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 …?”
Licensed and Lethal,
007
