In this video from my AXIM Maximize Conference keynote talk, I share 3 reasons why insurance agencies aren’t growing post-COVID.

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Video Transcript:

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There’s two secret ingredients missing from getting from where you are today to where you want to be. Consistency and confidence. How many in the room? You don’t have to raise your hands. But I want you to think about this. How many in the room are looking at where you are right now today? And, you know, you could be a little bit better.

How many of you, when you think about your company, you look at where your company is right now and you’re like, we’re doing good. We could be a little bit better. There’s two secret ingredients missing from getting from where you are today to where you want to be. Consistency and confidence. And when it comes to potential, you need to have both.

But when I look at the industry right now, when I look at how we are trying to reach our full potential, I see a few gaps. Number one, we’re not consistent when it comes to business today, whether you’re an advisor at your employer. We’re not patient. We’re striving for quick wins. We just want this secret script. The secret formula to success.

Number two, we’re not confident. We know the way we do. Business has changed. We know the way we need to acquire new employees or new clients has changed. But we don’t want to change. Why? Because we fear judgment. We fear comparison. And we fear failure. Now, when I look at the insurance industry and I think about where we have big problems today, I’m seeing a bunch of agencies, a bunch of advisors.

And this same thing holds true for employers in general today that are not reaching their full potential. They are underperforming. They know they could be better, but they’re missing that one thing right now that’s getting them to the top, that’s keeping them from reaching their full potential. And when I look at why is that happening? I see three glaring areas.

And number one, the way we train people today is outdated. I know in the insurance industry we’re teaching new dogs old tricks. I was I was at a speaking at a conference back in October in Salt Lake City. And just like this, a roomful of insurance professionals. And I was on stage and I looked to my left and over sitting at the far, far left table was an insurance professional in his seventies.

And I looked at him, I said, Sir, how long have you been in the industry? And he proudly said, 45 years. I said, When you got in the industry, how are you trained? He said, I was given a phone book, told to go pound the pavement, and I looked to the center of the room. There was a younger woman, probably in her early thirties, sitting right in front of me.

I said, Mama, how long have you been in the industry? She said, Three years. I said, How were you trained when you got in the industry three years ago? She gave me the same answer. So the way we’re training people is completely outdated today. The second problem when it comes to attracting clients, attracting good talent, we’re trying to speak to everybody.

If we speak to everybody, we end up speaking to no one. If we’re not clear about who we’re going after, who we’re trying to talk to, we’re getting drowned out in a sea of noise. And then the third problem right now is when it comes to acquiring new clients, we are leaning far too heavy into direct marketing. For my insurance advisors in the room.

This is very true in our industry right now. Think about the traditional way of acquiring new clients. We go by a big list elite and then we just punch up left and right with emails and phone calls, and we’re constantly telling them why we are so great over and over and over again. And this comes back to where we’re missing the gap right now in reaching our full potential as a company, as an individual.

We’re missing the consistency, the confidence to change the way we’re doing things because we’re still holding on to the way it was. And March 2020 changed everything. Game. We agree the way we do business is never going to be the same. The way we build relationships are never going to be the same. And so if we can adapt to how we acquire talent, how we acquire new clients, we’re going to be on the leading edge. We’re going to have a competitive advantage.