In this podcast episode you’ll learn what psychographics are and how you can apply them to identify your best prospects.

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Who is your ideal prospect? What do they stand for? What do they believe? How do they make decisions? Who are these people between the ears? This is how you identify your ideal prospects…

Hey. Welcome back to bullpen sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 240. Today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite subjects, psychographics, how you can identify your best prospects.

And I’m actually going to tie in a sports analogy to explain how important psychographics are. So stick with me. I think you’re going to like this. But before we get there, do you want to make a quick announcement for our sponsor? Complete game consulting. Yes, that is the name of my company. What do we do? We help insurance professionals book more appointments with the right prospects.

When I look around the insurance industry, I see a lot of outdated training, a lot of the sales training today is still focused on how to drive better sales conversations, how to handle objections, how to become a better closer, which are all important. But here’s the problem Producers don’t order book appointments. They’re not booking enough appointments right now. And that’s where we come in. We teach our complete game marketing playbook to help you book more appointments with the right producers. So if your producer, sales director of an agency or an agency principal and you know you and your team need more meetings, come check us out. There is a link to a free script strategy. Call in the notes and we’ll connect and see if it’s a fit for you.

All right, Let’s dive into today’s episode of Psychographics One of the terms we use here a lot at complete game consulting is the riches are in the psychographic niches, and what I want to talk about today is how my recent experience with athletics really drove home the message of how it and how important it is to understand psychographics.

You know, if you listen to my episode two weeks ago, you’ll know that Amy and I recently moved back to Wisconsin. We are now settled in and it it’s been a great experience so far. We’ve been very well-received by our community, got ahead of us, had a chance to spend a lot of time with family already, which was the goal. And just in the last week I had a chance to catch two of my nephews baseball games, even though unfortunately they were knocked out in the sectionals and I got to attend his graduation as he’s a senior in high school. But just getting the chance to take in two high school baseball games has really opened my eyes to the difference between demographics and psychographics.

And prior to the last week, I probably hadn’t had the chance to watch a high school baseball game live in a few years. Living out in Colorado. I didn’t have any ties to any of the local teams, wasn’t working with anybody there, so just really did not take the time to attend any high school baseball games. While I was living in Colorado, we had Fossil Ridge right down the street.

But again, because of my schedule, travel, whatever, I just didn’t take the time to to take games in. Well, I had a chance now to watch two games here locally in Wisconsin and here’s what’s really interesting, and this is where my eyes were open. So if you’re listening and you have a child in high school athletics, I think this message will really make a lot of sense to you.

Watching these games. I’ve realized how crazy recruiting and high school sports is today. When I go back to my time in high school, which was the years 1992 through 1996, I can remember being recruited my junior and senior year in baseball, and it is nothing like it is today. You know, as I was sitting there watching my nephew’s team, a local team here in south central Wisconsin, he has two teammates that will leave high school this year and go on to play at SCC programs.

20 years ago, if you were a Wisconsin baseball player and you had the opportunity to go play at an SEC school, that meant you were probably the one player in the entire state that had that opportunity and you were the player of the year in the state of Wisconsin. But today, the number of big time Division one programs these kids are going to blows me away. And where this philosophy of demographic and psychographics really, really came into frame was a conversation I was having with a friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a while, but catching, catching one of my nephews high school playoff games. I was talking to this friend of mine whose son was playing for the other team, whose son is a sophomore and whose son is still he still hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, just like Pete had when he was a sophomore in high school.

And we are talking about how early kids get recruited these days in the high school cycle. Kids are making commitments to college programs today when they are freshmen and sophomores. And what we are talking about is Pete Sun, who will probably hit his growth spurt next year or the year after his junior or senior year on, fortunately will probably be fine himself behind the eight ball when it comes to recruiting because he blossomed too late and all these big time Division one baseball programs have already looked at kids when they’re freshman and sophomore.

And when I think about that, it just amazes me one, how early kids are making recruit recruiting commitments these days. When I remember I go back to when I was a freshman compared myself compared to the person who I was as a senior. It was night and day. I grew. I lost weight. I got muscle. Like the difference in a kid, a male, especially a boy between the ages of 14 and 18 is astronomical.

And when you’re recruiting that boy, that man at age 14, he is going to be an entirely different person when he is age 18. And this is what really opened my eyes with recruiting My nephew is probably a similar case. He really blossomed his junior and senior year. He grew he’s six feet. He’s almost £190. Good size. But guess what?

He’s kind of too late in the recruiting process. And this is where I really realized how demographics are. Everything when it comes into athletic recruiting. And this might be the case in other sports, too, whether it’s football, basketball, volleyball, softball, you name it. When you’re a freshman and you have the right measurements, think about demographics. In the world of sports, demographics are in athletes measurements, height, weight, speed.

Maybe it’s how fast they throw, how fast they swing, all of these demographic measurements. That is what determines your recruitment early on in your high school career. But what I’ve come to learn coaching insurance professionals like we do today is demographics alone do not make for a good prospect that goes for you in trying to win new business.

But that also goes for recruiters who are trying to find the right athletes for their team. You see, when I was watching these two games, I was watching a lot of kids who had all the right measurements, height, weight, speed, whether it was throwing speed or hitting speed or running speed. But then I noticed something really interesting in watching a few of them, because in this one playoff game, I think there were four, maybe five Division one recruits.

The couple had already committed. A couple more were up, were going to commit at some point here in the near future. That was unheard of in Wisconsin only ten or 15 years ago. But I’m watching all of these division one demographic fits, and I noticed something really interesting. There were a few of them that I’m not sure I would recruit psychographic.

What do I mean by that? Well, I’ll bring it back to what I know best, which is pitching. I watched a few pitchers in these two games that I happen to have a chance to attend, and I saw a lot of good demographic measurements kids with height, kids with size, weight, throwing 91, 92 miles an hour. But what I also noticed was kids who buckled under pressure, kids who didn’t didn’t step up when the pressure was on, when there were guys on second and third. And this kind of goes back to the old adage in sports, it’s one thing to look at an athlete on paper. It’s another thing to look at an athlete based on who are they, how do they show up for every game? How do they show up when it matters the most? How do they prepare themselves mentally as much as they do physically?

And as I was watching these two games, like I said, a lot of kids with all the right measurements and I know where they’re going to college. I know what programs are going to be playing for, where there’s going to be a lot of pressure. And I sat there wondering how in the world I’m watching a high school game where these kids are kind of buckling under pressure.

How in the world are they going to handle the pressure of the big time, big power? Five conferences, and that’s when it hit me. Demographics alone don’t make a good prospect. And this is something I see in sports. I’ve seen in sports. But for the past few years, high school football is another great example. All these five star athletes getting recruited to these big time colleges based purely on showing up for one camp with all the right measurements.

And then they go to these programs and their boss. Is that any surprise? It’s because psycho graphically, what’s going on between the ears doesn’t fit. In fact, that one of the games Amy said to me, which I thought was such a very such an appropriate comment, has these high schools ever thought about giving some of these athletes, psychologists, sports psychologists?

It’s so true, because everything we do in the world of sports is focused on the physical side, the demographics. Not enough time is spent on the mental side. And this is why I see so many good athletes with all the right measurements get recruited, all the right raise to all the right schools, and then they never live up to expectations.

It’s because they’re not a set good psychographic fit. So what the heck does this have to do with you and your business? Well, it has everything to do with your business because just like a high school baseball player is a prospect to a major college. Your that business in your town, that big city you’ve been trying to go after is your prospect for your book of business.

And my question to you is, are you spending enough time understanding the psychographic fit for your agency? Do you think about the world of insurance and identifying an ideal prospect? There are two ways to do it. Demographics and psychographics demographics are your prospects, measurements, location, size, number of employees, number of revenue. Look at industry. What job title are you going after within that business?

Who’s the decision maker? Those are all the demographics, the statistics, the measurements. But demographics alone cannot make an ideal prospect. I have never talked to an insurance provider. Provider producer excuse me, in my coaching career that has said, Andy, my ideal prospect is ABC Manufacturing. Why? Because they’re a manufacturer. The people I work with, they’re are rude, They treat me like crap.

They don’t take any of the advice I give them. They never do what I want them to do, but they are my ideal prospect because they are a manufacturer, said no one ever. Demographics alone cannot identify an ideal prospect. And for my commercial risk advisors listening in, it’s goes for you specifically. A lot of commercial advisors focus on industry niches.

Just because a prospect is within a specific industry does not mean they’re a good fit for you. This is where psychographics come in, just like psychographics are the mental side of an athlete’s make up In sports, the psychographics are the mental side of the make up of your ideal prospect. Who is your ideal prospect? What do they stand for?

What do they believe? How do they make decisions? Who are these people between the ears? This is how you identify your ideal prospect. So what I encourage you to do after listening to the taste to today’s episode is sit down and take the time to figure out the psychographics of your ideal prospect. So let’s talk about how you can do this.

If you want to open more doors with the right prospects, you have to have a clear understanding who your ideal fit is. Demographic likely, yes, but more importantly, psychographic. So here’s what I want you to do. I’m going to share an exercise with you that we share a do with our own clients. The first thing you want to do is you want to sit down and ask yourself who is your favorite client today?

If you had one client in your book of business that you could replicate over and over and over again, who would it be? I want you to think about that. If you work in the B2B space, write down the name of the company, Write down the name of the decision maker you work with there. If you’re in the B2C space, write down the name of the person you work with.

Who is your favorite client today. Then you want to ask yourself why? Why are they my favorite client? Now? Here is the only answer you cannot give. They are my favorite client because I make the most money on them. That is not the reason they are your favorite. The reason they’re your favorite client is because they let you do your best work.

So we’ve got to ask the two most important questions. Under the question of why are they my favorite client? Number one, What is their demographics? What’s their measurements? Just like for a pitcher, it’s height, weight, velocity. What are the measurements of your ideal prospect? Do you sell in a certain geographic market? Do you work with a specific industry?

Do you work with companies with a certain number of employees or a certain level of revenue? Take time to sit down and make that list. Maybe it’s the target decision maker within that organization. Do you work specifically with CFOs and ceos or do you work with H.R. Professionals? They’re a mix of both. But remember, demographics alone cannot make for the ideal prospect.

Now you got to do part two. Write down the psychographics of your favorite client. What do they believe when it comes to what you sell? How do they make decisions? What do they stand for as a company? As an individual? Now, when i say what do they believe and what do they stand for? I’m not talking religion, politics, things like that.

I’m talking more about what it is you help them with, what it is. You sell them, what it is, what problems you help them solve, What do they believe about those problems? What do they stand for? What are their opinions? You see, this is where the goal is. This is where your ideal prospect lies. That’s why they are your favorite.

Because you and that client have a psychographic alignment. Because if I spun the question back on you, what do you believe about what you sell? What’s your opinions? What do you stand for? I can almost guarantee you’re going to provide the same answers as you would for your ideal client. Which leads us to the last part of this podcast today.

If you have a clear understanding who your psychographic fit is, who is your ideal client psychographic? Lee Now you have to do everything you can to go find more like it. And how do you do that? You do it in your marketing, and here’s how I want you to think about it by identifying a prospect demographically. Demographically, what you’re doing is you are creating a lineup of prospects.

Imagine all of your prospects that fit the demographics lining up against a wall, just like suspects in a criminal case. The psychographics are what’s going to get the right ones to take a step forward. So how do you get the right prospects to take a step forward? You have to use and talk about the psychographics more in your content, whether that’s social media content, email content, webinar content, whatever it might be.

You have to talk about the psychographics of your ideal prospect more often. One of the easiest ways to do that is share your own psychographics. What do you believe? What do you stand for? What are your opinions about what you sell? What do you think the problems are that you solve? Are you talking about those are enough? Or are you trying to be down the middle, trying to be too vanilla, you see, to win in content today, to use content to turn connections into conversations and conversations into clients, you have to put more of your opinion.

You have to have a stance on something to ultimately find your ideal prospect. Now, here’s the truth. Yes, you might turn some prospects off. Some prospects might not find themselves aligned with what you have to say. And that’s okay because they were never going to do business with you anyways. But man, when you put more of what you believe, what you stand for into your content, the right ones are going to take that step forward.

They’re going to raise their hand and you are going to have better sales conversations. The fact that sales training I talked about at the beginning of the podcast, the outdated training gets kind of taken care of when you are bringing the right prospects into your pipeline, prospects who are psychographics aligned with you. So my ask of you leaving today’s podcast is Quit trying to be all things to all people.

Quit being scared to have an opinion to to talk about what you stand for when it comes to what you sell, because those are the two keys that are going to help you identify the right people. Yeah, you may not get as many people to raise their hand, but you’re going to get more qualified prospects to raise their hand.

And that is what this game is all about. I would rather have less prospects come into my pipeline who are awesome fits because I know I’m going to sell more than trying to fill my pipeline with a bunch of unqualified people. So I’m happy to be back in Wisconsin. I’m happy to have a chance to watch my nephew’s baseball games.

Now he’s headed off to UW Stevens Point to play four years there. But man, seeing those last two games of his high school career really opened my eyes about why psychographics are more important than demographics. I know measurements are important, and in sports, take it from a guy who is a pitcher standing five foot nine measurements were not in my favor, but man, psychographics are where everything’s at.

Psychographics are where you find Tom Brady, and so psychographics are where you are going to find your best prospects. The G.o.a.t is the greatest of all time, so take it from the undersized pitcher who now works with insurance advisors to help them build a business they are damn proud of. The riches are in the psychographic niches. Go find your best prospects who are aligned with you based on what they believe, what they stand for.

You’re going to bring a lot of good business in your book that your bottom line will thank you for. All right. Be well.