Surfing Through Life while Building an Agency to Last with Tony Alessandra, Episode #42

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Tony Alessandra, CIC, CWCA, Agency Principal, and President at Insurance Solutions. Tony talks about how he got into the insurance business and how he has built and navigated strategic alliances that have contributed to his success.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Tony Alessandra. (1:30)
• Tony shares his background. (3:30)
• Tony mentions that his father started the agency 53 years ago. (3:31)
• Tony shares that he and his father shared an office and they both started their insurance careers doing personal lines insurance. (4:39)
• Tony shares what he learned from his father and from buying his agency 23 years ago was his strategy to develop a new business like no other. (4:47)
• David mentions that his fundamental belief is, you must have a way to get organic business. (9:43)
• David thinks that to grow an agency, you have to be a five-tool player. (10:27)
• Tony mentions that it’s not easy to build out alliance networks, because it takes a lot of time to build up a reputation. (11:13)
• Tony shares that he was interested in diversifying and creating a more balanced approach. Therefore, they didn’t develop any business digitally and they didn’t need direct mail. (11:29)
• David mentions that Kyle is like the payroll king of working with payroll companies. (12:52)
• Tony explains strategic alliances. (14:05)
• Tony mentions that the only thing he learned quickly, from engaging with Killing Commercial is that he’s bad at writing a business plan. (18:27)
• Tony shares that financial advisors appreciate it when you’re doing risk analysis for them, and help them determine where their fatal coverage gaps may be. (20:15)
• How did Tony build the strategic alliance network? (21:56)
• Tony mentions that the first process is to connect with the one you know or the one that’s working and serving your client. (24:51)
• Tony shares that they had situations where the carrier has loosened up their underwriting restrictions and they’ve taken the business back. (27:28)
• Kyle mentions that doing the right thing and being trustworthy, would be beneficial in growing those referral relationships in your book. (27:52)
• Tony shares that their unique selling proposition is all about creating an achievement, protecting their book of business, and helping them make more money. (30:01)
• Why is it hard for people to ask for referrals? (30:48)
• David mentions that booked appointments are significant. (36:34)
• Tony shares that the way to become a trusted advisor is by getting to know more about them and making those deposits to help them get what they want. (45:07)
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• Tony shares that the insurance industry is recession-proof, essential, and a good opportunity to be in. (48:19)
• What was Tony’s worst experience that he ever had to deal with? (52:42)
• Tony mentions that a way to get into the business, get an agency that you can partner with that has some expertise, understand some of the nuances, and techniques are vital. (1:00:06)

Key Quotes:

• “I wake up every morning my name being Tony, everyone sees me as Tony the Tiger with the energy I have, and so I professed the failure flex for breakfast. I can’t fail fast enough and fail forward.” – Tony Alessandra
• “We make them look like heroes by providing the proper protection to protect the assets that they’re investing, for their clients from future potential claims. And at the same time, we can harvest cash for the financial advisors to reinvest.” – Tony Alessandra
• “I call that priming the pump strategy. You can tell them all day long, thank you. But when their client goes back and says thank you, that means the world. And then before you know it, the flywheel starts happening.” – Tony Alessandra
• “This is a relationship business. So if they want to try those guys, they have to refer out to three people, no problem. You just do a better job than those guys. You respond quicker, you think the more you go out of your way to be helpful in other areas, it’s not always about trying to win for you. It’s trying to help them save an account.” – Tony Alessandra
• “I only have so much time in my life and my day. So let’s go after our top 50 accounts that generate 95% of our revenue, and reactivate the ability to ask for a referral because we’re going to go after them. And building a moat is all about connecting with them deeper, creating more value, reassessing where they’re at.” – Tony Alessandra
• “I’m sitting here looking back and saying what got what worked. It wasn’t network networking groups, and it wasn’t stealing employees from my competitors. It’s growing people organically and truly pouring into their lives, giving them an opportunity, creating value for them that they didn’t see as they bounced around from job to job and didn’t have a career opportunity.” – Tony Alessandra
• “Find something you like and love, specialize in it, and be the best at it. And if you’re the best at it, you’ll be able to own that vertical, you’ll own it.” – Tony Alessandra

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Tony Alessandra LinkedIn
• Insurance Solutions