Insurance Online

Do you remember about the post “My correspondence with Underwriters”? Today I would like to tell you about one more type of letters in insurance - Sales letters.

Sales letters are written and often sent out with a catalogue which has not been asked for.

These letters require a highly specialized style of writing. For this reason, most large companies employ professional writers - advertising and public relations specialists - who handle all the sales and publicity writing. They know how to appeal to people’s buying motives and find potential buyers. They must also know how to acquire mailing lists (such sources as a company’s own files, telephone books, and directories are good starts) and how to select the right audience from those lists.

Nevertheless, and especially in smaller companies, there are times when almost any business person will have to compose a sales letter.

I present you me own example of a sales letter:

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Sugden & Able Ltd.
45 Flower Street
London,
United Kingdom

Your ref: BF
Our ref: SA

22 March 2006
Brown Fox Ltd.
32 Tate Street
Kern,
Sweden

Dear Sirs,

We would like to inform you that underwriters offer 2 types of insurance for your requirements:

1) Floating policy. This policy will cover all shipments with a maximum amount, and can be renewed when necessary.

2) Open cover. This type of insurance based on conditions that the shipper informs the underwriter when the shipment is made and renews the policy after shipment.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,

A. Able
the Director of Sugden & Able Ltd.

Enc. 2
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POINTS AND WORDS TO REMEMBER

Sales letters should demonstrate the writer’s knowledge of both product and customer and illustrate the advertising principles known as AIDA:

1. Attention: The letter opens with a gimmick to grab the reader’s attention and create the desire to know more.

2. Interest: The letter provides information and plays up certain features of the product to build the reader’s interest.

3. Desire: The sales pitch appeals to one or more personal needs (such as prestige, status, comfort, safety, or money) to stimulate the reader’s desire.

4. Action: The letter makes it easy for the reader to buy end encourages immediate action.

<:3 )~~~~~~
Yours sincerely,
AlexSandra

The Insurance Hall of Fame is a world known list of business leaders in insurance. It was founded in 1957 and now has more than 100 inductees; it is kept by the University of Alabama in the United States. Its first inductee was Benjamin Franklin presumably for his efforts in establishing fire insurance companies in Philadelphia.

To be included in the Insurance Hall of Fame is the highest honor for individuals in the insurance industry. The Insurance Hall of Fame honors those who have exercised great influence on the industry for the benefit of society.

Today, the Hall of Fame is administered by the International Insurance Society, Inc., a non-profit educational organization of about 800 insurance executives from around the world.

I was lucky to find this list and have pleasure in showing it … (more…)

This year BUSINESS ENGLISH is one of the most interesting courses at my university. We study proper business letter writing. It’s very important for normal commercial activity. In spite of the development of telephone, telex and telegraphic ways of communications and the increasing personal contacts in international trade, the writing of letters continues. In fact most telephoned and telegraphed messages have to be confirmed by letters.

So every good businessman should be competent in writing effective business letters in English. It is not just the matter of translating Russian business phrases literally into English because each language has its own characteristic forms and phrases (by the way, we often use Russian instead Belarusian in different official documents).

It is also useful to remember that the subject of the routine business letters in export-import trade lacks variety. Therefore, first, certain accepted standard phrases are in general use and secondly, Form letters (=standard letters) may be used: it facilitates the communication because the repetitive nature of many business transactions and situations makes the use of standard letters a time-saving device.

However, whether you write a special letter or make use of a standard letter, you should know the main parts of any business letter and its layout.

Business letters are usually written on printed company forms (letter-paper). The letterhead (the heading) gives the name of the company, the postal and telegraphic addresses, the telephone numbers, the number of the telex (-es) and the fax(-es); sometimes some other information such as: the names of important officials (e.g. directors), the particular official, to whom the company may wish to have all communications addressed, spaces for letter indexes (references) and the date.

As you see, this course is very interesting and important. And «Insurance» was one of our topics. Our task was the following: «Imagine that you have to write a letter for your underwriters, invent any reason you like and addresses».  It took not much time, and at last I made two letters. I hope they will be helpful for you if you use them as an example.

The first letter

The second letter

The insurance industry has a large range of jobs that service various parts of the business. In addition to underwriters, who decide whether or not a risk should be insured, and agents, who sell the coverage, the industry employs many kinds of engineers, who inspect property and offer advice on making property safer. When a loss occurs, claim adjusters investigate its cause as, for example, in a fire and decide how much the insurance company owes its policyholder.

The industry has developed specialists called actuaries, who, through mathematical and statistical analysis, help underwriters determine the rates applied to life insurance premiums. The industry also employs a wide range of physicians, lawyers, computer experts, mathematicians, and others to support all the major players in the game of risk.

In the latter part of the 20th century, general industry has developed its own insurance specialists who specialize in purchasing insurance for their corporations. These risk managers must be acquainted with all forms of insurance and are generally in charge of deciding what insurance a corporation should buy and how much it should pay.

Insurance comes in many varieties. Categories include property, liability, homeowners’, automobile, medical, life, workers’ compensation, and marine.

Property Insurance

Property insurance is the modern form of the fire insurance that was sold by early insurance companies. The name has changed because the coverage has changed. No longer are just the losses resulting from fire protected by property insurance. Such losses as those from windstorm, theft, vandalism, and water damage are also covered.

Liability Insurance

Liability insurance is the most important kind of business insurance. A liability is a duty one person owes another, or is liable for, for some special reason. Liability insurance pays an individual or a business for liabilities that result from unforeseen situations.

Homeowners’ Insurance

Homeowners’ insurance is a combination offering both property and liability coverage. Usually it includes protection for a person’s home, any other buildings on the property, and for the buildings’ contents and personal belongings except automobiles and pets. The policy can be written to include the property of guests. If disaster strikes, homeowners’ insurance usually pays a family’s living expenses until they get settled at home once again.

Automobile Insurance

Automobile insurance is the most complicated kind of insurance purchased by individuals. It combines several kinds of property and liability coverage. The standard automobile policy includes collision insurance, covering property damage to a car when it is struck by another vehicle, and comprehensive insurance, covering general property damage that occurs when an automobile is damaged by something other than another vehicle.

Medical Insurance

Medical insurance pays the costs of hospitalization and physicians’ fees for insured individuals who are injured or become ill.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is designed to insure lives, though it frequently includes coverage for major disabilities such as the loss of limbs or organs. There are basically three kinds of life insurance that may be purchased by individuals for themselves or others or by employers for their employees.

Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation is a special state-controlled insurance purchased by employers for the benefit of their employees. Like general liability and medical payment liability insurance, it pays for medical treatment required by employees of a company according to a state-regulated schedule of benefits. The object is to prevent employees from the need to sue their employers if they are injured and to compensate workers for losses from accidents on the job.

Marine Insurance

The oldest form of insurance that scholars have been able to document, marine insurance now includes much more than the shared risk of ships’ cargo. It might best be called transportation insurance because variations of the coverage include protection for ships, trucks, railroads, and aircraft. Underwriters generally divide it into two types: ocean marine, which deals with every kind of water conveyance, and inland marine for truck and rail cargo.

The art of advertising is to persuade people to buy your product or service. This requires a basic understanding of psychology, the needs of human beings and how those needs can be satisfied.

An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, has suggested, those needs can be compartmentalized and arranged in the form of a hierarchy.

At the lowest level people need food, shelter, warmth and sex.

When these needs are eagerly satisfied, people begin to think about the safety of themselves and their personal possessions. Squirrels, when they have had their fill of nuts, begin to bury nuts in their winter larders, human beings have the same tendency, much to the relief of the insurance companies. Insurance appeals to those who would feel the loss of personal possessions, through burglary, flood and fire, and those who seek pensions and financial security generally.

Even when a human being does not feel under threat at the safety level, a new need emerges according to Maslow. There is now a need to be approved by other people, a need for love and respect.

And when we are largely satisfied at this social level, according to Maslow we simply move on to egocentricity. We all have egos, but what is an ego? It is a love of self. We look into the mirror and hopefully like what we see.