19 Aug “Universal Laws” – Use Them to Our Advantage
In our society, we have laws that are designed to allow our lives to run smoothly, be protected, and provide a framework for what we can and cannot do. When we run afoul of the law, the byproduct is not pleasant. When we follow the laws we avoid a whole world that law breakers live in, probably not a good place to be.
There are a whole set of laws that we don’t hear that much about, these laws have just as much of a result as what our Judicial System regulates. However, they are not enforced by the courts. The byproduct of following these laws result in either a positive or negative consequence. They are universal in the result. Hence the name universal laws. They have been proven to work over a long period of time. By following these universal laws, we can drastically accelerate our levels of success and happiness.
Some of the more popular UL are:
The law of supply and demand
The law of increasing return
The law of compensation (Read Emerson’s essay on compensation)
The law of attraction
The law of cause and effect
The law of deliberate creation. (That which I give thought to I begin to attract, what I give thought with emotion I attract more quickly)
The law of sufficiency and abundance
The law of detachment
The law of unintended consequences
The law of contrast
As an agency owner, one of the easiest laws to implement is the law of contrast. We can use this law to show the contrasting differences of our company and our agency.
Some examples we should have on hand are visuals to show our companies rich history. Next is what we bring to the table, what unique benefits does your agency provide? Your review process, how you handle claims, ease of doing business, being accessible are all examples. Use these and others to such an extent that when the other choice is examined in contrast – there is no comparison.
When two choices are presented one after another if the second item is fairly different from the first we tend to see the difference more dramatically. The law of contrast can be used in an agency to fuel dramatic growth and receive referrals better than advertising, marketing, or other external activity. It is also surprisingly easy to implement. Ie: how do most businesses answer their phone? Usually a machine that requests us to press this or that to get someone, and when we do how often is it voicemail? When we have a live, pleasant body that answers quickly and efficiently handling the call, it is a contrast.
When a customer asks for something what is a typical responses in most businesses? A contrast would be a “Yes Mrs. Smith, I will work on this immediately. Would you prefer the response phoned, faxed, or emailed?” Powerful contrast if used consistently.
During the sales process, how often does someone “get a quote” if we just give a number we are relegated to a commodity status. A contrast would be; give a sales presentation. Start with a brief history of our company, our agency, our philosophy of insurance and why we don’t sell monoline insurance policies. We protect assets with properly structured insurance products. Again, a major contrast.
One of the biggest and most difficult contrasts is one of the principles in the book, the four agreements. The principle of “standing by your word” or doing what you say you’re going to do. At first glance most people will say, I do that now, I do what I say… really? When you say you’ll be home by 5:00, or you’ll lose 3 lbs. by the end of the year, or I’ll review this policy with you annually, or, or, or. Is it always done as you said it would be? For those that can muster this discipline and implement it into business practice, the customer will come to count on you as one who does what he/she says. This can be a major contrast. The law of contrast intentionally applied will do more for you and your business than any other one single item. Be creative, how can you present, respond, behave, conduct, and communicate while intentionally using the law of contrast?