Buying a franchise territory with Aspray means stepping into an interesting world of loss-assessing, in which negotiation with the insurer or their representative, the loss adjuster, on behalf of the insured property insurance policyholder, is a key part of day-to-day work. That negotiation has one goal if you are an Aspray franchisee – getting a just settlement for the client, according to the cover they bought, to allow the property to be reinstated to its pre-loss condition. However, to achieve this, the negotiation tends to have to be tip-top. On that basis, any thinking about negotiating is always of interest to our franchise network.
We recently spotted a very interesting article about negotiating here. The business guru, Fotini Iconmopoulos, has suggested new approaches to negotiating, including linguistic ones. She says words, tone and body language are the three components that help or hinder successful negotiating.
Firstly, the suggestion is that composure is required before starting to negotiate. In a tense or emotional situation, which is typically found in scenarios surrounding property damage, it can be hard not to wade in immediately, with the desire to help the policyholder. However, the article we referenced suggests pausing and allowing the brain to generate rational thoughts before starting to speak. This makes a lot of sense. The property insurance policy needs to be consumed and explored before doing anything negotiation-wise, but then the individual circumstances of the claim also need to be explored. This is where our loss-assessors need to do their homework.
Curiosity is also seen as key. Here, our franchisees need to be discovering what the other party – often the loss adjuster – wants to achieve as the final outcome. Knowing this enables you to predict how they may play their hand and how you need to respond, if a compromise is to be attained. A successful result can also hinge on not offering the other party any glimpses of chinks in your armour, which means avoiding the use of words such as ‘around’ or ‘roughly’ when talking figures.
Another expert suggestion revolves around using the words, “If you …., then I”, when offering an idea of how a resolution could be achieved. Add to this a proactive approach to suggestions that are turned down, by not jumping in and asking ‘why?’, but asking ‘how’ thinking could change, or ‘what’ could alter the other party’s mind, and there are many useful tips to be deployed.
Having these types of prompts is useful, but our Aspray loss-assessing franchisees often have the type of personality that makes them naturals in the art of making their point well and representing their client in a passionate and dynamic way. Personality is undisputedly a huge asset, particularly when coupled with something that our franchisees possess – a true desire to go the extra-mile for their client, to get them back on their feet with a just level of property reinstatement and repair.
Of course, all of our franchisees continually learn new skills and techniques as they go along, and there is no substitute for experience. Sometimes, potential franchisees believe there is no future learning to do, once they have signed up for a territory. That is of course not the case. We invest much effort into training our franchisees, both during their induction, but then on an ongoing basis, and we also stage an annual conference and mid-year meeting, to which we invite experts in different fields, who have new insight to deliver.
If negotiating is something you enjoy, it is worth taking a good look at our opportunity, assessing what other skills you possess and whether these are a good fit for a role as an Aspray property claims manager and loss assessor. More information can be found here.