The Broker's Voice: Sims Tillirson - Director of Business Development, PES Enrollments

All right, let's dive into this week's episode. I'm excited to bring this gentleman on. I've gotten to know him mainly starting with LinkedIn. He is a professional in the insurance industry. He's doing great things, not only on LinkedIn, but for his company. This week, I am bringing to you Sims Tillerson. Sims is the director of Business development for the PES enrollment. And I couldn't be more excited to have you on SIMS as episode one of 2021. Welcome to the Broker's Voice.

Appreciate it, man. Thank you for having me.

You bet, man. You bet, man. This is going to be a fun episode. So, Sims, let's level set, man. You're the business director. Business director of business development for PEs enrollments. For the folks out there who have no clue who you are, tell us a little bit about Sims, where you live, where you're from.

Yeah.

And what you're doing here in 2021, man.

Yeah, absolutely. So I live in Columbia, South Carolina, with my wife Brianne, who's also in the insurance industry, and my little English cocker spaniel, Doc Holliday. So apart from, you know, obviously being in the benefits education enrollment space, I play a little music, I like to mentor people, and I'm super passionate about content creation, which is, you know, how we connected.

That's awesome. You know, we're going to get into a little bit about what you're doing today as the Director of Business development at PES Enrollments, but let's start here. What is an interesting fact that most people don't know about Sims Tillerson?

Yeah. So I'm gonna give you two. The first is, you know, everybody sees these guitars and stuff behind me, but I'm a actual recording artist that you can find on Spotify and itunes, which I think is pretty neat. And also, I have, like, 10 tattoos, which is a little out of the norm for the insurance biz.

Well, it's interesting, Sims. You know, I think the game has changed a whole lot, especially in the insurance world in 2020. I think people for so long felt we had to be in suits and ties if we wanted to get any kind of respect, and that game has changed. Now, don't get me wrong, you still have to look the part if you want to win business. But today, as I said at the beginning of this show, it is humans connecting with humans. And that, you know, that CFO you're trying to attract or that broker you're trying to attract, they're going through the same crap you are. So just Be yourself. And that's what I love about you. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, you and I connected on LinkedIn and we've really gotten to know each other over the last nine, ten months. How has LinkedIn helped you grow your business at PES enrollments?

So. Absolutely. So to give you guys a little background, I grew up on the carrier side with Unum Group in colonial life and built most of my broker relationships in the Central and Western U.S. i live in South Carolina, so in 2020, I could not get on a plane to go see the people that I did business with. And I knew that I wasn't going to sell anything if I didn't switch up my strategy. So, you know, we've talked a lot about LinkedIn best practices. You've helped me a lot there. But I pivoted and threw all my energy into marketing myself and my personal brand on LinkedIn and, you know, had tremendous success just in getting viewership, followership, and then after committing to that strategy for a couple of months, ultimately getting quite a few inbound leads from brokers that, you know, I'm now doing business with who I never could have met last year if I hadn't implemented that strategy.

Yeah, I mean, so what would be your advice? Because, let's face it, we still have a lot of brokers and partners to the industry that don't feel like they need to be on LinkedIn. They feel like social media is a waste of time. You know, you and I are actually physically talking on January 6th. What advice would you give that person?

Yeah, absolutely. So what I tell you is get on LinkedIn today and start posting content just very consistently. And don't jump on and post a bunch of bullshit about your brand. We want to see it, we want to know what you do, but we don't really care about that. We care about who you are. That's what resonates with people. And it's funny, I made a post a couple of months ago. It's one of my most viewed posts, got like 25,000 views, almost a thousand likes. And it's about my sobriety, which is like a huge no, no, right. Don't post about your dirty laundry. But I've had so many industry professionals reach out to me, want to do business with me, want to meet me because of that post, because it humanized me. It took away just the PES enrollments brand and, you know, the insurance professional I am and made me a real person that people can trust and people can know without Meeting me face to.

Face, you know, if you don't. If you wouldn't mind sharing, actually talk about the part two to that post. Because, you know, when you posted that on social media, I have to admit, even I was like, whoa. Like, I don't know if I would have gone that deep. Right. And kudos to you for doing it. But because you went out on a limb, you put yourself out there and really talked, exposed a huge vulnerability from your past. What was the result? What happened after that? Besides. Besides the huge engagement.

Yeah. So my favorite part of the story, and I won't name him today, but a broker who I've been trying. I had been cold calling and cold emailing, and he wouldn't get back to me. He called me on the phone and he's like, what the hell is wrong with you? Why did you post that? And I was like, oh, Lord, here we go. But from there we went into, man, this is such a huge issue in our industry. Talking about alcoholism and substance abuse. He's like, you know, I've struggled a little bit with alcohol in my younger years. And so we connected there. And, you know, from there we've been having conversations about doing business together. And again, this is a guy, you know, I make cold calls, sometimes cold emails and stuff, and this guy just wouldn't give me the time of day. And it was after I humanized myself for him and he was able to make that connection for me. It broke down that wall between us. And now he's calling me that.

See, right there. Boom. I think the lesson there is, you know, do you need to go share some skeletons from your closet to make this happen? No, you don't. But at the end of the day, when you put yourself out there on social media and mainly LinkedIn, if you're an insurance professional, LinkedIn is going to be your number one platform. All of a sudden, your prospects start reaching out to you. And I still recall that text you sent me. I believe it was a voice text. You're like, man, you know what I can't believe? Because of results of the result of my LinkedIn content, I have prospects reaching out to me. I don't have to spend every day trying to proactively reach out to them. And, you know, I think it's important to sims to know, to let people know. You know, you said you got 25,000 views, 1,000 likes on that post, but it's not always about likes and comments and views. Where do you find, what advice would you give to a broker or industry partner about making sure they're talking to their right audience.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first part of that is understanding who your target customer is. Right. So, and if people listening to this say, well, I'll do business with anybody, switch that mindset, define your target demographic and figure out who you want to do business with. And then from there figure out what's going to resonate with those people. I mean, you know, there will be someone who sees the post you make about your brand and it'll resonate with them, maybe. But define yourself as an industry expert, whether it's in a, you know, a niche, if you're a self funded specialist, whatever it may be, define your niche. Put post about that post about how you help people, the problem you solve, and then humanize yourself and from there your target audience will gravitate to that. So you know, if you're posting in the employee benefits hashtag, I follow that hashtag, I go look at every post that's ever made in it so that I can learn new things. And a lot of other people do that as well. And you made a good point. It's not always about likes and views and comments. Comments. There are people lurking in the background just looking at stuff that you'll never know. They're looking at your stuff and they'll call you or message you one day and say, hey, this really resonated with me. So the other tip that I give you is that even as you start posting, if you don't feel you're getting the engagement you need, don't lose heart. People are seeing it and people will respond eventually.

Yeah, two things there I don't want to go overlooked. Number one, what you just said. The people who resonate with your content the most, the people who are going to reach out to you with a private message and say, hey, I love what you're doing, let's jump on a call. Are the ones who have never liked or commented on your content before. The second thing you brought up about searching the hashtag employee benefits, benefits advisor. I tell people all the time you Want engagement on LinkedIn or social media in general, engage with others, go search content and engage with it. So if you're targeting CFOs in your specific geographical market, go search them, see what they're posting and engage with it. If you want engagement, start engaging with others. So Sims, last question on social media for you before we dive into what you're doing at PES for that broker, that partner out there is like, okay, Sims, got it. I know I need to be on. I just have no clue where to start. What would be like one piece of advice you would give that broker to get get started on social media like a platform like LinkedIn?

Yeah. So my, my first piece of advice and the biggest one for me is define three characteristics that you want to encompass your brand. So mine are I'm real af, I'm kind, and I'm helpful. So every piece of content I post, it gravitates to one of those values. So much so that even if I just don't know what to post today, in keeping with my real AF or my authenticity, I'm going to say, hey guys, I don't know what the hell to post today, but I'm still going to show up and I'm still going to engage. And so that's where I would start. I would start with your values and then consistency, persistency, and the results will come.

Speaking my language, man, it's consistency, persistency, and patient. What three things do you want to become known for? You're doing it all right now. And for those out there who have no clue what real AF means, go look it up. This is a kid friendly show.

All right, now let's dive into the PES enrollments. Your business director of Business Development at PES Enrollments. Not a sales pitch, but just for the folks out there who just a broker who may have no clue who PES is. Tell us a little bit about PES enrollment and what you're doing for employers across America.

Absolutely. So we are benefits educators. That's what we're passionate about. We want to protect what people have worked so hard to build. So we are a soup to nuts benefits education firm that brings customized technology, marketing people, administrative and advocacy solutions to customers all across the country. If you've got 100 or more employees, call me. If you're a broker that services groups with 100 more employees, call me. We want to help people. We want to engage people. We want to educate people, make sure they protect themselves and protect their families.

That's awesome, man. So with that being said, besides LinkedIn, because that's where everybody sees you today, is where else can people reach out to you and connect with you if they want to know more?

So yeah, LinkedIn is the best place. You can hit me on my cell phone, which is 803-727-5620, or on my email@stillersonesenroll.com or you can hit me on Bandcamp, Spotify, itunes. Reach me anywhere you want to to talk about Business, music, whatever.

This man is everywhere. He is omnipresent. That is awesome. All right, I'll put, I'll put, definitely put the cell phone in the email address, in the notes of this video of this interview with sim. So hey man, with that, thanks, thanks for your time again for being on the episode, the first episode of 2021. You know, it's January 6th. We're looking ahead. Definitely 2020 was a year like none of us ever expected or probably have ever experienced. As we look forward, I'm a big believer and rip the rearview mirror off and just look forward. What's your outlook for the industry here in 2021?

So I think that 2020 took us into hyperspeed. We were going in the digital direction and you know, as a very conservative industry, we're dragging our feet and 2020 said, too bad, hyper speed. So my outlook for the industry is that, you know, customers are getting smarter, information is easier to find than it ever has been and there's transparency legislation coming down. So the old, you know, the good old boys network is falling apart, man. The, the industry is ripe for the, the innovative benefits advisor who's going to be transparent, who's going to do what's in the best interest of their customer and who's going to be easy to find, who's going to be able to employers and their clients where they are through social media, through digital means. So you know, in the enrollment space specifically, I don't think we're ever going to go back to the heights we've seen with in person, face to face enrollments. I think that the mix we're seeing with call center and with co browsing and self enrollment is going to stay. I think that's here to stay forever. Yeah.

And a tagline I'm living by this year is adapt and thrive or get eaten alive. If you're not adapting right now, if you're still stuck in the way we've done things, it's going to be a quick, quick end of the road for you. So Sims, man, appreciate it. Any lasting words of wisdom for the broker partner community out there.

Man?

Be real, be persistent, be consistent and go show your prospects why this is a good business to be in. And while we're all in it, and that's to help people and protect people.

Thanks man. And brokers industry partners out there, do yourself a favor, go check SIMS out on LinkedIn. If you're not following or connected with them, please do. The guy's got great content. Sims, one last time. Thank you man. I really appreciate your time today.

Always a pleasure, man. Thanks for having me.

All right, guys, brokers out there, industry partners, remember, it's all about consistency, persistency, and patience. And again, one last time, you want to learn more about the Broker Academy, which will be launching on February 2nd. I put it right here. Text academy to 414-622-1462. Remember, it's 2021. Humans connect with humans. They do not connect with logos on business cards. This is your chance to be human, to connect with your prospects on a human level, because we are never going back to the way it's been. With that being said, this is the end of Broker's voice, and you have yourself a great day.