Andy Neary says insurance firms waste time competing on size and relationships. Instead, build everything around what you do better than anyone else: a specific program or process competitors can't copy. Find that intersection of passion and purpose, and your message sells itself.
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What are you saying and how are you saying it now? Before I get into the details of what I did or how I helped this agency create this differentiator, what they were able to build, you need to make a few mindset shifts to get us in the right to get yourself in the right position to think about how you are going to create a different message than your competition.
The first one is your differentiator cannot be built on your size of your firm or your capabilities of the firm that doesn't win anymore. I don't care if you work for the largest consulting firm in the world, your size and capabilities can't be your differentiator.
So let's just start there. Size and capabilities are a non starter. And for what's interesting is if you represent a smaller independent agency, you certainly can't play the size or capability game. However, if you represent the big five firms in our industry, you're most likely competing with the other big five firms. So you too can't use size, capability and capability because you're all talking about the same things. The second shift we have to make is your ability to negotiate with the carriers. Can't be your differentiator. I hear this all the time when I ask firms what makes you unique. What's your differentiator? Well, I think it's our ability to reduce rates and negotiate with the carriers. We have a lot of good solid relationships with the carriers. That can't be your differentiation. Even if you are the best negotiator in the industry. Guess what, your competition is saying the same thing thing. And the last shift is your competition can't or your, your differentiator can't be we control cost better than our competition. We provide self funded plans better than our competition. Anything that says we do what our competition does, but we do it better can't be your differentiator. That's not going to win you any business. You have to walk in with, with something that is literally different.
So how can you do it? How can you have a program, have a product your competition can't get their hands on?
Because here's the reality. If you're in insurance today, if you offer a product, it's on the commercial side. That might be auto, work, comp, gl.
Building insurance, whatever it might be. On the benefit side, it's medical insurance, life insurance, disability, you name it, dental, vision, everybody has access to selling that. Now on the commercial side I get it, you can block out markets with certain carriers. But my point is everybody has access to sell the same products. So selling those products better than your competition can't be your differentiator. You have to have something they don't have. And this brings me back to the two day workshop last week. I actually take that back. By the time this airs, it'll be two weeks ago.
How can you build something that is completely different than your competition? Well, here's the question I kicked off the two day workshop with. And it's one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself if you want to build a strong marketing message and a unique differentiator in the market. And that is this question. What? What do you do as well as anyone in this market? What do you do as well as anyone in your market?
Now, the first answer that will come out of your mouth will not be the right answer. But if you take time to dig into what your unique differentiator is, you'll uncover it. In the case of this agency, they realized on the benefit side they had a very unique self funded program they were selling.
On the commercial side, they realized they had a very unique program they were using as a trojan horse to help prospects get money back from overpaid premiums. Now here's what was interesting. When they talked to prospects, they were using these two programs, they were talking about them almost just in passing to try to generate some interest with their prospects. However, what came out of the two day workshop was a clarity.
Around how they're going to make these two unique programs the focal point of their entire marketing and sales strategy. Because what they realized is what they had on their hands was gold. They had this benefit, this self funded program they were offering to prospects wasn't just a program, it was a process.
What they had on the commercial side, this unique program they were using to help companies get money back from overpaid premiums wasn't just a product, it was a process by which they help their prospects. And when we built an entire marketing and sales strategy, a marketing and sales process around these two unique programs.
You literally saw the demeanor in their face. Their, their, the behavior change.
What they used to use as just a conversation starter became their entire marketing and sales strategy.
So now when they send out the emails, when they put out the LinkedIn posts, when they're hosting webinars, when they're connecting with prospects, their message sounds entirely different than the competition. Why?
They have a product, air quotes around the product, they have a product.
Their competition can't get their hands on. That is how you create a differentiator.
When you take time to answer the question what do I do? Or what do we do as a team better than anyone in our market?
When you sit down and you answer that question, you dig deep to find where your passion and purpose lie.
That is where you will find your differentiator.
When you know you have something different.
When you know you have a program, a product, a process your competition can't replicate.
You will completely reignite the passion and the purpose you bring to your prospecting.
And I'm here to tell you that profit.
Lies at the intersection of passion and purpose.
So find.
What makes you unique. Find what your differentiator is, that unique program, that unique process you've built. And develop an entire, develop your entire marketing and sales strategy around it. Stop talking about health insurance costs that you, you control costs better than anyone in the market. Stop talking about the health care. Miss that, that you, you bring alignment within the health care system. Yes, I know that is what you do. But if you develop a process, a program that helps solve those problems, you are going to have something your competition doesn't. And it is gold. Because now in your marketing, in your emails, in your social media, your prospects are going to be seeing your stuff and saying, I don't know what this is, but I have never heard anybody talk about this this way before. I have never heard about this program before. We need to know more.
You now become unique. And the number one way to grow a book of business today, the number one way to book appointments with the right prospects is to be unique. Because your uniqueness is the bridge between unknown and unstoppable.
So my takeaway for you today is this. Sit down with your team. If you're a solopreneur, sit down by yourself. But sit down and answer the question, what do we do as well as anyone in our market? What is that unique thing we do that nobody else does? And then make that the focal point of your marketing and sales strategy. And everything will change for you because you know what happens. Clarity. And you mix it with confidence. You do amazing things. It.
