Employee Benefit marketing is using methods developed before the internet was born. Meetings used to pass on information better disseminated by other means are a waste of time and money. There is a better way.

Unlike Permission Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, Business Marketing, Interactive Marketing and a host of others, Trusted Source Marketing is not about searching for new customers.

Those influenced to buy beneficial programs via payroll deduction are not customers. They are our employees.  First and foremost our influence is used with their advantage in mind.  We recognize our place and our reasons for following this course of action.  When our employees take advantage of the benefits we offer in larger numbers that is good for the company.  Some programs offer greater advantage to the company than others but they all are good for the company if they are good for the employees.  If they are not good for the employees, we will soon know if we encourage dialogue.

Dialogue is another key to Trusted Source Marketing done well.

At its core the Trusted Source Marketing concept is about influencing those who trust us to consider and decide about products and services usually offered as employee benefits.  Employers, large and small, will want to be considered Trusted Sources because there are compelling reasons to become a Trusted Source.

By encouraging greater understanding of the benefits offered there is increased participation.  By doing it in ways that allow people to make decisions in their own time without coercion respect is shown.  Too often companies have added a benefit without any mechanism for disseminating  information or offering easy access to it.  This does little good.

Current systems are expensive and inefficient.  More importantly, they don’t work very well. Too many good benefits are ignored because they are not effectively explained.  It is not about promotion or bells and whistles.  It is about taking the responsibility to bring good ideas to the people who trust us.  To actually take the time to create a well balanced benefit program and explain why we have decided to offer each and every benefit.

The process at its best provides information about the advantages and disadvantages of any program offered.

Employee Benefit agents can use Trusted Source Marketing to increase sales in existing client companies.  In fact, any agent who does not go to their existing client base first does not understand the concept.  Become a Trusted Source.  Go to your clients and explain why it is important to rethink their benefit programs and why they offer them in the first place.  They should be quick to see how improving delivery while reducing their costs makes sense.

A great example of a Trusted Source is a company who acts as a general contractor between client companies and Independent Contractors.  Drivers, labor, nurses, IT professionals, accountants, and a host of other occupations have a growing cadre of ICs.

This has become much more common in the last several years particularly in the transportation business.  Owner operators as they are sometimes called can work local areas or long haul over the road as they wish.  The client companies gain too.

The drivers get access to different insurance products that are required by shippers and receivers like Occupational Accident Insurance.  Other coverages such as Life Insurance, Health Insurance Programs, Legal Services, Accounting Services, Workers Compensation Insurance, access to Truck Leasing Programs and others are also made available with this win win win arrangement.

Trucking companies or motor carriers win because they can get all the drivers they need quickly.  The administrative aspect of hiring a driver is handled by the GC and this further reduces exposure to the carrier for the owner operators.  This works without their own personnel department doing all of the required background checks, insurance checks and the like.  They often pay flat rates and certainly know what the costs are going to be up front.  A firewall is created between the motor carrier or courier company and the ICs because the ICs work for the General Contractor by contract.

The truckers win too.  Most of the coverages available through quality firms are going to be discounted so they get the coverages they want and need at reduced rates.  More importantly they have help getting loads and this increases revenue, reduces costs and downtime.  The trucker support company becomes a Trusted Source for coverages needed by the drivers.  The drivers depend on the company to bring necessary and useful products to them at the best possible pricing.

The “General Contractor” in this arrangement earns their pay by doing everything the trucking companies and drivers don’t like doing.  Things like dealing with government agencies who regularly try to reclassify workers and insurance companies who are trying to charge for ICs as if they are employees.  They are also responsible to the drivers to investigate the companies whose benefits they offer.  The savings generated for both “clients” in this equation is where there is a profit.  And everyone wins.

Though there are many trucking operations who currently employ tractor drivers and couriers it is increasingly risky to for these companies to employ drivers and use owner operators.  You can contact this blogger for recommendations for both trucking support and or courier supply companies.

Employee Benefits is a simple term.  Everyone knows what it means to them.  That’s right. Depending on who you are, what your position is, where you work, if you have family, and how old you are your attitude and understanding of Employee Benefits is different.

Some of us think that the only employee benefit we need is a paycheck.  Give us our money and let us decide what we want to do with it.  Many of us gripe about state and federal income taxes, social security deductions (another tax), local employment taxes, and every other deduction that comes out of our pay.

There are only a few deductions that we actually have much to say about.  Not the taxes. They are coming out at a rate set by someone else.  Some of us have some control about how much of our pay will be deferred to fund our own retirement beyond Social Security.

The only deductions that are within our own purview are the ones we allow to fund the various voluntary benefits available where we work.  This is limited by what is offered where we work.  Some companies will consider offering another benefit if enough of the employees request it.  But generally the only benefits offered are ones brought to the company by outside sources.  Few companies hunt for benefits.

If a company is large enough there will be insurance brokers soliciting it for the opportunity to present options to the employees.  Even in this scenario, it is not the employee who creates the need.  It is an outside agency appealing to the boss for access.  One business owner once said to me that he only offers health insurance because he must.  If he didn’t his people would leave for a competitor who does.  He won’t allow other product benefits because he doesn’t run a business so his employees can get sold something by someone else.

This is part of the current picture.  However, there are companies who want to do everything that they can reasonably do for their employees.  These companies recognize that their people are the reason the company can function.  They deal with the reality that their number one most important job is to find great people and keep them.

The last group of employers would be, in fact are, Trusted Sources.  These are the companies to locate and work with.  How do you find them?  Talk to people.  Those who are happy where they work could be your greatest referral.