Choosing Love to Make a Difference with Justin Sloan, Episode #27

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Justin Sloan, Real Estate Investment Insurance Specialist, Principal Agent and Owner at BSP Insurance. Justin discusses his niche in the insurance industry and what tools they use in AMS and CRM. He also talks about the significance of utilizing automation in insurance.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Justin Sloan. (1:39)
• Justin shares his background and his experiences in the insurance industry. (3:28)
• Justin mentions that he had a terrible car accident in the summer of 2012. (5:26)
• Justin says that he always had goals and aspirations of being a business owner. (5:39)
• Justin shares that they have a pretty hefty book of what he called the generalist type insurance, and they are starting to focus more on niches and micro-niches this year. (6:44)
• What point of inflection did Justin determine that it was time for him to start drilling down? (7:14)
• Justin noticed that many insurance agents didn’t realize the coverage form and the demand for certain coverages on the deals. (8:17)
• What is a micro niche? (10:47)
• Justin explains the difference between niche and micro-niche. (10:59)
• What kind of automation does Justin have, for the micro-niche and niche accounts to somewhat keep his hands off of it as possible? (15:25)
• Justin mentions that they use Hawksoft as their AMS and Hubspot as their CRM. (16:07)
• Justin shares that they have excellent renewal retention with automation, and it streamlines the whole process and reduces the amount of time spent on the phone at renewal. (18:31)
• David thinks that automation is extensive, and it’s a place where plenty of agents end up getting distracted. (18:50)
• What advice would Justin give if David was an agency that was looking to dip his toe into automating his processes? (19:10)
• Justin talks about the conversation he had with his business partner, Christopher Paradiso. (19:43)
• Justin shares that the automation piece is a pleasant experience for their prospects, and following up on quotes is vast. (20:54)
• Justin explains the reason why loss is a big topic. (21:20)
• David shares that he perceives HubSpot as an investment that has allowed him to replace four physical bodies because it provides a better work product than a human would, as long as it’s programmed correctly. (24:50)
• Justin shares that one of the things that he does in their agency is to test everything out first, try, and break it basically before they implement it into the agency. (37:21)
• Justin thinks that the huge factor is dedicating someone in your agency regardless of the size of your agency, whether you’re a two-person shop or more, or a technology person where they’re always adapting, changing, and seeing what’s out there. (37:32)
• What agency management system would Justin recommend? (40:51)
• Kyle says that Justin brought up client experience from his customers’ perspective. What makes Justin different? (43:26)
• Justin explains what a quote proposal process is. (43:35)
• Justin mentions that he highly recommends the use of a video proposal. (47:10)
• Why does Justin think that this industry is so slow to change and adapt to some of the different technologies? (56:02)
• Justin explains his six pages pre-recorded quote proposal video that he used for all proposals. (57:27)
• Justin talks about an annual event called Choose Love Fundraiser. (59:18)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I think our biggest pitfall starting up…and I learned a lot of lessons, was again, just new business prospecting and make sure that every single lead that comes in the door is getting callbacks and emails back.” – Justin Sloan
•  “I think it’s to each his own. They need to really look in the mirror, and like you said, kind of reverse engineer what they’re trying to achieve.” – Justin Sloan
• “It’s just great being able to give back to the community, regardless of whatever benefits come from it. From a financial standpoint, that’s not our reasoning. All the business owners here are fathers and mothers, and we all have children. This is very near and dear to our hearts, so just being able to do that, and having an agency and the whole team buys in. It’s just the greatest feeling in the world for everybody here and gives us a sense of purpose as well.” – Justin Sloan

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Justin Sloan LinkedIn
• BSP Insurance
• Choose Love Fundraiser