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Producer Self-Management
First, last, and along the way
The hard work of building a trusting relationship between appointments
By John Edward Love, CPCU
In your role as a producer, what do you do in between the first meeting with a prospect and the final proposal? How much constructive contact do you have, and what are the little things you can do to increase the probability of success in the end?
This series of articles on producer self-management has been presented in a somewhat linear fashion: first step, second step, and so on. But there are always little things you can be doing in between these meetings to increase your chances of success.
You will have to customize the actions you take to fit the prospect’s personality or style, to appropriately reflect your own approach to the business, and to be realistic as far as the time you have. Following are some ideas gleaned from producers:
• In the first meeting, take note of the prospects’ interests in…well, anything and consider sending a thank-you gift of a book on their favorite subject, tickets to the team they are wild about, or information about something they’d like to do. Also consider a gift of something they can do with their family, as that time probably means the most to them.
• If they have a burning technical concern or issue regarding their risk management program, burn the midnight oil (or delegate the task) in order to customize a solution to their “heartburn.” Giving them an example of what you can do to help them will reinforce your professionalism and differentiate you from competitors.
One producer won a large restaurant account by poring over their loss runs and adding up the total workers compensation costs of $12,000—spent on cuts from workers opening cans of pickles! He asked the owner what the cost difference was to go with another supplier with a different type of container. The owner was so impressed with the thought process and detail that he awarded the account on the spot.
• Make sure you’ve recorded the contact information of everyone who is involved in the risk management program for the prospect company. Send a one-page flyer on your agency, and include on the back a summary of what you are trying to accomplish for the company. Make yourself “real” to everyone who might influence the decision.
• Take photos of the prospect company’s headquarters, warehouse or manufacturing facility, vehicles, or products, and use them in the proposal. Personalizing the proposal will win you their attention and respect.
One producer photographed the headquarters building, inserted the photo in a PowerPoint™ slide, then animated it to show the structure blowing up. The slide then dissolved into a slide showing the agency’s disaster recovery planning services for the prospect. The CFO sat up from his post-lunch somnolence declaring, “That’s cool,” and at the conclusion awarded the producer the business. That account did not end up developing a disaster recovery plan, but the CFO was impressed with the personalization of that section of the proposal.
• Research the suppliers, customers, board of directors and management of the prospect company, and explore the connections you might have. Call ahead to verify that you can use those connections as references, and list them in your proposal. E-mail your professional partners in the business community to find out who knows whom.
• Customize the Web services you might use to serve the prospect, and be ready with screen captures or live demos (test them ahead of time) to make your service real to the buyer. The subtlety of communicating “I’m ready to go, day one, in servicing your account” will make an impression.
• Take your underwriter with you if you have one strong quote on which you are hanging your hopes. But, review the sequence of the proposal and what you want the underwriter to say, and when. Not that you are putting words in her or his mouth, but don’t assume that your underwriter knows what you want said, and when.
Identify three to five solutions that you are going to make very real to the prospect. Explain succinctly how each will work and, specifically, how it will help or benefit them. For example, “Here’s what your online claims reporting module will look like—and this should help you save over 10% on your workers compensation claims by decreasing the delay in reporting you’ve experienced.”
• Identify at least one way in which you can help the prospect beyond the work you’ll do on their insurance program. For example, “I’ve already talked with our existing clients ACME and BOBS, and I will set up a lunch for your VP of sales to meet with these potential customers.” Making yourself a true business partner with a holistic ability to help them puts you in another league. Your choice(s) will, of course, always be ethical and appropriate.
• Offer to reduce the length of the proposal by giving portions of your presentation ahead of time through an online demonstration—particularly helpful for online services. In fact, one could argue, you want your prospects to be salivating at the thought of working with you ahead of the time they get your price. You want them to justify doing business with you if you are higher in price because they’ve already “bought” into your other services.
• Have members of your proposed account service team send letters of introduction with their bios and references of other accounts they serve. “Hi, Mrs. Smith. I work with three similar companies and cannot wait to help you lower your vehicle claims in my role as your claims manager.” A professional bio and photo is a heck of a way to reinforce your professionalism.
Let me sum it up: Identify three to five hot-button issues and figure out how you’ll address them ahead of the final proposal, and set about making it real for the prospect. Delegate everything you can, communicate effectively with everyone on your team who can help, and don’t think you are going to “wing it” the week of the proposal.
Now, if you’ve read all the articles in this series to date (December 2008, March 2009, June 2009), you may have started to wonder why I don’t recommend just taking an account by broker of record letter. That’s the current hot trend in the industry, with lots of training and sales philosophies hanging on the concept of refusing to quote and doing it by BOR only.
If you can meet your sales goals and personal income objectives using the BOR-only approach, good for you. If you are a well-established producer, that’s probably the style you would develop anyway. But any good idea can go bad when it is taken to an extreme, and what can happen is a breakdown in the fundamentals of acting as an insurance advisor due to the insidious influence of ego on the sales process.
BORs are seen as a badge of honor by producers. Listen in on a conversation between two producers, and the term will inevitably be thrown around as if fishermen are talking about how big the last catch was. But if an otherwise good account asks you to do some work to earn their business, you should be prepared to do so. Their refusal to sign a BOR letter after the first meeting doesn’t make you a bad producer or them a bad prospect. It means you are both human.
Do you want as a client a buyer who can be talked into a BOR in one hour? There are many great companies to work with who will indeed make you work a little harder, and a little longer, to earn that level of trust.
If you think that’s an old-fashioned concept, just watch the reaction that the current economic marketplace will elicit from buyers. Much of the nexus for the events that dragged down real estate and spilled into financial services, and beyond, were greed and laziness. Buyers are going to want to know three things from you: 1) can they trust you, 2) what are they paying you, and 3) how do they know you’ll deliver what you promised?
Staying focused on fundamentals of being a professional advisor makes it easier to win on those three points and makes it easier to win by broker of record letter. But if your only approach is a one- or two-meeting “BOR or nothing” style, you will, more often than not, start to lose your edge in following up diligently and creating real value that results in a trusting relationship.
Trust is earned, not taken, and how you conduct yourself after the first meeting is an important step in helping the buyer develop that confidence in you.
The author
John Edward Love, CPCU, is president and executive director of TechAssure, an association of insurance agents and underwriters who specialize in managing risks for technology and life sciences companies. TechAssure members serve more than 4,000 technology companies worldwide. For 18 years Love was a leading producer at Armfield, Harrison & Thomas (AH&T) in Leesburg, Virginia, and a founder of AH&T Technology Brokers.
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