Throw Away Your Hammer and Chisel

 Selling to the Dashboard-Driven Buyer

Insurance buyers have entered a new era of sophistication and expectations. I’ll talk more about the dramatic shifts taking place in our industry below. But first, if you have been in the brokerage business long enough, see if you remember some of these “hammer and chisel” gems:

• Sitting at your desk, dialing for dollars with the yellow pages or your prospect list, hoping to talk to a buyer who would tell you when their x-dates are.
• Trying to impress your prospects with the carriers you have access to, the coverages you can provide, where you play golf, and how you handle some of the more famous clients in town.
• Spending countless hours creating a submission to an inferior carrier that was “assigned” to you by the prospect, and then many more hours creating a presentation to deliver your best attempt.

While these activities may have been an essential part of prospecting and selling in the past, their relevance and value to today’s metrics and dashboard-driven larger buyers are close to zero. Today’s large account buyers have moved on. They have to accomplish more with less and are bombarded with emails, phone calls, text messages, and operational issues that require their time and attention. If you want your sales message to rise above the chatter in their connected world, you must objectively demonstrate how you will improve their financial metrics. Here’s how you do it:

• Focus your message on delivering a financial outcome. Sure, your golf club, great smile, and client list might be positive additions to your approach. But what these sophisticated buyers really need to know is how you will help them succeed in business. Show your projected impact in terms of “additional” trucks added to their fleet, beds for their hospital, or widgets from their factory, and you will have their utmost respect and attention.
• Talk to them about important BUSINESS issues. Any broker can talk about coverages, carriers, and program design. For example, take it to the next level by discussing Financial Leakage and Indirect Loss Costs and how these items are negatively impacting their financial statements.
• Show them how your resources and track record with other large clients will translate into bottom-line benefits for them. You do this by 1) quantifying your impact on your existing large clients’ Total Cost of Risk, and then 2) showing the prospect how their firm’s metrics would improve if you were to deliver the same resources and services if they were your client.
• Show them how many trucks or beds or widgets you will contribute utilizing your firm’s resources and services. Your message will stand out because it brings value and objective results, not just a list of features or accolades.
• Choose your battles wisely. If a prospect is only interested in price, look elsewhere. If your resource capabilities are of no use to them, or if the prospect won’t share their business metrics or discuss sophisticated issues with you, move on. Find sophisticated prospects who have ditched the antiquated hammer and chisel method of insurance negotiations and have moved on to the new world of metrics, analytics, resources, and quantifiable impacts.

We all have more than enough demands for our time and attention, but we will always find time and energy for someone who can make our lives and businesses more profitable, efficient, and rewarding. As you continue to elevate your conversations with your largest prospects and clients, you will further distance and differentiate yourself from the masses of mediocre salespeople and brokerages. Your consistent message of quantifiable results and resources will pay tremendous dividends in our rapidly changing industry. The old hammer and chisel will stay in the past, where they belong! Our clients are thriving despite the Hard Market as they take market share from their commodity-based competition. If you want to move upstream, increase your sales pipeline, and gain sales techniques and insights to navigate the Hard Market with your own growth strategies, you can learn more here.

All the best to Analytic Brokers,

Rob Ekern Chairman, Analytic Brokerage™ Platform   Make more money on Larger accounts - Let's get started