And the rent is due every day! When we feel we have accomplished or achieved success with anything in our life – business or personal – it can give us a sense that we can move on to something else, and perhaps we can. But to achieve success – large or small – requires our attention every day.
I’m sure there are many definitions of success depending upon where you seek them. A long time ago a leader in the business was asked what makes him successful? He answered “success means doing the things that others choose not to do.” Success may be anything from accomplishing a goal of any kind – physical, financial, business, etc., but the reality is that we need to be successful every day in order to be productive.
There are so many things in life that are changing around us at a very fast pace, so achieving success today may be short-lived because we need to adapt and change to be successful tomorrow. Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a perfect example in the business world to be successful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “this is the way we’ve always done it” from business leaders who think they are successful in that method. If they aren’t continuing to evaluate and improve I’m not sure that they are as successful as they could be.
CQI with company’s health insurance plan is no different. There are so many evolving strategies and programs available to employers that are so frequently overlooked because they feel that they have been successful in finding a current solution to their needs. When I talk to employers, they also state that they been with their current broker and/or insurance company for years and are happy. No one’s happy with their health insurance costs in this country! These employers may have been successful with this at one point in time, but because they haven’t explored options and made changes I would hardly call them successful.
Employers are “blown away” when they see what innovative strategies are available to them, almost to the point of disbelief. “Why hasn’t anyone told me about these before” is a question I get all the time. It’s because they haven’t been exposed to these by their broker, who wants to maintain the status quo. I recently heard from a broker competitor that an “unnamed” insurance company pays a commission override of 40% to brokers who maintain 95% persistency on their book of business. In other words, if a broker has a book of business of clients with an insurance company of $10 million of premium for example, and renews 95% of their clients, they receive a $4 million bonus to do so! Can you imagine that? Who is the broker working for? Their clients or the insurance company? Where is their incentive to propose alternatives to their client?
If you want to be competitive in the marketplace to attract and retain employees, you have to offer the best plans at the most competitive cost. And it isn’t doing so by thinking you have a successful health insurance plan which been in place for several years. Right now it’s hard enough to attract employees, and the benefits you offer are a big reason why they will come to work for you.
The “rent” comes due every day, so reevaluate your plan to be successful. If you would like to learn more about the innovative strategies and programs that are available, you can call me at 970 – 349 – 7707 or email me at [email protected]
