If you're an active participant in Insurance Soup's Facebook group, you know that Mike, Taylor, Brian, Matt and CJ are always giving you the best of what they have to offer. Whether it's real=time business tips, morale boosting cheerleading or high quality comedy to break up your day, these guys are always voices you can go to for a daily bump.
Recently Mike posted something in the group that I (Katey - the content creator) feel needs to be put on blast because it comes from the heart. HIS heart obviously, which I see him lifting up and holding over the ledge every day in a real-life and ongoing manner. Like Musafa holding Simba over the ledge, offering him to the world. This is his one key offering, in my opinion. Please read and take it to your own heart. It's the core of what he, and everyone in this group, is offering to you. Stop looking for a hero. I can not tell you how many Agents I have come across over the last 5 years that are on the hunt for their career hero. The guru that will change everything for them. The mastermind that will take them from ordinary to extraordinary. The vendor that will just make insurance easy and make them look like a stud. Guys... stop looking for a hero. The hero..... is you. We have been very fortunate to have a number of products and services that do very well with you guys. By and large MOST of you excel very heavily with them. Some of you do not. And generally speaking when we look into the accounts or courses or files we have on the Agent with whatever service of ours they're using... they got through 7% of the course. They ran out one text blast. Never ran a single campaign or automation. They never logged into their scripts after day 2. They never launched a post with a chatbot attached to it or if they did they did it somewhere no one sees it. And when we SPEAK to those Agents, it's "I tried to do one thing once from the course and it didn't work so I moved on. The course doesn't work." (Is the course not working... or you?) It's "I only got 13 quote requests from a text blast and I see other people in the group getting over 30." It's "I used the scripts for a day and a half and didn't close anything. I was told it was going to raise my closing ratio." It's all of these and other assorted excuses. Vendors in this industry are looking to work with you. That is obvious. But what is NOT obvious to many Agents is that you are entering into a paid partnership of sorts with that vendor, coach, or guru. They are not promising you that they will be your hero. YOU ARE THE HERO IN YOUR STORY. THEY WILL NOT... CAN NOT... and SHOULD NOT be looking to SAVE YOU. Their business is not "saving agents". Most vendors' business model is "Helping Agents excel at." HELPING you EXCEL... Not MAKING YOU A MAGICIAN... Not GUARANTEEING YOU TRAVEL AND BIG BONUS... Helping you excel at whatever their product, service, or expertise may be. When you are looking for help or solutions or ideas for your Agency do not fall head over heels with anyone, anything, or any idea like it is going to be your career savior. Your career savior yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day until you retire... is YOU.
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In Career Insurance Agent's latest AGENT CONNECT, we talked to Victor Jimenez from Hometown Insurance Jimenez Agency about leaving the captive world and starting his independent career with CIA. See what he has to say! This post originally ran on Medium.com.
If you are an insurance agent running a brokerage, time is likely a scarce commodity for you. With so many aspects of running your business to take care of, it’s hard to find the time to focus on anything else. When you think about something like using Twitter to promote your business and increase your leads, you may wonder whether it is worth it or whether it is just a waste of time. However, it is important to know that Twitter is not a waste of time for insurance brokers. On the contrary, it can give you a soapbox that you can use to spread your message to a mass audience that you might not have even dreamed of in the past. The important thing to remember, however, is that Twitter must be used correctly to be effective (as is the case with all social media platforms). Twitter is very fast paced, so it is important to respond within the right time frame in order to get on top of topics and keywords that are trending. Although you need to respond quickly, your tweets should always be useful, intelligent and align with your brand values. Here are some important things that you should remember when you are representing your insurance broker business on Twitter. 1. Don’t Just Tweet About Yourself One of the big mistakes that many insurance brokers make when using Twitter is that they only tweet links to their own content. Sure, you can use Twitter to promote yourself. However, using your account for only self-promotion will be spammy and selfish. You should also be sharing the tweets, blog posts and content of other people as well. It is also important to interact with your followers in a profound way. Twitter isn’t just about a platform for you to talk about your business, it is meant to be a way to connect with people. Try to get involved in the conversation and interact with people in a profound way. This can be a wonderful way to build a loyal following, rather than simply increasing your follower numbers. 2. Answer Customer Questions Insurance is one of those businesses where there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about your product and customers might have questions before buying. You can encourage them to ask their questions on Twitter. This way, you can answer them quickly and easily. Not only will this help educate your customers about the insurance products that you offer, but it will also show your followers that you are helpful and responsive to your customers. 3. Share relevant industry updates Communicating a current issue that business owners should be made aware of. It also provides a great platform to open up discussion and potentially answer any questions people may have. 4. Figure out How People Perceive You on Twitter The “lists” function is an interesting aspect of Twitter. You can add people to a list in order to organise your Twitter feed and group together users who tweet about a particular topic. You can also follow someone else’s list, which will get you on their radar and also give you a feed specific to a particular theme. You can also find out what public lists you have been added to by clicking on “Member Of” on your lists page. The interesting thing about knowing what lists you are on is that it will give you an idea of how you are perceived on Twitter. For example, perhaps you tweet a lot of interesting and relevant news stories and people have started adding you to “News” or “Current Events” lists. 5. Use Hashtags in Your Bio Hashtags are a crucial part of Twitter. They allow users to sift through the enormous number of users and tweets and find something relevant to them. You should use hashtags in your tweets whenever you can, but you should also use them in your twitter bio. When you have a hashtag in your bio, this means that when someone searches for that hashtag, your Twitter account can be found more easily. You might find that it results in more interested followers. 6. Use a Twitter Tool There are numerous tools out there that make using Twitter easier and more efficient. For example, TweetDeck allows you to see all of your messages and tweets at once in a very well laid out dashboard with several columns. You can also set up custom columns so that you can monitor a hashtag, a keyword or a list. This allows you to manage your feed a little more easily and see more tweets at once. Another great tool is Buffer. It will analyze your Twitter statistics and find the most effective times for you to post tweets so that they have the best chance of being seen by a higher number of followers. Then, you can put together a “queue” of tweets that will be scheduled to be released at those specific times. So, you can tweet around the clock at scheduled intervals, even when you are sleeping. This is great because your tweets will have the potential to be seen by more people, compared to if you did a burst of tweeting at one time every day. There are many Twitter tools out there, so take a look at the options to see which ones are best for your needs. I'm getting vulnerable with all of you because I feel like when I do I help some of you. I have a secret that I have not shared with many people. Unless you've known me for about 18 years or more you'd never know it. But I almost lost it all. Almost blew it. At one point I had written myself off. You see I had one of the brightest starts to a life you could ask for. Decent looking kid. Athletic - tough to imagine now, I know! Straight A student. Won every academic and a lot of the athletic awards that were out there. But I had two problems. One - I hated the spotlight Two - I hated school and worse yet reading. I HATED READING. I hated being forced to read about topics I wasn't interested in and when I was young and in school that was pretty much everything. Not English. Not science. Not history. But I was gifted with being able to remember, retain, and regurgitate any info that I sat through. Made school very easy. Honor society. Proud parents. Kudos. Awards. Great. But when I went to college guess what? No one was watching what I did anymore. So I stopped attending classes. Sure people thought I was in class. But generally speaking I was finding the kids that were in between classes and either just hanging out or smoking weed. The other kids were doing just fine and no one assumed anything less of me. They assumed if I was around I was in between classes... not playing hookie. But I was. I wasn't interested in ANYTHING. Chose political science as my major THE DAY we had to declare because it seemed like something I could bullshit my way through. But there was a fatal flaw in my stupid plan. I was someone who got straight A's just from listening to a lesson... And now I wasn't attending class. And I hated reading. I went from being straight A's from Kindergarten through high school graduation to a dude hanging on for dear life and scheming ways to pull C's out of professors with last minute Hail Mary excuses, extra credit projects, and some of the nuttiest stories I have never shared. I actually had a doctor I met over AOL from Michigan (I'm from NY and never met the guy in real life) that would mail me a letter once a semester for me to give my professors stating I had mono. I wound up dropping a class or two a semester and failing another and did not graduate nearly on time. Took a break. Wasn't even sure if I would finish school. And in the Leave it to Beaver McCormick house I grew up in that made me the black sheep. Anyway... Reason I share all of this is because I did anything to avoid school and reading because nothing was of interest to me and I was too immature at the time to try and figure shit out. I did not know it at the time but I believe at this stage in life that it's the exact reason I ultimately became an entrepreneur. I hate being told what to do. How to do it. What to like. What's important. I have always preferred and actually have always needed (even though I denied myself it til I was about 32) the ability to pursue my own interests and serve my own purposes. You know what happened? I started READING and LEARNING. For me this time! Not for a diploma. Not for a GPA. Not for proud parents. For me. And guess what? I have found an absolute love for the two things I hated most despite my natural talents - learning and reading. I read more and take more courses about marketing, advertising, entrepreneurship, and business success in a year then most do in a lifetime. Constant student. Constant education. Constantly reading. Go figure! My point? Find your passions. Find your love. Find what drives you. You will find yourself in relentless pursuit. You will find yourself making better friends. You will find yourself making more money. You will find yourself generally more happy. Do not settle for a life of mediocrity. You were not out here to fit in. You were put here to stand out. Follow your passion and stand out. It's rare to meet a business owner who is satiated with the level of success their agency has reached and insurance agency owners are no different. There are always more clients and better ways to serve them so your job as an agent, or especially as an agency owner, is to always be finding new ways to grow your business and it just turns out that you're in luck! These days it's easier than ever to get access to prospects and to find ways to make your clients happy so they keep coming back. Check out some of our ideas below!
ALL ABOUT THAT CUSTOMER BASE For a small agency, the customer base is everything. You have to continually be treating each client as your most important for more than one reason. When a clients needs are met the right way, they're likely to stay with you. They're also more likely to refer you to friends or family, which not only keeps your client base steady, but helps you grow at the same time. Being present, answering questions in a timely manner and making calls to check in on clients, whether it's you personally or an agency staff member, will mean a lot to a customer when it comes time to renew. Personalized service is always a huge factor in growing your customers, but these days you CAN NOT ignore social media as a way of connecting with new people. It's crucial that your agency has, at the very least, a website (mentioned above), a Facebook page, an Instagram account and a Twitter account. If you aren't going to use your social media accounts for creating and sharing content, at least be sure to have all of your agency contact info up to date so potential new clients can reach you. STEP UP YOUR MARKETING GAME There are a lot of options in terms of prices and products when it comes to buying insurance. Finding the right way to put your agency front and center in a sea of other agencies is tricky, but doable. Step one is to make sure your agency appears accessible and professional and the best way to do that is with a sharp, up-to-date website. When a client finds you on Google or responds to an ad, they want to see that your agency is operating at a level that they'd want to do business with. A slow or absent web presence is an immediate turn off. Step two is to make sure you're making the right marketing and lead gen moves. Whether a client is reaching out to you because they've been targeted via a Facebook ad campaign or it's someone you met at your nephew's baseball game, you want to make sure all of your interactions are authentic and fruitful. Career Agent Concepts is a great tool for agents looking to up their marketing and lead generation game. Check it out! ALWAYS BE BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS Any and all businesses thrive on networking and insurance is no different. If you and the other agents in your agency aren't heading to networking events, conferences, or interacting in circles where other people who sell and people who need insurance are gathering, you're missing out. BIG TIME. Once you put yourself in a position to work with other local businesses like mortgage lenders, and financial advisors, you're instantly expanding opportunity in your agency. It may seem old school, but there's a reason it worked back in the day and a reason it still works today. Combining common interests and having the chance to draw in other business's customer base goes a long, long way. NEVER STOP LEARNING Of course you're educated. You have to be licensed to sell insurance to begin with. But seeking out continuing education related to your field, things that you can apply to everyday agency practices, will only assist you in growing your business. College degrees in business and/or marketing will give an agent an excellent background in operating a small business but once you've launched your own agency, you're going to want some more specific education related to the insurance industry. HAVE BETTER PRODUCTS The truth is, your prospects are NOT afraid to shop around. Your customer service may be on point, but if you can't deliver what your client is looking for, and at a price that works for them, they're gone. It's important to be sure that you have a variety of products to offer your clientele and at a range of prices. Be open to selling more than just one type of insurance so that you can service clients across the board. And always be sure that you have the right kind of policies specific to where you live and what the people in your area are likely to be in need of. Having a variety of products to offer prospects and existing clients is a sure fire way to keep your agency in a state of success. The Fourth of July is a beloved and exciting time to celebrate our nation and it's history. This Sunday, many of us will head out to gather with friends and family to celebrate – cooking up a storm, hosting parties, and, obviously, setting off fireworks.
While we've all earned some letting loose after the year we've had, it's important to take note of the fact that this weekend can also be dangerous for a number of reasons. If you're hosting or attending a patriotic soiree this weekend, please us cation and keep these things in mind. Lingering COVID Risks Lots of us are vaccinated and many COVID related restrictions have been lifted, but remember that there is still good old common sense to apply to every situation. So, if possible, keep your party to a dull roar in terms of size and keep it outside if weather allows.. Celebrating at a small backyard gathering would be a safer setting than going to an indoor party, restaurant or bar. Cooking Fires If we're being honest, the meat is always the best part of the holiday. This. means a record number of grills are firing up around the country in celebration. Cooking fires caused by grills and smokers are clearly hazardous, but so are charcoal ashes or other open fires that quickly get out of control. These claims often hit an individual’s homeowners policy, but can also cause injuries, requiring health insurance. Sun Damage Get ready to SPF. The country has been experiencing an unprecedented heart wave and while parts of the country are expecting rain this weekend, we have to stay mindful of the heat and overexposure to the sun's rays. During a weekend with so much going on, it’s easy to ignore the little things like applying, and re-applying sunscreen. The problem is that this leads to sunburn, heat-related illness, and other fun-ruining issues. Make sure you stay on top of your sunscreen application and drink plenty of water! Car Accidents Drinking and driving is a major everyday concern, but Independence Day marks the prime time for car crashes. Our first summer post-COVID is sure to entice more families get out and celebrate and to travel longer distances, putting more cars on the roads and in danger of accidents. It’s a morbid statistic, but more people will die in a car crash on July 4th than any other day of the year. Please remember to celebrate responsibly. Fireworks This should come as no surprise to anyone with an uncle. You've all watched your uncles shoot bottle rockets at each other, so, not shockingly, the third most common insurance claim for the 4th is from firework mishaps. Even professionals can make a mistake which can cause accidents, and especially when the firework show is a family-run, low-budget display without necessary precautions. Please be careful. Boating Lastly, boating accidents are a typical claim on Independence Day. Every year there are around 8,000 boating accidents on July 4th. Common boating accidents occur from intoxicated drivers and firework mishaps off of boats or docks. Be prepared for this weekend and ensure your boat insurance policy is up to date. Pet Protection The Fourth of July can also be dangerous for your pets. Many animals are frightened of loud noises, and fireworks could traumatize them. Instead of leaving dogs outside, bring them in when fireworks start. Make sure your pets stay away from grills and sparklers, so they don’t get burned. Even exposure to unlit fireworks could be dangerous because many contain potentially toxic chemicals. Be cautious this year on Independence Day and stay safe. Be on the lookout for intoxicated drivers, make sure you have a permit for professionals and it is legal to light fireworks in your area, and be careful when grilling and using open flames. Lets talk audience ownership and how important it is.
There are 4 insurance agents in your town. All of them are doing SOME kind of marketing. Direct mail, social media, billboards, telemarketing, leads.... SOMETHING Direct mail is expensive billboards are expensive and do not work unless you're in the bayou or the sticks from what I am told. Leads are expensive and not high intent. That leaves social media. Now while you can do lead gen on social media and do it inexpensively, the reality is it still costs more than some of the more old school ways that many old timers built their books on back in the day. Business walks, door knocking, referrals, events - all that kind of stuff STILL works to a degree and there are agents out there that are killing it. But each and every one of those avenues are one conversation at a time. They're GREAT though because they're real. Real people having real conversations and developing real relationships, rapport, and chemistry. So how can we SCALE that old school relationship driven feel that works so well and is so inexpensive? Enter social media group ownership. Social Media group ownership allows you to be in front of the people who may do business with you day in and day out. It allows your prospects to get to know you slowly, over time, in a real, non-pressured, authentic way. And when they're ready to talk (and they do all eventually become ready to talk), they're talking to you. Coming to you in fact. I have 5-10 agents in my DMs by noon EVERY SINGLE DAY asking me "Can you tell me more about (insert product)?" And it's not because I emailed them. It's not because they clicked on an ad. It's not because they got my mail. It's not because I bought them as a lead. It's because they're looking to improve and know we can help. It also doesn't hurt that we have a LOT of people in here that recommend us and have had tremendous success with us. Now when YOU own a community online and you have people in there that know, like, and trust you and return each day to be "infotained", it just becomes a matter of time until they're going to want to talk to you. ESPECIALLY as the group grows and there are more of your clients in there, who, anytime insurance comes up, are loving all over you. It's how this game works. Almost every other marketer in our space fails to recognize it, understand it, or even consistently try it, yet it's the most cost-effective, fun, and honestly, the easiest way to grow a brand and community of people who have strong feelings about your business. It's a long play but one that is worth every second invested if you're here for the long haul. We have agents that are doing $30-50k in premium a month for free right out of community groups they built on the back of our blueprint. You can too. For less than the cost of one household's commission. You should check out how the sausage is made and start making your own. Grab our blueprint on how to run a successful group on social media for your Agency here and learn, not only how to write a ton of insurance from your own little kingdom, but how to monetize the audience in a dozen other ways to help aid in your marketing budget, payroll, or just be some extra cashola to bring home to the family. It's worth the sauce. |
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