Pop Quiz! A Heart Attack. Can you describe EXACTLY what it is?

On my recent First Aid refresher course, the tutor asked our group to describe what a heart attack is. Having been in the protection industry for many years I was ready to trot out a paraphrased version of the ABI heart attack critical illness definition.

If she’d asked me.

She didn’t.

But only 1 out of the 8 the tutor did ask got it right.

My latest article for Financial Reporter asks what this means for customers and how they see critical illness products. Please click on the picture to read!

Heart Attack

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And when I say we need simplification, I don’t necessarily mean fewer conditions covered. But what about simpler definitions?

“Diagnosis of a heart attack by a consultant cardiologist.” Full stop.

From a pricing point of view that might not be possible but it would certainly be easier to understand than the full ABI technical definition.

Now it’s your turn: What could we do to make critical illness products easier for consumers to understand? Will we ever be able to move away from the complicated, technical definitions that we use today? Please share your views. Leave a comment or a link to your own articles.

Listen! Have you heard what people are saying about Life Insurance?

It’s one of the fundamental keystones of marketing.

Companies need to listen to their customers to understand what they want from their products and services.

Big corporates can afford to do qualitative and quantitative research, including focus groups, to tease from customers their likes and dislikes. They ‘ll employ insight analysts who can spot the trends that lead to opportunities for product developments or service improvements.

For smaller businesses insight comes from one to one meetings, phone calls and possibly a post-sale questionnaire, and genuinely knowing their client base intimately.

But for everyone, in any industry, there is another way to hear what people are saying.

We all have access to social media and this is where our customers shout loudest. This is where they will unload their thoughts without mincing their words. They’ll be candid, critical, and scathing.  But often they’ll be constructive, complimentary and supportive. And we can learn so much from what they are saying.

It’s like being in the pub with a million people.

Just try going on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ and type in a financial services or a protection term – and stick a “hashtag” in front of it. For example, #LifeInsurance.

You’ll certainly see results where some companies advertise their products. But you’ll also see what people actually think about life insurance. Happily, there are many who realise that they should have some but they haven’t got round to doing anything about it yet. This proves some people want it, albeit grudgingly.

Others have already decided they need it. One great Facebook post said:

life insurance

Then, of course, there are those who are not fans. Some think that it is too expensive, that life insurance companies will try to weasel out of paying claims or that it is just too complicated to apply for.

None of these objections will be new to anyone who works in the protection industry, but it does show how word of mouth, or is that word of screens, can perpetuate perceptions.

I came across a tweet recently which described life insurance as follows:

“A contract that keeps you poor all your life so that you can die rich”

Again here is someone who thinks that life insurance is expensive. But is £20 to £30 a month for a couple of hundred grand’s worth of cover really going to bankrupt someone? They probably have gym membership of around £80, a SkyTV subscription of around £60, a mobile phone contract for £50 and many other outgoings.

Of course, the person is correct that he can’t benefit from the payout. But his family can and will if he dies. They will be the ones left having to find the money to pay all those monthly bills mentioned above and more.

Listening to all this deafening noise in the social sphere tells us what content we need to produce to over come these objections and perceptions. The more positive content (marketing material, blogs, videos, podcasts, case studies) the industry puts out the more chance that it will also be heard.

And perhaps the next big innovation will come, not from an insight in a focus group, but from a comment on a blog, Facebook or other social media platform.

Now it’s your turn: What have you heard about life insurance from the social sphere? What are the best one liners? What are the worst perceptions that we need to address? Please share your thoughts and links.

A Four Hour Work Week. Seriously? Two Business Books worth your time.

If you want to read a couple of business books that are truly different then look no further than Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week and The 4 Hour Chef.

business books

If you think everything is too complex these days then you will like Tim’s style. He is very successful in cutting through clutter, seeing the big picture immediately and getting to results. This certainly resonates with me when I see an increasingly complex industry with increasingly more complex processes, products and rules.

Tim has many interesting and funny stories to tell.

For example he won the gold medal in the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships. Not because he was any good at Chinese kickboxing but because he read the rules and looked for unexploited opportunities. Much to the annoyance of the Chinese judges, he won the competition snatching victory from those who had 5 to 10 years experience. If you read his story you will learn how he literally pushed them out-of-the-way.

Now I know that your first thought when you look at The 4 Hour Work Week will be, “That’s not possible.”

However the 4 hours is not really the point. What he demonstrates is how to cut the complexity and the bureaucracy and the clutter in our lives and focus immediately on results.

business books

Tim Ferriss’s other book , The 4 Hour Chef,  is also a captivating read. Again you don’t really expect to become a chef in 4 hours, although there are some amazingly tasty recipes in this book that are genuinely easy to cook and wouldn’t look out-of-place in a Master Chef final.

Have a look at the “Sexy-Time Steak” recipe. Truly mouth-watering results.

Here’s the thing. The book isn’t really about learning to cook. It’s about learning ANY new skills.  And it’s about learning those new skills quickly, and successfully. Once again Tim describes how to cut the clutter from the learning process, allowing you to focus on results. As business books go these are entertaining,  insightful, funny and in some instances, a revelation.

Now it’s your turn: Have you read Tim Ferriss’s business books The 4 Hour Work Week or The 4 Hour Chef? What did you think? Have you tried any of the techniques? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below or post a link to your own reviews.