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THEWEDGE REPORT
OCTOBER 2018
When you’re decent at what you do, over time you’ll bump into a certain number of people who are referred to you. You can call this “bump theory.” With enough time and enough connections, you’ll bump into referral sources. These referrals enable only mediocre growth. Referrals are not going to help your agency grow hand-over- fist. The reality is quite the opposite. Relying on referrals is an old-world way of prospecting new clients. It can work, but it’s not going to get you the results you really want. Salespeople who focus on referrals can land those referral clients, no problem. But the result of that approach is a lot of small and insignificant accounts that they have to manage. It bogs them down and ultimately prevents them from going after more meaningful clients. The flipside of this approach is much more targeted. If you want to be strategic, you can turn to current clients or other professional connections you have to leverage introductions with the potential clients you really want. This is the new-world approach. You know your clients. You know who your professional connections know. Chances SET YOURSELF APART WITH A RED HOT INTRODUCTION
are there are people you want to be in business with. It’s just a matter of making it happen. Making it happen is being proactive in getting those Red Hot Introductions. When someone else makes the introduction and lauds your work and your professionalism, you’re basically being handed a red-carpet reception. Getting to that point is a two-step process. You first have to do your homework. As an insurance agent, you have a lot of clues sitting right in front of you. You may have access to your client’s top suppliers or other similar professional connections. When you vet those connections and decide on a person you want to meet on a call or in a face-to-face meeting with your current client, you can say something like “Hey, don’t you know so-and-so?” That gets your foot in the door and opens up the conversation about that person.
Here’s something else to keep in mind when thinking about this new-world approach: Dump the word “referrals.” It has a lot of baggage. Going out and asking for “referrals” is awkward enough. You certainly don’t want to bring it into the introduction conversation. Referrals are also a very reactive way to grow. You can only act when a referral comes to you. You’re simply not in nearly as much control as you would be with a Red Hot Introduction. After all, when you ask for an introduction, you’re being proactive. You’re making it happen.
– Randy Schwantz
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DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT HOW ONE SIMPLE CONCEPT CAN CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS FOREVER
In the modern realm of business, you’ll find attention to detail and high standards are required for businesses to be successful. With multiple markets oversaturated with similar products, marketing, and services, the quest for quality has turned into a necessity for survival. But somewhere along the line, the focus put on providing superior amenities becomes more of a hindrance than an assurance. The pursuit of perfection in daily tasks creates a paralyzing effect on productivity.
time on menial tasks that do not move your company forward is counterproductive.
PULL THE TRIGGER There comes a point in every project where you’ve reached the threshold of quality work. The measure of a great leader is knowing when this moment has arrived and marking the task as done. Every minute spent beyond this moment is time not spent on other important responsibilities — and that’s money down the drain. ROI ON PERFECTION To see if your business needs a boost in productivity, try running an analysis on where the time in a specific project goes. You’ll find that the more time you spend chasing perfection, the less profitable that project is. Done is better than perfect because it’s efficient and cost-effective, but most importantly, because it’s done .
If you were the head coach of a college football teamwith a tremendous winning record, what do you think you would say practice is for? For the most part, it’s about getting ready for the next opponent. But you have to know who that opponent will be in order to prepare. There is a good chance the assistant coach has seen and recorded the opponent playing at some point. During a film session to study the competition, you look for their strengths and weaknesses. From there, you can build a game plan. You want the best matchups you can get. Next, you run drills to improve your team’s skills during the game. You work to gain the most leverage from your team’s strengths, while minimizing the negative impact of their weaknesses. The concept of “done is better than perfect” has rapidly circulated in business over the last couple years. Current times require on- demand delivery of knowledge; paralysis by analysis can make a company less relevant if they can’t keep up. This fixation on the minutiae of a task not only hinders customer engagement, but it also has a negative effect on a business's bottom line. ISN’T PERFECT ALWAYS BETTER? Detractors of the “done is better than perfect” mantra suggest that going the extra mile makes all the difference in a client-based relationship. And they’re right,
don’t have film, you study your opponent’s proposals, which are kept in your file drawer. You may also poll producers in the room to see what they know from having competed with this agency. From this insight, you can build a plan to win the account. Here’s something else to consider: Have you ever been in a roomwith a few dominant personalities? As manager, if these personalities are not somewhat controlled, do you find they tend to take over the meeting? If or when this happens, the rest of the teammay hide below the radar until the meeting is over, never contributing anything or really learning. To overcome this sales meeting problem, try to isolate one producer at a time and get their account up on a whiteboard. but their interpretation of this philosophy is wrong. “Done is better than perfect” is not about churning out mediocre work. It’s about not wasting money. THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS When you obsess over a given task, it’s usually not something foundational to the success of the project. It’s more likely that you spend your time in the weeds of what is relevant to the consumer. Trying to find just the right shades of blue in an email or type of lightbulb for your office isn’t going to drastically alter the course of your business. Spending a disproportionate amount of
SALES MEETINGS 101
WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF YOUR SALES MEETING?
importantly, the incumbent agent, agency, and carrier.
During the meeting, the goal is to have that producer define how they are better than the incumbent and defend their process for winning the account. Think of this as weightlifting. The more reps and the heavier the weight, the stronger one becomes. A sales meeting is the same way. The more someone defines and defends how they are better than the incumbent, the better they become at articulating their differences. Visit https:/thewedge.net/crisp for information on the next CRISP Sales Meeting Workshop.
That is the purpose of a sales meeting — to get ready for the next opponent. Since you
On the board, add the buyers, the renewal date, the potential revenue, and most
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TAKE CONTROL OVER FUTURE PROSPECTS BOOK REVIEW: 'RED HOT INTRODUCTIONS'
A lot of sales people are told, or they assume, that referrals are everything. They rely on referrals for new business and for growth. While referrals can have their place in the bigger picture, there are many serious drawbacks to relying on referrals for business. There is a better way — a better way to wrangle new clients and a better way to grow. It starts with “Red Hot Introductions,” Randy Schwantz’s book dedicated to making those all-important connections with ideal prospects. Let’s focus on the word “ideal” for a moment. Referrals are by no means bad. But they require a lot of work to convert a potential client. There’s also a matter of control. When a referral comes to you, you aren’t necessarily in control. The potential client may or may
not be your “ideal” client. They may not even fully understand who you are or what you do. This is where a Red Hot Introduction can make a major difference. You do the approaching and you shape the narrative. Now, you might be saying, "Well, how do I do that?" “Red Hot Introductions” delivers the answer. Red Hot Introductions are, in part, leveraging the relationships you have with existing clients, as well as engaging with other professionals who are connected with those you consider to be your ideal prospects (as discussed in this month’s cover feature). Naturally, you need to know who your ideal prospects are, and again, “Red Hot Introductions” is here to help. Randy breaks down the process of identifying the prospects you need to go after. When you know the “who,” it makes the initial introduction that much easier.
But asking for that introduction, just like asking for a referral, isn’t always easy. Again, “Red Hot Introductions” challenges the barriers we construct for ourselves when it comes to asking for introductions. This book is chock-full of practical examples and resources. It isn’t “do this” or “do that,” as a lot of marketing books tend to be. Randy gives you real-world examples, along with strategies you can put to the test. The next thing you know, you’ll be making more Red Hot Introductions than you thought possible. Learn more about the book and grab your own copy at https:// thewedge.net/books . Enter promo code SAVE10 to receive $10 off the cover price of "Red Hot Introductions" (for orders received by Oct. 31, 2018).
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• Accountability • 5 things You Need to Grow Your Agency • Stealing Other Agents' Work? • Why You Need a Bad Cop to Improve Hiring Success
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INSIDE How High-Performance Producers Set Themselves Apart From Mediocre Producers Why Done Is Better Than Perfect What Is the Objective of Your Sales Meeting? Are You Ready for Your Next Red
Hot Introduction? Upcoming Events
Would You Survive These Marketing Nightmares?
MARKETING HORROR STORIES A LESSON IN WHAT NOT TO DO
Every marketing professional wants their campaign to be memorable. They want consumers to take notice — or take the bait — and make their company a big profit. But sometimes, things don’t go exactly as planned. The campaigns below certainly won the attention of consumers, but in each case, what started out as a marketing dream quickly turned into a nightmare. FIAT’S DIRECT MAIL DISASTER In 1992, women across Spain received anonymous letters inviting them to go on a “little adventure.” The letters stated, "We met again on the street yesterday, and I noticed how you glanced interestedly in my direction." Fearing a stalker, many women locked themselves in their homes. A few days later, another letter arrived, revealing the identity of the “secret admirer” as the new Fiat Cinquecento. Yes, the creepy letters were part of a marketing campaign by the Italian car company. Fiat apologized and ended the campaign after criticism from consumer protection groups, Social Minister Cristina Alberdi, and the 50,000 women who received the letters. KFC AND HOOVER CAN’T DO MATH A shocking number of companies hold giveaway promotions without calculating exactly how much they will cost. Here are a few examples.
• Back when “Oprah” was the biggest show on television, KFC ran an ad offering a free two-piece chicken meal with two sides and a biscuit for anyone who went to their website and downloaded a coupon. Over 10.5 million coupons were downloaded, and KFC had to give away $42 million in free food. • In the 1990s, Hoover Company in the United Kingdom offered two round-trip plane tickets with the purchase of a vacuum. Unfortunately, even in the ‘90s, most vacuums were still cheaper than plane tickets, and Hoover lost 50 million pounds in what remains the biggest promotional disaster ever. CARTOON NETWORK CAUSES A BOMB SCARE Guerrilla marketing can create valuable word of mouth — think about the success of the movie “IT” last year. The marketing for the film included simple red balloons tied to storm drains. But Cartoon Network didn’t have quite the same luck in 2007 when they tried to promote their show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” When the network put electronic devices featuring a character from the show all over Boston, city residents thought the strange contraptions looked like bombs and called the police. This triggered a terrorist scare that ultimately cost the general manager of Cartoon Network his job.
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