We have been telling you for some time about the difference between success and mediocrity in the brokerage and agency business. If there was only one thing you needed to know, here it is… Highly Successful Analytic Brokers™ and agents know how to create a Burning Sense of Urgency in buyers.
Every other industry uses that simple and powerful technique as a pillar of their sales process. But, not the insurance industry. We make it about coverages, program analysis and other processes that are not quantified. Then, if we run into someone who does not share our passion for processes, we make it about the price and premiums (the only thing we have been taught to quantify!)
Then we wonder why we don’t get into more and better accounts. We pull our hair out because of the level of professionalism we offer, to a seemingly deaf audience.
Well, here is a little dose of reality Bucky… High level buyers don’t have time to learn your processes or provide you with review opportunities on their coverages, unless they think there is a problem. There’s no sense of urgency in the passive delivery of coverages and services if the buyer has been well served in these areas (or if they feel they are well served.)
So, the highly successful agents and brokers make it about something else, something that they can control and know the buyer will respond to. They make it about improving the prospect’s EBITDA, Shareholder Value and productivity (if it’s a not-for-profit it’s about surplus and constituency service.)
These highly successful brokers discuss the Financial Leakage™ that is flowing from the prospect’s business model and how it impacts their profits and KPI’s. They show them in exact dollars how much they are leaking out the back door.
Then they ask one very important question… “Would you like to recapture those costs or continue to lose them?” What do you suppose the answer to that question is?
Now you have a Burning Sense of Urgency. The buyer is motivated to recapture the cost structure that is being wasted inside their organization and the broker is motivated to help. The proverbial Win/Win that we have all been striving for.
Oh, yeah and one more thing. When they make their presentations, these highly successful Analytic Brokers speak very little about the insurance program. That’s a given. They spend their time showing the prospects how their resource capabilities and projects will change the buyer’s financial outcomes.
They also say … “Oh, by the way, we provide the correct insurance placements too.”
If you’re going to work this way and develop a burning sense of urgency, then you need to have data that shows the buyer beyond reproach what your quantifiable results will be. You need to provide them with an analytical path to their financial statement that shows what your results will be. After all, isn’t that what selling has always been about, showing the prospect how they will benefit from doing business with you?
When you can do that, you have a prospect with a burning sense of urgency!
P.S. Many of the highly successful Analytic Brokers™ and agents look to TCORCalc© as their source for data and Financial Leakage™ Reports… use the TCORCalc link on the menu bar above to learn more about TCORCalc and the Analytic Brokerage™ Platform.
Best Regards to Analytic Brokers™
Rob Ekern, CAB (Certified Analytic Broker™) Chairman, TCORCalc®