Andy Neary's talk argues that many insurance agencies and advisors underperform because they lack two 'secret ingredients' — consistency and confidence. He identifies three core problems: outdated training methods (teaching 'old tricks' to new entrants), unclear targeting (trying to speak to everyone), and over-reliance on direct marketing (buying lead lists and repetitive outreach). He urges adaptation to post-March 2020 business realities to gain competitive advantage.
Chapters
There's two secret ingredients missing from getting from where you are today to where you want to be. Consistency and confidence. 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 you think, 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? 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 Number one, the way we train people today is outdated.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? 3. 3 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.
