How does technology helps in low cost and high quality?
technology helps in low cost and high quality in these ways:Teleconferences and Web seminarsOne of the best tools for building client loyalty and brand identity is offering a monthly Web seminar on topics that can benefit your clients and prospects. As soon as the new COBRA regulations went into effect, offering a Web seminar would have been of great value. Many of your prospects and clients were very concerned with these changes and needed someone to explain how they worked. A Web seminar would have been an easy way to touch a lot of decision makers with little effort. Another use of the Web seminar would be monthly topics such as executive disability income, wellness tools and their impact, voluntary benefits and their role in benefit planning, as well as many others too numerous to mention. One of the best tools on the Web can be found at freeconference.com. This site provides a telephone bridge that accommodates up to 150 participants and offers desktop sharing for either $9 monthly for unlimited use or $6.50 per use. This is one of the best deals on the market.E-mail newslettersA great way to keep your name in front of prospects and clients is to send out a monthly newsletter. Unlike most newsletters that cover a lot of regulatory topics such as changes in COBRA and FMLA as well as general information, I see the newsletter as a true marketing tool. Instead of having a multi-page newsletter, I suggest that you just use one page and focus on a single topic or theme, maybe "wellness benefits and improved productivity" or "the impact of voluntary long-term care insurance on employee absenteeism." The idea is not so much to educate, but to motivate a prospect or client to call and want more information. My online tool of choice is iContact and they can be found at icontact.com. This program has a low initial subscription fee of $9.95 monthly and provides a "what you see is what you get" editor, as well as a personalized page that hosts all of your newsletters.Web sitesThe advance of Web site technology makes it incredibly easy to build and host sites for your agency as well as for your clients. You no longer need to pay some company a monthly fee for each client you provide a benefits site for. More importantly, you can build a great looking destination including Flash on your computer with little or no effort. I have many clients who pay me $25 monthly for a hosting platform that allows them to host an unlimited number of Web sites. They then purchase domain names for $10 each annually. The best software that I have found for building Web sites is Web Plus 2 ($79) and can be found at serif.com. I use this software for all of my Web sites as well as those that I build for clients.WellnessWhile many companies talk about wellness, only a few are really willing to make a significant investment in it. But benefit professionals can still make a difference with wellness. There are a number of great tools that can help employees that are ready to make a change and they are a differentiator. Rather than use the carrier's tools, which do nothing for the benefit professional's relationship, a low-cost online program can enhance the benefit professional's image and position him as a resource for more than just the group health.Marketing listsFor those of you who still do marketing, the best value on the market is Sales Genie, salesgenie.com. For approximately $2,000 annually you get access to every company in the United States (more than you need) and the ability to download up to 15,000 names, including decision-maker contact information, names of human resource executives and CFOs. In addition, you can do any number of list sorts such as by number of employees. The Sales Genie system also includes an online contact manager that works relatively well. On a personal basis, I download my lists and manage them on my contact manager.Business cards and moreThe Internet has made dealing with a local printer unnecessary if you are interested in designing your own business cards, mailers, folders and more. The best site that I have found for these services is Vista Print. You can choose from hundreds of designs or design your own. One of the things that I really like is the regular offers of 250 free business cards. Using these offers you may never again pay for a business card, unless you want glossy stock or front and back printing. I also use them for mailings of oversized postcards and have found them to be a great value. Check them out at vistaprint.com.For those of you looking to find creative ways to grow your business by building relationships, providing value-added services and creating a marketing machine that will keep you in high quality appointments, today's technology can be accessed at very little cost. In addition to the tools that I have listed here, you can find great values on sales management systems, calendars and more. Do not overlook the many ways that technology can enhance you business and the level of service that you provide clients.
