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Last Updated on: December 28, 2020

Who is Your Competition?

I just left Orange Theory, where for one hour, I got my butt just absolutely obliterated by soccer moms in yoga pants. The whole time I was getting crushed, I thought to myself, is this my competition? Nope. My question for you is, do you know who your competition is? It’s time you define it.

I am my Biggest Competition

So here’s the thing, as is usually the case, I was going back and forth in an online forum with other agency owners this weekend. And the question came up, who is your competition? You know, for me, that’s not a problematic answer at all. My competition’s myself. I’m the one that’s going to talk myself out of getting out of bed. I’m the one that’s going to talk myself out of working extra long hours if I need to. I’m the one that’s going to talk myself out of making the additional 25 calls I need to make to get appointments set. I honestly don’t view any other agency out there as my competition.

Qualify the Answers You Seek

If I can’t get it through my head to get things right first and make sure I’m even out on the streets to compete, how can they be my competition?  This person was looking for the answer to a question that didn’t come with any pre-qualifications. And I always caution people, especially when you’re talking to other agency owners about stuff like this, make sure you qualify what your answers are that you’re seeking. This person was looking to find out if your competition with a captive agency or a direct writer or whatever. Well, that doesn’t even play in my world. In the middle market, we don’t run into direct writers, and we don’t run into captive agencies. Most of the time, it’s independent versus independent, and the only difference is some are public, and some are private. So what I would tell you is take some time this week, think it through, define who your competition is.

Analyze the Marketplace

Now you can give an answer like mine about yourself being the competition, but look at the marketplace, do a SWOT analysis, see who the people are that you’re going to be out there competing with to get accounts, and to get the door open. These are the people that have been on these risks for several years. These are the people that the prospects always use as an excuse to keep you from making appointments with them. And I’ll tell you what, identify who they are and when you start having success against them, you’re going to have a whole new list of prospects because you know exactly which agencies you want to target. It’s just the nature of the beast guys. It’s not nasty. It’s Killing Commercial Insurance, and that’s what you’re going to do if you can follow this advice.

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