This is a short interview between Andy Neary and Jeremy about using content and LinkedIn to grow a B2B insurance business. Andy emphasizes shifting from traditional prospecting (cold calls, country-club networking) to creating exponential awareness through LinkedIn, public speaking, email campaigns and webinars, and teaching a "LinkedIn Diamond" strategy; he argues effective content must combine likability (stories) with credibility (educational value).
Questions this video answers
75%
18 calls
Chapters
Are you creating content that gets people to know you and trust you? You do that through your stories. And are you educating them? Are you bringing them value? To create that credibility, you got to have both. If you can create both, you are going to create activity opportunities with your content.
So let me ask you this, then, because I think the thing that's interesting is if you kind of look at, you know, like, I think insurance and some other industries, they haven't been quick to innovate, but I think the reason you've been successful is you've been very quick to innovate. So I'm curious for you how you've approached it.
Right.
Because I feel like there are industries that move slow. I'm curious how you've approached it differently and how that's how that's helped you to win.
Yeah, great question. I know not a lot of people aren't a fan with what I'm about to say. One of the challenges in the insurance industry is we have a difficult time looking at the future because we're very proud of the past.
Mm.
And I think the training in our industry is outdated. And I know I was trained. I'll give you a real quick.
Well, I sold life insurance in my 20s, so that's where the viewpoint. That's where the viewpoint from that question comes from.
I was. I was speaking at a conference back, and I October, and I remember I looked to my left and I asked a gentleman sitting over by the wall, had to be in his early 70s, how he got trained when he got in the business. And after he gave me his answer of, I was given a phone book desk and a plan to go door to door. I looked to a woman sitting in front of me who was probably 40 years younger than him, who's been in the industry three years, and I asked her the same question. She almost gave me the same answer.
Wow.
And that's our problem, is we're not training producers how to win today day. And that's why my company, Complete Game Consulting, exists. It's, what are you doing today to get your message in front of more people at once? So people. You can get more people to know you, like you and trust her faster. If you just think about this, Jeremy, it takes 18 calls today to reach one prospect, which means it takes 180 phone calls to reach 10. If I can do that fast, one minute a call, which I can't, let's say I can, that's three hours to reach 10 people.
And that's really interesting because, as I mentioned, I sold fraternal insurance for the Knights of Columbus. So it's like, it's a little bit different. It's not quite the same as your, like, standard insurance sales. But like, we were told, like, you're not making 100 calls a day. You're not doing things right. I'm like, not to be mean, man, that fucking sucks. I don't want to do 100 phone calls. Like, I got good at it because I did it. And it's benefited me now in my life because I could call anybody for anything. But, like, at the same time, like, that seems like making every problem a nail. You know what I mean?
100%. And I don't tell people, don't cold call. It's gotta be part of your.
Well, no, it's. It's a very important skill to learn. And if I had anything, it is the single skill I would learn. But at the same time, there's gotta be more productive ways.
Here's how you can leverage it, though. This in 2023. What I learned back in 2014, 15 when I moved here, is I learned what it meant to create exponential awareness. What can I do to get one message in front of a lot of people at one time? That's when I started using LinkedIn. I started public speaking. I started using email campaigns and webinars. It was just a way to get one message in front of a lot of people at once. At that time, I had a lot of peers saying, dude, what are you doing? We don't do this in this industry. But it worked. It got a lot of people to know me quickly, which brought a lot of the right prospects to me, which allowed me to go into a market where nobody knew who I was and grow a really nice book of business. And what I realized, didn't know it back then, but I know today. Today it's a game of who knows you, not who, who.
You know 100%.
And where that helps cold calling is if you build name recognition and now you pick up the phone, they're gonna know who you are. To me, that's a lot more fun than calling people who have no clue.
Who you are a hundred percent. That's the biggest thing I talk about, like, because I think people don't understand, like, public relations, marketing, and sales. Like, to me, those are the three major components. If anything's not going well, like, if you're not selling, you take a look at your marketing. If your marketing's not converting, then something's wrong with your pr, right? Because people should Know you like you and trust you. So your stuff actually converts if it's not converting. You're just making it too damn hard for yourself, man.
Absolutely.
So let me ask you this then, because I think a lot of insurance people, like, they're working on a local level. Right. Unless they're working with bigger companies or something like that. And they're like, well, you know, I don't know if I see the value in that. Like, should I be doing that locally? Like, who really cares? I guess. What would you, what would you tell somebody that has that viewpoint about it?
You know, I was taught 22 years ago that the number one thing I should do as I got in the industry was grow gray hair, dye my hair gray so I look more trustworthy and go join, get a membership at a country club even though I can't afford it, and go eat lunch at the places the CEOs eat. Well, we don't do that as often as we used to anymore. And I'm holding my phone right now. This is today's country club.
Yes.
Where are people hanging out? They're hanging out on social media.
Yes.
And I'm not saying that's the only thing to do, but if you're in the B2B business, business to business, you need to be using a platform like LinkedIn to grow your business because that is where your prospects are hanging out. And I think in our industry, it's that pride of the past. People are bringing their personal bias to a platform like social media. I don't like social media. Yeah. There's a lot of toxicity in it.
Yeah.
But I gotta be there to grow my business.
So I guess, like, looking at that, then, you know, like, what things, in terms of what you're creating then should you be concentrating most? Like what creates the most trust and what actually moves the most business forward.
The number one. So we teach a strategy on LinkedIn we call our LinkedIn Diamond. And it helped us grow tremendously. Last year we grew, not to brag 75%, but it's because it was off the back of our LinkedIn strategy.
Sure.
One of the top things I can tell anybody looking to create content for social media is it must do two things. Create likability and credibility. You can't. And you can't have one without the other. Here's why. If I just create likability, so my contents, all these personal stories to get to know me, your prospects will love you. They'll take meetings with you. They're never going to take you seriously enough. To hire you.
That's really, really, really important because I think there's some people that, and I think this is on LinkedIn especially, they can get into, like, really creating all this social content. But then they're like, you know, I don't, you know, how do I make money and how do I monetize it? And it's like, if you're asking that question, you're doing something wrong.
And this is the response I get almost every time. Jeremy. But Andy, when I create, like the educational stuff, it gets low engagement. All my personal stories get awesome engagement. I said, exactly. That is, that's going to happen. But it's your educational content that creates credibility. But you can't just have credibility alone, because if you just create credibility, I know you're smart, but I don't know if I like you. I don't know who you are. Yeah. So I'm not going to hire you either. And that's why you have to have both. So when we teach people how do you create content on platforms like LinkedIn and others, it's, are you creating content that gets people to know you and trust you? You do that through your stories, and are you educating them? Are you bringing them value? To create that credibility, you gotta have both. If you can create both, you are going to create activity opportunities with your content.
