236. The Insurance Agent Sales Playbook [2023 Maximize Conference keynote]

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 236. This week we're going to go off on a little detour. I am sharing a recent keynote talk I gave in San Antonio at the Maximize conference hosted by Axum Friends, Fringe Solution Group. And the title of the talk was the Insurance agent Sales playbook. The two steps to go from unknown to unstoppable. So if you're in sales, especially if you're one of my insurance advisors, this is going to be a good one to listen. It's about 20 to 25 minutes long and it's going to share some golden nuggets on how you can stand out in your market. So I hope you enjoy and have a good weekend.

Everybody's charged up, ready for the rest of the show? I am as well. So we'll get on with it. We're going to introduce Andy Neary. Andy is a former major league baseball player. He is a coach now to benefits brokers. And a lot of folks might say this is a govcon event. Why are you bringing a benefits guy up here? Well, Andy's not just a benefits guy. He's not just a former baseball player. He's not just a coach to benefits brokers. He's been there, done that, and he continues to deliver and he expands his reach. So govcon's pretty new for him as well. But what was important about asking Andy to be a part of this is he's going to speak to the people that a lot of government contractors rely upon. Oftentimes, government contractors will go to their benefits broker and have them drive an rfp. That benefits broker might not know a thing about govcon. And what's happening in our industry is it's creating this disparity and benefits brokers are actually hurting more than helping. That's the complete opposite of what they intend to do every single day. So to bring Andy up on stage, we're going to talk a little bit about Andy's approach, how he helps coach, how he helps mentor and hopefully reach out to a lot of benefits brokers so they can help make the govcon industry better with their decision making tools as it pertains to benefits. So with that, please welcome Andy Neary.

Morning.

Now, Jim introduced me as a former pro athlete, but now you make me go on stage after Jim Craig. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate that. All right, can you guys do me a favor? I want you guys to close your eyes for a second.

And I know I'm speaking to a room of advisors and employers. But I want you to close your eyes.

And I want you to go back to your childhood.

What were your childhood dreams? What did you want to be when you grew up?

For some of you might be a teacher, firefighter, police officer, maybe an astronaut.

For my advisors in the room, I want you to ask yourself an important question with those eyes closed. How many of you dreamed of becoming a health insurance advisor?

Even for the employers in the room, how many of you dreamed to become.

The professional you are today? Now you can open your eyes.

I'm a former advisor. I was an advisor of 21 years. But I can tell you one thing. I did not dream to become a health insurance advisor.

Most of us in the industry did not get in the industry by design.

But I want to remind you guys, whether you're an employer or you're an advisor, why your job matters, especially when it comes to benefits.

Your decisions.

Can literally help somebody avoid bankruptcy.

Your decisions can be the difference between somebody getting the care they need or waiting until it's too late. Your decisions can keep businesses open, keep your doors open. And for my advisors in the room, I want you to remember, your decisions are the reasons why United Healthcare stock price has gone up over a thousand percent in the last 10 years. That was supposed to be funny, guys.

What I'm going to ask you to do today, though, is I'm going to ask you to do me a favor.

I want you to grab attention. I need you guys to grab more attention.

You see, with the role you have in your career right now, you have a very important job, but it requires you to grab more attention.

And today, two things I want to give you is I want to give you confidence, and I want to give you the consistency you need to grab more attention so you can attract the right employees, you can attract the right clients. Because can we agree, a lot has changed since March of 2020. The way we do business has changed forever. And so what I want to do with the next 25 minutes here is I want to help you grab more attention.

Now.

Does that grab your attention a little bit?

As a kid, I hated attention.

By looking at that photo, can you see why?

I grew up in southeastern Wisconsin. I was a kid with a dream to play for my hometown team, the Milwaukee Brewers. But just look at this picture. Does that physique up on the screen scream athlete?

I was a chunky kid. Attention to me as a child meant negativity.

Kids picked on me. Girls were definitely not attracted to me. And before mental health was a mainstream Issue. Levi's actually made a pair of jeans for me. They called it husky. Where are my husky wearing boys? Come on now.

As a child, all I wanted to do was fit in.

But when you're a chunky kid, when you're a chubby kid, you want to be anybody but yourself. If you could look at this picture right now, those glasses, they could start ants on fire. I was the only kid in basketball to make the EA team wearing B cups.

And every time I got attention, it meant that somebody was making fun of me.

Now in grade school, I had one big enemy. It was not the bully on the playground.

It was the Presidential Fitness Test. Who remembers the Presidential Fitness Test?

I remember walking in the gym every year. I'd see the pull up bar, I'd see the ropes hanging from the ceiling and I would just start sweating.

I really believe the Presidential Fitness Test, this thing right here, was conducted for two reasons. Yes.

They did want to measure the fitness of children every single year. But number two, I believe they held this fitness award, this fitness test, just to tell the fat kids how out of shape they were.

I couldn't do any pull ups. I could barely do any push ups. My sit and reach could be measured in centimeters, not inches. I could barely jump rope and climbing that rope. Oh, hell no.

So the Presidential Fitness Test for me meant nothing but embarrassment. Kids mocked kids, made fun of me. And every year I was reminded that I wanted to be anybody but me.

You see, as a kid, I didn't want to grab attention. I wanted to stay as far from it as I possibly could.

I didn't feel comfortable in my skin and trust me, there was plenty of it.

Because I was so afraid. My childhood was summed up by living in a world of fear. A fear of comparison, a fear of judgment, and a fear of failure.

I was full of potential, but I was far from reaching it. And that's what I want to talk to you guys about today, is potential.

How many in the room? You don't have to raise your hands, but I want you to think about this. How many in the room.

Are looking at where you are right now, today? And you know, you could be a little bit better. How many of you, when you think about your company, you look at where your company is right now and he's like, we're doing good, but we could be a little bit better.

There's two secret ingredients missing from getting from where you are today to where you want to be. Consistency and confidence.

And when it comes to potential, you need to have both.

But when I look at the industry right now, when I look at how we are trying to reach our full potential, I see a few gaps. Number one, we're not consistent when it comes to business today. Whether you're an advisor, you're an employer, we're not patient. We're striving for quick wins. We just want the secret script, the secret formula to success.

Number two, we're not confident. We know the way we do business has changed. We know the way we need to acquire new employees or new clients has changed, but we don't want to change. Why? Why?

Because we fear judgment, we fear comparison, and we fear failure.

Now, when I look at the insurance industry and I think about where we have big problems today, I'm seeing a bunch of agencies, a bunch of advisors, and the same thing holds true for employers in general today that are not reaching their full potential. They are underperforming. They know they could be better, but they're missing that one thing right now. That's getting them to the top. That's keeping them from reaching their full potential. And when I look at why is that happening? I see three glaring areas in need. Number one, the way we train people today is outdated. I know in the insurance industry, we're teaching new dogs, old tricks.

I was speaking at a conference back in October in Salt Lake City, and just like this, a room full of insurance professionals. And I was on stage, and I looked to my left and over, sitting at the far, far left table, was an insurance professional in his 70s. And I looked at him, I said, sir, how long have you been in the industry? And he proudly said, 45 years. I said, when you got in the industry, how are you trained? He said, I was given a phone book, told to go pound the pavement.

And I looked to the center of the room. There was a younger woman, probably in her early 30s, sitting right in front of me. I said, ma', am, how long have you been in the industry? She said, three years. I said, how were you trained when you got in the industry three years ago? She gave me the same answer.

So the way we're training people is completely outdated today. The second problem, when it comes to attracting clients, attracting good talent, we're trying to speak to everybody. If we speak to everybody, we end up speaking to no one. If we're not clear about who we're going after, who we're trying to talk to, we're getting drowned out in a sea of noise.

And then the third problem right now is when it comes to acquiring new clients.

We are leaning far too heavy into direct marketing for my insurance advisors in the room. This is very true in our industry right now. Think about the traditional way of acquiring new clients. We go buy a big list of leads and then we just punch them left and right with emails and phone calls. And we're constantly telling them why we are so great over and over and over again.

And this comes back to where we're missing the gap right now in reaching our full potential as a company. As an individual, we're missing the consistency, the confidence to change the way we're doing things because we're still holding on to the way it was.

And March 2020 changed everything. Gang, can we agree the way we do business is never going to be the same.

The way we build relationships, never going to be the same. And so if we can adapt to how we acquire talent, how we acquire new clients, we're going to be on the leading edge and we're going to have a competitive advantage. And that's my goal for you today, is I want to give you share with you an exercise I did that changed my career. Because everything I'm sharing with you, by the way, also impacted the first 10 years of my insurance career. First 10 years of my insurance career were embarrassing. Why? Because I didn't want to change. I didn't want to stand out. I just wanted to fit in. I still feared the fear, the judgment, the comparison.

And instead of reaching my full potential, all I ever did was reach the end of my salary guarantee. Where are my insurance advisors who have reached the end of their salary guarantee? The worst thing you ever want to deal with.

But then there was one thing that changed my career.

There was a tool I uncovered or tool I stumbled upon that changed everything for me. In a few minutes, I'm going to actually share the story of when we moved to Colorado. That changed everything for me when it came to building a business, being successful, but most importantly, reaching my full potential. And that's when I stumbled on the complete Game marketing playbook. Now that's what we call it today with my business, Complete Game Consulting. But I'm about to share with you one little tool that I used to change everything. When it came to acquiring business, acquiring employees, attracting the right people into your.

World.

My entire career changed. It took me from failure to financial success. It took me from backstage to mainstage. It most importantly, made me feel like a success.

Now, right now, I have only one. I have enough time to share this one tool with you. But if anybody's interested, the key to today's talk is I want you to answer these three questions clearly.

Who are you talking to.

What are you saying to them and where are you saying it? Now? For any anybody in the room, especially the advisors, we have actually a 12 module program we call the Complete Game Marketing Playbook. Today. I only have time to go through one here quickly with you if you want to learn more. I have actually developed a pre recorded version of all 12 modules. If you want to grab it, feel free to hit the QR code there. Put your phone up, grab the QR code, download it. It's about 17 minutes. Just a heads up, you will be subscribed to our email newsletters, but I promise you there are no sales pitches. It's all good content. But if you want to grab it, feel free and put your phone up there and grab it up on the screen.

So attention reaching your full potential.

Let me quickly share with you a story that changed my career. 2014. Up until this point, I had spent my whole career in the state of Wisconsin where I grew up. Amy and I decided to make a move to Colorado. And I quickly realized I had a problem when I came out to Colorado. You see, I went to work for an insurance agency that did not leverage any kind of marketing. And I'm now in a market where nobody knows who I am. I am a complete unknown.

And I had that panic moment of what am I going to do? Because I have two choices. I can do it the way I was taught, which was get your phone book out and go pound the pavement. Or I could try something different. I could build a different plan to get the attention I need to feel like a success so I can reach my full potential. Build the book of business I want to build. This is when I stumbled upon the Complete Game Marketing Playbook. Because what I realized is if you can build reputation in your market, whether you're a company or you're an advisor, you are going to establish relevancy.

I also learned when you try to speak to everyone, you actually end up speaking to no one. You see, when I got out to Colorado, I thought I had a distinct advantage. I thought I had a knowledge advantage and I used my knowledge to try to grab the attention. But here's the problem. I wanted to share my knowledge with everybody and anybody. I didn't care who I was talking to. I just wanted to puke it all over my prospects. But I ended up talking to a bunch of people who were not qualified. I ended up attracting the wrong prospects into my life. So I'd walk out every meeting feeling good, but meeting one never turned into meeting two.

And I also learned that clear communication creates a clear connection. So what I'm going to share with you here is I want you to think about a couple questions. They're going to help you attract the right employees, the right clients into your life. I want you to think about first question here. What makes you unique?

You personally.

What makes you different than your competition? If you own a business in the room, think about your business. What makes your business unique? What makes your company unique?

What do you do as well as anyone in the world?

You personally, what do you believe you do as well as anyone in the world? Maybe it's your consistency, maybe it's your ability to teach, your ability to communicate. Whatever it is, the reason these two questions are so important is when it comes to getting the attention you deserve to build the business you want, you have to find a way to stand out. How you stand out is that uniqueness.

But you also got to establish credibility. How you establish credibility is what you do as well as anyone in the world.

You see, when I uncovered this as an advisor in Colorado, I realized what made me different is I'm a former pro baseball player who happens to sell health insurance. There's no other advisors in the market who do that. That's going to make me unique. What do I feel I do as well as anyone in the world? At that time it was sell self funding. I'm going to become the self funding expert in a market. I'm going to build a brand as the former pro baseball player who now sells health insurance. So now I'm going to be able to establish likability with a unique brand. I'm now going to be able to establish credibility with with my knowledge.

And then I had to answer the second most important question, which is who is my favorite client today? Now we use a framework we call the five star prospect profile.

If you want to attract the right employees, you want to attract the right clients into your life, please take time to do this exercise. After this talk is over, the first question you want to ask is who is your favorite client today? I want you to think about that. If you're attracting employees, who's your favorite employee you have today? I bet you can pick one. There's somebody who comes up to mind, comes to mind when you ask who your favorite client is today.

Now you got to ask the most second question. Why are they your favorite client?

Now here's the key.

There's demographics.

And there's psychographics when you think about why somebody is a good fit for you, we filter those clients, those employees, by demographics and psychographics. Now, we've all been taught to identify a prospect demographically, right? Size, location, number of employees.

But how many of you have been taught how to identify the best client, the best employee for your organization? Psychographically, what do they believe? What do they stand for?

Who are these people you want to attract in your life?

Because demographics are the measurements of an athlete. They're the height, they're the weight, they're the speed. The psychographics is, how do they think?

Because the gold in attracting your favorite clients to reach your full potential as a business is to attract the people who are a psychographic fit for you.

And then you want to ask yourself.

What problem do we solve as a company? What problem do I solve as an advisor?

So who's my favorite client? Why are they my favorite client? And what problem are we solving for that ideal customer?

What's your process for solving it?

And what's the result? The process creates this little exercise we call the five star prospect profile. Who's your favorite client?

Why?

What problem do you solve for them? What's your process for solving it? And what's your result that process creates? If you get very clear on identifying those five answers, your marketing, your ability to attract better employees, better prospects, better clients is going to go to a whole new level. You're going to be doing business with people you love doing business with. You're going to be attracting employees into your organization that are a perfect fit for your culture.

But most importantly, guess what? You, your organization.

Is reaching its full potential.

So when it comes to marketing, when it comes to building a business you want, a business you deserve, you got to know what makes you unique. You got to get people to know you. You got to get people to like you. But most importantly, you're.

Responsible for attracting the perfect people into your life. This is where you want to grab the attention.

And if there's one message I want to leave you with today, it's this. The riches are in the psychographic niches. If you want to attract the right people in your life, whether it's employees, clients.

Go find the people who believe what you believe, people who stand for things you stand for. Because if you look at your current book of business, you look at your favorite clients today, they're not your favorite clients because you make the most money on them. They're your favorite clients because they let you do your best work, because you're a psychographic fit.

And I'm here to tell you that the best path.

To the AOR is being y ou.

There's nothing better in business than just to show up as yourself, confidently, consistently. Because this is how you are going to grab the attention you need to build the business you deserve.

Now, I'm going to finish with this story. At the beginning, I asked you guys.

What your childhood dream was. Part I didn't share with you is I almost got to live mine. You see, I grew out of my childhood chubbiness and I ended up becoming a very successful high school pitcher. I played for my dad, and after high school I earned the opportunity to pitch at the Division 1 level for the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. And my four year journey there was a roller coaster ride. The first two years I just wanted to fit in. The last two years I did everything I had to do to stand out. And at the end of my four years, I earned the opportunity to get drafted in the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft. Unfortunately, after spending three days at the computer watching the draft, I never heard my name called.

So I think my career is over and I move on that summer to a data entry job as an intern at a financial institution in downtown Milwaukee. After one day there, I said, this is going to be the worst summer of my life.

I get home that night after one day crying because one, my baseball career is over. Two, I am commiserating on how long this summer's going to be. And I'll never forget. I remember grabbing a Miller Light out of my refrigerator in my apartment. I sit down on the recliner and I look to my right and there's a flashing light on my answering machine. Yes, I did say answering machine.

And I hit the button and the words on the machine are words I will never forget. It was my pitching coach from UWM, Todd Froharth, who said, Andy Froh. Call Harvey Keene Jr. Right away. The brewers want to sign you to a free agent contract.

On a Monday, I was relegated to a bullpen of a financial institution to insert data entry for eight hours a day. By that Friday.

I was in the bullpen for the Helena brewers wearing number 21.

Now I want to share one quick story and I'll wrap up here. Fast forward one month. We're in Missoula, Montana. I'm in the bullpen. Our ace that night, Ben Wallace, is having a terrible night. Stands are filled, 5,000 people. My parents are in the audience to watch their son play pro baseball. For the first time, I get called into the Game, third inning, I'm running into this sold out stadium. I get to the mound, I grab the ball from Dan Norman, our manager, and I look to the on deck circle who I'm going to be facing right away. And it's Andres Torres, the top pick in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. This is my chance to grab the attention, right? To prove I belong. So I start warming up. And as I start warming up, the crowd starts chanting. Little by little, the chanting gets louder. And after my fourth warmup pitch, I can hear what they're chanting. How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6? How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6?

And in that moment.

That 18 foot diameter of the pitcher's mound, which had been my safe haven for years, became my mental prison.

Because standing on that mound in front of 5,000 people, I became that chubby kid again. Here I was, a free agent, pro baseball. I wasn't a high draft pick. I didn't throw 95 miles an hour. I don't fit in.

Those fears of judgment, comparison and failure all came back.

Now, my pro baseball career only lasted about another year and a half. I was cut. I was let go. My dream was over. And when I look at my pro baseball career, when I look back at it, a lot of people would say, andy, that's so great. You got a chance to play pro baseball. I said, yeah, but you know what? I didn't reach my full potential.

Did I have an opportunity to pitch in Milwaukee for the Brewers? I have no idea. Did I have the talent? I have no idea. But what I do know is because of this, the fears of judgment, failure and comparison, my lack of consistency, my lack of confidence, it kept me from actually wondering how far I could go.

And that's what I don't want to happen to you guys. If you're sitting here today as an advisor with a book of business, as a company who's trying to grow or attract good employees. Guys, it comes down to consistency and confidence. And today I want to give you the permission to be consistent, to show up every day as you, to attract the right people, people into your life and have the confidence that you can do it every single day. Let go of the fears of judgment, comparison and failure. And I'll say it one more time, because the best way to do business with people you love to do is to be y ou.

Thank you.

Sa.