It’s what every parent dreads. Your teenager gets a learner’s permit and you have to teach them to drive. After that, you have to let them try their wings on their own as a full-fledged driver. Beyond the nail-biting fear for their safety, there’s the whole matter of getting auto insurance for your child.
Since teens are considered high risk drivers, their insurance coverage is higher. But there are ways to minimize the trauma to your wallet.
Explore Your Discount Options
Let’s look at some of the discounts that might be available when insuring a teenager.
Add your teen to the family policy. Adding a teen to your insurance policy will increase your monthly premiums, but its usually the least expensive way to go. An exception would be if someone on the family policy has a recent DUI, in which case a separate teen policy might cost less.
Take advantage of discounts for teen drivers. Most providers offer discounts for teens who have completed a driver safety education course, has at least a B average in school, and won’t be driving a lot. Once he or she has been driving awhile, a safe driver discount could be another discount to ask about.
Give your teen a safer, less expensive car to drive. Don’t rush out and buy your teenager a fire-red sports car. Instead, a safe and older model will help make your policy rate more affordable.
Look for other kinds of policy discounts. You may not be utilizing all of the discounts that might be available on your family policy. Possibilities include bundling your home owner’s and car insurance policies; driving a safe car; insuring multiple cars on the same policy; taking a driver safety class (they’re not just for teens); and having a good driving record.
5. Adjust your coverage with higher deductibles. This approach will bring your monthly premiums down, but should your teen get into an accident you could regret increasing deductibles to lower your monthly costs. If the car your teen drives is older, you might qualify for a policy that doesn’t include comprehensive (non-accident events) or collision (car damage due to an accident).
Teenaged drivers are more expensive to insure because they’re a higher risk for insurance providers. Look for discounts with your current provider and get quotes from others. Do an online car insurance rate comparison of at least three providers and select the provider and policy that fits your situation best.
New tools need to manage privacy risks, commissioner says
90% of Canadians are very concerned about their inability to protect their privacy.
Staff on September 28, 2016
New technologies and business models are putting ever-greater pressures on privacy and demand a more modern approach to protecting personal information, says the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
“We’re trying to use 20th Century tools to deal with 21st Century privacy problems and it’s clear those tools are increasingly insufficient,” Daniel Therrien says.
Meanwhile, 90% of Canadians are very concerned about their inability to protect their privacy.
“The government should give greater priority to the modernization of laws and policies and it should invest more resources in building robust privacy protection frameworks. This is essential to maintaining public confidence in government and the digital economy,” says Commissioner Therrien.
The need for modernization in the face of rapid technological change is the key theme of the Commissioner’s latest Annual Report, tabled today in Parliament. The 2015-16 report describes the work of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) as it relates to both the Privacy Act, which applies to the federal public sector, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the federal private sector privacy law.
Both laws predate many of the technological innovations that are creating new challenges for privacy protection by enabling businesses and governments to collect and analyze exponentially greater quantities of information. In fact, as the report notes, the Internet did not even exist when the Privacy Act was proclaimed in 1983 and Facebook had yet to be imagined when PIPEDA came into force in 2001.
In March, the OPC provided a Parliamentary committee studying the Privacy Act with a submission on modernizing the legislation that included 16 recommendations covering three broad themes: responding to technological change; legislative modernization; and the need for transparency.
In addition to the changes needed on the public sector front, Commissioner Therrien says it is also clear that new private sector challenges must also be addressed.
This includes the notion of consent for the collection use and disclosure of personal information, which has been a cornerstone of PIPEDA. Many are questioning how Canadians can meaningfully exercise their right to consent to the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information in an increasingly complex environment involving new technologies and new business models where personal information plays a central role. The OPC has launched public consultations aimed at identifying possible solutions to address growing challenges related to consent.
A second consultation process is examining privacy issues related to online reputation, with the ultimate goal of helping to create an environment where individuals can use the Internet to explore their interests and develop without fear their digital trace will lead to unfair treatment.
Failure to follow through and less than honest prospect communications are just two of the things that can waylay someone who’s trying to sell insurance and other financial products. (Photo: iStock)
Sales managers scratch their heads. “Right from the start, I was so sure Carl would be a top performer. I would have put money on it. But before I knew it, he crashed and burned.”
Related: Is this person sabotaging your sales success?
It’s an old story, and one that often ends with the same words: “I wasn’t cut out for sales.” Maybe. But probably not. Poor training, inadequate support, and unrealistic expectations can each play a role in disappointing results.
Even so, what causes potentially good salespeople to fail has little or nothing to do with poor sales skills. The real harm is self-inflicted. Salespeople can sabotage themselves. Here are 14 ways that unnsuccessful salespeople tend to wreck their careers:
1. Tell a customer they will take care of something and then don’t do it.Why worry about it? It’s nothing an “I’m sorry,” a little schmoozing, a bouquet of flowers, or a gift card can’t correct. Anyway, it wasn’t that important. That’s not how customers see it. Their actions reveal the truth of who they are.
2. See themselves as special. The “salesperson’s disease” is catching. It’s transmitted by rubbing shoulders with other salespeople. The major symptom is the belief that they’re the reason for the company’s success so that gives them permission to break the rules, and to look down on everyone else. Oh, yes, the disease is fatal.
3. Puff up their record.No salesperson needs to take a course in “The Fine Art of Amplification.” Whether it’s with customers, each other or the boss, exaggeration comes naturally for too many salespeople. And, then, they come to believe their own baloney.
Avoid these behaviors if you hope to success in insurance sales. (Photo: iStock)
4. Avoid asking for help. Many salespeople see themselves as operating on their own, beholden to no one, and totally responsible for their destiny. And that includes asking for help, which they view as a sign of weakness and something they can’t live with—even when it costs them customers.
See also: How to get out of a sales slump
5. Criticize but don’t contribute.You know these salespeople, they’re quick to tell you what’s wrong in every part of the company: why revenues are down, what’s wrong with the product line, or who in management should be dumped. Yet, when asked to contribute their ideas or make suggestions, they have nothing to say. Such behavior pushes them out the door.
6. Do enough to get by. They’re guided by some preset internal gauge that sets strict limits, letting them go only so far before banging on the brakes. These are outliers to be sure. They’re ignored when there’s a crisis or unexpected crunch. In a word, they’re superfluous to the company’s success.
7. Ignore deadlines. It started out early in life. Their school projects were always late and arrived with an attached excuse. Now their reports are predictably late, along with customer proposals and just about everything else, even expense reports. It’s as if deadlines were made for others, not for them. And they can’t figure out why the boss has it in for them.
8. Always make sure they look good.Whether it’s customers, associates, or the boss, their goal is to make sure that, at all cost, they come out looking good. They avoid taking responsibility (a sign of weakness) at all cost. Although they don’t see it, their behavior is so transparent no one trusts anything they say or do.
9. Sell what they want to sell.Salespeople always have favorite customers, but many also have pet products. They’re not complex, don’t cause problems, and they’re easy to sell. Some come with a robust commission. Whether or not they’re a good fit for customers is not the issue.
10. Cut corners.Shrinking the job to reduce work is a disease that infects may sales careers. “Forget it. It’s just means extra work,” “I don’t have time to do that,” or “Frankly, that’s crazy. Who comes up with such stupid ideas?” Every salesperson heard such words whispered in sales meetings or seen eyes roll. Selling success comes from enhancing the process, not cutting it down to your own size.
When it comes to sales, the old adage about the customer always being right still rings true. (Photo: iStock)
11. Think that they’ve got it made.From all indications, they’ve worked hard, done a good job, and enjoyed the rewards. As they see it, they’ve paid their dues. Now it’s time to cut them some slack so they can set their own pace. It’s time for a little preferential treatment like getting some of the better leads. If that’s what’s going through their mind, they’re on your way—out, not up.
12. Lay on the jargon. They believe using all the right words impresses customers and wins them over. So they get the jargon down pat and stay on top of the latest corporate speak. Yes, customers want to be impressed, but not with jargon. What they want is a salesperson who takes time to understand them by asking good questions and who makes sure they’re comfortable with their buying decision. That’s impressive.
13. Decide who will buy and who won’t.They may be smart, savvy and have lots of experience. They’ve come face-to-face with just about every type of customer and they think they know who will buy and who won’t. All they need is a couple of seconds. It’s as if they have a sixth sense about customers. Some salespeople have it and some don’t. It sounds so good, it’s almost convincing. But it’s just plain nonsense, an exercise in self-deception. In selling it’s what the customer thinks that counts, not what’s floating around in a salesperson head.
14. Believing that customers love them.It’s The Great Sales Con Game. It’s easy for salespeople to think customers love them: “You are the best.” “I don’t know what we’d do without you.” “We’re so lucky you came along.” It’s enough to make the ego do somersaults. It’s feel good stuff, but here’s the question that counts: Do your customers respect you? When you think about it, it isn’t easy to sabotage a sales career. Yet, if you put your mind to the task, you can do it.
Take the fear out of the fourth quarter by following these practical steps to ramp up your sales. (Photo: iStock)
As we head into the fourth quarter, are you on track to make your sales revenue goals for the year?
If you’re like many, the fourth quarter can mean it’s time to panic because the end of the year is fast approaching and the finish line is much too far away. Here are some recommendations to stop the panic and to start selling more to finish out the year exactly where you need and want to be.
1. Calculate exactly where you are in terms of your annual sales revenue. You also need to go back and look at your initial 2016 revenue goal to see how close you are to achieving it.
2. Next, take a look at what’s in the pipeline and likely to close in order to get you that much closer.
3. Go back and take a look at deals from earlier in the year that have not closed. See if you can resurrect any of them.
4. Make a list of existing customers that might need additional products or services. Make a plan to start reaching out.
5. Make a list of everyone that you know or would like to know that should be buying from you. Make a plan to start reaching out.
6. Make a list of everyone that you know or would like to know that might be able to refer business. Make a plan to start reaching out.
7. Create your Wish List of Ideal Prospects that you believe might have a need of your offering. Make a plan to start reaching out.
When you do all of the above you will not only be much closer to achieving and/or exceeding your 2016 sales goals, you’ll also be setting yourself up for an even better 2017!
Sign up for The Lead and get a new tip in your inbox every day! More tips:
Dealer Stephanie Soerens, center, says she sees no downside to her store’s flexible F&I schedule. Barbara Nobile, left, job-shares. Ella Golovina work full time.
F&I managers at Soerens Ford of Brookfield in Brookfield, Wis., no longer fret about working inordinately long days.
That’s because they have developed a system that has almost eliminated time-sapping schedule crunches.
Anne Fredrickson had the idea when she agreed to work temporarily at Soerens after the full-time F&I manager left. Fredrickson enjoyed returning to the dealership where she had worked for years but could not commit to the full-time demands required of a solo F&I manager. When she became aware that another former Soerens’ F&I manager was eager to continue her career on a half-time basis, she wondered whether dealer Stephanie Soerens would agree to let them job-share.
“We approached Stephanie about it, and she thought it sounded kind of strange but she thought it was fine to give it a try,” Fredrickson said. “That was seven years ago.”
Many dealerships rely solely on one F&I manager and count on temporary help during absences, which was done at Soerens. The downside is that the temporary staff may struggle to adapt to a dealership in which they don’t have histories or connections.
“It has really worked out so well for us,” Soerens said. “I leave it up to them to work out the schedules, and they often work them out two to three months in advance. I would say 99.9 percent of the time there is no problem.”
Soerens holds the job-sharing managers to the same accountability as she does the full-time F&I manager, who was hired when the dealership’s sales volume swelled. She also pays the duo base salaries, provides them with health insurance and allows them to compete for contest bonuses.
“If I kept everything they worked hard to win, they would have no motivation to participate,” Soerens said. “Let’s say I win $400 [from Ford]. I will give them each $100. That isn’t huge, but it’s a reward for their hard work and a tangible benefit.”
Barbara Nobile, who job-shares with Fredrickson, took the gig when she returned to Wisconsin after working at a major Iowa dealership. The job suited her desire to work for her past employer while allowing her flexibility she would not have had as a full-time F&I manager.
“I didn’t know Anne before I came back, but I knew she had a similar background to mine,” Nobile said. “After being [in F&I] for so many years, I knew all the paperwork, how to offer products and that sort of thing. This is ideal because of the income, the increased freedom and the face-to-face interaction with the customers.”
Ella Golovina joined Soerens last year as a full-time F&I manager when sales volume swelled. As a 15-year veteran of F&I, she said her colleagues’ job-sharing creates one of the most fluid and relaxed atmospheres she has ever worked in.
“That type of job-sharing position is very hard to find because dealers always look for a full-time F&I person. That’s understandable, but this makes the work flow so much better,” Golovina said.
“When things get busy or someone has an emergency, you don’t have to rely on someone who
doesn’t know the store or the customers to come in for a few days or a few weeks.
“When you work here permanently, this becomes your store, these become your customers, and that makes a big difference.”
Permanent F&I employees are “much more effective,” she added. “Thanks to our employer, we have that.”
Golvina believes many experienced financial managers would like to find such a job-sharing situation. Soerens, too, was stumped when pressed to find any minuses to the store’s F&I arrangement, noting that she hopes to convince those in sales and other departments to consider job-sharing.
“There just isn’t a downside,” Soerens said. “The work is satisfying to them, and the flexibility allows them to come to work refreshed and clear minded,” she said, adding that it would be an ideal position for working parents.
“The key is to find [two people] who communicate, have the same goals and work well together. You must have that, or it wouldn’t work.”
Weir-Jones Engineering Ltd., and SGS Canada Inc., have entered into a global preferred service provider agreement.
Staff on September 27, 2016
Weir-Jones Engineering Ltd., and SGS Canada Inc., have entered into a global preferred service provider agreement that will bring the BC-developed Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) technology, known as ShakeAlarm, to countries with high seismic risk that currently do not have proven technology and systems in place that will protect lives in the event of a major earthquake.
The ShakeAlarm technology can provide up to a 90-second warning of a pending earthquake by determining magnitude before it hits. The system developed by Weir-Jones Engineering has been operational at the George Massey Tunnel in Richmond, BC since 2009. The system is designed to shut the tunnel down and allow traffic to clear to curtail any potential danger. For more than seven years this system has operated without any false alarms, a reliability level of better than 99.99999%.
There are 2 waves that are generated when an earthquake occurs. The first wave, the ‘P’ wave, is a very fast moving non-damaging compression wave. The second wave is the ‘S’ wave or shear wave and it is the wave that we feel and does all the damage in a major earthquake. The ShakeAlarm system proprietary technology developed by Weir-Jones measures the ‘P’ wave, analyses it in a fraction of a second, and immediately sends out warnings of the coming ‘S’ or shear wave.
This signal will save lives. Depending on site, facility or population needs, the signal can trigger specific actions such as turning off gas lines and shutting off water and electrical utilities. If applied to emergency services, it gives first responders an early warning that can also be used to automatically open fire hall doors so firemen can get their equipment out, turn on generators at hospitals and bring systems like SkyTrain and the Canada Line to a controlled stop or to the nearest transit station.
Will serve customers in life sciences, real estate, and staffing with specialized insurance claims and risk management solutions.
Staff on September 27, 2016
“The establishment of these three practices provides our clients access to experts and specialized product offerings in each field resulting in an unparalleled risk management platform that drives results,” said Keith Higdon, senior vice president, Partnership Services, ESIS.
The Life Sciences Industry Practice will serve as home to the existing ESIS Healthcare Industry Practice to provide more comprehensive risk management and claims solutions for traditional healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, medical appliance manufacturers, and sub-industries. This practice, led by Mark Bossi, regional vice president, Partnership Services, ESIS, will provide a broad range of risk management products and services to the life sciences industry including health, safety and environmental consulting, proprietary technology tools, and healthcare and claims services.
The Real Estate and Hospitality Industry Practice will provide real estate owners, property managers, and hospitality clients with the deep industry knowledge and expertise needed to efficiently manage these complex claims. Kevin Sheehan, assistant vice president, Partnership Services, ESIS, will lead the practice and oversee nationwide claims services designed specifically for this industry.
