As a consultant, part of your job is looking out for the best interests of your clients. And part of that best interest should include looking at things outside of the scope of insurance.

As crazy as that may initially sound (after all, you are an insurance agency), it's important to recognize that you have access to an incredible amount of information about a client business and its operations. In some cases, it's more information than any other consultant or advisor with whom a business might work. The level of details and knowledge you potentially have access to runs deep from the financials, to the properties, products, services, partnerships, business risks, and to the employees, turnover and retention, communication, wellness, compliance...this list can go on for as long as your business is actively involved in helping clients manage their resources.

State of the business

Traditionally this type of information has been collected and then simply submitted to the carrier. But, by tapping into the depth of information you have across so many areas of a business, there is potential to provide significant insight and advice to help clients improve both operations and profitability. This advice and influence can go well beyond the benefits or commercial policies you place on their behalf. From the client perspective, a lot of this information is gathered purely for the purposes of insurance submissions and not tracked and/or used internally for studying the state of the business. This provides even more opportunity for you to bring a wealth of information and value to your clients about their own business.

But using this information requires congregating it all, studying what it might mean, and finding potential solutions for what's not working or finding ways to capitalize on opportunities.

It also means being a student of business and keeping clients informed of issues that may not have hit their radar yet, or issues for which that they haven't fully considered the significance. When playing the role of consultant, rather than strictly being a broker, it's your job to bring theses conversations to your clients.

Be the bellwether

Especially as we find ourselves in times of unprecedented turmoil that have shaken the very foundation of everything we've known, there is no better time (except for about 5 years ago) to establish yourself as a bellwether for your clients. Keeping them informed and helping them understand the long-reaching implications that their business decisions of today are going to have on their business of tomorrow, and three years from now, should become your singular focus.

Studies are regularly conducted on the state of employee satisfaction and morale and business projections for hiring and growth, both locally and globally. Understanding the implications of what the results are saying, and educating your clients on these pitfalls and opportunities should be how you spend your time in personal and agency development.

Traditional or transformative

It might feel like it's the time to dig in and focus on the traditional part of your business of offering more products or educating clients in more depth about the same products. Unfortunately, that approach is just getting you a better traditional answer to your challenges, and what your clients are seeing are much more complex problems that they need help navigating.

Instead, going against what might feel like the right direction, and reallocating a disproportionate amount of agency time on developing your team knowledge is actually an excellent use of time and resources. And this effort isn't just a one-time-use activity. A huge benefit to having a knowledge-based business, versus having one that is built on selling a product, is that the knowledge can and should be used again and again. Use it in developing stronger partnerships with your clients, demonstrating a clearly better business model to your prospects, and putting out a completely different message in your marketing efforts.

Having an extremely strong understanding of all products and services you offer your clients is critical. But even more critical for the transformation–leading agencies is proactively providing guidance and advice and being the leading source of education and solutions throughout all areas of the agency – sales, customer service, and marketing.

If you are truly a consultant, then keeping your clients informed, discussing bigger business issues affecting their operations and profitability, and watching out for their best interests should be one of your primary responsibilities.

Photo by digitalART2.

@wendykeneipp

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We’ve talked about where you focus your attention – on your business or on competitive businesses. We've challenged you to ask yourself if you’re trying to stay ahead of the competition, or if you’re thinking about how to fill your clients’ needs regardless of what the competition is doing.

This idea goes beyond just the business model.

Let’s also do a similar comparison on marketing activities.
As you define and develop your marketing programs, are you looking at what your competitors are doing for your inspiration? Are you watching their websites and programs for a comparison of what you need to create, or maybe even what you don’t need to create because of what they are or are not doing?

If you are looking to them for your inspiration, I believe you are completely missing the boat on creating the most compelling marketing program to attract clients. For example, if you have the mindset that you don’t need to blog or tweet because your competitors aren’t, then you don’t recognize that your clients and prospective clients want to know what you have to offer – not that you are offering the same thing as the other guys.

Instead of looking at competitive insurance agencies, you should look to your clients and prospects themselves for inspiration – specifically your best clients and your ideal prospects. Carefully review their business models, websites, and marketing programs. See what they value. Ask them what they want in a business partner. And then create your marketing activities and website to reflect what they want and value.

Think about it – you’re not trying to attract other agencies to do business with you. You’re trying to attract clients. If you look just like the other brokers, what competitive advantage have you given yourself? The more you watch the competition, the more similar you risk being.

Instead, focus obsessively on your clients, and create the tools and resources to help them build a better business.

• How can you help them improve the flow of information for more effective communication and improved operations?
• How can you help them reduce the numerous risks that all businesses face in order for them to stay competitive and attractive?
• What ideas do you have for helping them improve their value offering to be a divergent offering from their competitors?

If you spend your marketing efforts answering questions in order to help your clients achieve these kinds of improvements in their organizations, you will be a complete stand-out from your competition. You will not look like the other guys, and you’ll reinforce your position with your clients that you are, in fact, not just another insurance agency.

Photo by cesar bojorquez.

@wendykeneipp

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When you are working with people or businesses in a service capacity, the client is paying you to be an advisor and watch their back. And really, they want you to perform that role. Sometimes it can be a little intimidating to approach someone with what may feel like unsolicited advice, but if you’re an advisor, that’s what you’re being paid to do.

It might be more comfortable to get permission at the beginning of the relationship to do this – set the table that you’ll be looking out for them and bringing suggestions from time to time. This not only prepares them to expect it, but it gives you some built-in accountability to be actively looking out for your clients.

There are many ways to follow client activities, and Internet tools make it very easy to not only keep an eye on their activity, but on their industry and local marketplace, as well.

If you’re familiar with their business operations and vision, and you’re actively watching them in the local news, following their online activity, or noting what’s going on in their industry, then you’ll very likely run into some information where it makes sense to proactively contact them.

Let’s think about some possible scenarios:

• Maybe it’s something as simple as congratulating them on an accomplishment, or note what kind of progress they’ve made in an area on which you know they’ve been actively focusing (clients love to know you’re paying attention away from the sales cycle).
• You’ve got some advice or tips on how to improve something they’re doing (e.g., improve consistency across locations with standards & training).
• You find some information that could help them improve their business (e.g., new technology now available that might replace existing out-dated technology).
• You can help them take a competitive lead (e.g., a trend that is taking hold in a different industry might translate to their business).
• Help them head off a potential risk or threat or take advantage of a possible opportunity coming down the pipe (e.g., new large employer coming into town looking to do a lot of hiring which might threaten their employee base).

If you’ve got solid business ideas and concerns that they need to consider, then by all means, talk to them. Don’t wait until disaster strikes and then say, “Yeah, I wondered if that might be an issue for you.” Take a proactive approach to the relationship and know that you’ve got their best interests in mind, plus a more distant perspective, which can always be beneficial.

When I hire someone in a service capacity, I usually start off the relationship asking her for advice on how I can improve and then directly open the door for her to proactively contact me with ideas. Which means I’m readily putting myself out there as being willing to take advice, be a repeat buyer, and a potential referral source or center of influence. I find that it’s the rare person who takes me up on this offer.

Happy, delighted, successful current clients are a direct link to new clients and more revenue. There are so many resources at our fingertips to keep an eye on what businesses are doing that watching and offering a little help along the way just makes good business sense.

Photo by Laughlin Elkind.

@wendykeneipp

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In fast-changing benefits field, "not losing" won't be good enough

How are you playing the game? Are you playing to win or are you playing to not lose? As hard as it may be to believe at first, a strategy of playing to not lose has produced pretty good results, at least up to this point. However, benefits producers whose continued goal is to avoid losing will find they are facing certain defeat.

Let's start out by discussing what it means to play not to lose, as opposed to playing to win. Don't get me wrong, playing not to lose doesn't mean that the players aren't good. However, it does mean that they play defensively and most likely don't go out with an exceptional performance.

Playing not to lose

Playing not to lose is actually the result of having successfully played to win at one point. Producers build up a nice book of business, generate a nice income, enjoy a great lifestyle, and achieve an enviable work/life balance. When they realize they have more than they ever really expected to have, a switch is flipped and a level of complacency sets in. Instead of continuing to do the hard things that resulted in all of their wins, they start focusing on protecting what they have. And, up to a certain point, that actually works pretty well.

Instead of continuing to be aggressive, they become defensive. Instead of looking to give reasons for new clients to say "yes" to them, they become much more concerned about not giving their current clients a reason to say "no" with the hopes that no one else comes along and gives that same client a reason to say "yes" to them.

The primary reasons that the same strategy has worked reasonably well for so long is two-fold.

First, at the risk of offending a few, I believe that the financial reward for mediocrity in this industry has been ridiculously high and has perpetuated a game that has too many players playing to not lose. Why play harder than you have to when a fairly simple game has generated such unbelievable financial rewards?

Second, the rules of the game have remained fairly static. Yes, the game has been threatened at times. Hillary brought the threat of nationalized health care, Spitzer threatened their contingency income, the Internet and direct writers even threatened to take them out of the game. However, those threats largely passed with glancing blows and no real damage.

So, there producers sat, going into the sales equivalent of the "prevent defense." They wrapped their arms around what they had accumulated and even fooled themselves into thinking they were playing to win as their revenue and income continued to grow, but only because premiums on what they already had continued to rise. Well, the circumstances that have allowed that to be a successful strategy have changed. The old saying, "What got you here will keep you here," is a saying whose time has come and gone. What got you here in the world of benefits will now take you back to where you once were. For many, a place they haven't visited in a long time.

Before it's too late, benefits producers would be wise to take a lesson from our friends on the P-C side of the fence. They have been in a soft market for years. If they successfully retain every account they have but don't go out and generate new business, they are slipping backwards 15%-20% every year. While the words "soft market" don't even exist in the benefits dictionary, the changes to compensation coming from health care reform are starting to drive the same results. It is for that reason that playing to not lose on the benefits side of the field is a game plan that assures the players' defeat.

So, let's look at some critical areas and the difference between playing to win and playing to not lose.

Delivering the right solution

For quite some time, competing for benefits business has largely been focused on a list of value-added services that benefits brokers' attempts to use in order to differentiate themselves. The reality is that the services brokers have acquired in an attempt to be seen as innovative have quickly become commodities themselves.

Brokers who are playing to not lose will focus on the needs of the clients that happen to fit the solutions they have available. Those playing to not lose will open conversations that could lead only to solutions they already have.

That may seem pretty reasonable, until you contrast that to a producer who is playing to win. When you play to win, the focus is on filling the most urgent needs of a prospect, even if it's a solution you don't currently possess. Those playing to win are willing to create a solution if that's what it takes to win the game. A perfect example is an agency that went into the game competing for the benefits of a very large company. One of the greatest needs of this particular company was some help with sales training. Determined to win, this agency took its internal sales process, turned it into a solution for the prospect who not only turned into a new benefits client, but who also engaged the agency for help with a sales training program. Not a bad win, huh?

Lesson: Don't manipulate the client's problem to fit your solution; adjust (or create) a solution to fit their need.

Question your results

It is true that producers playing to not lose understand the need to learn from their failure. When they lose out on an opportunity, they debrief with their team and review the "game film" to learn what went wrong. Sometimes, they even get brave enough to go and ask the former prospect why they didn't win.

Producers playing to win go one step further. They aren't just satisfied with learning why they lost or even satisfied with getting a win. No, the exceptional producers want to learn why they won. They will go through the same team debriefing, the same reviewing of game film and will always ask their new client why it was that they were chosen.

Lesson: Having complete clarity about what led to a win is the only way that you can ensure a repeat performance.

First impressions count more than ever

In case you haven't noticed, we work in a fairly conservative industry. We don't necessarily embrace change easily. Not many accuse our industry of being on the cutting edge. However, that doesn't mean that your clients aren't on the cutting edge and have similar expectations of those with whom they work, or at least favor those they happen to find who are on the cutting edge. Social media is a glaring example of what I mean.

We all know the need to make a strong first impression. Those who are determined to not lose will do their research, put on their best suit, look the prospect in the eyes, give a firm handshake and be confident that they haven't done anything to hurt themselves as they make this critical first impression.

Now, contrast that to the producers who are determined to win. These producers have created an online presence through their blog, LinkedIn, their Twitter content, and Google ranking. They have used that presence to communicate their expertise. Knowing that their new prospects will be doing their own research on them as well as their competition, they have used that presence to create an advantage and ensure their victory.

Lesson: The first impression is no longer made face to face. It is now made by what the prospect learns, or doesn't learn, about you online.

Never make a statement when you could be asking a question

Those producers who are determined to not lose make sure they are able to make a strong presentation. They make sure they tell their prospect and client absolutely everything about themselves. They want to ensure that they can never be accused of not having told the prospect absolutely everything about them and their agency.

Now contrast that to the producers determined to win. Sure, they communicate the critical information about themselves, but they spend much more time learning about their prospects. They ask probing questions and then, not yet satisfied, they follow up with more questions. Then when they start to get a sense that their prospect/client may have a need, they drill down into the detail with even more questions.

Lesson: Leaving your prospect/client exhausted from answering your questions about them is a much more aggressive strategy than leaving them bored to tears from listening to stories about you.

This is a time in the evolution of the benefits industry that the professional players will be separated from the weekend warriors. This is no longer a game for the casual player. The spoils of victory are about to become greater than they have ever been before. However, if you don't create an aggressive game plan, sharpen your skills and take the field with a fierce determination to win, you'll be much better off on the sidelines.

The game is about to get bloody.

Originally published in Rough Notes magazine June 2011.

Photo by David Goehring.

@kevintrokey

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Let’s be honest, when have you ever tried something on labeled “one size fits all”, stood back, and thought, “Perfect. Fits like it was made just for me”.  Probably never; in fact, it seems as though anything intended to be one-size-fits-all rarely fits anyone. 

Of course, most of the time when you’re shopping, you find a variety of sizes.  And, although you are able to find something that is acceptable, it seldom fits perfectly.

Tailor Made

If you want that perfect fit, you have to have something tailored to your measurements.  It takes some time, effort and additional expense but the attention to detail that a tailor pays when customizing something to you usually results in something very special.  When you put on a shirt, dress, or suit that has been made just for you, you immediately feel different - you know it fits well and you feel more confident.

Think about the solutions you take to your clients. If you are offering a one-size-fits-all solution, I promise that the chances it fits any of them perfectly is almost nonexistent.  Maybe you are offering “Small, Medium, & Large” options.  That’s a step in the right direction and may be acceptable, but it still isn’t just quite right.

A tailor isn’t selling a shirt as much as he is selling the fit.

I suggest that you take the same approach and become a tailor.  Measure up your prospect, determine what they need, and customize the solution to their exact needs.

You aren’t selling a solution as much as you are selling a result. You tailor the experience of the solution through the unique implementation process you have developed.  You tailor it through the strategic way you help communicate it to their employees.  You make it fit just right by periodically making adjustments that may become necessary. 

That’s what you should be selling.  That’s what will differentiate you from your competition.

Will you have to charge more for such attention to detail?  It’s entirely possible, but the additional value your clients receive will go a long way to making the price almost a non-issue.  Of course, you will have to be able to sell the benefits of such a customized approach, but the right buyer will definitely appreciate the value that comes with a perfectly tailored solution.

Put yourself in their shoes - what would you rather have?

• Someone who brings you a solution intended to be used by everyone.
• A solution intended to fit most anyone.
• Or a solution tailored specifically to your measurements.

I know which one would make me feel more valued and likely bring better results.

Photo by cuttlefish.

@kevintrokey

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“Nobody loves your baby like you do.”

- Bob Pritchett, Fire Someone Today

We talk a lot about the need to develop business acumen and ask questions about your client’s business practices. If you’re not a seasoned business owner yourself, you might not recognize or appreciate the incredible value and connection that comes from those conversations – they can be priceless – for you and for the client.

Owning a business can be an all-consuming endeavor where you spend most of your waking hours thinking about various details that need to be addressed on a daily basis.  Finding and actually taking the time to think about the big picture and strategy of the business can sometimes feel like a luxury.

When you, as a producer, are asking questions that make the owner talk about the vision or really study the financials, strategies, and processes of his own business, you’re not taking up limited and valuable time simply pitching your product. Taking time to be genuinely curious, ask in-depth questions, and have a conversation about the practices of the business, not only provides you with extremely valuable insight for developing solutions for your client, but you’re also giving him or her the opportunity to think and talk strategically about her own business. 

I’ve yet to meet a business owner who doesn’t love an opportunity to talk about her business – use that to your advantage! Talking to someone about his business is akin to talking to a parent about his kids – a little genuine interest and a heartfelt connection can go a long way in developing a relationship. 

In his book, Fire Someone Today, Bob Pritchett refers to a business owner as a proud parent and his business as his baby, seeing it through a “lens of hope, full of potential”.  Owners look at their businesses not for just what it is today, but also for what it’s going to be. As Bob notes, “Nobody can match an entrepreneur’s passion and enthusiasm for her business,” but if you can tap into that passion and allow them to share that vision and enthusiasm with you, then you’ve been given an opportunity to help them realize that vision.

Depending on the client and the size of the business, you may be allowing them to talk about and analyze their business at a deeper and more strategic level than they might have on a regular basis.  Or if they do regularly take the time to work on the business in this way, then perhaps you’re providing a fresh outside perspective with your questions or insights – which is necessary and worthwhile for any business.

Keep in mind, the more you understand about how a business makes and keeps money, the better questions you’re able to ask to really connect with the owner and provide her with strategic value.

What are some of your favorite questions to ask when you get time with the owner?

Photo by Oregon DOT.

@wendykeneipp

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Want to have happy clients who can’t live without you?  Deliver an outstanding client experience with professional level knowledge, advice, and project management.  When it’s well managed and executed, the experience itself creates a great feeling with infectious energy that clients want to replicate.

When a business chooses to hire a service provider or consultant to help with a business need, they are hiring that person/company to be experts and guide the process.  Clients rely on their professional service providers to share knowledge and advice and help make the best decisions for their business.

The person who is the lead client contact (project manager, account manager, producer) can make or break the relationship with their project management skills.  When you make excellent customer-focused project management a part of your culture, it shows in the delivery and clients will love it.

A good client manager will:

• Listen to the client needs
• Propose a solution that fills those needs
• Develop a schedule
• Communicate efficiently, promptly, and proactively throughout the process
• Deliver what’s been promised based on that schedule – on time*.  If you deliver early, you win extra points!

*What you deliver must be well thought through, reviewed, & proofed before delivery.  An on-time, yet rushed & sloppy job does not win points.

A well-managed experience can provide a level of energy throughout the process that builds momentum and an enthusiasm to continue working together.  This is truly when the client doesn’t go out looking for a replacement, but rather looks ahead to future opportunities to work together.

On the other hand…

If the client has to ask the leading questions to get to their desired/expected results, it’s not likely creating a good experience.  Remember, they’ve hired a professional and expect to be given professional advice and guidance.  If that’s not what they’re getting, why do they need to hire the “professional”?  A bad experience is pretty much a recipe for replacement. 

A few other sure-fire ways to create a bad experience:
•    Not delivering on time
•    Having bad attitude about the project or client
•    Not returning phone calls or email
•    Getting mad at the client for being ignorant*

I love working with smart, enthusiastic people.   A great experience not only makes me a happy client, but an eager promoter of the business.  Want to get referrals?  Start by offering an outstanding client experience!

@wendykeneipp

Photo by perhapstoopink.

When asking agencies or reading agency websites about what makes them unique, I see the same things over and over.  Which makes all of those things listed…not unique.

Common “unique” and compelling reasons agencies list as selling points for doing business with them:

We’re a local independent agency – According to a study by Future One, there are approximately 37,500 independent agencies in the US.  Take a minute to Google “independent insurance agency + your city name”, and you’ll see just how not-unique that is as a selling point in your local market.

We’ve been in business for X# of years – I recently wrote a couple of posts on this topic that you can read (No One Cares and Syncing Message with Client Needs).  Some of today’s most successful companies have only been in business for a handful of years.  The number of years in business is no longer a compelling message like it used to be.

As an agency, if you’re trying to project security & peace of mind to your clients regarding the risk they’re transferring, then the longevity & stability of the insurance carrier, not the agency, would be the important focus for the client.  And that should be communicated at plan selection, not in marketing materials. 

We have the best staff and great customer service – Yes, you and everyone else. There are many ways to say it and you just have to go to an agency site to find one of these quotes: “commitment to complete customer satisfaction”, “outstanding customer service”, “superior customer service”, “truly exceptional service”.

Great customer service is a minimum requirement for even being in a customer service business like insurance and benefits.  If you don’t deliver excellent customer service, then you shouldn’t be in business.

We support our local community! – Again, local businesses are expected to be good citizens and participate in their local communities.   Just go to any little league game, charitable run, or local business banquet, and you’ll see how many businesses are “uniquely” participating in their community.

We’re a Platinum Partner – I’m sure the carriers appreciate you promoting their businesses, however; is that promotion really helping to convey the message that you want to send to your clients about your own business?  Promoting your premier carrier partnerships reinforces in the prospect’s mind the “we’re a traditional agency” model.  It encourages them to select you with the hopes that you can negotiate a better price on their policies.

If you’re wanting to bring your clients a better business solution that is not focused on price, then I recommend you talk about business solutions and not carriers.

So, if all of these things are off the table, what are we supposed to promote??

Ask yourself, “What makes our agency a unique, compelling local business that makes people say “ABC Agency? Oh, yeah, those are my guys!  I love them.” Do you think they say it’s because you are independent and have been in business for a long time?  Doubtful.  They are going to answer based on what you do for them to help make their business better.

If you don’t know what your clients would say, then you should go ask them.

And if your clients don’t list anything truly unique to your agency and the way you do business, then you need to spend some time working ON your business.  Creating a unique business model and value proposition for your clients is today’s new minimum requirement for being a sustainable business.

@wendykeneipp

Photo by Dominic Alves.

Part two of two posts on insurance & employee benefits agency marketing messaging.

In the first part of this series on agency messaging, I talked about the changing consumer needs and how your business message needs to keep pace.  If you haven’t yet read it, you should stop here, read the first part, and then come back to finish this.  I’ll be here waiting for you. 

Read part one of agency marketing messaging:  Insurance Agencies - Your Clients & Prospects Don't Care How Long You’ve Been in Business.

Hopefully you've done the take-away assignment, and you’ve looked at your own materials.  Maybe you're thinking that all of this is just garbage that doesn’t apply to your business, or that insurance agencies don’t need to spend money and time on marketing?

Let’s explore a little further.  Try these two messages, and see for yourself.  Take on the role of that business owner with 100 employees who's seeing some engagement & turnover issues.  We'll call him Tom.  If you were Tom, a business owner looking for someone to be a business partner/solution provider/trusted advisor, who would you want to contact?

• With roots back to 1923, Ye Old Agency is an independent organization with licensed insurance agents.  We’re here to help you!  Call us for a quote today.

• Motivated employees drive a successful company and its profits.  Engage your team, and improve your results with a Fresh Perspective Benefits Program.   Connect with us on Facebook and see what others have to say about it!

In case you’re wondering, yes, these are real agency messages I pulled from web sites but have been modified to protect the guilty…er, I mean innocent.

Ye Old Agency is sitting comfortably in their office hoping that consumers look in the phone book to find a local agent – because that’s how people shop for insurance, right?

Nope.  That is an era past, and that type of model and marketing need to be part of the bygone era, as well.  The year your agency got started does not earn you new business.  If you're focusing on that, you're wasting valuable time and real estate that could otherwise be used helping Tom understand why he needs to be working with you.

If you have that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach because this might sound a bit like your agency, you’re probably thinking that you should be running out and hiring a marketing firm about now.

Not yet.  You’ve got some work to do first.

Step One:

You need a clear vision of what your business really is all about.
Because it’s not about you anymore.  It’s about your clients and what they need.

Start with a business consultant who can help you get a fresh perspective on your business.  You need to look at what you currently offer clients and compare it to what businesses are actively seeking today.  Set a vision for where you want to go, and draw up plans for how to develop your business model and company culture to get you there.  Yes, it’s quite likely that you’ll have to change your business model to some degree.

Step Two:

Spend money to hire a marketing firm.  This is not a do-it-yourself project.
Now it’s time to bring in the marketing and branding folks.  You need to give the marketing team a solid understanding of who you are as an organization and what you do for clients.  A good marketing message should be focused around capturing the audience’s attention by solving a need.  Ask yourself, “What business needs does our company solve for clients?”  You should be able to clearly articulate that answer to your marketing firm.  And being able to clearly communicate it begins with a rock solid understanding of your business.

A good marketing & web development firm should take you through a comprehensive process to understand what you're trying to communicate.  They should have the guidance & suggestions to help you craft your messages and web presence to support your new client-centered business model.

Having your company history on your website is fine - great even when done well.  When people go seeking information about your company, they're often interested in how you got started and what path you've taken.  However, you should keep it brief and engaging.  Paragraphs of details about the time lines of ownership and location changes, logo explanations, and personal histories are best kept in a company journal.  It's interesting information for your team, but not likely for your potential clients. 

Agencies are often family businesses or businesses that feel like family.  And what’s more important than family??  Right? That’s true within the family.  But for those wanting to do business with you, it’s just not about your family.  Instead it’s about them and their family.

Bottom line:  Your message should be a modern story, front and center on your site, or other marketing material, that talks about your business model and what it does for the client.

@wendykeneipp

Photo by Ryan Hoard.

This is part one of two posts on insurance & employee benefits agency messaging.

This might be hard to accept, but I’m going to put it out there:  People are not choosing to do business with your agency because you’ve been in the local community for like a hundred years.  People don’t care.  I promise.

Using the local story and the “we’ve been around a long time” story as part of your marketing message was important at one time.  It was important to distinguish yourself from the large national brokers, plus, having a strong connection with the local community is an important part of being a local business.  And that part still holds true.

But things have changed.  That’s no longer the whole story.  Consumers are looking for a different type of relationship with their service providers.  It’s not about “How long have you been around?” It’s about “How can you help me solve my needs? And how quickly?”  To say that your agency has been in business since 1923 is not helping build your case that you’re a viable business solution to solve the problems of today’s consumer.  In fact, I would argue that it is going against you as a marketing message. 

Today’s consumer – the ones you need to be actively targeting to build a strong base to offset the aging boomer population who is likely your current client base – can’t even relate to 1923.  That was 88 years ago. Or in web years, it’s like 264 years! And it’s irrelevant to today’s consumer.

Who wants to entrust their modern business needs to a business they associate with their grandparents, or great grandparents?  They might want to have a chat and reminisce about old times, but talk about insuring their web strategy & design business against cyber liability?  Or engaging employees with wellness programs managed online?  Or communicating with staff via blog posts and Twitter updates?  It just doesn’t mix well.

The message you need to be communicating to your potential clients should be about them and how you’re going to help them.  When they go to your web site to begin their research about your company (because that’s the first place today’s consumer goes), sure they want to know about you…how you are going to help them.  They want enough information to understand that you’ve got a legitimate business, you know your stuff, and you’ll be able to help them fix what’s not working in their world.

Yeah, but my agency isn’t really doing that, so I don’t need to worry about it.

Well, let’s take a look and see.  I’d like to give you a take-away assignment in between part one and part two of this agency-messaging topic.

Assignment:  Gather up all of your marketing materials, and take the time to read through them.  All of them.  Read them with the eye of a business owner who is struggling with his or her staff of 100 employees and is actively looking for a business partner to help with benefits, plus address employee engagement/attraction/retention issues they are experiencing.

Read your brochures, articles published about you, ads you’ve placed, business cards, plan and policy materials you give to clients, and read your website - page by page.  Look at your taglines.  What does it all say?  What is it talking about?  Is it answering the questions of that business owner struggling with employee management issues?

Or is it about you, your business history, your family history in the business, the carriers you represent, or explaining the meaning behind your logo that hearkens back to the 1800s?  If it’s not directly answering the questions of that business owner, and it is talking about you & your history, then it’s time to redo…everything. 

In part 2 of this series, I’ll outline the next steps you should be taking to make your insurance or employee benefits agency a more attractive and modern business option for your prospects and clients.  Read it here:  Two Steps to Getting Your Agency Messaging in Sync with Your Clients' Needs.

@wendykeneipp

Photo by derrypubliclibrary.