What does it cost you to acquire a new client? Most companies don’t track this metric. Yet, we’re not talking about most companies, we are talking about your efforts. When was the last time you hit the streets and tried to gain traction with new prospects or in a new market? It’s difficult.

Sales is a process of jumping through multiple hoops to attain a small window for making an impression that could possibly, just maybe, lead to a sales opportunity.

​What are some of the obstacles to new client acquisition? ​

Time is invaluable. It’s the only thing that we cannot purchase more of. In business when we are able to reduce wasted time we are able to increase our efforts in profitable endeavors. Wasted time is money bleeding out of your organization.

For those who have written estimates for an insurance claim, you know what it feels like to have your line items questioned by adjusters or your estimate picked apart by claims reviewers. Property restoration contractors often perceive the claims review process as a constant bleeding out of effort, energy and sanity.

It’s hard to produce for clients when you feel like you are always treating the wounded in your estimator bullpen.

How often have do restoration estimators say:

• “They’ve shredded my estimate!”
• “How do they expect us to make any money?”
• “I give up, there is no winning this battle with these made up rules.”
• “&#@$%”

Maybe this hasn’t happened to you but you’ve heard your peers complaining. Just wait, every estimator knows that their estimate will soon be the next victim of the insurance review gauntlet. The next time you send an estimate to a reviewer or hit upload in Xactimate, the process will run its vicious cycle with you.

For those willing to admit it, are your bruises still turning purple or are your wounds still bleeding? We all have choices to make. We can play the status quo game and complain about the system or we can work to find answers.

What would the typical response be as this scenario plays itself out?

• “Who are they to question me?”
• “They have no idea what it takes to run a business.”
• “This claims review ‘professional’ has never been to this job – they’ve probably never been to any job site ever.”
• “*&?^$”

Funny enough, this is both one of the issues as well as one of the keys to resolution as well. The person reviewing you claim has never been to this job. They typical claims reviewer works from a claims center half-way across the country. You are correct, they likely haven’t been to any job and possibly never will. It’s not their job.

This is a fact of the process and it does no good to complain about it.

Your roles should not put you at odds. One of you writes an estimate for the claim and the other reviews the estimate for the claim. Either of you may view your responsibilities to be at odds with each other but that is not inherent to the task at hand. The presiding principle should be to restore the client to pre-loss conditions and both parties should be working together to make this as expedient as possible.

The difference between what should be and what is leaves a lot of room for us to work towards a process that is clear and consistent.

As restoration professionals we can start by asking better questions.

• “What are the objections of the claims review?”
• “It appears that the claims reviewer has composed a detailed list of their reasons for the rejection of your estimate. What is the next objection?”
• “Did we utilize the correct line items?”
• “Did you call the adjuster to discuss the rejections?”

As an estimator you have the responsibility to learn how to tell the story of the loss through the estimating tool. The estimate has a language.

Whether you like it or not, for the majority of insurance claims, Xactimate has become the recognized story delivery tool. When your story does not resonate with our audience you need to learn how to communicate more clearly. In serving your client, it is necessary to use the resources in your tool bag to assist them in achieving a well executed outcome.

If your estimate is not compliant with basic carrier requirements, rejection is not the result of sadism its self-sabotage.

How do contractors gain ground in the claims review process?

• Develop your process intentionally.
• Do some research.
• Tap into your peer network.
• Communicate with the adjuster.
• Make progress in your process.

Start the process of reviewing your rejections for trends.
You can do this as a team or you can do this as an individual estimator. To assist you with collecting data we have developed a FREE PDF download -Tracking Claims Review Worksheet. Gathering this information will help you to make informed decisions about your process, adjustments for your team’s approach as well data to discuss with adjusters, claims reviewers or carriers.

If you have a prospective client that you would like to get to know, coffee is a great neutral ground (pun).

Most people like coffee and if your client doesn’t like coffee that should be reason enough to move along.

So, how do you do it? How do you get millions of dollars in new business by simply buying someone an overpriced cup-of-Joe?

With our proven multi-step process you will improve your close ratio by fractions of a percent - and there’s more.

I promised there would be more. Here it is. 

Additional tips: 

1. Most people like to try new things. 

If there is a new place use that as a reason to invite them. 

2. Experiment with taste and location.

If your prospect has a specific coffee taste, using a specific place may allow them to suggest a different location. I have some people who like Fast food chain coffee and others who stick with the known names. There have been plenty of times when when clients have said, “I’ve never been there.”

3. If they can’t find the time, offer to bring coffee to them and/or their team.

When you get your coffee meet up on the books, do as much research as you can to enable you to make an initial impression. Don’t over do it but come prepared. It is polite, professional and effective to know some basics about your prospect.

4. Make it about them.

If this is an initial invite you should plan to keep things primarily personal, get to know the person and work to earn their trust. Most people want to have a sense of whether they know, like and trust you before they will do business.

5. Ask questions and get them talking.

This is both polite and Sales 101. It is ok to go the whole meeting and not talk about yourself. Typically if you are genuinely interested there will come an opportunity where your guest will ask you, “So, what is it that you do?” 

6. Be prepared to respond.

Practice makes perfect. Whether you are new to sales or meeting a client for the first time. Do some base level research as well as some role play in how you think the conversation might go. Be prepared to keep it light but never be caught off guard if the client is ready to dig into the business relationship. If you work through scenarios prior to the meeting you will be better prepared to seem confident rather than desperate when the time comes to discuss your products and/or services. 

Interested in business and leadership concepts presented in a comic strip style format? You may find some encouragement in our latest series The Modern Leader: Loyalty, a four page presentation of perspectives on how to compete in the modern workplace. When leaders embrace the challenges of an ever evolving modern working environment they can win internally (workplace) as well as externally (marketplace). 

As Jim Collins noted in Good To Great, you need to get the right people on the bus [your organization] and you need to ensure they are in the right seats on the bus. When it is difficult to find people at all, growth minded businesses understand the value of investing in developing internal talent. Investing in the employees you have can produce significant return on investment.  ​

Whether you are an entrepreneur or a person in a position of leadership at the helm of a large organization, attracting good talent starts with:

​Process. Culture and systems have to be in sync with each other for a company to succeed. While culture is a hot topic, it is more about what an organization does than what it says it will do. It is important for entrepreneurs and leadership teams to review whether their processes are in alignment with their vision. If there are setbacks to growth, a good place to start would be in reviewing the processes that are in place. Developing systems helps to ensure that there is consistency in your organization. Clarifying expectations helps team members to understand what they need to do in order to succeed. Communicating processes that are consistent with the vision enable everyone to see where they can help move things forward. 

Production. A company has to produce goods and/or services. Having the right people and processes completes the cycle of needs to ensure an organization will create value through production. Production issues help to reveal shortcomings in processes. Often failure helps us to better see areas we can improve than success does. Be sure to embrace the opportunity to grow as a leader and a team. Production, process and people all work together to create progress. If you are struggling to make progress start to work backwards to determine areas that need to be addressed. 

Here is a good resources from EOS on how to trace down issues and establish better meetings:

​Progress. Having the right people, developing your processes and improving production are all keys to success. There is no guarantee for success. There are no short cuts to success. Leaders can learn a lot from gardening on how to cultivate a growing team. In an article published with Restoration and Remediation Magazine, we identified keys to change for withering grass, flowering weeds and crab grass within an organization. Like a flourishing garden, growth in an organization is attractive and creates a sense of pride. If we invest in our people, process and production we will find that progress is much more attainable. As the organization moves forward together it is easier to identify and address areas of the company that need to be adjusted. Progress is not perfection. Progress means we are gaining on our goals.