Making the Agency World “BETTER” with Nicholas Ayers, Episode #57

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Nicholas Ayers, Chief Marketing Officer at Better Agency. Nicholas talks about how their product became the solution to every agency owner’s problem and how Made You Look is helping agents grow their business with video marketing.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Nicholas Ayers. (2:21)
• Nicholas mentions that he started in the insurance industry in 2005. (3:10)
• Nicholas shares that he opened his first independent agency in 2012 but didn’t learn his lesson, then did it again in 2018 because he’s hungry for punishment. (3:12)
• Nicholas mentions that as an agency owner, they had to deal with systems that were non-functional and not made for the industry. (10:17)
• Nicholas shares that over the years, they have required agents to become marketers, to have degrees in computer science, understand coding and automation, and more. (10:59)
• Nicholas mentions that Better Agency is going to be the solution to help you presale and post-sale, a solution that isn’t only for the sales team, but also for the salespeople. (11:48)
• Nicholas shares that they recently released their referral partner center, that will help personal lines agents to connect with mortgage loan officers in a way that will give them back their own referrals and protect the book of business for their loan officers. (12:46)
• Nicholas mentions that technology is the most efficient way to maximize your profitability, on an account. (16:24)
• Nicholas shares that the agents in their space are seeing the opportunity, and they already see themselves as entrepreneurs. (24:50)
• Nicholas believes that Better Agency is a broad market solution and they’re in the 80% of the industry that is focused on personal lines and small commercials. (28:16)
• Nicholas shares that they started Made You Look in August of 2018, and what they do is show insurance agents how to attract their ideal customer, write the appropriate script, and put their ad in front of the right person, using paid YouTube ads. (29:44)
• Nicholas mentions that the roots of marketing are all built on the idea that words are the most important component of all marketing. (40:48)
• Nicholas explains what IAOA is all about. (47:46)
• Nicholas mentions that the core principles of IAOA are innovation, selflessness, and collaboration. (51:17)
• Nicholas shares that not every agency has the same shape, size, or focus. But we all speak the same language and we all want our businesses to do better. (57:46)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “What Better Agency does is it takes out that obstacle, it takes away that roadblock that just says you know what, we’re going to give you a product, it’s going to do all the automation for you, it’s going to have all the cross-selling features in there, it’s going to have all of the renewal campaigns, it’s going to have all the cross all the service and claims, it’s actually going to be more functional than your agency management system in so many ways.” – Nicholas Ayers
• “We want to keep it simple, we want to make agents aerodynamic, we want to allow them to move, to have less friction in their brain, and to focus on what they need to focus on, while still accomplishing things that they need to accomplish. It’s gonna allow them to scale to keep their message simple and to grow their agencies, and to retain what they have.” – Nicholas Ayers
• “We believe that the agency owner across the street from us is not our competition. If you view them as competition, then that’s a mindset problem you have to deal with, there’s plenty of business for everybody and we believe that we truly are better together.” – Nicholas Ayers

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Nicholas Ayers LinkedIn
• Better Agency
• Made You Look
• IAOA