3 Reasons You're Not Building Profitable Relationships in Your Insurance Business

It's been shown that success is 87% people knowledge and only 13% product knowledge. On today's AgentLeader podcast, I'm going to discuss the three reasons you're not building profitable relationships in your insurance business. Well, hello there, everyone. This is Brent Kelly with another edition of the Agent Leader podcast. I'm so excited you're joining me here today, and I'm excited about today's subject. Something I want to talk about again, three reasons why you're not building profitable relationships in your insurance business. You know, you may have heard this quote. I think many people have heard this quote. It's popular, but it's very relevant. It comes from the late, great Zig Ziglar who said, if you first help people get what they want, they will help you get what you want. Now, I spent 15 years as an active insurance producer for two different Midwest insurance agencies, both successful. And in that time, I spoke to a large number of insurance company marketing reps. Right. If you've been on the insurance agency side for any time at all, you probably see marketing reps coming out all the time, right. Or making phone calls. There's a lot of turnover in that business as well. But just like any profession, some of the insurance marketing reps were really professional, very knowledgeable, and they were helpful, while others felt like they were just showing up. Right. Check the box. I showed up at these five agencies today, so give me my paycheck. Now. There were two particular marketing reps that I work with personally in my last agency that had different styles, different goals, and they had completely different results with our agency. The first marketing rep, let's just call him, for lack of better term, Mr. Wonderful. Now, Mr. Young. Wonderful was young, confident and self focused. He started most conversations with what he was doing, how he was doing, and what he needed us to do for him. There was really a question from Mr. Wonderful that asked about the needs, the wants of agents or the agency. In fact, most time the questions that he asked focused on how we could help him hit his own personal goals. I can even remember a moment when I was told that, you know, he had an opportunity to win a trip if he hit a certain production number. So I really needed to step up my game so that he could go on this trip. Now, to say that our agency was disinterested in helping Mr. Wonderful was an understatement. And the results, right? Results are everything, were proof of this as well. Our production numbers went down and Mr. Wonderful couldn't quite figure out why. Why aren't you Guys sending me more business. There wasn't a connection. Now, the second marketing rep, let's call him Mr. Value. And Mr. Value came into our office with a smile and always had one question on his mind. How could he help us? There was no level of arrogance or self interest, at least not outwardly. And he was purely focused on adding Value to us by asking us questions, by solving problems for us and discussing new ideas and ways that we could do things better, more efficiently, how we could all be profitable. Now, he worked really hard. He was a hard, hard worker, and it was appreciated. We all want people to work hard. I want to work hard, you want to work hard. But more important than that, you could tell that he truly cared for every person in our agency. See, even though Mr. Value, we call him Mr. Value, he focused on our needs and our interests, his results skyrocketed along with ours. Not just even in our own agency, but in all the agencies he served. And we had several conversations and he was doing phenomenal. And he said, you know, this has been a great year. Why do you think things are going so well? And I said, because you know how to connect with people. You meet them where they're at and you fix their problems. You help them in times of need. They trust you and you care for them. See, connecting, the idea of connecting. And it goes back to, again, that 87% of our results are people based. Connecting is all, and I mean all about the other person. What they want, how they feel, why they're doing what they're doing. Can you understand and relate to them? See, Mr. Value understood the importance of connecting with others. He applied the principle I first heard, as I mentioned at the Open from the late Zig Ziglar. Again, if you first help enough people get what they want, you can have everything that you want. Now, from a personal level, I heard that quote from Zig Ziglar the first time. I was probably in my early 20s, and even though I heard it and it made sense to me, I haven't always applied it successfully. I am naturally impatient. I have a tendency to want to solve a problem before a prospect, client or spouse, love you, honey, has finished their thought. Maybe I'm like you, maybe not. But I have often found myself mentally saying, hey, could you hurry up and finish talking? Because I have something really important to say. Now, although my intentions are normally good and I truly want to help other people, I'm passionate about serving others. I am a human being, which means I have my own wants and needs. And guess what? You're a human being too. Now, this doesn't mean that we're all bad people. It just means that we're normal. But normal is why most people fail to connect effectively. At the top of this podcast, I'm getting to it, I promise. I ask what are three reasons why people don't connect? Why do people not produce profitable relationships? What prevents insurance professionals from doing this? Well, there's a number of reasons, but I want to highlight three and three things that you can think about. This is very mindset related, but it's important. It's how people see you. Sometimes not even what you do, but who you are. Number one is this immaturity. Immaturity. And I don't mean looking young or even acting young. But it's been said that maturity is the ability to see and act on behalf of others. Now, early on in my insurance sales career, my focus was on one thing. I wanted to grow my book of business. Don't we all? It's imperative that every insurance producer focuses on growing a book of business. However, although my goal was just, my mindset was not. That's because my focus before, during and after every appointment, if I'm being honest with myself in my early years, was not how can I best serve and add value to others to grow my book of business? It was how can I make the sale to earn a commission to grow my book of business? Same goal. But the mindset and method are completely the opposite. And I spent many days and weeks and months being frustrated, asking myself, why are these people not understanding what I'm telling them? I'm giving them good stuff. I'm telling them what they need to do. Why aren't they writing me checks? Because instead of asking and serving, I was telling and selling. In many ways, I was my own Mr. Wonderful for much of my early insurance career. And I still have habits today. I have to be careful, be very conscious of what is my intent, what is my purpose. We all want to sell. We all want to make a profit. We all want to grow our business. We can't help others if we're not. But what is the underlying reason? What are we doing? Are we serving? Are we asking and serving? Or are we telling and selling? Number two, why people don't form profitable relationships. It's ego. See, insurance is a unique and complicated industry, isn't it? It takes hard work to understand and apply many of the principles of the business. One of the things that I also had to overcome in my career was my ego. Now I'm a teacher and A speaker and a trainer. Same thing. Because we all have egos to some degree. And as we grow in our knowledge and our confidence and we grow in our bank account, it's very easy to allow our egos to take over any conversation, whether we mean for that to happen or not. In 2005, I attained my CIC designation. That's certified Insurance Counselor. If you're not familiar with that, there's a lot of great designations out there. I mean, CPCU and down the line there's a whole bunch of. But if you're not familiar with the CIC program, it requires attending five different programs. These are 20 hour courses, and then you have to pass five exams. And earning your CIC, like many of these other designations, requires persistence, it requires hard work, it requires talent. Now, when I received my cic, I also noticed that I began to develop a disproportionate sense of my importance. With these little letters behind my name, these three little letters, I sometimes felt that I was above my prospects and clients. I found myself talking down to many prospects and clients versus talking to them. Big difference. See, instead of adding value, I was focused more on demonstrating how smart I was. In fact, when you combine youth, whether that's age or experience with designations or certain experiences, that can be a deadly combination if you're not careful, because we want to make ourselves feel smart. Now, needless to say, telling people how they should think, how they should feel, or what coverage they should buy does not lead to positive communication and connection. And I learned the important truth that states this. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Now, maybe you've heard that before, but think about that again. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So don't allow your ego to interfere with the ability to. With your ability to care and serve others. The final reason why many insurance professionals fail to develop positive, profitable relationships. And this is a mindset. This is purely a mindset, but it is so important. Number three is failure to value everyone. Someone recently asked me, not too long ago, they said, you know, Brent, you talk about adding value all the time, but what is the best way, right? What is the best way to add value? And there's. There's hundreds of ways, right, to add value to people in different aspects. But there's really, as I start to think about it, I'm like, there's really one way that's genuine and it's fundamental. And if you don't have this right, the rest of the stuff doesn't matter. And this is the point I want to get across. To add value to others, you must first value others. Write that down if you're listening. Basic but powerful. To add value to others, you must first value others. Think about it, even from a sales context. Have you ever had someone try to sell you something and they're trying to add features or benefits or value whatever they want to call it, but internally, you know, they don't really value you? The other stuff doesn't matter. When I meet with successful insurance professionals, when I'm working in training programs or I'm speaking, I'm talking to groups and I see successful insurance professionals, there is always one common theme. They truly care and value everyone. I love this quote from John Craig. He said, no matter how much you or how much work you can do, no matter how engaging your personality may be, you will not advance far in business if you cannot work through others. Remember the company insurance marketing representative, Mr. Wonderful? See, Mr. Wonderful was hard working, but he was not willing to work through others. He had one agenda, his own. See, every person you come in contact with has a story. Every person you communicate with has a past, they have a present, and they have a future. Your job is to first value them so that then you can add value to them. Here's the bottom line on today's podcast. Developing the mindset and learning the skill of connecting is the most profitable thing you can do for your business. Remember, almost nine tenths of your success will have to do with the ability to connect and relate with people, not how much you know your product. And this isn't to say you shouldn't know your product. Of course you should. You better know it. But if you can't connect with people, this business will eat you up. Whether you're a producer, an agency owner, a company rep, it doesn't matter your position, because we all need people. We all have to be able to connect and relate with people. Because when you increase your ability to connect, doors will begin to unlock that you never thought thought possible. Connecting is truly all about others. You must get off your own agenda and try to understand your audience. When you improve your relationships, you will grow your business, you'll discover new opportunities, and you'll spend every day loving what you do. Hey, thanks for listening to the Agent Leader podcast again. My name is Brent Kelly and I'm so appreciative that you joined me today. Every Agent Leader podcast is sponsored by Agents of Growth. You can check out Agents of growth@agentsofgrowth.net so catch me next week for another podcast episode here on the Agent Leader Podcast. And if you like this show, if it's brought value to you and your business and your life, please go to itunes or Stidget Radio and leave me a review. I'd much appreciate it. Again, all the best to you and your success, Sam.