George’s Updates | “You Got a Friend”

First things first…no more daylight saving time!

Now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about what we want to become in your lives—a friend.

Looking at our remittances (which are again on another record pace), it is interesting to see that the closer our relationship is with an agent, the greater the market share we receive. This is a simple enough concept, but the work to get there is not so simple and is one we wake up thinking about (albeit with an hour’s less sleep these days).

One of our mottos, tag lines, mind sets, mantras, etc. is, “We want to take you from customer—to partner (and along with that our advocate)—to friend.

Do me a favor and look at the three levels above and choose which category you place each of your underwriters (not just FNTI) and then ask yourself if the hard-earned remittances you send reflect where they are on this scale.

Let’s get started:

Customer

Each you started out and continue to be our customer once you decided FNTI was “okay” to sign up as your underwriter and we thank you for that.  But if this is the extent of our relationship, we have some work to do on both sides to grow it.

Below are some questions to ask yourself concerning the customer level. Your answers will help you classify each of your underwriters.

• After signing up with the underwriter, how many times have they visited?
• Do I send the underwriter enough to meet a minimum, but I really don’t go out of my way to do anything more than that?
• Do I know who is managing my account?
• Who are the leadership that oversees my account?

Partner

Moving to this next level, you should be able to answer these questions in the positive.

• Do I know the underwriter’s counsels? When I talk to them, do I feel we are working as a team to solve an issue?
• How often does the underwriter partner with us for things like classes, sponsorships, co-branding initiatives, etc.?

Friend

In addition to the things mentioned above, do you consider the team or certain members of the FNTI family as your friend? If so, hopefully some of the below will be answered in the affirmative.

• Does your underwriter know you personally and with that know what makes you tick both in and out of the office?
• Does your underwriter know your company’s story? Do they know your company’s origins, how you started, etc.?
• Do you like it when someone at your underwriter comes to visit? Is it a good thing?
• Do you love it when you get the opportunity of send the underwriter your remittances? Does this get you excited, since it shows how much you appreciate them?

Hopefully these questions will give you some things to ponder about the relationship with each of your underwriters and make you think of FNTI in nothing but glowing and positive vibes.

– George