Stop Guessing

Foreign. Thanks for joining me on the Agent Leader podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. I'm honored and excited with me on today's episode. And this is basically part two. It could be a standalone episode, but if you listen to my previous podcast episode on the client experience, I told you this is kind of a three part series, so to speak, on the client experience. And last week I spoke about the internal aspect of the client experience. That for us to deliver a great client experience externally, where most of us see the actual experience, right, the actual relationship, we've got to first make sure that we've got our ducks in a row internally, that we do have a high performance team, that we are communicating, that we understand both sales and services, needs and wants and how to value each other internally. So if you haven't listened to that episode, it really starts with that we can't give a great external client experience until we work internally as a team. Today I want to take it to the next level and talk about this idea of the first step of the external client experience is the topic and the title of this podcast episode is Stop guessing. Stop guessing. And I think one of the mistakes I see a lot of insurance agencies make out there in today's world is that we think we know the client's expectations. A great story that my mentor and CEO of the Sitkins Group, Roger Sitkins, often shares is that he had a gentleman who came into the producer fit program, this is our producer training program, and he had, you know, nice looking guy and a good crisp shirt and on his business card it had the agency name and his position, all that good stuff. And then it said in quotes like the tagline was exceeding your expectations. Right? Looked good. Exceeding your expectations. It sounds good. We exceed your expectations. And Roger saw the card and he asked the guy, that's a great car, great shirt. Oh, thank you, thank you. And said, hey, I'm just curious what's like your biggest account or the most profitable account, the best account that you have? And he named off an account, it was like XYZ Manufacturing or something. And Roger asked him, he said, I'm curious, what are their specific expectations of you in the agency? And he just kind of said, well, you know, I mean, you know, this and that and kind of rambled off a few things that were just off the top of his head and it kind of hit him. And of course, you know, Roger knew what he was doing in coaching and says, we don't really know. And it sounds pretty simple. But for often in the client Experience we can't meet and we certainly can't exceed what we have not defined, what we have not documented. And so today when I talk about the client experience, I'm going to talk about three Ds of the client experience when it revolves around stop guessing. This idea of stop guessing what you think your clients want. And to help give you some tangible ways that you can begin to really understand specifically what, what does your clients want so that you can work together. And so the three Ds are to define, to document and to deliver. Define, document and deliver. I'm gonna obviously start with define and to dive into the topic of defining what your clients want. I wanna share a little personal story and my experience with my children. I've said this before on podcasts and those that know me. I have five children. They range from a sophomore in high school to a almost a 2 year old. Broad spectrum. I'm at the busy part of my life and my wife is an, she's amazing and there's a lot of stuff going on. But what's funny with kids, and I'm sure if you've had kids that have grown up or if you've got small kids today, you may have experienced this, that sometimes you play a game. Now this could be a board game, this could be a card game, this could be basketball outside in your driveway. And you play a game and because you know the rules of the game, you played it before and you've read the rules or you know the rules of the game, you feel like you're playing this game and you're winning and all of a sudden the kid says, no, dad, that's not the rules. We play it this way. And now sometimes they just think that it's played that way, but other times they want to win. So they change the rules in the middle of the game to get to err on their side to be in their favor. And as a dad, you're like, wait a second, that's not the rules. Yes, it is. And you start fighting about this and talking about it and you realize that you're playing a game that you can't win. And so often I see this with insurance agencies, certainly with insurance producers, that they're out there playing a game. They're out there working with future ideal clients and clients, and they're trying to build relationships and offer risk advice and do these things that we should be doing. And they get to the end of a conversation. Certainly the sales process is a great example and they think that they've won the game. And, and they realize they've been playing the wrong game or at least by different rules the whole time, and they lose. And if you've been in sales, you're probably nodding your head going, yeah, I've been there, right? I thought I was in good shape. I thought I knew what's going on. I thought I understood the relationships. I thought I understood what they wanted. I thought I understood the decision maker or who the decision maker was. And guess what? I didn't. I didn't define the rules of the game. So the first part is clarification. And this is pretty simple, just communication. But it's often missed, you know, certainly when you're working. And again, the best example is working with a future ideal client in the sales process. But this is true in leadership, right? Working with your team members. This is true in talking to your insurance carriers. This is true really in any type of communication and relationship is that you want to make sure you know the rules of the game. And so a few things you can do is to always clarify, always clarify. And by the way, when you clarify, it doesn't make you look like, or feel like you're not listening. It looks like you actually care enough to make sure to ensure that you have the information correct. So what are some clarifications that you should be doing? And again, whether it's a future ideal client, whether you're talking with a team member, whether you're talking with an insurance carrier is say things like, you know, just so I'm clear, here's what you said. Is that correct? Right? Or I want to make sure I understand this correctly. The next step is this, right? The decision maker will be this person. Is that correct? The next step of this process will be this correct. Just, just so I'm clear, just so I understand, I want to make sure I have this correct. So it's really important throughout conversations. And you'll see this with great communicators. And this is big part of the client experience is they don't just think that they know what the clients want. They make sure they understand. Because just because you heard something, I've been there in communication where I thought I knew what they want. And then I went back and said, just so I'm sure this is what you said right? They go, well, no, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this. And you go, oh, I'm glad I asked. There's other times where I haven't done that. And guess what? I get to the end of the game and I lost. And I can't figure out why. Well, it's because I never clarified or defined the rules of the game. So the first step in stop guessing is to really define what it is that people want. The second part is to document. You've got to document things. So in the perfect world, with a client experience, you're talking about the client experience. You've been out there and you've had conversations, you've clarified, you felt good about it, you said, just so I understand, the next step is this. Just so I understand, these are your top three needs. These are the top three things that are important to you. Yes, these three things. Great. Well, don't leave it at just that and hope that you have a conversation three weeks or three months from now and they remember what that was. Document it. So in a perfect world, it's an actual mailer, but maybe it's email. It could be a number of ways, however you're communicating. And the best way to document in every type of communication like this is that you start the two paragraphs. The first two paragraphs of any type of email or letter should say a couple different things. The first paragraph should always say thank you. We should always be thanking anybody for their time for meeting with me, for having a conversation, whatever it is, thank you. That's the first paragraph. The second paragraph always starts with this. And if you're driving, don't write this down, but remember this, if you're somewhere, write this down that you can. As we agreed. The second paragraph should say, as we agreed, as we agreed, per our conversation we discussed, da, da, da da. And these are the three things that were the most concerning to you, or these are the three things that you wanted us to look at. Or this also is the decision maker, the next step of the process, or whatever it may be, whatever you've defined, you're then going to document. And maybe you do it twice. But here's the thing about documentation that's so powerful, certainly with the client experience, is the fact that as I stated earlier, people are busy. Whether you're working with an individual or a business, whether you're working on P and C or benefits, you're talking to certainly business owners. And this is true of any individual as well. They got a lot of stuff going on. They don't remember what they said three months ago, three weeks ago, maybe three days ago. And so your job is to go out there and when you have your next meeting, say, hey, just so I'm clear, right? These are the things that are important to you. In fact, here's what I sent you. So you're actually showing them what you said and how you document it. That's powerful communication and that's documented at a high level. And they'll say, wow, that's you. Right, I remember that. That is exactly what's important to me. Thanks for reminding me. And so we get really clear during the. In fact, this should be happening throughout the sales process and beyond. The other part of this is really important. I've talked about this before in different podcast episode is that we want to define their values, not my values. I know as an insurance agency, you probably have some things that are pretty cool, right? I don't know what they are. A number of things that you do. Hopefully they are true points of differentiation. And we talk about this a lot at Sitkins, but what are your points of differentiation? But hopefully you've got some cool things that are valuable to your clients. But until they tell you and confirm with you that they're valuable, they're not really valuable, they're just valuable. In your mind, you may think that cyber liability is absolutely vital for this business. And you know what? Maybe from an insurance standpoint, it is, but in your mind, it's absolutely valuable. Yet you haven't documented, you haven't defined it enough to where they actually go. Yeah, it is valuable to me. Remember this? And I got this from Jeffrey Gitamer. If you say it, it may be true. If they say it, it is true. And that may be worth writing down as well. If you have an opportunity. If you say it, it might be true. If they say it, it is true. And so you always want them to define their values. This idea of what's in it for me. So define number one, document number two, which leads to number three. And this is where most people actually start. Deliver, right? Oh, we exceed your expectations. Well, again, what are they? If you have done the job of defining what they are clarifying it, then document it. So you're taking to the next level then. Now you got to do is deliver on it, right? You've got to actually say, this is what you said you wanted. This is what we agreed to. This is what we did, right? This is what we did. Now, when it comes to actual client experience and an agency perspective, I really believe every one of you listening to this, whether you're an agent leader as far as leadership position, or you're in sales or any type of professional insurance agency, your agency, at a minimum, for your top clients, your A and B clients in a better world, you're doing this for all in a certain component, maybe in a different way. But for your A and B clients, your top 20% of your clients, you should be giving some form of a stewardship or promise report. We used to use the word stewardship report, but a promise report I think is even better, whatever you want to call it. But you're going out there hopefully at six months or some point out there and you're actually saying, here's the things that you asked us to do. Remember, back to the document, here's what we did. And this doesn't mean that, you know, you called our office 47 times and we answer the phone. Any agency does it. I'm saying specifically what they wanted, what they said. And this actually goes to take a step back. One of the things that we speak at Sitkins all the time is not to renew accounts, but to continue relationships. And to continue relationships we should be asking some form of a continuation question. This goes back to the document and define, but something to the form of, hey, listen, as you know, we really truly value long term relationships and want to be your long term, indispensable risk partner. What do we need to do to ensure that we do the next 12 months that we continue this relationship moving forward? Now you can ask that in a number of different ways, but what you're really saying is, hey, what specifically are you asking us to do that if we do it at a high level, as we should, that there's no reason we won't continue this relationship, Right? And so part of that is you've got that defined, you've got that document and now you deliver on what that is. And it may only be a few things, depends on the type of client. But you want to make sure you've got that type of promise report or stewardship report. And certainly you should be doing some form of risk survey anyway. But you also need to tell them and remind them because here's going back to the people being busy. You're busy, I'm busy, I don't remember everything. We want to continually remind them. Here's again, you can pull that document back out, whether it's an email or hard copy and say, listen, just to make sure, here's things that you had asked us to do, here's what we've been doing and here's the ultimate thing right now. Find one more level. Find one more level. The greatest agencies, the greatest producers, the greatest professionals out there say, I'm going to deliver on what you said to do, which by the way is already ahead of most other agencies. So you're already ahead of the game by doing this. But now going, what is one more thing we could do to truly exceed expectations? Now we really are exceeding expectations. You told us to do this. You define what that is. You've determined what's important to you, how we can help you as an agency. Here's what we did. And by the way, we're going to give you something else too. Now you tell me, from a client experience and client retention level, why would they leave you? Why would they shop you? If you are defining future ideal clients now, it doesn't mean you're never going to be shopped. Don't get me wrong, I get it. But if you do these things and you ask these questions proactively and you define their terms and you're being intentional with this process, you're delivering some form of promise report, you're reminding them of what you've done for them, right? So they understand and make sure. And by the way, to clarify that it is the right things. Because do things change, you may pull out and say, here's the things you've asked us to do, here's what we did. They may say, you know what, what's really going to be important too is this. Great, thanks for letting me know that. We'll document that and go back and you know, define that and document that as well. And then we're going to find another level. Which by the way, finding another level could be, it could be complex, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, it probably shouldn't be complex. Finding one more level is. Let's find a way to add a deposit to this relationship. Let's do something because we're a specialist in an industry to give them some value added information that I think will be very helpful to them. Let's take them to a ball game, right? Let's pick up the phone and say, I just want to reach out in the middle of this policy, no agenda, and just say thank you. I'm going to send you this card, I'm going to remember a birth date. I mean, you know, all the different ways in relationship, but just take it to one more level. By doing that, I can tell you that people are going to have a really hard time ever leaving you in the agency. They just will. Because we don't see it in today's world. And sometimes we think that these, you know, these long term relationships are some magic. Listen, you've got to be a risk advice partner, it's not just about them liking you, they must like you first. But you've got to be delivering value, right? You've got to be their risk advisor. And we always talk about being a building relationships and being an indispensable risk partner that they couldn't imagine not having you. Because you know, there's a difference between a vendor and an indispensable risk partner. A vendor is someone that they call after they've made a business decision, Hey, I bought this property, can you add it? Is it important? You know, what's it cost? An indispensable risk partner, Say, I'm thinking about purchasing this property. What things should I know? What should I be aware of from a risk management or insurance standpoint, that would be important to me. That's when you get to the point in these decisions that you've become an indispensable risk partner. But guess what? You've got to earn it, right? You've got to earn that. So the idea again today on this part two of client experience is stop guessing. Just stop guessing what you think they may want. Maybe. I think, I think we'll continue the relationship. I think we'll renew the account. Now, really, if you do it the right way. You've defined up front the rules of the game, you've documented, you've asked it the form of a continuation question. So you know, specifically what is it going to mean for them for you to continue to be a long term partner, to make sure you define their values, not yours, and then you just got to go out and deliver on it. Which, by the way, one thing to add here, going back to part one of this client experience that I've been talking about in the podcast, is that you can't deliver this by yourself, by the way. Right. At least for most agencies, it becomes pretty challenging. That's why you must have internal communication. Because the last thing you want to do is promise things you can't deliver on. I know sometimes I'm a recovering insurance producer that I want to make sure I make the sale. I want to make sure that this person is happy, this business owner is happy. So I'm going to say, oh, yeah, we'll do that, we'll do that, we'll do that. And you go back to your service team, they go, wait a second, we can't do that. We're not equipped to do that. We don't have the resources for that. So this has got to start internally. But then you can work externally and you put these two parts together, it becomes extremely powerful in your business, in your agency. So again, this idea of stop guessing is vitally important. Next episode, I'm going to get into the last part of the client experience, which really does get into being more of the I mentioned already being an indispensable risk partner. What does that really look like? What are some things specifically you can do? How can you gain clarity and consistency and commitment with your with your clients in this experience? So we'll talk more about that on the next episode of the Agent Leader podcast. By the way, if this episode and other episodes have been helpful for you as an insurance professional, I would really appreciate that you leave a rating and review trying to grow and really just reach more insurance agency leaders out there. I love this industry. I believe in this industry. I know that what we do as insurance professionals changes the lives. It makes businesses, it makes individuals better and whole. And I want to be able to help agencies, all of you, become better leaders. And I learned a lot from you as well. So I'd love your feedback, rate it and review. And until next episode, all the best in your success. Thanks so much for listening.