Phase 1 | Module 2: Identifying Your Ideal Prospect

Today, now we're going to switch, we're going to flip, and we're going to identify your ideal prospect. You're going to love this exercise. This might be one of the most important things we do this entire academy because my goal with you guys is to help you answer four questions very clearly to create a very successful prospecting game plan. Who are you talking to, what are you saying to them? How are you saying it and where are you saying? So we're going to cover all four of those in this academy today. It is all about who are you talking to? With a little mix of what are you saying to them? And you're going to see how this is very, very powerful. So let me pull up my slides.

All right, so what we are talking about today is identifying your ideal prospect. Before we dive into an exercise we call the five star prospect profile.

We got to talk about some of the problems I see in the industry today when it comes to identifying your ideal prospect. And the answer is, a lot of people in our industry don't know who their ideal prospect is. So what happens is, number one, they try to be all things to all people. There's a lot of agencies out there to say that think they can help everybody. Yeah, I know you probably could help most businesses. But let's be honest, when it comes to using marketing and your prospecting to attract the right people, you cannot be all things to all people. The other problem they make or mistake they make is they try to speak to everyone.

So what ends up happening is most producers and agencies have a very boring and vanilla message because they're trying to talk to everybody. And that's how we get drowned out in the sea of noise. Because if you try to speak to everybody, you end up speaking to no one.

And here's the biggest challenge, I like to call it the traditional prospecting two step in this industry. What most do is they buy a big list of prospects who, by the way, have no clue who you are, and then we just hammer them with phone calls and emails and we're not quite sure who we're trying to target. We've just been given this big list and we just started making phone calls.

And if you're like me and I wasn't very good early in my career at cold calling, this became a nightmare.

And so what we want to get really focused on is knowing exactly, exactly who we are trying to go after. Because what I see.

Far too often in this industry, and it frustrates me is what I call the dejected producer Somebody who's got a pipeline that's fairly empty.

They find themselves constantly talking to disqualified or unqualified prospects and they're really ticked off because they go home every night and they know they're so much better than the results they're getting.

I will tell you guys, post Covid, there are far too many producers sitting in this spot right here because.

The way they prospected five, seven, ten years ago, if they've been around for a while, doesn't work like it used to. And something changed after 2020 and they haven't adapted their strategy. And so now they're finding it being, they're finding it a very tough go trying to get opportunities by using what they used to use and it's not working as effectively. And that's what the whole premise of this academy is to help you fix that. So let me share my story with you guys real quick about. You know, last week I talked about our move when I moved to Colorado in 2014. But let me talk to you about where I made a huge mistake.

So when I got out to Colorado.

If you remember the two questions from last week, I said what makes you unique and what do you do as well as anyone in your market? When I asked, answered those questions back then, I said okay, what makes me unique is I'm probably one of the only former pro baseball players that's selling health insurance. So that's going to be my brand.

Ironically, locked in, hired a former Colorado Rocky once I got there and I'm like, seriously now there is actually a major league baseball player here selling health insurance. And then I said what do I do as well as anyone in the market? And I thought at the time was self funding because I had come from Wisconsin where we had been self funding for years, Colorado, it was a fairly new concept. So I'm like, that's going to be my thing.

So off I went trying to talk to everybody I could talk to about self funding. I did not really take time to understand who would be a good fit for it. And all I ended up doing was talking to a bunch of unqualified people.

Number one, I was trying to sell HR professionals on self funding as a, as a benefit advisor. What's the mistake with that?

They don't know math.

They're not hired to know math or save money. So I would have these self funded conversations with HR professionals who had no interest and I was just talking to the wrong people. They had no desire. Cigna is the 800 pound gorilla in Colorado. These people thought Cigna was the cat's meow. And they were never going to leave and they had no desire. So I spent my first year frustrated.

Thinking I had all this, this, this advantage against my competition. But I was just talking to the wrong people. And so eventually I just sit down and say, all right, hold on here. Here was my epiphany, guys. By the way.

When I moved out there, I was also handed. I became, I ran our large group division. So any groups over 50 lives I was in charge of, so I assume some of our larger clients. And I can remember one of them was a self funded group with Cigna. And I remember after the first couple meetings.

I realized they weren't a good fit. Here's why I knew that this might resonate with you guys. Have you ever sat in a meeting with a client where you're like, why am I here? Have you ever had that feeling like this meeting is. This group is so far removed from who I like to work with, why am I even sitting here? I feel useless. This group, though self funded, never wanted to do anything I suggested. They literally argued with everything I said. And eventually I would sit in these meetings and go, I have no idea why I'm even here.

And it was there I realized, I said, okay, something's got to change. I've got to have a better.

Strategy to make sure I'm bringing the right people into my business, into my book. Because here's the reality. I will say this, and I get pushback on this sometimes. I would rather have a half million dollar book of business with people I love that are the perfect fit for me than a million dollar book of business where half of my business frustrates the living heck out of me.

Nick, you've been in the business how long? Four years? Yep. Jeff, how long?

23.

23. And Matt? 20. 20. Have you guys ever been. Have you ever brought in that new group.

That you felt good about and then like four or five months later your account management team's like, really? Why? Why did you bring this one in? This group sucks. They're frustrating. They treat us like crap. I used to be guilty of that, right? I was like, hey, it's revenue. And then we quickly realized, wow, this group is not a good fit for us. So my goal for you today, guys, is to walk you through an exercise that is going to help you create a ton of clarity around who your ideal fit is, not only demographically, but what is known as psychographically. And you'll love this because it's going to create a Lot of clarity. Because what I learned was when your ideal prospect is clear, your path to the AOR is near. Once I got very clear who I was trying to talk to and what I was saying to them, I started attracting the right people.

And what happened, truth be told, is I ended up with less opportunities, less sales opportunities sitting in my pipeline. But I won more because I had the right people in. I remember years ago, I used to sell commercial as well, Nick. Years ago, I'd feel so good on January 1st because I had 15 opportunities sitting in my pipeline. But the reality was 12 of them weren't going anywhere. But at least I could walk into the sales meeting saying, look at my pipeline. And it's like, yeah, but at the end of the day, there's about two or three that are actually potential wins. I'd rather have seven in my pipeline. Knowing all seven are potential wins. Make sense? Yep. So.

Why do we want to identify our ideal prospect? Because we can't be all things to all people. And effective prospecting from a messaging standpoint requires you to be clear about who you're speaking to. So we are going to do an exercise called the five star prospect profile. A lot of my terms we use for our exercises do reference sports. Just like a five star athlete, five star prospect. We are going to develop your blue chip prospect.

So what we're going to do is answer five questions very clearly.

This first one is not a question we're going to answer, but it's how we kick it off. What we're doing is answering, who are you talking to? The first of the four pillar questions we need to answer for effective prospecting. So here's where we're going to start.

I want you to look at your current book today and answer this question. Who's your favorite client today? What I want you to do is I want you to write down the name of the company.

And the name of the main contact you work there you work with.

Now, given that, Matt, you're in Cincinnati, Nick and Jeff are up in the Rochester, Syracuse area. I think we're safe to share these because we're not competing directly. So, Matt, who is your favorite client today?

So, because I recently started at Newfront, 11 months ago, my favorite client goes back to Mercer.

That's cool. That's fine.

It was a company called Ryan Stahl.

Okay.

And the HR person was Amy Meyer. I used to tell all the time they were the poster child as far as how a client should act.

And we're gonna, we're gonna clearly lay out why? Okay, Nick, favorite client?

Shaler Construction. And my point of contact is Rich Shaylor, who is the owner.

Okay. And Jeff.

Rapid deployable systems. They.

So when I started here six months ago, I was given about 16 customers. They're one of my two new customers that I've brought on.

Okay.

Who'S my contact? Peggy Anderson. What's her position?

Director of hr.

Perfect. Okay, we're going to start with those names in mind for the next question.

Next question we got to answer is why Now? There is only one answer you can. There's one answer you can't give, and that is because I make the most money on them. Andy.

There'S got to be a better reason. They're your favorite because these people do. The reason you wrote them down is they let, they let you do your best work, hands down. You called it the poster child of the ideal client. Matt, right now there are two ways we identify why they're the best fit. There are demographics and there are psychographics. The demographics are what all, all of us on this call have been taught. So demographics are location, number of employees, revenue industry for the benefits people. Maybe it's because they're self funded or they're fully insured. Whatever it is, here's what I want you to do. I want you to make a short list of the demographics. Is it because of where they're located? Because of the size of the group industry they're in? What makes them a good fit demographically? Make a short list.

And it could include their job title. Hey, she's an HR professional and I work with HR people. Good.

When you're. If you got a good list and you're done, just kind of look back at the camera so I know you're done. Jeff, let's start with you. What's on your list?

Yeah, so why are they my favorite client? They need help and they let me help them.

They're an out of state company, they're headquartered in Georgia and they bought a company in New York. So they're unfamiliar with the laws and rules in New York.

So they're looking for help. They need help. And you know, she's.

I want, I want everybody to listen to this. This is where my coaching hat comes on. And I'm gonna dissect what you just said, Matt, and help you out here because that was good. So here's what I heard. You say you like working with multi state businesses dealing with multi state benefit complexities.

So a demographic would be multi state benefit complexities.

Do you like the fact they Are out of state.

I mean, I guess I would say not necessarily, but in this situation.

You know, it works.

Okay, how many employees do they have? About 80. Do you like working with a specific size?

I mean.

The bigger the better, Right? So.

Do you like 50 to 250? 50 to 500.

Yeah, 50 to 500.

Okay, write that down, 50 to 500. And you work with the HR director. Do you tend to work with HR professionals more than maybe CFO, CEO?

It depends on the company, but that seems to be the case.

Do you like it, by the way, when they have like what I heard you say is they've acquired some companies which has created some benefit complexity. Right. Do you like that when you, when you walk into that complexity?

Yeah.

Okay, right. Benefit complexity down too. We're going to get to your other comments in a second. Nick, what's on your list demographically?

So I guess this wouldn't really entail like personal connection, right? This could be the opposite of that.

Correct?

Yep.

Okay, so I mean, you know, on a demographic level, you know, he's local here in Syracuse. Get together, you know, and you know, really work out things in person, which I like doing as opposed to, you know, the phone. So, you know, he's a good size client.

Define that for me. What does good size mean?

They do about 10 million in revenue a year.

Write that down, 10 million plus or 5 million plus, whatever that threshold is for you.

And then the industry he's in, which is construction, we here at one group have a lot of expertise and other resources other than myself that can help benefit the client in terms of risk transfer, risk management, things like that.

So if I said to you, Nick, under the guise of local, how far outside radius wise, outside of Syracuse, would you consider local?

Probably within an hour and a half.

So what I heard Nick just say, nick, you like working with construction companies that do, you know, 5, 10 million or more in business located within 50 miles of Syracuse? Yep.

Cool. We'll get back to. And, and now what might be going through your heads, guys? Like, wow, it sounds so limiting. I'll come back to that in a second. Matt, what are your demographics?

So for reinstall, I have organized. They were strategic and it was a true partnership.

Okay.

They have 120 employees located out just outside of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio.

Okay.

Revenue from commission standpoint, $85,000. And they were in the manufacturing, aircraft, tooling industry.

Okay. So couple demographics. H R. Do you typically work with hr?

I prefer to work with HR anytime.

So that's, that's One. Yeah. You have a certain revenue metric you're trying to hit. You said 85,000. Is there a certain revenue you're told to focus on 60,000 plus. 60,000 plus.

Yep.

60. So you know, it's got to be 60,000 plus. Definitely going to be in Cincinnati or that area.

Or does that not matter?

It doesn't matter.

Is it more preferred if it's local?

It's more. It's more preferred. I'd say tri state, Andy. Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana.

Okay, tri state area.

You said how many employees? 120.

120.

So to hit that, 860 plus. What are you focused on? Probably 100 plus 100 plus.

I'd say 100 to 2,000 candle. Even to get above 2,000, that starts to get into some other areas.

And does it matter that they're in manufacturing or are you actually trying to specifically target certain industries right now?

That was going to be one of my questions. I can go either way. I've had either way in Greater Cincinnati. It tends to be health care marketing in manufacturing.

Okay.

But then you can also get into some of the other, other industries.

I will tell for the benefits. So Jeff, this applies to you too. When it comes to industry specific for benefits. What I tend, what I, what I tend to hear people saying. Yeah. Is are you a better fit for blue collar or white collar? Right. That's a good way to delineate that because like in your industry, in your market. Matt, you said health care marketing and manufacturing. Yeah, the first two are definitely one. First one is definitely a white collar. Yeah. Marketing, primordial white collar. And then manufacturing would be blue collars. A lot of benefit advisors find that depending on what they talk about or how they do things, one or the other is probably a good fit. I knew for my example what I was trying to do as an advisor, a law firm and accounting firm probably wasn't a good fit for me. Got it. Because I was all about cost containment and I knew there were law firms that were proud they spent as much as they spent on benefits. Right. Like I can't help these people. So knowing that from that standpoint could be helpful. Now, before we get into the next step.

What I loved about what we just did there. So, Matt, read out the first two things you have on your list.

Organize strategic.

Okay. Jeff, read out the first one or two things you have on your list.

Of the demographics list.

Yeah. When the list I had you just read the one of the. It was, it was the first one or two things.

Yeah. They need help and they let me help them.

Perfect. Cool. This happens every time we do this exercise. When I say, hey, let's lay out the demographics. What you two just did is start to lay out the psychographics. Okay? So think of demographics from an athletic standpoint. Height, weight, speed. Right? That's a demographic of an athlete. Now, what we're about to do is look at the psychographics. How does that athlete think? How do they operate when they're on the field? Right? It's one thing to be viewed as a prospect on paper. Now it's to watch the. The prospect in real time to see if they're a good fit. That's what we're going to talk about with psychographics. The other thing I want to bring up, though, is when you start putting these parameters on who your ideal prospect is, you can feel like, wait, am I. Am I going to be too limiting here? Too narrow? Remember, what the goal is here is we're developing a marketing message, a strategy that's going to go help you guys find the right people. Now, if you use. If you target certain people with your marketing, it does not mean other opportunities won't come in. We're just setting up a way for you to say, all right, I know who the best fit is for me and my team. I'm going to use my message to go out and find them, but it is not limiting us from helping other people. Does that make sense?

Cool. So let's talk about psychographics.

This is again. Now, let's get inside the brain of these. These prospects, these. Excuse me, these clients. How do they operate on the field? So what I want you to do, and Jeff and Matt, you're just going to migrate the first two statements to this list. Think about the psychographics of these clients. Think about it this way.

When it comes to what you sell.

What do they believe?

What do these people stand for as people, as individuals? How do they make decisions? How do they treat you? I want you to take time and make a short list. Start with what do these people believe about what I sell? Whether it be commercial insurance or health insurance, what do they stand for? Now, when I say beliefs and stances, guys, I'm not talking politics, religion, things like that. I'm just saying, what do they believe and what do they stand for? When it comes to what you do, Make a short list. There's a reason you love working with them.

All right, Matt, what do you got?

So, for reinstall, I think the thing that stood out the most, I mean, it's obviously organized. They were strategic and they partnered. But wellness, they believed in a culture of wellness that showed up in their renewals.

So they were reaping the rewards.

Yes.

Of their efforts. Yeah. Okay.

If I said, all right, Matt, let's not overcomplicate this. You sell benefits, you sell health insurance. How do they view benefits as a company? How do they view health insurance?

They viewed health insurance as a benefit to their employees, but that everyone had a collective responsibility to be proactive in their health.

Okay, so this is a company that understands they have an obligation to provide what they provide. Yep. But they also believe they, their employees must be accountable for maintaining a level of health.

Correct.

Although they were 120 employees, they were self funded. So that mentality.

So write that down. That's a very key trait right there.

They know the importance of the benefits they offer, however they want to make. They also understand their employees have to be accountable to make this thing work. Jeff, how about you?

Well, you know, like I said, they're unfamiliar with New York, so they need help. They listen to my help. And they're also able to make decisions. They're decisive. You know, they. We lay out what the options are and they make a decision.

You know, not speaking specifically to this customer, but if I'm looking at psychographic words that I want in a customer, I would say loyal.

Is. That's just the first one that came to mind. And then the other one that frankly, you know, puts them on the list is every time I get them an answer, they tell me how thankful they are that I'm a broker, you know, so it's good to hear rather than getting kicked in the teeth.

Absolutely. One thing you said that really stood out for me kind of comes back to the benefit complexity. Do you find it important that when they came upon complexity, they were open enough to take advice?

Yeah.

That's a very big piece, I think, is if you like walking into complexity, because that's something you do well, it requires the companies dealing with it to be open minded to seek help.

Make that note, that's important because a lot of them are not.

They think they can handle it. They think they know better than anybody else, and they end up finding themselves in more trouble.

All right, Nick, how about you?

I guess this client in particular, from the start, he was in a complex situation when he came to us due to some, I guess you could say mistakes of his previous agent, which is the reason we won the business in the first place. So he really took what we had to say seriously. And applied it to his business. So I think he's someone that will take our advice not just for granted and actually takes it into consideration and applies it to his own business to better it. So I think that that is, you know, someone that I like working with. He's also someone that views insurance itself as something that's important. Not just insurance, but risk transfer. A lot of construction business owners just kind of take it for granted and, you know, don't really know why they're buying it, don't really care to. But he takes it pretty seriously. He writes his own contracts, has us, you know, review them for him. So he's a very detailed person, and I like working with him for some of those reasons.

I like what you said. There was something that popped that said, you know, he's a guy who's not. He doesn't just buy insurance because he has to. He wants to know why he's buying it and what he's buying.

Yep, exactly.

He. All right, so why psychographics? Guys, look at those people on your piece of paper, and if I ask you this question, there's a reason. Why are they your favorite? The answer is because you and them are psychographically aligned. Is that a yes?

Yes.

If I said you, what do you believe about what you do or what you sell? Do your beliefs and their beliefs feel like they are in alignment?

That's why they're the best fit for you. This comes back to they let you do your best work. Now, here's the key. Why did we just do that exercise? Because when you put a message out there to attract prospects, by the way, this can even impact your script on the phone. You got to talk about the psychographics more.

Demographics alone cannot identify a prospect. This is very important to you, Nick, in the commercial space, because I think commercial, more than any others, like to niche into industries.

But here's why. Demographics alone cannot be the only indicator of a good client or good prospect. I've never had an advisor say to me, my favorite client, Andy, is ABC Manufacturing because they're a manufacturer. The owner's a jerk. He treats me like crap. He never wants to do anything I suggest. But they're a manufacturer, so they're my favorite.

You love them because of all the psychographics.

However, when we look at marketing, what do we tend to put in the marketing? The message, the demographics. Think of it this way. If you were a.

I want to use the word victim, but you're part of a criminal case, and they're lining all the suspects up against the wall. That's the demographics. Put all the suspects up against the wall.

The psychographics are what make the right ones take a step forward, make sense. So the more we can use the psychographics in our message, in our marketing, the better it's going to be. Because if you're talking to somebody who has that belief, you're going to resonate with them.

Matt, you pick up the phone and say, hey, I work with businesses in Cincinnati who view benefits as an important thing. However, they might be a little frustrated right now because they're like, we need our employees to be more accountable to make this thing work. Yeah. And you start using stuff like that, that people that are like, yeah, you know, they're going to be good fits. Yeah.

I mean, right now I'm, I'm in the middle of a two week talk track on just posting about our technology, but I'm already starting to think, okay, how do we introduce more of that psychographic language that's going to appeal to those prospects?

Here's, here's how you want to think about this, guys. If you can rent space in a prospect's brain in their head, you're doing the good thing. And the more we talk about what they're thinking or what they're believing and going through, the more you're going to rent space in their head.

Now we go to question three. Now for this question.

You can switch away from your prospect or your favorite client because maybe this won't apply to them and that's okay. And just look at your business in general.

And I want you to answer this question.

What problem do you solve? Now the natural response is going to be, andy, I solve a lot of problems. Prospects come in all different flavors and sizes. I agree.

But I bet there's one problem you absolutely love solving.

That when you come upon it, you're like, yes, this is my jam.

So let's think about that for a second. Is there one problem that you love solving more than anything else in your business?

Think of it this way, guys. Is there a problem that lights you up? Problem that gets you fired up?

Is there something you're out to fight every day? Like, I'm, I'm fighting this injustice because it's, it's my, my prospects and clients are getting killed by this, and I want to fix it.

There's typically one problem that, that really triggers you more than anything else.

Here's a hint, guys. Here's a little.

Cheat sheet. Remember the question I asked you last week? What do you do as well, as anyone in the market.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say your problem you love solving is somehow tied to that.

Here's how we'll figure this out. We'll do it right here. Nick, what is the one thing you do as well as anyone in the market?

I remember it was reviewing and finding gaps in coverage.

Finding gaps in coverage. So what problem might you love solving?

Finding gaps in coverage for different businesses.

When you run into a prospect where you see a gap, do you get excited? You get fired up?

Yep.

Write it down. Hold that thought. Jeff, what was the one thing you want to become known for? What's the one thing you do as well as anyone in the market?

I guess I'm gonna say educating employees not just on how their benefits work, but the value. You know, fixing the. The guys that say my insurance sucks when their company is spending $2 million on their insurance. You know, that's probably my favorite thing.

Now I want to come back. Here's what I. Here's what I love about that. Jeff, you really love educating employees, right?

So go back to your favorite client. I will actually go back to your favorite client.

What was one thing you loved about your ideal client? Benefit complexity. Do you think one of your competitive advantages, personally, is you're a very good educator? So when people deal with complexity with their benefits, whether it's a company acquiring another company or employee who doesn't understand what they have, you shine.

Yeah.

You love that.

Yeah.

There's your problem. You love solving complexity.

Nick loves solving coverage gaps. You love solving complexity. Matt, how about you?

I love solving lack of direction and focus. So that translates into strategy.

More details. We use technology to take a client that's disorganized, lacks direction, it's inefficient. We show them how we can formulate all that into a very clear goal.

I would say your problem then is either a lack of direction or a lack of focus.

When you run into a group who's willing to admit they lack direction or focus, do you get excited?

Yes.

Cool.

Now, again, you might be staring at me saying, cool, Andy, but I can solve a lot of problems. I get it. But the more we can spend our prospecting message guys getting you to become known for one thing, the better it's going to be.

Jeff, if I can get you become known as the guy who is the best educator when you deal with benefit complexity, whether it's your own plan or your employees, he's your guy. Better it is.

Nick, when you run into construction companies who who know they may have gaps in their coverage. Nick's your guy.

Matt, we run. We feel like we lack direction right now with our benefits. I feel like we're just making the same old decision every 12 months. We need something more. Matt's your guy. Yep.

This is how you become known for one thing. And the more you become known for one thing, the better it's going to be for your business. Trust me on this.

And you'll see how this plays into your messaging. Now, with problems, guys, there are three levels of problems, three layers of problems. We've got the external problem, which is what we just talked about. Coverage gaps, benefit complexity, lack of focus, lack of direction. That's an external problem. I want you to take a minute and literally just write internal down with those problems.

In front of them. I want you to look at your prospect, your ideal prospect who's dealing with that problem you love solving.

And I want you to start writing down what might be going on in their head. If they are looking at themselves in the mirror with the doubts, what are they saying to themselves when confronted with this problem? What are they saying to themselves that they might not even be willing to admit to you? Make up. Make a. Just write down a couple of things when deal it. When dealing with the problem. So, Nick, when they face a coverage gap. Jeff, when they face complexity. Crap. We just bought a new company, but they're in New York. We're in Georgia. Matt, what are we doing with our benefits? We feel like we lack direct. What are they telling themselves right now? What are the emotions going through that? That's the internal problem.

Like I said. Think of it this way. They're looking at themselves in the mirror. They know they're dealing with this problem. What is keeping them up at night?

All right, Nick, what do you got for me?

That they could lose their business if they have an uncovered loss.

Okay. So that fear of what happens if I have a loss that's not covered. Yep. Am I confident? Are these people, when they know they have a coverage gap, what happens?

I guess it depends on, you know, the type of buyer. Some people brush it off like it's no big deal. And those are typically people that I wouldn't love working with.

That not a good fit. Yeah.

Maybe consideration. And you don't want to make the adjustments even if it costs a few more dollars out of their pocket initially.

You want the ones that say oshit. What if.

Jeff, I just. I'm not dealing with a new complex issue with my benefits or employees don't. What what are these people saying?

Well, you know, we don't, we don't understand.

You know, we don't know. We don't know.

Right.

We don't understand what.

What needs to be done, what's required.

You know the other thing that was different with this specific group is they were, they were taking 80 employees from.

1500 person companies. So they, they were worried that they wanted to keep the benefits the same or as close to the same as.

Possible.

And needed to get it done in a short amount of time.

You just, I think as far as an internal problem goes, you just, you said it. Well, when they are dealing with it, they sit, they're sitting there going, I'm not the expert, I, I don't know this stuff. What the heck do I do with this?

That's very key, Matt.

Company recognizes it's losing, lacks focus or direction. What are they saying to themselves?

Yeah, so they're saying themselves. Health insurance is confusing and complex.

Renewals that are three times the rate of inflation are just the norm. We just have to deal with it. And benefits are a boilerplate. We're just reactive to year and year up.

Yeah. We lack focus, we're reacting, we're making a 12 month decision. I feel like we're doing the same thing every year. We're just getting worse results.

Yep.

These are all the things, guys, that rent space in your prospect's mind. The more we put that in our message, the better it's going to be. That's why we spend time doing this. It's one thing to say your health insurance is expensive, that's an external problem. Right. It's another to talk about what you're saying to yourself as a result, when, when prospects feel like you're talking directly to them because this is exactly the thoughts they have going on in their head. You are going to connect that with them at a level no other competitors connecting with them at. This is how your marketing, your prospecting message gets them to go. Like this, Raise their hand. We got to use as we got to talk about psychographics and internal problems as much as we do anything else. We love to focus on demographics and the external problems. But the better we get at talking about the psychographics and the internal problems, the more we're going to get the right people to come towards us. Make sense.

Now.

Question four.

You just figured out who your favorite client is. So who's your target? Why? What's the problem you love solving? The next step question is what is your process for solving it? So I want you to go to a specific example.

And this is going to be a hard exercise, but you'll see why it's important. Go to a specific example. Maybe it's your ideal client, your favorite client, where you ran into the problem you love solving. And I want you to write three or four things you did to solve.

The last time you walked into a prospect or a group that had the problem you love solving. What were the three, maybe four things you did to solve?

Now, before we go any farther, I want to ask a question of both of you. Both. Both companies here. Matt, does New Front have a specific sales process that you follow that is name and named or branded?

No.

Okay. Nick and Jeff, do you guys have a specific sales process you follow at one group that is name and branded?

Not necessarily. We try to do some things, you know, in a structured order, but I feel like it's different.

Okay, cool, cool. So let's start. Jeff, I'm going to start with you.

Sure. Process would be gather as much data and information as possible.

Okay.

Speak to different levels of the company. Get understanding what's working, what's not.

Come back to them with a detailed game plan and how we can and will fix it, and then follow through with what we say.

Okay. So I want everybody to hear this. You're going to be like, andy, this is common sense. You'll see why this is important. So here's what I heard, Jeff. First step is gather data.

Second step is communicate. Right. And you said communicate. Maybe that might even be educate.

Yep.

Third step was what did you say for part three?

You said come back game plan.

Okay. Step three could be game plan or the plan. Step four, execute.

So data, gather data, educate, strategy. Or. Or create the game plan and execute. Just write those down. Humor me for a second. Gather data effectively. Effective education.

Develop the game plan, execute.

Matt, how about you?

Yeah, mine's very similar. Start by gathering the data, understand what their problems are so I can identify them. Something I started doing recently, Andy, that another rep suggested. I also asked them what their current broker does that's really well that they enjoy. So I'm identifying that we do the same thing.

Okay. So you gather data, understand, understand problems.

Then we talk about newfront solutions.

Okay.

And then we talk about strategy. Next steps. What does that look like for the next one? Two.

Okay, so here's. Here's an idea for you on this one. This is why it helps to have the group be smaller. I can't do this with a bigger group. But the three of you, we can do some Live coaching. I heard you say gather data. So data is step one.

Step two.

Identify.

Step three, execute. You'll see what I'm talking about there, Nick. Coverage gaps. How'd you fix them?

So step one, review current policies, public information about the data or about the company. So again, gather data, essentially. Two, go back to the insured with questions about their business to truly understand their exposures and business model. So, you know, gather additional information from the insured that I couldn't find elsewhere and then present a findings presentation with the data that was collected and make recommendations to the current program to fill in gaps that were found coverage. Then, you know, either allow them to take those recommendations into consideration when going to market or, you know, evaluate what their exposure could be if they insured.

What was that? What was the first step again?

Review current policies, public information about the company for you.

If I were you, number one would be identify gaps. Yeah, that's what you're doing with. By reviewing. Okay, what did you say about assess.

Step two, go back to the insured with questions about their business to understand their exposures.

You could say like complete, you know, complete an assessment. That's kind of an assessment.

Yep.

Make recommendations.

Fill the gaps.

Yep.

I know it sounds weird, but here's what I'm talking about. Guys. Think about those in a matter of a few minutes. Nick, you, yours happens to be four steps. Everybody else was three steps. I think maybe Jeff, yours was four. Two. Look at those. Four, three, four steps. Okay, Is that something. Is that a process you could repeat with every prospect?

Yes.

That's the whole point.

Is if you're out.