Introduction
Are you working as an adjuster for an insurance company? Is it your first big case that will help you mark yourself on the map? The pressure is high, and you are working with a public adjuster. Worry not, with your natural wit and a little bit of help from our guide, nail your first success in the stone. Get prepared to learn about your ammo and how you can use them with professional expatriates. The following article contains different approaches and strategies for your first big break.
The Common Practises
Public adjusters often claim an explosive amount of revenue for their clients, and it’s okay. There’s always room to negotiate. Find a way to pay the minimum reasonable amount to the insurance holder. You need to be able to hold your ground. Strategise your way out of a critical situation. Often the public adjuster would state that they can’t do better than a certain amount. Or, overwhelm you with various legal facts. Some of them will present you with an emotional situation. They may even serve you with an abstract fact to negotiate. Each & every case presents its own tweaks and facts. To become a successful adjuster, break out of the emotional mould. Confront the facts, assess the situation with reality. Never let your anger govern you. Strategies the case and chart a path. Prepare yourself for a reaction to the building structure. Then make a detailed list of every item lost. Value all the machinery and equipment and assess the loss of revenue. Then make your offer that satisfies the lowest reasonable payout. In the end, it all comes down how you handle a situation and techniques you use.
Negotiation Tactics
There are a lot of ways to start and continue a negotiation. The practice varies from person to person. You need to develop your own strategy. There’s no substitute for practice. Let’s break down to 4 effective and practised tactics.
Sympathetic approach: Try to get involved with your beneficiary on a personal level. This way, they may slip something that you can use against them. For example, find out if your client requires immediate cash. Then you can push for a lower settlement offer within less time.
Refuse to negotiate: Find out a flaw in the paperwork of your client. Push forward with the issue and refuse to negotiate about it any more. This tactic is often used in bigger insurance company agents. (Source: Forbes.com)
Low settlement offers: Start your negotiation with the lowest possible amount. Make the public-adjuster negotiate higher from your offer. Most of them will try to negotiate down from their primary offer. It’s your job to make them meet your condition, in your terms.
Authority limits: Don’t be shy to implement “authority limit”. After all, you are working for your company. Explain the long process and its impacts. It will push someone to take a lower settlement deal if they need immediate money.
Be technical and detailed about your deal. Present your deal in a way that will lead them to believe that it’s the best deal they can have. Most of all, keep yourself away from being predictable. A public-adjuster is well aware of their job. And they get a certain percentage of the deal they cut. So you need to negotiate the deal that best suits you and your company. Find your best angle to negotiate. Be confident about your offer. Your confidence can bring a heavy impact to the public adjuster’s impenetrable fort and create a clear pathway for you. Also, be prepared to listen to their argument. They may present you with some undeniable point, but you may also get your secret weapon from them.
Stalling Your Negotiation
Be knowledgeable about the laws and regulation. There are a variety of clauses of dismissing a claim. Also, there’s a statute of limitation that varies from state to state. This law prevents the client from filing a case in the court after a certain amount of time. Stalling a negotiation can present an excellent situation to push the client for a lower settlement offer. Don’t be afraid to use all the resources available to you. You may find out an opportunity that you haven’t thought earlier, and work your way through it.
Conclusion
“Negotiating is perhaps the most challenging and, to many, the most fascinating of all activities in the handling of claims” – Alison Wood Brooks.
There are no hard fast rules of negotiation. All you can do is to prepare a strategy for the problem at hand and find the best way to solve it. Your approach doesn’t matter as long as you can achieve the optimum result. It’s a skill that will lead you towards the top of your career or can destroy it completely. Pay closer attention to the details and an opportunity can present itself. But, never underestimate your opponent and trade carefully. Remember with whom your loyalty lies and work or their interest.
