I freely admit that 90% is a stunner. E&O claims analysis has shown conclusively that the regular application of coverage checklists is a key driver of better coverage recommendations, higher sales, increased revenues and lower E&O exposure for the agency. What's not to like? And yet other E&O auditors will tell you that Chris is right on the money.

How ironic. The vast majority of consumers want what agents have to offer. The vast majority of agents aren't delivering it. Fools.

Consumers want advice and counsel

Endlessly we are assaulted with Albert Einstein's famous definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Permit me to suggest an applicable quote for these “90 percenters”: “Insanity is doing nothing and expecting results.” Specifically, it's expecting that consumers will continue to seek out the trusted advice and counsel of agents who provide neither.

The truly sad aspect of this is the simple truth that I attempt to illustrate in these articles every month: The fields of insurance, particularly in property & casualty (P&C), are not lying bleak and frozen under winter winds, but literally as white unto harvest as nature in the fullness of spring.

Just take a moment to consider the use of a checklist. Properly included within a fact-finding interview, proposal or policy renewal review, using a list takes no great additional time—in fact, I'd argue that it actually makes the time you do spend with the client or prospect more focused and better utilized. Even if it does take a bit longer, what part of better coverage recommendations, higher sales, increased revenues (plus dare I say increased commissions?) and lower E&O exposure isn't worth a few seconds of extra effort?

Create a checklist for your customer

If your hang-up is a specific checklist you hate, find another. ANY checklist is better than none. Or heck, create your own!

For example, perhaps a list that consists totally of forms, endorsement or coverage names strikes you as confirmation of all the “dry insurance stuff” so many believe is typical of “boring” P&C. But instead of ignoring all those potential benefits, why not try another approach?

Many years ago my good friend Mike Edwards and I teamed on a multi-week tour of Florida to teach agents the wonders of the newly minted ISO HO-84 program. One of the highlights was teaching from a comprehensive text of coverage analysis, claims examples, and court case references created by one of the truly brilliant insurance gurus of this industry's history, Bob Smith (perhaps better known to many of you as the inventor of the Rapid Rater). When writing the chapter about perils, the natural point arose to explain the advantages of what was then referred to as “all risk” versus “named peril;” specifically in that day, why the HO-3 over the then more popular HO-2; and why the HO-5 instead of the HO-2 or 3? The additional premium was often significant. The traditional approach, favored by nearly every article or textbook, was classic insurance: here are the exclusions. Overlooked was what seemed to be the obvious question for many agents, if not every consumer even to this day: I see what you don't want to cover; what's left?

Bob decided that question was worth an answer, particularly in answering another key question: What makes this “all risks” worth the higher cost?

This approach was not totally unknown. Here are two “covered by all risk, not covered by named-peril” examples regularly cited by insurance publications and textbooks of the day:

• A wounded deer crashed through a living room window and bled all over the carpeting.
• A circus elephant escaped from a train and trampled buildings and property.

A Daytona Beach client spoke for multitudes when he responded to the first with an exaggerated eye-roll: “Oh, yeah, happens around here all the time.” His response to the second was simply to look at me blankly, then quietly but firmly suggest I cut the “nonsense” (not his word) and renew his HO-2.

Smith, understanding that for the list to have value it must include things that really happen to everyday folks, came up with a plethora of such events. Here are just a few of his examples:

• Ruptured waterbeds. Such beds were extremely popular back then, and no, we weren't going to ask what they were doing when it ruptured.
• Leaking or ruptured fish tanks. And not just the five- and 10-gallon hobby tanks; 50- and 100-gallon indoor aquariums popular in dentists' offices anyone?
• Overflowing toilets, particularly when due to a child attempting to flush his new toy submarine—you get the picture.
• Damage done by kids. Think about “artwork” on the walls; chemistry experiments; “fun with pets.”
• The weight of objects, or falling objects that didn't damage the exterior first. Have you ever worked in an attic and stepped “just a bit too far or shy” of the rafter? “Honest, I was reaching for the air conditioner and next thing I know I was sitting on a broken table in the living room.”

Here's a suggestion: Follow Bob's lead and create your own checklists—or modify others — to identify the specific realities of your applicable prospects and clients. Do you need ideas? Convene an office meeting and swap common consumer questions and claims. Peruse my past articles and others from NU for coverage stories, claims examples or just to trigger your own ideas. With apologies to a popular movie hero of that year, Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid, 1984):

1. Close eyes; picture real-life examples of coverage needs.
2. Open eyes; make checklist.
3. Use checklist.

Make this April the month you seize the checklist. Profit from the opportunity of that 90%'s failure by providing your targeted prospects and clients with real knowledge, counsel and trusted advice.

And for those 90 percenters? Permit me to honor the spirit of April, and the remembrance of 1984, by giving the last word to then-monster rockers Def Leppard: You better stop “F-f-f-fooling.”

Chris Amrhein, AAI, is an insurance educator and speaker, and serves as the chief fun officer at insuranceisfun.com.