paddy

Director of Business Development

Selling to People in Distress: Hurricane Edition

I got a call this morning from a prospect I've been chasing for awhile. Turns out he has an urgent need to use our software because he's strapped on resources with the hurricane situation on the east coast. I'll spare you the boring details about the use case. I also don't want to sound like an unsympathetic douchebag because I'm fully aware of the damage this has caused to many livelihoods over there, but yeah, I'd be lying if I said this isn't good for Paddy.

Thought this would be a fun topic...How have you all seized the opportunity to sell to people during natural disasters or any other of God's doings?

-paddy

🏰 War Stories

🔎 Prospecting

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19 comments

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Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

As an insurance broker, people are pissed who bought cheap (basically everyone) and don't have adequate coverage. They still won't buy the necessary policies, but just hate insurance more.

So I'm getting yelled at a lot. But I'm at least trying to use it as a wedge to make them hate their current broker instead of me. "I have full transparency. I would never lead you to purchase something where you don't understand what you're paying for" blah blah.

It's getting doors open, but it honestly doesn't matter because they're gonna hate whomever instead of themselves.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

I heard that with Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the media labeled it a "superstorm" because insurance doesn't cover "superstorms" and they're in a different category than hurricanes. If that's the case, lol get fucked

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

Yet another reason to actually read your policy. There were claims issues with the National Flood Insurance Program and FEMA - basically FEMA didn't write the policies or handle the claims. It would pay fees to private insurers to do that. So they could add exclusionary language to prevent payouts. And they did.

What you're referring to is a Named Storm Deductible - some policies define “named storm” to mean a hurricane, tropical cyclone or tropical depression, none of which accurately described Superstorm Sandy. While Sandy did at one time possess hurricane characteristics, it lost those traits prior to making landfall in New Jersey, and the National Weather Service downgraded it to a post-tropical cyclone hours before it came on shore in New Jersey. Many property owners had a $1M deductible, so the amount of claims paid was non-existent.

This is why you hire people like me to look shit over before you buy. Or go with Sleazy Bob who doesn't give a fuck. He just wants your commission check. I would also sue the fuck out of Sleazy Bob for E&O.

Anyway, here's a good article about it: https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2014/03/articles/hurricane-sandy/was-superstorm-sandy-a-named-storm/

SiliconBBQ

Politicker

The Metal Rooster

wow that's fucked. had some friends work cleanup for Sandy.

Been through a number of storms and seen the devastation first hand plenty of times. Everyone I know in NC, immediate fam included, has had their damage from hurricanes covered by their policies, and for nor'easters too.

justatopproducer

Politicker

VP OF SALES -US

Incognito, what type of insurance? I partner with brokers and work in the HCM space currently.

Incognito

WR Officer

Master of Disaster

Construction/Surety Bonding

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

all we do is sell to people who cant afford what they need. we're the eureka moment. its great.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

The top performers at dark trace and tessian are always the guys that got lucky and stumbled on the firm that just had a massive cyber attack but hadn't gone public about it yet.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

I interviewed with them and got shut down. They're dead to me, like my interns.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Bunch of guys I know from my highschool work at Darktrace, all assholes and not the fun kind.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

I haven’t leveraged natural disasters, but Covid ended up being great for my pipeline. I feel like an ass typing that, but ecommerce never sleeps.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Uh yeah, I could definitely see that. 😎

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

You have to man. I sell financial software, and you best believe the go-to strategy was to play on the "the economy is going to shit, do your have yours together?" mentality

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

Not natural disasters per say. However when I did telco both b2c and b2b my three favorite customers were
1. Someone who just switched to someone without reception
2. Someone who just received a crazy bill they didn't expect
3. Customers who were horny for new iPhones..

These 3 cases they could even forget they were tied into contracts and could overcharge as well

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

So what happened? We don't get hurricanes so I'm intrigued as to what happened?

CCP

Opinionated

VP, Business Development

I had a deal for mass testing (didn't pan out since govt went in another direction) but I was going full discount to make it happen for the greater good. This was when we were in the thick of it in terms of COVID deaths. I would've made basically no commish.

Do.it.for.the.checks

Politicker

Account Executive

Yes. As with anything I'm here to provide a solution to a problem. Just because this is a big problem, it doesn't change my value

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paddy

Selling to People in Distress: Hurricane Edition

19 comments

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