5 relationships to address during the Coronavirus crisis

Hi, Brent Kelly here, the Sitkins Group with my profit tip Professional Fitness to help your agency gain clarity, consistency and make a commitment to become your best version possible. Well, crazy times, right? We all know the crazy times that are out there. The impact that it's having for us today, the impact that it potentially may have for us tomorrow. And what I want to do is to share just some very basic ideas of things that you as an insurance agency leader, as a producer, as any type of insurance professional can begin to think about, of things that you can do today to help position and value for tomorrow. Obviously, things are different in the world we live in as of right now, but I do believe in this quote by John Adams and it may be cliche, but it's true. Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. So although this is going to create a lot of difficulties and challenges for you, for your clients, for your carriers, for people in your community, I think if we take time to say what can we do today to best position ourselves and add value to our clients or community, whoever it may be, tomorrow is something to think about versus waiting and hoping the noise will go away and eventually things will just work out. We still have to be intentional, even in crazy times. Calm, but intentional. So let me share five areas, and these are five areas of relationship management that we talk about all the time at Sitkins. But just thinking about in today's world, things that you can do, whether it's the next week or two or however long this goes on, it could be many months that you can position yourself to, to win and add value and to truly be a resource for those around you, to be a leader and to gain influence. The first one, this seems like common sense, but it's with our clients. Now, many of you are already having some form of communication with your clients. Maybe they contacted you, but I would really challenge you if you have not contacted your top at least 20% of your clients. Depending on your book of business that you have, the top 20% produces 80% of the revenue for your agency or your book of business. Reach out with a phone call just to let them know that you're there, that you care, and that if there's things you can help them with, you're going to be a resource for them. It means a lot. It's really interesting. Oftentimes that we take that for granted, but don't miss that opportunity. Just to pick up the phone, not just an email, pick up the phone and call. And if you leave a voicemail, great. But be a human being and establish a relationship, go deeper in this next fic. Future Ideal clients. A lot of times I'll hear for insurance professionals, whether it's a holiday season coming up or certainly in something like this, which we've never seen before, for is that, well, at this point they don't want to hear from me. I don't want to be another distraction. I get all that. But if you've identified your future ideal clients, now may be a time. In fact, it is a time to reach out and again, add value or be a resource. Because you would be surprised their current agency or current producer may not be doing anything. We've already heard that from some of our clients that, you know what, I reached out just to say, hello, I'm here for you. I'm not trying to interrupt or cause you more noise, but there's some things that I may have that may be of value to you. I want to make sure that you know that I'm a resource for you. And they go, thank you, I appreciate that. My current agency hasn't even contacted me. So what are some areas with your future ideal clients? Third, so often I hear where we're too busy to really communicate proactively with our carriers. Again, they're busy with stuff, I get that. But reach out. What can we do as an agency or me as a producer, whatever your role is to help you, what do you need? Because you'll be amazed at how far that goes now and in the future we should be proactively managing a relationship with our best carriers anyway. But now is the time to simply reach out and do that. Next is coins. COINS is an acronym for center of Influence Network. So you've got trusted advisors in your community or maybe in your network of some kind. And right now would be a wonderful time to again pick up the phone and say, listen, I want to reach out to you. I know times are crazy out there. What are some of your clients saying? What are some things that I could potentially help you with? Learn from them. Network, add value. And again, when this goes through, at some point they're going to say, you know what? That was a person that I really can count on and lean on. How can we do more business together? How can I help share ideas and potentially clients with each other. So centers of influence. And then lastly, and by the way, this is, I think I spelled that wrong. It's supposed to say colleagues, alright? Your colleagues, the people that are in your agency. This seems simplistic, but now that we are in many cases working from home that we're remote, that we're not together. Unfortunately, what's happened for many of us is, well, you know, I guess we'll just, you know, our communication will go down. This is the time for you to increase your communication again. Not just constant interruptions, but be proactive with your colleagues. Reach out. If you're an agency leader, have a quick 5 to 10 minute video conference huddle. What did you learn today? What's going on? To make sure we don't lose that for many producers in particular, we're social creatures and not having that can cause us anxiety. I've been there, I'm experiencing that myself. And so to have these ideas that we need to get together with our colleagues and really share some of these ideas and be intentional, not just hope it will all go away, really important. So these five areas, your clients, your future ideal clients, your carriers, your centers of influence. I didn't spell it right. But your colleagues, those in your agency, what can you do proactively to position yourself as a value provider, as someone they can trust, as someone they can depend on and someone they know that when times get rough, you'll be there. Now is your time to prepare yourself for future opportunities. And by the way, it's the right thing to do. All the best. And your success.