You in the sales game and having problems during COVID? You looking for some help and some resources that’ll take your game to the next level? Well, today, I’m going to talk to you about five different things that every salesperson should have, in terms of resources, to help them get through this tough time and carry them through on the other side.
Listen, it’s no secret, these are challenging times. I get it; we’re experiencing the same thing at my agency. In my book, the extra two minutes, I give salespeople a ton of tools that they can use to take their game from ordinary to best in class. Just like that, I’m going to talk to you about five of those today.
One of the first things that I do with any prospect is I take the time to research that prospect. One of the ways I do this is with ReferenceUSA. So tool number one is going to be your library card because ReferenceUSA is a free database that you can use through your local library if they have it. If they don’t, it’s okay, find another library close that does. It’s free. It’s worth the drive if you have to take 15 minutes to get a card from another library. ReferenceUSA is a database that will give you a ton of demographic information about your prospect. You don’t have to go any further than that to get everything you need. Now listen, it’s not always 100% accurate. It’s probably 80% accurate if I had to guess. But it’s enough to let you know, yeah, this is somebody I need to reach.
Once you have them researched, you have to plan on how you’re going to get in front of them. Listen, you don’t have to have the highest cost, best CRM out there. But you do need to have a way to get stuff to people. And you have to have a way to measure it. So if your agency is not in a position to spend the money on a CRM right now, have at least a Mailchimp account, or Mad Mimi, or something like that where you can get a weekly or monthly newsletter out. And, if you have particular current events that need a single email, you can push that out to everybody on your email list. You might be a one-person shop, heck, I was a one-man shop for 18 months. I had to cobble as much together as I could to do this. But having a primary email platform that you can measure open rates, bounce rates, and all of that stuff is huge.
The third thing I’m going to tell you is you got to have a good website. Listen, your website is so important because that’s where people are interviewing you before they ever reach out to hire you. You got to have content on that site. It has to be evergreen content. Sure, you can have some sprinklings of current events in there, but at the end of the day, what’s going to drive your search engine optimization, and the amount of traffic that you get to your website is that evergreen content. Those questions that people are continually searching for the answers. You can provide those. Write a quick article on it.
My buddy, Bradley Flowers, said when he was on the Power Producer’s Podcast with us that any time one of his people gets the same question twice, it automatically becomes a piece of content. They keep pads by there desks, pencils, and they just jot it down any time they hear that. It’s essential that you have evergreen content, and it’s not hard. Do something like this right here, start with video, and then move to audio. Then proceed to written. Get everything out there, because what I can tell you is, you can get so much out of one piece of content if you repurpose it correctly.
The fourth one I want to talk to you about is a website called MailTester.com. MailTester.com is where you can go and enter any email address, and it will ping the server to determine whether or not that email address is accurate. One of the most significant issues we have in the sales game is we can’t get the email on the right person, right? Well, what happens if you think you got it? Well, you got to MailTester.com, you put it in, and you’re either going to get a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
Listen, I’m going to sidebar just for a second, right? I’m going to give you a tip. Don’t go for the decision maker’s email address. Don’t go for it right out of the box. Chances are the gatekeeper is not going to give it to you. So what you do is you play to the gatekeeper’s ego, right? You say, “Hey, look, I know you’re a good gatekeeper, and gosh, you’re best in class. The information I have for your company is critical, but I understand, you probably don’t want to give me the email address for the person who makes these decisions. I get it. Is it cool if I send this to you, and then you forward it on to them, so you’re filtering their email out from guys like me?” Guess what, 99% of the time, you’re going to get it. Then what do you do? You don’t send the email to the gatekeeper, you go to MailTester.com, and you play around with the email address, first letter last name, first name, whatever. And you put it into MailTester.com, and now you got the decision maker’s email address, and you’ve bypassed the gatekeeper.
That was a bonus. The other thing you have to do is you have to make sure you are using LinkedIn, and you’re using LinkedIn the right way. LinkedIn is a massive boost for anybody in the sales game, but here’s the problem, don’t sell on it. Don’t try and sell. Instead, you should engage, interact, and build relationships. Sales will come. How many times do you connect with somebody, and within 30 seconds, you have an automated message? The message is saying, “Hey, I’m so glad we connected, I want to let you know I’m helping businesses in your area with things just like you do, and blah, blah, blah.
No. We don’t want that. And neither does anybody else. So don’t do it. Connect, interact, create events, create groups. Be a subject matter expert. Share your stuff. Share your evergreen content. Share content from other people. Comment on other people’s things. Comment on your posts. Do everything you can to build up your presence on LinkedIn and manipulate that algorithm.
Listen, some of this stuff sounds basic, but you’re not doing it. Now is a great time to slow down and look at all of the things out there that we’re not doing, add them to the regiment, make them a habit, and push our game to the next level for the foreseeable future. If you can do that, just these five simple things. You’re going to kill it in commercial insurance.
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If you’re a commercial insurance producer trying to grow in the middle market, you’re probably aware that the old-school prospecting methods—cold calling hundreds of businesses, dropping off trinkets, hoping someone is “coming up on renewal”—are no longer enough. In today’s competitive environment, success isn’t about how many people you reach. It’s about reaching the right people at the right time with the right message.
Too many agents stop learning once they’ve earned their license. The bare minimum—meeting continuing education requirements—is not enough in today’s climate. Producers often resort to online forums, asking where they can complete CE hours “as quickly as possible.” This mindset directly impacts their ability to communicate complex subjects like reinsurance or risk modeling to clients in an understandable way. As a result, they struggle to retain accounts and close new business in an increasingly competitive market.
The problem? Too many producers are pitching too soon, to the wrong people, with nothing more than a quote to offer. This article walks through how to close more business by positioning yourself as a trusted advisor, selling Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) outcomes, and using a structured approach to differentiate at every stage of the sales process.
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Most commercial insurance producers think of referral networks as an afterthought—something that might generate a lead or two if they attend enough events, shake enough hands, or stay active in their BNI chapter. But the producers who consistently dominate the middle market think differently. They treat referral networks like revenue engines, built with the same discipline as a sales pipeline, and they use those relationships not only to generate appointments but to recruit the next generation of elite producers.
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