Moving from Good to Indispensable

Welcome to the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. I am excited, honored you're with me on another episode and this really is part three of a three part series I've been doing on the customer experience. So kind of taking that customer experience to hey, that's pretty good or you know, that's all right, to wow, this is a really incredible experience in working with your, with your client. Now, before I dive into some of the content today, just a couple things. First of all, if you have not listened to the first two episodes, what are you waiting for? Go back, you can listen to the last two episodes and if you have, thank you very much, I appreciate that. Just really as a quick recap to go back, the first episode on customer experience, I focused on the internal side of the customer experience. The fact that for you to have a good external client experience, you've got to first align with yourself internally with is your sales and your service and your claims. I talk about the importance of having high performance teams that not one person can deliver a great client experience experience on their own, certainly not in today's world. We've got to work together, align our strengths, communicate at a high level. So that is a critical episode, if you haven't listened to that. And then the second episode on this really talked about the idea that we can't deliver, we can't meet, we certainly can't exceed what we have not defined and what we have not documented. Right? So we've got to understand that even though we may have some neat stuff at our agency, and I'll talk a little more about that today, some things that we do differently or hope you've got some things you do differently, that if we don't understand and define what that means to the client, if we don't ask the right questions, if we don't put it in their terms, their value system, not ours, sometimes we can be doing things that although we think is really exciting and really cool and should enhance the client experience, they may not be getting a lot of value from it. So it's important that we define exactly what that is to clarify and then to go ahead and document. So on this third part of this series, I want to take it to the last step, which is to, to deliver, we've got to go out and deliver on what we're actually doing. And you know, the first thing that I think about when it comes to delivering an ultimate client experience and whatever term you want to give, right, that just to be unique in the marketplace is that we've got to think different, we have to act different. And you've probably heard the term differentiation many times in the marketplace. And I think it's easy to talk about, you know, we got to be different, we got to be different, we have to act different, but what are we really doing to act and be different? One of my absolute favorite games as a child and actually as an adult, I actually like it almost more as an adult is the game of Scattergories. Now, if you played the game of Scattergories, you know what I'm talking about as far as what the game is like and what it feels like and how you play. But I'm sure many of you have not played Scattergories or it's been a while. So there is a reason I'm sharing the story because there's a lot of lessons to learn in Scattergories in playing that game as there is to go out and differentiate and to deliver a high level experience in the marketplace. So Scattergories is a pretty simple game. It's a game of lists, right? So you have some lists that you have in front of you, and you typically play with, you know, hopefully three, four, five, six people. The more people actually, the more challenging it is. But you've got a list in front of you and maybe it says something like a boy's name or us City, a type of food. Those are pretty easy ones. And then you roll this big die that has all the letters on the Alphabet. So it's this big die. And whatever letter comes up, you have to mark down something on the list that corresponds with the first letter of that, of that what's on the die. And so very easy example, if it was the letter C comes up, the timer starts, you have 60 seconds, and you would write down names like Chris, and the city would be like Chicago Food could be cauliflower. So it has to be starting with C. So the first challenge is just getting the stuff put down that you actually have something. But the only way that you score points in Scattergories is that if your answer is unique or different from everybody else. And why I like this game is it unleashes a little bit of creativity. You've got to think on your feet, you've got to be quick, but you also have to be creative. So, for example, instead of saying food being cauliflower, which is pretty common, or maybe corn, you would use candy corn, which, by the way, gives you two points in categories because you have two Cs. But the idea is that when you go through is that if you have the same answer, you mark it off the list. It doesn't count. And so why I share that with you, there is a point, is that I do believe that most agencies, most agents, they look the same, they talk the same, they walk pretty much the same, they have the same value proposition, typically that comes out. So to differentiate and then to deliver on that, it typically doesn't look or feel much different. And in fact, I think a lot of maybe you've heard these things before in delivering a client experience is that maybe out there in the marketplace, you've heard things like, well, you people are all the same, or it's all the same stuff anyway. And of course, one of my favorites is, can you get me an Apples to Apples quote? And if you've been in this business very long, I am sure you've heard, can you get me an Apples to Apples quote? My favorite comeback, by the way, just as a quick aside, is if you do some research on varieties of apples, it's actually a question that can elicit a little bit of fun. In the United States alone, there are 2,500 varieties of apples. In the world, there are 7,500 varieties of apples. So the next time someone says to you, hey, could you just get me an apple? I'm just looking for an Apples to Apples quote, right? I'm going to keep my agent honest, which, oh, my gosh, I could go on and on about that, but just give me an Apples to Apples quote, Say, hey, I really appreciate you bringing that up. You know, in the United States, there's 2,500 varieties of apples. Which specific variety are you looking for today? And just be quiet. Now, for some of you, maybe you think that's snarky, maybe it is. You have to have the right relationship and know the person. But it's kind of fun. And here's the idea that I want to share with you one of your jobs to differentiate and to be. I'm going to get to. To become this true, indispensable risk partner. I'm going to mention this term in a minute again. But to be indispensable, you have to open new files. And as I go back to my first two episodes, of course, that starts by what. It starts by communicating with your team right internally. It next is really defining and documenting what the client is asking for. But you also have to understand the fact that if you're not going to look the same, if you're not going to walk the same if you're going to be an indispensable risk partner, you have to be able to ask questions in the process, both in the sales process and certainly in a renewal or we call a continuation process that make someone stop and think and go, wow, you know, no one's ever asked me that before or I haven't really heard it that way before. And so that's a way, you know, one of the top ways you can deliver on a client experience is that first thing you have to do is you have to ask the questions that make your people, the people that you work with, right. Your future ideal clients and your current clients, stop think, analyze the questions in terms of you. Right. And their paradigm and then be able to reply. And when someone says, yeah, no one's ever asked me that before or I haven't heard it said that way before, you know, that story is unique. I haven't really thought about it that way. You're on the right track, right? You're on the right track. I will tell you before I dive into some ideas on this, specifically on delivering, you know, this high level experience that there are in my world three kind of levels of insurance agencies, there's quoters and floaters. And I say that because most agencies go out and they quote any and every type of business or person and then they float around and do the next. You know, just look at websites. Free quote, Get a free quote. Get a free quote. Well, what is the mindset? How are you different? How can you deliver on a high experience? If your call to action, so to speak, and your differentiation is that, oh, we offer free quotes. And by the way, you can be anybody, any type of business, you could be any type of risk. And we'll give you a quote, right? And everybody else is doing that out there. So that's, I would say about 80% of agencies really react and act in that way. The next level up is a trusted advisor where you really begin to have a different level, a deeper relationship with your clients. And you heard the term trusted advisor, I'm sure before the best definition I can give you as a trusted advisor. A trusted advisor is someone when your client needs to make a business or financial decision, they call you before they make the decision, not after. So that's a pretty key indicator. Just for example, in the property and casualty world, if someone calls you after they buy a building, you're probably more of a vendor in their eyes. Now whether that's fair or not, that's something you have to think about. But if they're calling you after they see you more as a vendor, a trusted advisor, they would say, hey, Brent, we're looking at buying a building, and whether it's a week out or hopefully further out, what type of impact would this have on their insurance? How would this affect our risk? And, you know, we're a big proponent at Sidkins that we're talking about true cost of risk. We're talking about being more attractive to the marketplace. We're talking about having the underwriter's point of view. So some of this language we want to build up from the beginning, right, and change that game. But that's what a trusted advisor really is. My challenge to you listening to this is can you become an indispensable risk partner? Now, that's the pinnacle. I would say only about the top 2% of agencies and producers out there really are indispensable. Meaning that if they go away, right, if they don't exist, their clients are like, oh, no, what are we going to do? How are we going to, you know, how are we going to react to that? So how do you become indispensable? I guess that's. That's the idea today. How do we deliver on this? I'm going to target three different areas, and obviously, I'm not going to go really deep on all of these. But if you ever have questions, reach out to me, Brenitkins.com and, you know, carry on a conversation with me. I'd be happy to listen to you if some questions that you have learn more about some of your challenges. But the first part of being indispensable is you have to align. And of course, this kind of goes back to part one and talking about aligning with your team, but you have to align on who you actually want to work with. You know, I can tell you, most agencies don't really know who their future ideal clients are. And I've mentioned it before on this podcast, but at Sitkins, we don't use the term suspect or prospect. We only use the term future ideal client because I want it to be a mindset and actually tactically that we are going to have a defined list of future ideal clients so that before we ever have the initial conversation, you know, some of their potential concerns, you know, some of the influencers, right. You've done some research. You know a lot about the type of client that you want to work with, right. And so you're aligning that saying, okay, are these the people or into our business that aligns with our strengths with, aligns the People we like to work with. Now, one of the great ways you can do this as a starting point is just to go to the 8020 principle that we talk about all the time. But look at your top 20% of your clients. If you don't have an actual specialty or a niche, which I really believe that's such an important thing to do. People love specialists for reasons I won't dive into it here. I've done a podcast about becoming a specialist. But just look at your top 20% of your clients and say, are there common characteristics? Why do we work so well with some of these clients that, by the way, also produce the most revenue for me in the agency and start to find some characteristics, but really want to challenge you, first of all to align by understanding what is a future ideal client for our agency. Because it's hard to be indispensable when you're working with clients that you don't align with very well. I know I've had this in my world in several different instances where it's like you always feel like you're trying to fit the round peg in the square hole. You know, it's like, man, I'm doing everything I possibly can to help this client. You know, we've bent over backwards. We've done all the work, you know, we've tried to go above and beyond, but it just doesn't feel like it's clicking. Well, it's probably because what their needs are don't really match what you do at the highest level and you have to be honest with yourself on that. So I think the first step of being indispensable is simply aligning and making sure you have identified your future ideal clients. The next part goes into being a true differentiator. Now, I mentioned the last podcast episode about defining and then documenting what it is your clients are looking for and what they need and what their value systems are. Now, first of all, we have to deliver upon that, obviously, right? So if we're going to talk about they want to have a proactive service calendar, you should be delivering on a service calendar, obviously. Alright, if they talk about that, one of the things you're going to do and what's important to them is to have a true, not made up, a true annual risk review. Well, then you should be doing that, right? So a lot of things you can do to go above and beyond. But I want to talk about this idea of points of differentiation and this really does start at the sales process, but it helps to make you indispensable and to deliver at a very high level is to really understand, again, what makes you and your agency unique and different. Most agencies talk about the fact that they have great service, that they are independent, that they're local, that they've been in business a long time, that we've got really great people, that we give competitive quotes. That becomes the value proposition. Well, how do you deliver on that? We have great service. Well, what does that mean? This goes back to defining and then documenting what that means. But I want to take it a step further. You as an agency have to really be clear up front on what truly makes you unique and different and compelling in the market marketplace. Right. What actually makes your agency stand out, what truly does make you different. If you're going to talk about, for the example, that, well, we're a local agency, well, again, what does that mean to the client? As you have more conversations and you think about it, you go, what really has been important for us being local is what that we're very active in our community, that we're very involved with some charitable organizations. I mean, I'm just giving examples right now that may or may not be important to the client and that's why we got to define and document. But that can be your point of differentiation, which goes back to identifying future ideal clients. If one of your pillars, if one of your value principles is that we are extremely active in our community, some businesses and people go, that's exactly who we're looking for. And we align that up front, we align that with our team, we ask questions around that. I'm just giving examples about differentiation and guess what? We can deliver upon that and from beginning to end we're aligned. And guess what? We become indispensable in their minds because who else is going to do that? Who else are we going to be able to work with as a client that values, you know, doing charitable things in our local community as much as this agency? Right. I don't know. Right. So I'm just giving you a very high level example. Now. Obviously this can get into specific risk mitigation services that you're doing. Maybe specific risk coverages. So cyber liability, maybe you do specific disaster things. Maybe you have in house claims management. I could go on and on and on. But whatever those things are, again, you have to identify, wow, this is really why people buy from us. This is why people love doing business with. How do we take that to the next level and expand upon that? I think what I see so often agencies do is they try to fix all the Weaknesses or things they don't do really well. They don't have the right carriers for this or they don't have the right services for that. But again, they try to fit the round peg in the square hole and there's frustration. And guess what? That doesn't make you indispensable. That makes you more of a commodity or more of a vendor in many cases. And it's very hard to stand out. But when you own right, when you own what you do at a high level, and by the way, some of that's going to take some thinking on your part, I can tell you. When we do, we just look at five points of differentiation with the agencies that we work with in our private client group. Now, some go deeper than that. But starting with five true points of differentiation and then thinking about our client base, what does that mean for them? And do we have evidence? Do we have tools? Do we have resources? Do we have testimonials to support? That is a hard thing to do. Even with some of the larger agencies we work with. They have to think about this. Wait a second. Let's take a step back and guess what? From the beginning of the process to the end, we are aligned, right? And we move forward together as a team, both internally and our agency, because we're on the same page and certainly with our clients from beginning to end, which makes the experience an incredible experience. And guess what? It does. It makes you indispensable, right? It makes you indispensable. Now, a couple things that I will tell you, and this is just with really any agency that should be doing some of this, but I can tell you most of them don't. Something as simple as a true annual risk review will make your agency stand out. Now, if you've got a specialty and you're in a niche, obviously you can dive even deeper into this, as you should. But I think about the idea that we talk about at Sitkins, the professional fitness experience. The first word of professional fitness is professional. When I think of professionals, we can think of professional athletes, maybe professionals in the business space. We think of physicians or attorneys or accountants. But sometimes I would even say in many times, I don't think that the general public in many cases thinks of the insurance agency or the insurance risk advisor, the account executive, whatever title as a professional. And obviously you know the marketplace, and if you turn on the TV or watch commercials on the Internet, we've kind of done that to ourselves from the insurance world. But as an independent insurance agency, you have a great opportunity to present yourself and represent yourself as a high level professional which was going to help you become indispensable. Imagine a physician. Now of course this may actually be happening in some cases, but that's a different story. But could you imagine coming in to see a doctor because you have knee pain and you've got knee pain and you come in and say, well, you know, I was talking to a friend of mine who's, I don't know in school, he took a class or two in medicine and he said, I have this, but he said I should take this pill. And the doctor without doing any diagnosis, right, any test, any evaluation goes, oh, I'll just give you some other medicines that are like it, right? I mean, it sounds kind of silly or you come in with a sore throat and the physician doesn't check you, doesn't review you, doesn't do anything where hands on type of things or ask you questions specifically about what that means and what you're feeling. That would be malpractice, wouldn't it? If they prescribed you something and this is something again, if you're driving, don't write this down, but remember this prescription without proper diagnosis is malpractice. And I see so often to become indispensable. Today, one of the first things, and I would say easiest thing now, again, it still takes work, but is to do a true risk diagnosis that you are really a risk professional. From the beginning, we're talking about risk, right? Not just an insurance quote. Certainly insurance is part of the solution. And for the professionals out there that know this, whether you call it total cost of risk or true cost of risk, there are a lot of aspects of risk, and this is true with big counts, obviously, but even with middle market and smaller accounts and certainly high net worth, I mean some people don't care about it, but those aren't the clients you probably want to work with, but those that really do value their profitability, their clients, their employees on a personalized level, they value the value of their time, all their treasures, their home, their boat, right? Think about things, life insurance, their kids, their family. Really understand the value of that. It is your duty, it really is, as a professional. To give a proper prescription means you have to ask the right questions, you have to go a little deeper. And when you do that, you get to know them at a deeper level, you do your job at a deeper level and that's one of the ways that you can truly become indispensable, right? Truly become indispensable. Last thing I want to mention on this Podcast is something that I think to become indispensable. One of the words that I've talked about before that gets missed is the word relationship. This is a relationship, business first. It just is. Now some people would argue, oh no, there's no relationships. Yeah, I think for certain clients you're probably right. And as I just said, those are probably the clients you don't want to. But I believe, and I'm an avid fan of technology and using technology to enhance things, but I think technology should always be used to enhance relationships, not shy away from them. There's a big difference there. Let's think about that. To enhance relationships, not to shy away from them. And I can tell you, I know many cases in my life as an active producer that I had the best price, that I even had better coverages and I didn't win the account. Why? Because I didn't have the relationship. I wasn't doing a good job in relationship management. So one of the ways that you can be as an agency or as a producer to be truly indispensable is you have to be totally focused on relationship management. And by the way, this is a proactive approach, not a reactive approach. I've talked a lot about having a service calendar and annual risk reviews. We can go through lots of things you could do from a risk perspective and you should be doing that. But what about actually understanding your clients at a personal level? You know, just the needs of their business, having some fun, sharing a laugh, writing a thank you note, understanding important events in their life. They are human beings and be amazed in today's world how much we overlook the value of being human and relationships. And there's a great book out there that says humans are overrated. And it's so good. It's a great book, but it just talks about some of the areas of this. But the idea is this, that I think in today's world with technology and will continue to expand. We know that. That's obvious. It's been around for years and years now. We continue to see how fast this happens. But those that take the time to ask a relationship based question, I think the most precious thing that you can give people today is your time and your attention. Just think about it. When someone looks you in the eye and really cares today, really cares, how does that make you feel? Because how many other people do that? Everybody else is rushing around 1,000 miles an hour. I got to do this and get to this and come back to this. And someone looks you in the eye and goes, how are you doing? How are things? And really listens to you. Is that a deposit they're making in your life or withdrawal? Because one of the things that we see over and over again is that most insurance agencies are consistently making withdrawals. I need this. Can you give me this? Pay the bill, send this in for the claim form, work, comp, loss, whatever it is. And although we think we're doing our job, and we are right, by the way, but for the client, it's really a withdrawal. It's one more thing I have to do. And so I believe just like a bank account, if you make more withdrawals than you make deposits in your clients, not only will you not be indispensable, but you will lose clients. Right? You will lose relationships and you lose accounts that you shouldn't. The bottom line is this. If I could wrap this up with all the three parts of this series is I want to challenge you from a customer experience, from a mindset standpoint, then just kind of get to the tactical aspect as you work through this as an agency, is that the mindset should be, is that we do not renew accounts. It's one of the principles. We talk about the Sitkins Network with our private clients. We have to understand we don't renew accounts. People always say, what do you mean you don't renew accounts? Well, yes, technically we want to renew accounts, but our mindset is we don't renew accounts. We continue relationships. Now just think about that for a second. We continue relationships. And that goes back from the beginning. That we have to understand to continue relationships at a high level, our internal team has to be aligned, right? We have to understand that we have to align with our clients and saying, what are your defined expectations? And let's document that so we can go out there and say, how are we doing? Are we doing the things that you're asking us to do? Let's make sure we're on the same page. And lastly, we have to become indispensable by understanding that are we working with the right clients? Do we understand our agency's strengths, that we do really well? And are we truly being a relationship management provider, do we care more than the fact that it's just a client that has a checkbook or a business or an auto policy? Because these are human beings. And I can tell you from my world, there's been many cases in professional relationships, no one's perfect. You're going to make mistakes, I'm going to make mistakes. But if I know at the end of the day that they have my best interest in mind. That's really what it being. They had the best interest of me in mind, then I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. But if they think that they're just another number, they're just another policy, they're just another phone call that you have to make, guess what? You're never going to be able to deliver at a high level and you will never be truly indispensable. Hope this podcast was helpful for you today and this series. A couple exciting things. I've got a couple interviews taped with our Sidkins Network members, some of the leaders, and I want to get them on just to kind of share what leadership means to them, some of the challenges that they're dealing with, some of the things that they're doing within their agency. It's one of those things where I know they have such great value to share and as this listenership continues to grow, I want to make sure I bring that to you, the listening audience. So look forward. That should be coming out in the next several months. I'll still be doing some solo podcasts as well, and maybe some other surprises on the way. So if this podcast has added value to you and your agency, I really would appreciate a review and rating on itunes or Stitcher or wherever you're listening and also share it. Tell a friend about it. We're looking for more subscribers. Want to grow this audience. So with that being said, I wish you and your agency all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.