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Ari D. Horowitz, LUTCF, CLTC
Personal Financial Representative
Allstate Financial Services LLC
Member, MDRT Court of the Table

In May of 2001, Ari Horowitz branched out on his own to start a new practice as an exclusive financial representative for Allstate Financial Services. Leveraging his 14 years of industry experience and what he calls a ‘back to basics’ approach to client service, he made Court of the Table that first year, and every year since. Today his practice serves more than 1,500 households with over 2,500 accounts in force. His team, including two sub sales producers and two client service professionals, sells traditional lines of life, annuities, mutual funds, health and long term care.

What’s your secret to success?
For the past two years, more than half our production has been generated through repeat business with our existing client base. While technology is never a silver bullet, our E-Z Data software has certainly played an important role in our success. It is our primary tool for building relationships with our clients. It supports our back-to-basics approach to the business, and it makes a huge difference in our ability to reach out to the right clients at the right time to drive new sales.

What do you mean by ‘back to basics’?
I’m talking about good old-fashioned service, which is the only thing that sets an agent apart. It’s about being there for your clients all the time – not just when it’s time to sell something. LIMRA reported that the number-one complaint about Life agents is that they never contact the client after the sale. My clients hear from me at least every other month. I call them personally on their birthday, and they appreciate that. So when I walk into a client’s house, I’m not just their agent, I’m part of the family. I get both a kiss on the cheek from the wife and absolute client loyalty. When I do ask them to buy, I’ve earned that right, and I usually make the sale.

How does E-Z Data help?
E-Z Data makes delivering that level of service easy. We use the system to touch every client multiple times a year, but not to sell them anything. We send three newsletters, a pre-tax IRA reminder, a postcard reminder for every contract anniversary, a holiday card, and then the birthday call. That may sound like too much to handle, but every outreach is supported by E-Z Data. It takes us only 20 seconds to run an ‘important dates’ posting to pull the birthdays each month, and they’re automatically posted to my Outlook calendar. The biggest advantage is that, when the time comes to place an actual sales call, the client doesn’t feel like I’m calling out of the blue. In this business, timing is everything, but we have no way of knowing when the timing is right. E-Z Data gives us the power to be in front of every client often enough that the timing will eventually be right.

Has today’s economy impacted your business?
We’re in tough times, so business has been slow. Happily, our reputation of meeting or exceeding our clients’ expectations at all times makes a big difference, regardless of the economy. They know we’ll be there for them no matter what the financial landscape of the moment. To market in this environment, approach, we used E-Z Data to identify the clients who would be most receptive at this time. The software made this task simple. It also allowed us to use the system to place just five calls a day on our task list from the 600 identified prospects to keep us focused without being overwhelmed by the campaign. With just five calls a day – and strong client relationships – we hope to again make Court of the Table, and we’re ultimately pushing for Top of the Table. Our goal: to continue to achieve strong growth – no matter what the economic climate.