It’s 4th Quarter, which means it’s also open enrollment. We are all tired, overworked and keep saying over and over to ourselves, “Just get through it.” But then…as my friend, Allison Cohen De Paoli put it so perfectly, you get “assaulted” by yet another vendor trying to sell you during the absolute busiest time of year, and you just can’t take it anymore.
After sharing some texts with my crew (Erika, Chelsea, Colleen & Nancy), it got me thinking that we can’t be the only ones. This prompted me to send an email to my list of about 300 women who have been featured in the “What’s the Good News, Ladies?” series over the years and see if others had stories to share.
Boy, did they! In less than 48 hours, over 50 women responded back with annoying, rude and downright appalling examples of how salespeople have approached them during this time of year.
So maybe this is a little bit of a public service announcement; maybe it’s a little eff you; or maybe it’s a little “how to sell to a woman 101.” Because people, you are missing it, and you are missing it big! You know why? I’m dropping some knowledge on you right here in case you didn’t know: According to American Express and the SBA, over 42% of businesses in the U.S. are owned by women and women make up over 51% of the U.S. population! And according to Forbes, 85% of women control or influence consumer spending. That means there are over 330 MILLION women who will sing your praises if you get it right, but they will run the bus right over you, hit reverse and do it again if you get it wrong. We will screenshot your email, text, LinkedIn DM or forward the voicemail to each other and we will remember to avoid you and your company’s services at all costs, because what’s the rule you should never forget?
Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Buckle up and take note, because you are getting a golden list that is the compilation of many uber successful women in our industry, including award winners, top producers, business owners and badasses. If you are in sales, print this out and put it where you can see it and then never do these things.
The Gift Givers: Not the ones who are sending you a thank you for the business; we mean the ones who are trying to bribe you for a meeting. Gift cards and even shoes were offered to some of these women. What’s wrong with this? It can be looked at as rebating in some states and if you are a vendor with a license, you can lose it. And just as importantly, you make us feel gross.
Bate and Switch – Recruiting: More than one woman emailed and said she had recruiters pose as a potential client. The meeting is booked, but once on the call, they realized it was a recruiter trying to hire them away. Do you really think someone worth their salt is going to come work for you when you have basically lied your way into a meeting and showed your ethical character?
Bate and Switch – “I’m Interested in Your Services”: I’ve heard a few people bring this one up: Someone reaches out to you via email or social media, saying they’re interested in your services, so you set up a meeting. But once you get on the meeting, they have a full PowerPoint presentation on selling THEIR services. So not only did the vendor waste the person’s time as they prepared for what they thought was their own prospect meeting, they completely disrespected them by pushing the vendor’s agenda over theirs.
Beauty and the Beast: I know you have all gotten this one, if you take a second to think about it. A breath of fresh air enters your inbox: finally, a well thought out email or message from someone that has done their homework! You accept the connection, but five seconds later, you get a spam sales pitch message and a link to set up a meeting. I had this happen recently and ignored it two times. By the third one, I was a little less than nice and said, “Dude, read the room. It’s open enrollment and if you really work with brokers, you’d know asking for a meeting right now is the kiss of death.” His response was basically that OE ends in 2 weeks (is he out of his mind?) and he wants to be one of the first people I reach out to. My response? I deleted the connection, took a screenshot and sent it to my friends, who won’t ever meet with him. Bravo.
Badmouthing: You know how your gramma always told you, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”? If the only way you feel that you can get business is by throwing others under the bus, are you really that good of a salesperson? One guy basically told one of woman that she was dumb because of the software she was using!
Spam: “Hi…your profile looks interesting…” Raise your hand if you get 10 of these a week. Do you really feel like this is a differentiator? If someone makes me laugh, I always accept, even if I have never met them. But if it’s the same canned outreach, I delete it. And most others do, too!
Not Knowing Your Audience: Man, this one came up a lot. Salespeople basically throwing spaghetti to the wall and hoping it sticks, but missing the mark because they didn’t take any time to really look at who you are as a professional. The sad thing with this one is, that they probably could have gotten a meeting if they did a little homework.
Lying: I have to give a big shout out to the sales training I got from Paychex (I know my girl Rachel McLauchlin will echo this) as I really feel like it was some of the best. Two things I always remember: 1. If you sell on price, you’ll lose on price. 2. Never lie. One example I got of this was someone basically swiping a mutual connections LinkedIn list and pretending that the mutual connection recommended that they connect. When she called the mutual connection to see what was up, she discovered the deception and said, “I will not do business with him now.” So, this guy not only burned one bridge, he burned two, along with all the other people they will tell! (Gas up the bus, girls!)
Did you Get My Email?: This one came up like 10 times. It can also be worded as “Let me bump this up to the top.” Most don’t get the hint that you didn’t respond for a reason and so keep on sending. Or they get a read receipt when you open the email, so then they have someone else who is supposed to be higher up in the firm reach out to you and say they know “you’ve been talking with their colleague.” So many of these do not have an “unsubscribe” feature, so you just end up blocking them.
The Unapproved Meeting Request: Nothing grates on me more, and this was brought up by over half of the women who responded. If you are doing this, stop. Just stop. I don’t know who taught you this, but it’s wrong. It’s intrusive. It conveys that you think their time and schedule should be controlled by you. It’s dishonest. Think of the other person. Would you be thrilled if someone you had never met walked into your house, sat down at your dinner table and said, “Oh, is now a bad time?” I generally have a “three strikes and you’re out” rule, but this one is an immediate banishment in my book. I will never take a meeting from them and everyone I have talked to has similar feelings. Especially this time of year, we are all tired and overworked. When a funny meeting appears on our schedule that we don’t know anything about and we respond to the sender to get a little more information and find out it’s a sales pitch,, queue explosion. Hell, hath no fury….
If you couldn’t tell, I had a lot of time writing this and I hope you had fun reading it. I know we are all running on empty right now, so hopefully this gave you a little reprieve from the stress we all have this time of year. Maybe you got a little insight into how to sell to a woman and realized you might be doing some of these things in one way or another. Or maybe you just nodded your head throughout because you felt a connection to others in our industry. My hope is that it gave you a few laughs, headshakes and maybe a face palm, too.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank those who helped with this article; the emails that came in were just so much fun to read! Hang in there, ladies, and if you need a bus driver, I got you!
I cannot believe that 4th Quarter is days away! That means that open enrollment is on the horizon and oof … how it’s going to be different this year? Hope you all have your virtual toolkit ready to go; I know we have been busy planning and gearing up for this in our office to make the process as easy and smooth as possible. But we’re all in insurance, right? So we look at worst case scenario. If you’re like me, you lay awake in bed thinking “What’s the worst than can happen?” And then you lay awake longer. Gah! Good luck, ladies. Feel free to share the best idea or tool you are using; I’m sure many would love to hear about them.
We had such a blast at the virtual BenefitsPRO Broker Expo this year and got to meet some incredible women that way! I’m really excited to introduces you to these fine women this month who are keeping it real in the world of COVID, home schooling and just being rockstars in our industry. Please welcome Sarah, Robin and Sarah to the fold!
“Interesting? Challenging? Uncertain? I’m not quite sure how to describe the last 12 months. For me, it has involved creating a new role for myself within a new firm while learning to be a teacher overnight to my 8 and 9 year olds. Juggling and adapting have become my forte.
One thing I’ve learned is we’re not meant to do this thing called life alone and that it’s OK, even good, to put ourselves out there and lean on others. Connecting has become my mission, even if only by Zoom. I’ve pushed myself to make connections with mom friends and other female colleagues a priority, carving out time to share and encourage each another. In an effort to connect with others, I’ve started a think tank for clients and prospective clients to discuss their good, bad, and ugly and to encourage one another when it comes to topics like COVID, compliance, leadership and employee morale. It’s served as a great sounding board for human resource leaders.
When you make life a party, not a competition, and give yourself and others an opportunity to connect, it allows everyone to thrive together. Here’s to ducking, diving and keeping our heads above water!”
“I am proud to say I recently conquered a goal that had always eluded me. This goal was to move families from managing money and financial advice to working towards the achievement of life’s purpose and leaving a legacy. During the pandemic, I have been helping clients feel less anxious and more in control of their finances but am also now beginning to talk about the people and organizations that are important to them. And talk they did!
Our client families are acting now to preserve their values and goals for future generations. As a result, estate and charitable planning in my firm has increased significantly. We have helped more clients than ever before design settlement letters and ethical wills. An ethical will is a love letter to your family and bequeaths values. It can be as simple as a handwritten letter or a selfie video message.”
“Last month marked my 13-year anniversary in the dynamic health insurance industry. This year has been the most challenging, as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the nation. Adapting to a new virtual world, companies are expected to conform to an online-driven work environment, including benefits administration. To accomplish this, business owners are relying on trusted brokers.
Working at a leading general agency, it is my job to work hand in hand with my broker partners to provide top-notch benefits consulting for the most sought-after benefits. I have consulted with hundreds of clients and brokers at companies of all sizes and industries to help them keep up to speed on benefits trends and legislative changes.
Relationships are key, and pairing with a strong team with deep knowledge and expertise drives new levels of success. I’m excited for the opportunities to work with dedicated partners to support business growth and boost client satisfaction.”
Know of a rockstar woman in our industry who’s doing things better than the rest? If so, I’d love to connect! You can just shoot me over an email with their information or feel free to make a virtual introduction to me at scombs@combsandco.com Stay safe, sane and mask up, my friends.
Guess what’s next week?! It’s BenefitsPRO Broker Expo time! This is one of my favorite conferences every year and this year we are doing the Fast & Furious Session from the main stage! So if you haven’t already registered, make sure you handle that ASAP! Since it is virtual this year, if you are a broker or agent, you can get in on the fun for no charge and learn what the rest of us already know about this great show!
In July, we kicked off our Wonder Woman Mastermind group, which was the brainchild of this series. We had a wonderful first meeting, where we shared some excellent marketing ideas with each other. If you are looking to be inspired by more women in our industry, please meet Bobbie and Deidre. Both women are breaking down barriers for women in our industry with personal impact and mentorship.
“The past 12 months have been focused on growth, speaking and mentoring! Due to all of our recent exposure and hard work, Benekiva was invited to participate in Mass Challenge FinTech Accelerator. We were selected out of over 300 applications globally and are proud of this recognition! Our impact in the industry has also increased as we’ve grown the number of carriers we work with from three to nine over the past 12 months. Personally, I was invited to speak at over 25 events in the last year, on topics such as InsurTech, innovation, customer experience, digital transformation, Blockchain, startups, women in tech, and diversity and inclusion. I’ve meet so many dynamic people along the way. Lastly, we have been able to mentor many startups and logged over 250 hours to help the startup community nationally.”
“I constantly think about the legacy I want to leave. My goal is to diversify the C-Suite and change the image of what a leader “looks like.” While companies promote diversity and inclusion, data shows the existence of pay disparities and glass ceilings amongst employees. Last December, I took the leap to become a full-time entrepreneur, providing personal brand coaching to ambitious but undervalued diverse talent. Nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. The biggest surprise has been, that in the midst of a global pandemic, unstable economy, and racial unrest, my clients are winning. For example, Uche, a first-generation African American woman, just landed a new job making 20% more pay and with the dream title we planned together. Why am I celebrating this as a personal win? It debunks the myth that top-notch diverse talent doesn’t exist. So. I encourage us all to mentor, hire and promote diverse talent.”
Know a great rockstar woman in our industry who’s doing amazing things? If so, I’d love to connect! You can just shoot me over an email with their information or feel free to make a virtual introduction to me at scombs@combsandco.com. Stay safe and mask up my friends. Hope to see you August 18th-20th at the BenefitsPRO BrokerExpo!
I was honored with receiving this award in 2017 and thrilled that Teri Weber is a finalist for this year! Today, on Wonder Woman Wednesday, we wanted to honor her and share the article she was in at BenefitsPro!
When Teri Weber started working from home full time, she found it a bit of an adjustment. It was almost like being absent from work. Which just happens to be one of her specialties. Weber is a partner with Boston-based Spring Consulting Group, LLC, an Alera Group Company. When COVID-19 began to confine millions of workers to their homes, she was swamped by client calls regarding work absences.
“‘Will quarantine be a disability?’ ‘People all want to take their sick time now; how do we do that?’ ‘What if 50 percent of our workforce cashes in on what they’ve banked? Could people do a time donation?’ ‘What do I do for employees who work from home but need to care for kids?’ It’s always a balancing act of finance and policy. It gets into the weeds quickly,” Weber says.
But it turns out that is where Weber spends a lot of her time: in the weeds with clients, showing them the way out.
Weber became a partner with Spring Consulting in 2008, where she has focused on disciplines such as absence management that can save clients time, money, and management headaches. Absence policies can be shockingly ad hoc, inconsistent, and are often crafted in the breach, rather than the legal or human resources departments. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Weber has had to explain to clients that actions they take to attempt to manage a tidal wave of absence incidents could easily become company policy.
To one client with a question about virus-related time off, she said: “What do you want to accomplish with this? What are you hoping to do? It’s about getting to the root of why you think this policy will help you now. Because the policy can become law long after the crisis is over.” She also lends her absence expertise to the Disability Management Employer Coalition, a group of New England employers and insurance companies focused on disability and leave of absence policies.
“We speak a different language than most people,” she says. “An employee will say, ‘I need time off for something.’ That’s how they think about it. Our work is around compliance, cost and culture. We look for the best programs we can design, from leave time to return to work.”
Another area of focus is student debt and student loan payments as a benefit.
In the quest to land top young graduates, companies experiment with offering student debt payments. Weber likes to include the benefit in a plan design, but only if she believes it is being offered for the right reasons.
“It is often a targeted approach to address turnover among younger people, or to attract young talent. Other employers just want to give it as a benefit without a specific objective.” Weber asks, is the target of the benefit specific or general? Short term or long term?
“That $2,000 can make a huge difference to a young person. But does it serve your overall strategy?” she says.
One could get the impression that Spring deals largely with major employers, those who have the financial clout, employee numbers, and staffing to engage in creative plan design. But that’s not the case.
One of Spring’s most devoted clients is edHEALTH, a three-person health insurance captive based in Rhode Island. edHEALTH is a member-owned consortium that serves as the stop-loss provider for group members, mostly East Coast colleges, universities, and charter schools, including Boston College, Sarah Lawrence, Brandeis, Wellesley and Emerson.
Tracy Hassett, president and CEO of the captive, says Weber served as an early advisor to the original 24 members as they developed their model.
“When we started talking, we were faced with numerous barriers,” Hassett says. “Brokers and consultants at the schools were nervous about taking that business away from them.
Meanwhile, the schools we talked to made it clear they didn’t want to change their plan design. They wanted to be part of the consortium and save money. ‘But we don’t want to make any changes to plan design or to our carriers or upset faculty or staff.’”
Hasset feared it would take long hours over many meetings to arrive at a plan design that would satisfy all the members. Enter Weber. Working with Hassett, she helped the members reach agreement quickly on a common plan design.
“Teri is easy to talk to, offers very clear descriptions, and she made sure potential members at the time knew that we were trying to deliver a program to minimize costs and maximize coverage. That is still the role she plays and she does a wonderful job.”
In the years since, the group has grown, while costs have held steady. Average premium growth per member over the last six years had been 3.5 percent, while admiration for Spring and Weber grows every year.
“Spring has been an incredible partner since before our inception, and an incredible partner in helping us grow,” Hassett says.
Meanwhile, back in her “home” office, Weber is getting new insights into the challenges her plan members face when forced to juggle work and child are duties. Her two daughters, 12 and 14, don’t need a lot of supervision with the family cooped up in the house, but like kids all over, they have been attempting to master online learning while Mom and Dad grow accustomed to virtual meetings, the intricacies of telecommuting, and keeping dispersed teams motivated during a global pandemic.
But Weber manages to keep a positive attitude as she attempts to establish “a new normalcy at home.”
“I’m an optimist. I look for the good people out there. The sun is always shining, even when there are clouds are in the way!”
Hello from the Covid-19 epicenter, aka NYC. I don’t know about you all, but the past few weeks have been crazy, exhausting and just plain sad at times. It is definitely not business as usual here and I know that’s true in many other places as well, but I also know we will all make it through this time. One of the things that has kept me going during quarantine is connecting with the incredible women from our industry who are still able to share some great ideas with me about what they are most proud of in the last 12 months. Be on the lookout for another article coming soon that will include many of the featured women in this series who will share what they have been doing to stay connected with their clients during all of this.
This month, I’m going to introduce you to two new friends who have been a great source of information and support for me during this time. I know I have said it before, but it is so important to develop these peer-to-peer mentorship relationships, because when there are rough times like these, we pull each other up and help each other to excel. Please join me in welcoming Chelsea and Jennifer to the fold.
“In the past 12 months, my biggest accomplishment has been learning that my business is not actually about me.
When I owned my first agency, I was infatuated with the idea of developing other agents. While this sounds admirable, I was truly motivated by the energy rush I received seeing others succeed. Even though I was helping others, at the core of it all, it was still about me.
Even in my second agency, there have been times when I put together the best options for a prospect to save them money and time; yet, I still don’t win. When this would happen, I would make it about me (my presentation skills, my sales skills, etc). Perhaps it was, but there’s a good chance that it was about one of the million other factors that business owners consider when making decisions.
The truth, and my biggest lesson, is that nothing is about me. I have learned that the only way to truly scale my business and help as many employees and clients as possible is to let go of the belief that the outcome is directly tied to my worth as an advisor or as a person. With this, I can finally be present and enjoy the work I am doing.”
“I’ve been in financial services many years and I’ve never been more excited to do what I do. My passion lies in supporting women and giving back. In my role, training and developing agents to build their business, I’m able to do both. I’ve seen great success among the women leaders who count for almost half of my business. In the last year, I’m pleased to have been highest-producing field leader at my company, hitting record sales. And helping my agents learn and grow gives their clients peace of mind.
One of the best aspects of our industry is the relationships among the women within it. I am fortunate to be supported and inspired by many great women. In 2019, I was named WIFS Woman of the Year, a wonderful honor. Celebrating success within our field is an important way to create community and inspire the next generation.”
I know that I, as well as the crew here at BenefitsPRO are thinking of everyone during these uncertain times. As always, if you know of great women in the field who are working hard to make this this industry even better, send an email introduction to me at scombs@combsandco.com. I’d love to connect! Stay safe my friends.
So, we made it through the “month of Mondays” and now we’re back at it! Not sure about you, but things have been crazy for me. I’m sitting here on a plane, and it is literally my sixth flight in five days! I swear I have aged five years this week! I’m very excited to introduce you to my new friends, Kimberly, Sharon and Susan! These women were all introduced to me by a fan of this series, Eric Silverman! Eric is a great advocate for our industry and for women in our industry, so I love the extra support he has been providing to this column by making great recommendations for some incredible women in our industry! I really think you’ll be wowed by these women. I know I was. Click here to keep reading!
Happy Holidays! Man, this year went by quick! We are in the home stretch of open enrollment in our office and we are definitely looking forward to a break, as we have been very busy! It has been so much fun to meet so many wonderful women in our industry this year from around the country and feel inspired by their stories. I’m very happy to share the news of Erika, Grace and Pam as we round out the year, and the remarkable things they have been doing in 2017. Have fun getting to know these exceptional women. I know I did! Click here to read more!
March Madness is upon us! This is one of my favorite times of year! It sounds like bracketology will be interesting this year, as there really aren’t any major standouts, so anyone can be Cinderella at the ball! I’ve been also gearing up for speaking season and looking forward to heading out to Denver to speak at the WIFS / NAIFA event. I will then be heading to San Diego for the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo and I’m looking forward to making some new friends from around the country!
This month, I’m very excited to introduce you to my new friends, Paula, Allison and Cerrina! These women are doing fantastic things in the industry and I’m very happy to have them be part of the WTGNL Crew!
Click here to read about Paula, Allison and Cerrina!
This is a special edition of “What’s the Good News, Ladies?” because I get to toot my horn a little and highlight some great women! Last month, I mentioned I was getting ready to go to the Women in Insurance & Financial Services (WIFS) National Conference and I’m ecstatic to report that I was awarded the organization’s highest honor: the Woman of the Year award! I was beyond thrilled and honored to be selected by my peers for this prestigious award from an organization that’s mission is to attract, develop and advance women in our industry.
While I was there, I got to meet Christine, Claudia and Kate. These fine women were the three finalists for the WIFS Fast & Furious session, where they are given 45 seconds to share their best business practice that has helped take their business to the next level. Click here to continue reading and to be inspired!
Fourth quarter is here and open Enrollment is upon us! Who’s ready? Can’t ever say our industry is boring, can we? I’m gearing up to attend the Women in Insurance & Financial Services (WIFS) National Conference next week in Minneapolis and excited to meet a bunch of Wonder Women there! This month, I’m happy to introduce you to three women that I know will be killin’ it in the fourth quarter! Click HERE to be in awe as you meet Rachel, Michelle and Rachel!
To one client with a question about virus-related time off, she said: “What do you want to accomplish with this? What are you hoping to do? It’s about getting to the root of why you think this policy will help you now. Because the policy can become law long after the crisis is over.” She also lends her absence expertise to the Disability Management Employer Coalition, a group of New England employers and insurance companies focused on disability and leave of absence policies.
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