You Have to be a Hybrid

Listen, if you’re going to be successful in this game, you got to turn yourself into a hybrid. If you don’t understand what that means, you need to read this post.

Technicians

There are three kinds of people in the insurance industry today that are out attempting to produce business. The first one is the technician. The technician is the person that goes in and knows every coverage form, every endorsement. They know so much that they scare their prospect. Technicians lack sales skills, and many times they lack interpersonal skills, and I’m not making a knock on underwriters. Still, technicians are more suited for an underwriting role than they are a production role. I’m not talking about guys that can sell and be a technician or ladies that can sell and be a technician. I’m talking about straight technicians period. Okay. I’ve been in so many appointments where technicians speak way longer than they need to. They need for that person to understand how much they know, and they spend the whole meeting demonstrating their intellect and coverage form, memorization, and understanding. They talk themselves out of deals.

Salespeople

Now at the other end of the spectrum, we have the sales guys, the salespeople, saleswomen out there. What do they do? Well, they sell. They sell at all costs. They’re far from technicians. They don’t understand the technical piece, and they don’t understand coverage. They don’t understand endorsements and all of the things that need to happen to make a program successful, and so they seal the deal, then they hope for the best. Salespeople may sell more and produce more than a technician will. They’re also a walking E&O time bomb.

Hybrids

The third group is the hybrid. That’s what you need to strive to be. A hybrid is someone who has technical insurance abilities and also an ability to open and close deals. Hybrids are where it’s at. And so my challenge to you as you start this next week is, what are you going to do to sharpen the saw? What are you going to do? If you’re a technician, how are you going to push the needle into becoming more of a salesperson? If you’re a salesperson, how are you going to push the needle to become more of a technician? Because at the end of the day, if you’re either one of those two, and you’re competing with a hybrid, the hybrid’s going to run all over you. If you can self assess and determine what you need to do to strengthen your game and move the needle one way or the other and push yourself to become the ultimate hybrid, you’re going to kill it commercial insurance.

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