An insurance salesman is enticing potential new customers by paying off their parking meters for them.
A photo of the flyer that Andrew Cooney, from Rochester, Minnesota, leaves after helping out people with their expired meters has been doing the rounds on social media.
It reads: “I paid your parking meter for you … imagine what else I’m willing to do to protect your car.”
The 26-year-old, who is a private contractor for the brand Farmers Insurance, confirmed he is the salesman behind the flyers, adding it has been pretty successful so far.
Explaining where the idea came from, he said: “I was speaking with a friend of mine and we were talking about creative marketing ideas, and he suggested paying parking meters.”
He added: “The reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think it has been successful and the amount of the exposure I have been getting … it has led to a handful of interested clients.”
Cooney said he has a folder with all of the flyers in and “literally walks down the road checking the meters” to see how long is left on them.
He claims he has handed out about 40 of the flyers so far, adding he expects to do about 20 more today.
In terms of how much money he’s spending on this marketing tactic, he said in the middle of downtown Rochester the parking meters are close to $1 an hour and typically is spending about $20 a day.
“Rochester has a decent-sized downtown area, so it’s been enough to keep me busy,” said Cooney. “As of now, it’s just local but I’ll probably start doing it everywhere I go.”
The combat veteran, who served six years as a Navy Seabee, said he has only been selling insurance – car, home, property, life and specialty – for a little over a month.
Well, there’s no denying Cooney has got some smooth salesman moves already going on.
