing their work without you as part of the team. We all serve someone. That’s the customer. Our goal is to work to make ourselves indispensible. To work in such a way as to be valued when they see us coming, missed if we weren’t there.
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