Building Your Brand

Wednesday 18th February 2009


Most sales pitches involve asking your clients for money at some point.  Your enthusiastic explanations are followed by a  10 second pregnant pause where you shuffle your feet and then utter the words ‘one last thing’, and then wait another  3 minutes to find out whether you have wasted the last 30 minutes of your life.   Asking clients for money is necessary but lets face it,  it is the point where things get tricky.

What if you were able to offer services where you can say upfront that your only intention is to put money into their pockets or pay off debts.  If the claims company doesn’t win they will work for free.  That sounds like an easier conversation because there is no downside.

A second thought that hundreds of brokers are now having is that the biggest problem is often also the biggest opportunity.  Yes, there is a credit crunch and yes, it is the worst recession since 1920, and yes the folk responsible will probably still be paid millions.  What if you can help hundreds of your clients survive this crunch by helping them win thousands of pounds?  It is not rocket science to suggest that they will be very grateful and perhaps show it by speaking well of your company and ask you for help with other things down the track, (mortgages, loans, insurances etc).

How do I know I am not referring my clients to cowboys? 

I hope you are asking this question. If not, please pause for a minute and ask it..............There are hundreds of companies entering the market and many could damage your brand. This could happen in a number of ways but the most likely risks are:

1. Upfront fees
2. Taking cash off your client and then doing nothing
3. Unethical fees – some charge US style contingency fees of 40% and offer low customer service.
4. Reporting – some will make promises and fail to deliver on them meaning you don’t get paid what you expected. This may be because they are mischievous but equally it could be because they are new to the market and just don’t really know how long claims take to win, or how much the average claim size is. 
5. Some might take the clients details and then try and up sell other things, (loans, mortgages etc), and some see this as ‘sheep stealing’.
But, just because these risks exist, does not mean you avoid the biggest opportunity of a lifetime, its just means you need to be prudent and pick the right partner.

Some actually entered this market to help their clients, and believe that ethical business is good sustainable business.

One such company and our pick is Claims Financial. www.claimsfinancial.co.uk

They promise:
1. No upfront Fees – unless they win the claim their service is free.
2. Ethical, solid customer service
3. Great reporting for partners – you know how the cases you refer are progressing
Remind me what sort of commission is at stake?

• Average of £100 per mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance claim
• Average of £12 per credit card fees claim – (your average client has 2.8 of these)
• Average of £12 per unfair mortgage exit admin fee claim - (who hasn’t re-mortgaged in the last 6 years!)