This article was written by William Dyer, Vice President and Founder, HCP National.
(Editor’s Note: SCORE Orange County is not affiliated with HCP National, but has actively mentored participants in the CSUF Student-led Business Consulting Program for many years. If you are considering engaging consultative services, we recommend that you check into this program. We’re confident that you will be pleased with the results.)
Several years ago we engaged with the CSUF Student-led Business Consulting Program led by Professor John Bradley Jackson for advisement on our marketing. We wanted new ideas for our insurance brokerage, which specializes in health care, with an emphasis in Medical Malpractice.
The CSUF Student-led Business Consulting group that we hired came up with a very impressive marketing plan; there were several great ideas that we implemented. One of them involved our client retention program, which allowed us to graphically show how much our clients have saved from working with our company over the years. This has been a valuable tool to remind some of our clients the value of a long term relationship with our firm.
This year, we challenged the students to improve our online marketing to target physicians. Doctors are incredibly busy and very hard to reach. We have insurance programs for Medical Malpractice that can save doctors thousands of dollars and we need to get that word out. The students we are working with now have contributed some good ideas; we are expecting to implement our online marketing plan shortly.
We find that young minds come up with ideas that older minds would think of as impossible. Also, we want to help students that want practical, hands-on experience. A college education is very valuable, but getting hands-on experience and applying what you have learned is gold.
