The One Question Your Insurance Agency Must Answer

There's a one word question that every single insurance agency needs to be able to answer effectively if they're going to communicate and serve their clients well. I'm going to talk about that one word question in today's daily Biz Growl podcast. Hi there, this is Brent Kelly of bizgris with another daily daily Biz Growl podcast. Well, I like to read a lot of different books and consume a lot of different content, but one of my all time favorite business books is Simon Sinek's Start with why. And if you haven't read the book, certainly go check out the book. It's a great, great book. But the foundation of the book comes from a TED Talk he did. It's been many years now since he did that TED Talk and it's actually one of the most most watched TED Talks ever created. And it's on the subject of something called the Golden Circle. And I really believe that every business professional should watch it. In fact, I mean, if you're an insurance agency owner or agency producer or agency manager, whatever the case may be, you should go watch it because there's a lot of power in what Simon talks about. And, you know, and the simplicity of it makes it easy to understand. It makes it easy to understand, but that doesn't mean it's easy to implement, right? Simple doesn't equal easy. And here's what I found that I've seen, I experienced. I think you can probably relate to this, especially if you're in the insurance industry. Every insurance agency, for the most part, there may be a couple exceptions, but every insurance agency knows what they do, right? I mean, you sell insurance, you know what they do. Most insurance agencies can clearly explain how they do it. Now here's how we do it. But this is the important part. This gets back to the initial one question, one word question. Very few insurance agencies know why they do it. See, why has nothing to do with revenues or profit. Why is about your purpose, your mission, your cause, or your belief. And as Simon Sinek so eloquently states in this TED Talk, he says, why do you get out of bed each morning and why should anyone care? Can you answer that question? Why do you get out of bed each morning and why should anyone care? So if you can't answer that question confidently, let me put this in a little bit of context to give you some guidance, some help. So let's start with the what, right? What is it you do? If I asked a group of insurance professionals, hey, what is it that you guys do? The typical answers I would hear would be stuff like, you know, we sell home, auto, business, life or health insurance policies. Okay, what do you do? We provide insurance solutions for individuals and or businesses. What do you do? Oh, we protect your family, your family or business after a disaster. And all of those type of answers, those are just examples. But all of those answers would be correct. But they also create no difference from your competition because all insurance agencies kind of know their what, as I said at the beginning. So let's go to the next step, the how. If I asked the same group of insurance professionals, well, how do you do what you do? The typical answers I would get would be stuff like, you know, we provide top notch insurance products to match your needs. Okay. That's how you do it. How do you do it? Well, we deliver superior service to give you a great experience. Okay, good, right. And you could dive into more into that. How do you do what you do, Mr. Insurance Agency? Well, we are there for you at the time of need. We there, we contact you at claim time. Okay. And now those answers again start to go a bit further. And again, you could give countless examples of how you do things. Right. Every agency is a little bit different, but it still doesn't differentiate yourself from the competition because really, who doesn't give great service? Who doesn't call their client back? Right. And how they do some of these things. But let's get to the most important question, the why. Because. The why for you and your agency is the magic. The why communicates to your prospects and your customers what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you're willing to fight for. Every why is unique, personal and emotional, and that's what's going to set you apart. So some of you may think, well, okay, I'm getting there. What would that look and feel like? Let me give you a few examples of some why's. Now again, your why needs to be unique. Otherwise if you take one of these, you're kind of missing the point unless it stands exactly for what you believe in. But I just kind of came up with a few whys that I think would represent some of the agencies that I work with. Right. To some degree. Here's an example. We believe that every family has a story to tell and it's our passion to help them protect that story. That would be a why, A passion to protect it, to help. What's another why? Well, we feel that small business is the backbone of this great country. And we are committed to helping small businesses produce profit and protect what they've built again, maybe a bit wordy, but again, a why, A deeper purpose to why they wake up each morning and why anyone should care. And then here's another one. Maybe you're community focused. We love our local community and we're passionate about serving our local community members and businesses with excellence. We love our community. Another why. So again, those are just some examples. It's important for you to personalize your own why. But at the end of this, again, the one question. This is an easy question to ask, a very difficult question to respond. Because if I ask you right now, what is your agency's purpose or why do you exist? Why? Why? Why? Do you have an answer? And if you don't, take some time to think about it. Because this is one of my favorite quotes from Simon Sinek's in his book and in the TED Talk is this. He says people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. See, no matter how great your insurance agency may be at what you do and how you do it, the only way you're truly going to connect with your prospects and your clients is if they have bought in and understand your why. There's a quote that goes way back to 1939 from the great Napoleon Hill. You know, he's known for Think and Grow Rich, an all time classic personal development book. Love that book. But he also wrote other books and one of those was called how to Sell youl Way Through Life. I love that book almost even more than Think and Grow Rich. But there's a quote from that book that I wanted to share. He says this. He says people buy personalities and ideas much more quickly than they buy merchandise. Think about that for a second. From 1939, people buy personalities and ideas much more quickly than they buy merchandise. So what is your why? What is your purpose? Think about that, reflect on it. And I love to hear from you. You can email me Brent@bizgris.com Brent@bizgris.com and let me know your agency why. Thanks again for listening to another Biz Growl podcast. Again, my name is Brent Kelly of Biz Grizz and I want to leave you with one thought. If your agency is struggling in some way, whether it be with growth or communication or influence, either internal or external, and of course, as I talked about today, finding your why, your purpose, your mission, your vision, check out brentmkelly.com or bizgriz.com and look at the Biz Grizz Agency Growth Catalyst Workshop. This is a half day workshop I designed to help agencies get unstuck, to give them a spark new ideas. And it's combined with type of traditional training where I want to come in and kind of scramble your eggs a little bit, so to speak. And then we sit down and we play. One of the coolest things that I've experienced with all kinds of organizations and insurance agencies, and that's something called the Leadership Game or it's an interactive two hour experience where you live through this process. You don't just get talked to, so to speak, you live through this process. And then I provide a complete assessment to help your agency move move forward. So again, my name is Brent Kelly at Biz Griz, and until I'm back again on the next daily Biz Growl podcast, as always, I challenge and encourage you to go face your grizzly.