Look, if you’re going to be successful in the commercial insurance game as a producer, you have to understand that you have got to be so much more than just a salesperson to your prospects and your clients for that matter. If you think I’m kidding around, I’m going to share a story from my book of business today, that just made my day when I got out of bed.
So many times, we get caught up in the pressures of production that we forget why we do what we do. The truth of the matter is people are not interested in a salesperson. I know it’s cliche, and I even hate to say it, but it’s a fact. People want a trusted advisor. You go in to consult with your clients and prospects on the core functions of their business. Â It’s time that we start holding ourselves in the same regard as their accountants and their attorneys. Risk management advisors and insurance professionals have gotten a bad rap for a lot of years, and you know what, it’s because of us. It’s because of what we’ve done. We all want to go in with the hit it and quit it mentality, that we’re just here to sell you something, and we’ll see a few weeks before renewal to try and sell you something again.
You can’t keep business that way, and you certainly can’t grow a book of business that way. This morning when I woke up, my thought process was validated entirely by this email that I got from one of my clients. “David, I need your book. I’m willing to pay. Where can I get one? I know you saved my business and wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Getting us hooked up with Pilot Bank was a huge win. Thank you.” See, the reason this validated my thought process is because when everybody else was out shouting, “COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID,” I wasn’t. I realized that for me to sustain my book of business, I needed to maintain my relationships and help keep my clients in business. As a result, we held a webinar with my good friends at Pilot Bank and their SBA lenders, the second that PPP loans became an option.
I sponsored the webinar. I moderated the webinar, and not one time during that entire webinar did I even mention the word insurance or the fact that I wanted to try and sell these prospects something. See, part of our job as a producer and a trusted advisor is to be connectors. We have to be connectors more than we’re salespeople. What I did was I recognized the people who needed money. I understood that I had relationships with the people who could help them get that money. All I did was bring them together. As a result, my channel partner, Pilot Bank, benefited greatly. Several of my clients moved to their banking relationships to their institution as a result of the connection. My clients benefited because they got the money they so desperately needed in a time where they were getting thumped.
Did that have anything to do with insurance? No! All I did was make sure that I know what my clients and prospects need so well that I can be a resource to help them meet that need. It’s not about selling a product. It’s all about solving problems. If you and your team can figure out what those problems are and demonstrate pragmatic solutions, you’re going to kill it in commercial insurance.
Until next time:Â Kill or Get Killed
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