UIG Gamechanger – August 2018
Dean Johnson enjoys meeting and helping people. And since 2000, when he began selling Medicare, he’s been meeting and helping the senior population in Cassopolis, Michigan, decide which Medicare plan is right for them.
“You have to take care of these people,” Dean said. “It’s all about customer service.”
While Dean currently sells Medicare plans at the Kemner Iott Benz Agency, he spent much of his earlier career in the financial/banking industry, as a partner in an NASO Member firm and owning a small bank. There also was a time when he was part-owner of an RV company. He even considered going into business with his wife, but that was when she owned a Weight Watchers franchise – something he just couldn’t see himself doing. That’s when he decided to get his insurance license and eventually joined Kemner Iott Benz.
“Joining a large established agency like Kemner Iott Benz, with 50-60,000 policy holders, was a good way for me to sell to a base of customers no one else was selling to. I sold a couple of policies the first day I was here,” he laughed. “I didn’t know exactly what to do with them, but I brought them into the agency and we figured it out!”
Dean nurtures his client relationships the same way he has nurtured his growth at Kemner Iott Benz – they’ve grown together. One of the philosophies he believes in is “after the sale” – continuing to have a relationship with clients after the sale of a policy, because sometimes that’s when clients need him most.
“I tell them to call me, even make them promise to call me,” he said. “Most times they say they don’t want to bother me, but there’s a lot of service work that goes into this job. Almost all of my business is through customer referrals and to me, that’s the best kind of business and I don’t want that to change.”
Dean gives kudos to Linda Isbell, his licensed broker sales specialist at United Insurance Group for making him a priority, saying that she’s been a “Godsend.” She keeps him informed of carrier updates before they become widely available to the agents; she provides him with supplies and calls him regularly to stay in front of him with new items and projects on the UIG horizon, such as the new marketing materials he recently used, with much success. In fact, Dean sent out 17 of the new tri-fold brochures, got six appointments and sold 11 policies.
“What I liked about the materials is not only were they different, they focused on the agents as the experts, which we are,” Dean said. (Appointed UIG agents have access to these materials on the UIG BRC under Resources, Marketing Materials.)
What do you supposed the first thing Dean’s going to do after AEP? He’s going to Arizona for a few weeks to visit his sons and get in some rounds of golf. “But I’ll still call people back while I’m in Arizona!” he said.
Dean Johnson
Kemner Iott Benz 60267 Century Drive
Cassopolis, Ml 49031
269-445-2425
