All progress is the direct result of somebody who was in some shape or form a MAVERICK.
Mavericks are never content with the status quo or with just being average. But average is what most business owners settle for and this is no different when it comes to insurance agents.
There are those who say agents don’t earn their keep. I can promise you though, these people are misinformed, misguided, and bluntly, wrong. But if you’re reading this you are probably an agent so you already know that they are wrong. But, what you should be concerned about is not what you already know. But you SHOULD be concerned about what you DO NOT know.
After tons of research and with careful consideration the Insurance Mavericks have released the Controversial Conspiracy Report. If you have not heard about it yet…You will, because it is the biggest bombshell ‘no holds barred’ report ever released in the insurance industry.
The report makes some down right scary predictions about the future of insurance agents. Don’t you think you should see what it says?
Whether the predictions turn out to be right or not only time will tell, but there is NO DISPUTING the facts presented in the Conspiracy Report found at http://www.InsuranceMavericks.com and there is no use acting like the ostridge with his head in the sand. The cold hard facts delievered in this report are both sombering and encouraging…BUT, only for the agents who take accurate action.
Will you be the one with your head in the sand or will you be one of the Mavericks of change needed to protect this great industry?
Go to http://www.InsuranceMavericks.com right now and get your FREE Conspiracy Report, but be warned. This report is not for the weak of heart.
Perseverance is one of the most admirable traits in all endeavors.
We love to watch the Olympic athletes push themselves to - and then beyond ‘The Limit”.
And ‘Mother Nature’ provides some of the most astonishing feats of perseverance…think of the salmon fighting upstream…even up water falls.
Yet, at what point is it that the ‘perception’ or ‘guise’ of perseverance become out right foolishness?
For example, The fly.
We’ve all witnessed what I will call ‘The Death Fight of The Fly’…This is when the fly is ‘fooled’ by the ‘perception’ that a glass window is not really there…So the fly demonstrates incredible perseverance and repeatedly, incessantly, persistently, almost loyally, hurls itself again and again up against the window PAIN (spelling selected on purpose) and often until it is exhausted and dies of fatigue.
FACT: No matter how valiant the effort made by the fly…the barrier is not going to yield. EVER.
Often, observation of this ritual makes you think the fly is just not that bright…right?…..Be careful.
Here’s why I say that…
After more than 20 years in this great industry I’ve witnessed a very similar ‘death flight’ by many agents who persevere and persistently continue to do the same thing that used to work and seem to prefer to continue to hit their heads against the ‘window PAIN’ as if never knowing that regardless of the efforts made they will never make it through the barrier.
In today’s world with the average person getting bombarded by over 3,000 marketing messages per day, you must have a systematic manner of breaking through the clutter…which is a real barrier….with MULTIPLE INFLUENCE CHANNELS and not just the typical one strategy approach and continually hitting your head up against the window pane just like a fly.
I will be covering some specific strategies in my next few entries on what types of Multiple Influence Channels you must use if you want to be smart and more effective in today’s marketing environment.
Til then, hopefully you’ve banged your head up against the PAIN enough so that your ears have popped out and you’re ready to listen.
They finally arrived! After 1month of waiting my Smith Tycoon sunglasses showed up. They are pretty much the coolest glasses around. (I’ll show them to you in the next video)
I have to make this quick because I have to go have lunch with my Grandma. She’s invited me over for Retirement community lunch. So lets get to it!
It’s true, our awesome group of agents in the Insurance Mavericks just keeps growing, and impressing me at the same time. Hopefully Jeremy won’t mind that I highlight him here, but he did such a great job I can’t help but show you.
First here’s the email I received from him this week.
******
BB,
Wow! The first edition of my “Value for Life” is grossing me [right now] a lot of good e-mails giving me kudos!
I have nothing in there about insurance because I don’t want it to have to go through compliance of my carrier! I consider it my Personal Newsletter.
I am so glad I spent $50 on this project. I look forward to doing it in September! Hopefully, the bridge will be crossed between customer to client! It really is better than sending a postcard or anything else I’ve done to connect with current clients.
One other thing, is I only sent it to my “A” clients [you know, the ones who don't squeak so they don't get the grease]. The greatest clients who get neglected because they don’t have a complaint.
attachment: my VFL edition. The costumes are great, hope you enjoy mine in my newsletter.
Best Regards,
Jeremy
*******
And my response…
Jeremy,
CONGRATULATIONS!
Great job implementing, and I love the costume!
Good work, you are the second agent to report back to us that you’ve been implementing and seeing great results.
We’ve got a new video coming out today or tomorrow, so be on the lookout for it.
Beach
Now I just had to show you a glimpse of his letter, you’ll get a kick out of it, and it’s a great example of really differentiating yourself.
So now you see what we mean when we talk about personality in your marketing. Here’s another quick tip from some emails I’ve been receiving.
—–
Also, wanted to give you another tip on differentiation and making your personality “Stick” with your readers and prospects. You’ll want to create a “Public Persona Name” for yourself. Currently it says “Jeremy Snowden, Agent” that’s boring.
Create a tag line for yourself. As you know, my partner and I are the “Insurance Mavericks”. I’m helping another agent who loves Hawaii figure out a tagline for herself “A little piece of hawaii with every policy” she is going to be handing out little sandal keychains, her office is decked out in Hawaiian garb, and she’ll be putting Hawaii videos and themes on her website. (If she follows my advice.)
You could easily use the “guitar playing superagent” or something along those lines.
Let me know what you come up with.
Beach
Please leave us a comment below on what you think, questions you have, etc. We love to hear from you!
Hardees and Carl Jr. fast food chain are taking a bite out of the fast food industry and boosting profits like never before. Was it the racy Paris Hilton commercials? The answer is… Yes! That is part of it. And although I could be one of the very few men who’ve never seen the commercial or video so I don’t know exactly what she says…but from what I’ve read what is equally important it is HOW she says what she says.
Her commercial breaks away from the hum drum drab of robotic marching like lemmings going over the cliff style marketing. It appeals to the targeted audience of the men who want to over indulge. And that is exactly what Hardees and Carl Jr. wanted to do. They are using several SMARTmarketingTM principles.
1)Paris video broke away from the norm to get past the reaction oh, another one of those.
How is your marketing distinguishing you and your agency as special and apart from your piers?
2)Targeted exactly who they wanted. Men who are blue collar over indulgers.
How is your marketing targeting exactly who you want or are you specializing in generalities?
3)Celebrity attachment. Paris Hilton scores very high in recognition and her name has proven to have a long shelf life. Although she could be considered risky because you never know when she would do something again that you may not be proud to have your business associated with her, but this is calculated against the audience and odds are if she did another one of the even less clothed videos the exact same targeted audience would be there watching with the remote control in one hand and a GIANT Hardees hamburger burgeoning with calories in the other hand!
How can you use the SMARTmarketingTMprinciple of celebrity attachment with your agency. Note, a celebrity is a celebrity based on recognition so a former or current news anchor in your city as well as recognized atheletes etc can all be used for this purpose and this also has the added benefit of positioning you too.
4)Newsy. Just the fact they used Paris made the event news.
How can you make sure that you get free media by using this principle?
5)Positioned against. They are using the opposite of hum drum. A contrarian. In a world of fast food restaurants jumping on the Jared from Subway lose weight wagon and trying to become a diet destination location –Hardees and Carl Jr.s parent company is saying basically -If you want calories and sustenance and don’t care whether you have a waist line or a circumference that is described in terms of girth then Joe Lunchbucketyou are at the right location!
How can you position yourself against the competition? Polarization is not always a bad thing, but contrary just to be contrary is not the goal, find a place to make a stand such as price and say something like Your mom always said you get what you pay for so can you really afford to risk your financial future with barely get by coverage?Our agency provides you Not too much. Not too little. But Just right coverage. Easy. Fast. Dependable.
There are ton’s more we could discuss here but will not.
But in review, was the commercial controversial? You bet your bippy it was. Did it shake up the industry? Absolutely. But it was not controversial just for the sake of being controversial; it was sending the message of being something different.
Now enter the InsuranceMarketingMavericks. Controversial? Some would say yes.Different. Yes. And will they shake up the industry? You better hope so! Because we’ve been hearing from insurance agents across the nation and the challenges of running an agency are not getting any easier.
If you are like me, and one of the few who have not seen Paris Hiltons Hardees or Carl Jr. commercial then that’s fine. But it is NOT o.k. if you have not seen the InsuranceMarketingMavericks.com videos. So get more insurance leads now by taking the first step and watching BeachBroker star in a series of great videos.
Free insurance marketing tips await the mavericks who dare to watch these great videos!
Don’t look now, but the Mavs’ have come out from behind the curtain, and reveal their identities…kind of.
We know we look ridiculous, but it was fun and hopefully really helpful to you. (We failed to mention the reason for our silly costumes in the video, see below!)
Watch The Video Now->
As you know there are a multitude of “insurance villains” out to beat up insurance
agents and make our lives difficult. You have the Ultimate Villain Mastermind, Corporate Carl who
loves to find ways to shrink agent commissions, and IMA DRAGON the underwriter who never wants
to write any business.
We face these villains on a daily basis, and to keep ourselves anonymous, we’ve donned these
superhero costumes.
Please leave us a comment and let us know if this video was helpful (or just entertaining).
These are a couple emails I got from some of our ‘maverick friends’ recently.
I wanted to share them with everyone because I believe the lessons are extremly valuable.
From: K**** T**** [mailto:******@farmersagent.com] Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:45 AM To: ‘Beach Broker’ Subject: RE: i’m SORRY!… lets try this again
Dear Insurance Mavericks,
My name is Ken.
Let me start by saying that I’m a new insurance agent for a captive company. I have just completed my 3rd year and have hit the goals that are required by the company. It feels great! However, I feel like I’m pounding my head against a wall, chasing business, not writing enough business, not marketing on a consistent basis, and I’m flat broke. I want to take my business to the next level, if you know what I mean.
About a month or two ago I received and email to your site and have been going there and reading the articles and information provided and its confusing. Here’s why. I need help. I need to know where to begin. What should I start doing today, some guidance or direction to get moving to the next level. How to finance it.
I listened to the podcast and it’s hard to envision what I want when I’m in the grind of the day, feeling like it will never happen. But I feel like I know what I want I just don’t know how to get there.
I’m tired of price shoppers. I’m tired of cold calling. I’m tired of being broke.
If you could let me know what I need to start doing today. Where my first step should be.
Thanks for the great emails and the media it does help.
Happy 4th!
Ken *****
MY REPLY:
Ken,
Put on your thick skin, because I’m goingto be a little harsh here.
In a nut shell you need to get your head straight.You need to give yourself credit for accomplishing the goals you have, and then use that momentum to move to the next level. Don’t downplay what you’ve accomplished.
Making it 3 years in the business is tough to do.
Now, you want to know what to do first.
1.Establish your position in the marketplace. What value do you offer that others don’t, can’t or won’t?
2.Write an article that offers value to your potential clients, that is within the topic of your position.
3.Find some other agents to joint venture with. Obviously you’ll need to approach those guys who aren’t selling what you sell. So if you are doing life, then find a p&c guy, get to know him, and then send the article that you wrote to his list. Make sure you include a letter from him, and then Follow up with those names on the phone.
We’ll continue giving you the information you need to succeed, but you need to take action.
Also, if you haven’t downloaded the ebook, you are missing out on some incredibly valuable information.
If you read the FREE E-book provided by InsuranceMarketingMavericks.com then you already know what the number one marketing sin is. And if you have not read the FREE E-book titled “How To Generate An Endless Supply Of Hot Qualified Leads” the question is: Why not?
Are you committing the number one marketing sin?
But let’s say you are among the thousands of smart insurance agents who’ll read this amazing resource and you already know what the number one sin is, but you’re unsure of how to NOT commit this sin…. then let me give you a quick marketing ’short cut’ that is easy to implement and guaranteed to work.
You can research this method everyday without exerting any effort at all. What am I talking about?
I’m talking about ‘The News’.
Remember this: Your marketing headlines should be ‘news worthy’.
In other words, we’ve identified several patterns or formulas that are used by the news broadcasters that tend to ‘pull you in’ to want to hear what the news broadcaster will be saying. And as you watch the news or read the news you should be able to see these patterns and start to apply them in your agency’s marketing strategies.
So here I will discuss one of the several strategies that we’ve identified as being very effective.
First, I will admit, that a lot of news is sensationalism and gloom and doom. But also, there are a lot of stories that are not gloom and doom.
In fact, we all love stories. Stories of victory… overcoming odds….etc…
And to further illustrate this fact, take a look at some the all time top selling books out there and you’ll see ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ on all of those lists. And if you’ve never read any of these great books then you would not know that these books are simply a collection of stories!
So how can an insurance agent apply this principle to accomplish the goal of growing an agency?
It’s easy.
You probably know of a family or a person in your current book of business that has a ‘human interest’ story that is intriguing. Just watch the news for ideas and you’ll be able to follow how to do the story, but what you do is feature this client’s story in your newsletter or in a marketing campaign and keep this in mind…you do NOT have to talk about how a product you provided to your client actually helped them in their situation…if you can and it did then that is great, but if you can’t but it is a compelling and fascinating story you will still get business from this strategy.
So if your product or services aided the person in their situation then that is a no brainer as far as how this can help grow your business. But even if your service or product did not aid them- what will inevitably happen is other clients will want to be featured too. And of course you will solicit them for this chance to be featured.
Now this is creating ‘glue’ for your clients to stick. Plus, they will refer people to you because they will feel a stronger bond because of the sincere compliment of featuring them.
So a human interest news story in your agency is a great way to attach yourself to your current clients and build a powerful referral network.
Another great news story is to feature News about a business that you may have in your agency. Possibly a milestone for that business…an anniversary…whatever you select and you can tell the story of how they became business owners etc. Plus, hopefully you could get the business owner to provide a special offer for your clients since you are featuring them. This adds more glue to make your client’s stick and who knows…it could possibly lead to the business owner endorsing you as an insurance agent to all of their customers too.
So once again, creating news can actually create business!
If you saw this headline…”High Gas Prices Driving Insurance Sales Higher”…would you read the story?
If you said “No” go ahead and stop reading right now, because you lack integrity and if you’ll “Fib” about other things too and we’d rather deal with people of integrity. J
But if you answered “Yes”…then let me ask you a question. Why would you read it?
Now, let’s admit that there are a number of answers, but the most common answers will include the fact that High gas prices and Insurance sales are topics that are currently on your mind…right?
So here is where this is going.
A key marketing principle that you must be incorporating into your marketing messages is what was described by one of the “great old timers” in marketing and that is this. “You must enter the conversation that is already going on in their mind”.
So to apply that principle to the headline “High Gas Prices Driving Insurance Sales Higher” and it becomes very clear. So now the next question becomes how is it that you can continually apply this principle today and into the future?
As of the time that this entry was created the price of gasoline is spiraling upward at an unprecedented rate. So this is a topic on everybody’s mind…right?
So this fact is begging for a ‘Maverick’ agent to use this fact to create more business and potential leads.
For example,…hold on a minute…I’m going to go ‘Google’ “save money on gas” and see what comes up…Ok, I’m back. There’s almost one half million people out there searching that phrase.
You say…”SO WHAT!”
Here’s your answer. What if you provided for your clients and prospects a “Save Money On Gas” Special Report Courtesy of ‘YOUR AGENCY’.
Hmmm… Do you think people would want to get this FREE item?
Do you think some people may even appreciate this FREE item?
Do you think that this FREE item could even lead to providing insurance protection programs?
What if there was a way to target those people who are searching this phrase so that you would only get the people that are in your market and not people that all across the U.S. or wherever you may be.
Do you think any other agents are doing this? I can answer that question for you. NO! (Now of course, after the smart agents read this they will start doing marketing like this because it works!! J )
So a question begs being answered….”What else could you do like this that ATTRACTS people into your ‘herd’ with something of value that is already on the prospects’ mind (creates an insurance lead for your) and provides you the opportunity to foster a relationship with you that inevitably LEADS to the conversation of writing their insurance.
Take 15 minutes right now and brain storm some ideas. Ask your staff. But remember…YOU ARE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER so don’t think that if you would not have an interest in something like this then your clients would not. This is a BIG fallacy that you must guard yourself from falling prey to.
Your decision to provide value in areas of their interest will give you the chance to provide additional value in areas that you are interested in!
The opportunities abound. This could create leads that you could convert later. Plus, this could create FREE publicity (A topic we’ll cover later which is a critical component of properly positioning yourself and could be one of the quickest exits from the Guerilla Commodity Wars…Stay tuned! J)
Often History has a consistent and too often cruel way of repeating itself.
The reason this occurs is because of the predictable human tendencies. In other words…Habits.
It is truly a marvel and another inexplicable habit of people to not pay attention to what happened in the past. Because the past is many times a great predictor of the future.
And it seems that insurance agents seldom look to the past to gain the valuable insights and knowledge that can assist them to a better future. One reason is many agents never last long enough to benefit from past trends and cycles.
But for the agents who have lasted and for the agents who want to make sure that they do last here’s what I’m talking about…
Every time the economy dips- which occurs on a cyclical basis-most agents believe the answer is to cut expenses and unfortunately the first place they cut is ‘marketing’.
They think of marketing as an expendible ‘expense’ instead of a priceless ‘investment’ and since they see it as an expense they try the ‘cut expenses’ way to ’survive’ a down economy.
Hogwash!
That is about the same as a farmer saying “we don’t expect the harvest to be too big this year…so to fix that I’ll plant even less next year…”
That Does not make sense does it? Of course unless the goal is to have an even smaller harvest.
Now that we agree it really does not make sense to cut the marketing yet most agents do –then we have to address the question as to “Why do most agents cut the marketing”
Here’s the answer.
Most agents have been drawn into the ‘commodity guerilla war’.
First off, engaging in the commodity war and being “sniped” by unwinnable commodity warfare tactics is more than unwise. And let me be blunt.
If you are allowing yourself and your services to be a commidity then it’s your own darn fault.
And if that last statement ’stings’ a bit, then good. It should. But take this word of caution.
Before you do your knee-jerk response and flare your nostrils like a bull getting ready to charge a matador you may want to consider this…If there is no truth to the statement that ‘it is your own fault’, then why do so many agents bother getting so emotionally upset when I reveal this fact?
Besides, what have you really done about positioning you and your agency as anything other than a commoditiy? And if you have done little to nothing like most agents have…then the question is…”Who’s fault is that?”
And don’t give me the ‘loser’s limp’ about how everybody else is basing their product on price so that forces you to do the same. Think about that logic. Does everybody in your town drive a Yugo or the equivilent? Then that tells you not everybody makes decisions on price alone!
Plus, since what you ARE doing is not working the way you desire then why would’nt you look at something that admittedly may seem a little different? And ‘yes’, it may seem to go against the grain of what you have been used to, but after all…this is a site that has the name MAVERICK in it and isn’t that what Mavericks do?
They ‘go against the grain’ of the norm because by definition the norm is going to get you what the average get…..And since that is the case this really comes down to …Do you want to be just average?
Get a “C” in life?
I didn’t think so.
So Cutting expenses is correct, but you NEVER cut the life blood of your agency and in fact the best time to increase your SMARTmarketing is in a down economy because you know that everybody will be cutting back so you stand an even better chance of getting your message read…provided you follow marketing success principles.
You can get great marketing advice from the FREE book provided here.
So although History can be a very boring topic (My apologies to all the History majors out there), it can also act as a crystal ball that reveals extremely valuable lessons….IF you apply the knowledge.
My last question to you. “Are you willing to apply history’s lesson to insurance agents during a down market or …?”
