Andy Neary explains exponential awareness: getting your message in front of many people at once instead of one-at-a-time outreach. Prospects Google advisors after first contact and trust those with visible online presence, so insurance professionals need broad visibility across LinkedIn, websites, YouTube, and articles to be seen as the expert.
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Now let's talk about what the heck exponential awareness is and why it is important in today's world of prospecting.
You see, when I moved out to Colorado in 2014, I discovered this concept called exponential awareness. And truth be told, I don't know if I read it somewhere, I made it up. I have no idea. It's a concept we use a lot here at Complete Game Consulting today to help our clients get in front of a lot of people fast. But when I got to Colorado, I realized I had a problem. Because I was in a market, nobody knew who I was. And I realized that if all I was ever going to do from here on out was pick up the phone or go pound the pavement, which, let's be honest, very few people pound the pavement anymore these days. But that was what I was going to do in a market where nobody knows who I am.
I either was gonna have to be so damn good at my sales message, or I was just gonna have to be prepared to block a lot of my calendar to do this.
Now, I was still managing a large book of business for our agency, so I didn't have the time. I didn't have all day, every day to go prospect. So I had to be efficient with my time. And this is where I leaned into the concept of exponential awareness. I realized that if I was gonna build a book of business.
I had to get a lot of prospects to know me fast, far and wide. I had to share a message fast, far and wide. I had to build brand recognition.
If I sat behind a phone day in and day out, as an unrecognizable name and definitely an unrecognizable face, I had no chance.
Now, I'm gonna say it again. If you are a savant with the cold call game. Hold on a second. Okay, One second.
Rocc.
Keep going. Have at it. But this is for the other 95% who are not.
So I made a decision to lean into exponential awareness. I realized I had to get one message in front of a ton of people at one time. Remember picking up the phone, calling one person at one time, One at a time? That's linear. Knocking on one door at a time to hit one prospect at a time. That's linear awareness. This is about getting one message in front of many people. And I'm about to teach you how to do it. But let's talk about why exponential awareness is so important today. Your prospects live in a world of noise. No matter what industry you come from, no matter what industry you sell from or sell in, especially if you're an insurance professional. The industry is noisy. Your prospects are getting hit by so many messages left and right. They're getting hit from so many brokers every single day. And if all they're doing is lumping you into that category of all these other brokers they talk to or they hear from one, you're in trouble. But if they're not hearing from you, if they don't see you, you're in deeper trouble. If you have no brand recognition with your prospects today, it is almost impossible to win unless you have a price. You know, if you come out with a product or a pitch or a quote that's so damn cheap they can't refuse it, you really don't have a chance to win if you're not creating exponential awareness.
Here's another reason why it's so important. Every time you talk to a prospect, whether it's on the phone over Zoom, maybe you just had a first meeting with them. The first thing they're going to do after meeting you is they're going to go check your online presence. They're going to go to Google, they're going to go type your name, they might go to LinkedIn, they're going to type your name and they're going to look you up. And if you don't have a presence, an online presence, you don't have credibility with the prospect at that point, unbeknownst to you, without you doing anything wrong, you're losing credibility with the prospect if they can't find you. Think about that. How many times do you Google somebody after you meet them? We all do. And if I can't find you, you don't have credibility with me. If I don't really see much of a LinkedIn profile, if I don't find your website, God Forbid, on page one of Google, maybe I don't see a YouTube channel, whatever it is, if there is no online presence, you are losing credibility by the minute with your prospects. Now let's flip it.
If I do Google you after meeting you and I see your LinkedIn profile that's well built, filled with a lot of content, if I see your website at the top of page one and I go to the website and the website says exactly what came out of your mouth when you and I met, and I see a YouTube channel, I see all these other, I see articles, I see all of these different channels of communication from you on your Google, on page one of Googling, you.
You appear to be everywhere to me. You have a huge online presence. And when you have a huge online presence, you are now my perceived expert. You don't even have to be the smartest advisor, but the one I see the most, the one I hear from the most, the one I can find the easiest, is going to be the perceived expert. So what does your online presence look like?
Yeah, it's important these days. Everything changed with the pandemic. We were forced online thanks to the pandemic. And it's never going back. If you're still waiting for the days of old where you could do everything over a handshake.
And door to door and cold calls and sending mailers out worked like they used to, it's never going back. We now do business online. It's just the way it is.
So what does your online presence look like? The more of an online presence you have, the more credibility you are going to establish with your prospects. If it's easy for me as your prospect to find you.
You are building brand recognition with me. And when you walk in my office.
For that discovery meeting, even though I might be talking to two or three other brokers, you're going to stand out because I feel like I know you the most. Think about that. How many times have you lost a new business opportunity to an advisor you knew you were better than? I'm raising my hand here. I've, I've been there plenty of times. And you find out that they're going to end up staying with their incumbent or going with somebody else. You're like, really? How I so much better than that broker? It's because that broker has established brand recognition with them. They feel like they know them more than you. It's not knowledge, it's recognition. And when you have a huge online presence, you are going to be the perceived expert. It's just the way it is.
