In our last Mark’s Claims, we started this series on how to disagree without being disagreeable.
If you are a professional golfer, you practice a lot of putts. If you are a professional basketball player, you’re going to shoot a lot of free throws. These are the skills needed to succeed.
As a professional adjuster, since our job is protecting a large pile of money from people who don’t deserve any or all of it that they want, we are going to have a lot of disagreements.
Think of it like putting or free throws: you need to disagree well to succeed as an adjuster – it’s a basic skill you should constantly practice.
This blog is all about giving you actionable items – simple little tips to improve your performance as a claims professional.
Here’s another disagreement tip from the world of Visual Linguistics.
Visual Linguistics is the science of studying how the mind reacts to words and images. Simply put, to further our understanding we turn words into images and imagines into words.
As an expert in disagreeing, we want to avoid words that provoke images of conflict and instead use words that visualize the absence of conflict. This brings me to the star of this column:
“As it turns out.”
What do you “see” when you hear or read these words?
The visualization of this phrase conjures the image of a near -miss, a collision that didn’t happen or that a turn occurred before impact.
Another popular visualization is a surprise ending – that the souffle didn’t quite rise or the new bedroom paint didn’t work like you expected.
But it is not judgmental in any way: Might not be what you expected but it’s just the way things turned out.
Perfect for a disagreement professional!
Let’s try it!
“As it turns out, both regulators and the repair industry know that aftermarket parts are a safe and economical way to put your car back in pre accident condition.”
“As it turns out, the medications that you submitted for reimbursement are for breast cancer, not the accident, so they are not eligible for reimbursement.”
“As it turns out, your policy doesn’t cover the custom awning you installed without an additional premium.”
“As it turns out, the value of the damage is significantly less than first reported.”
“As it turns out, the law places some responsibility on you as the icy sidewalk is considered an ‘open and obvious’ hazard.”
When you speak, people are seeing images in their mind. Draw an image of the avoidance of conflict: use “AS IT TURNS OUT.”
Stay tuned for more tips on how to disagree!