--:-- Ryan Handley: Because essentially, there's three types of revenue-generating positions. There are producers, outbounds, hunters, et cetera. There are closers, inbound. And then there are account executives, account managers, which are more retention, cross-sell, upsell, renewals. So, you know, figuring out which one of those positions the person's the best fit for can also be rapidly figured out as well by putting them through some of these tasks.
--:-- [stage direction: Transition to a personal tone]
--:-- Ryan Handley: What's up, guys, and welcome to another solo episode of the Finding Pete podcast. I love these solo episodes because it gives me a chance to really break down concepts that I share in social media or maybe talk about in podcast episodes where I have a guest and we don't necessarily get to expand as deeply on some of these things. Or just topics that I see out in different communities, whether it be agent-focused Facebook groups or other communities that I'm part of. See lots of questions, lots of thoughts, lots of stories shared. And these solo episodes give me a chance to dive deep on those topics. And I love doing that. I love breaking down these things for you guys and just hopefully providing another perspective.
--:-- Ryan Handley: You know, it's funny. I think a lot of times with the way that I approach these things, people believe that I believe that these are the only way things can be done, especially when it comes to inbound sales and marketing in the insurance industry. So many people have ideological and more traditional viewpoints than I do on how to approach inbound sales and marketing. And all I'm giving you is another perspective. That's my hope. I mean, these are things I've learned, beliefs that I have through experience, my own beats, practice, trying different tools, trying different processes, systems, using different personality types in different positions, which is one of the things that we're going to talk about today. And these are the lessons that I've come out with. It doesn't mean that they'll work for you. It doesn't mean that they're right for you. But hopefully what they provide is a new and unique perspective that you can think through. And if it feels like something that would fit, if it feels like something you're willing to try, it gives you another option.
--:-- Ryan Handley: We're searching for tools in our tool belt. We want to add as many tools as we can so that we can create sustainability and predictability in our business. And then when we hit on a tool that allows us to really be successful, we can scale our business. That's the idea here, guys, right? You build sustainability, predictability, and then ultimately scalability. And I believe, which is kind of my mission here for 2024, the first year of Finding Peak, my coaching and consulting firm. You can go to ryanhandley.com, findingpeak.com, wherever you search for, you can find more information. If you want to get on the wait list and or, depending on when you watch this, the actual program page, go to masterclass.insure. That's masterclass.insure. There'll be a link in the description whether you're listening to this via audio or watching on the YouTube channel. Go to masterclass.insure. Get on that wait list, and when our programming goes live, you can have access to it and be the first to know. And look forward to seeing you in there.
--:-- Ryan Handley: But the mission for 2024 for Finding Peak is about making inbound sales and marketing a best practice for our industry. Not something that the innovative and most forward-thinking digital agents do, but ultimately something that every agency just builds in as much as they think about referrals, they think about inbound sales and marketing, right? I mean, that would be the goal. That would be my hope is that through the work we do at Finding Peak, through the work that me and the programming that my team and I are able to create and distribute to you guys that we can, as common practice as it is to ask for referrals, people are using inbound sales and marketing activities to drive consistent business into their agency.
--:-- Ryan Handley: And here's really why I believe in inbound so much. Before we get to today's topic, just guys, it's not that I have some overarching desire to be the inbound guy, right? That's I there's so much about this industry that I want to talk and share and teach on and help people. And and oftentimes when we address things particularly associated with inbound, it creates all these additional questions or thoughts or or contextual items that we have to address in order to be as successful as we can. I believe in and preach and teach inbound marketing because I have found it to be over and over and over again, over multiple decades now, I have found it to be a core activity for growing an independent insurance agency. That's why. That's it. Not because I want to find some niche and be the guy in it or not because I'm too scared to cold call or I don't understand how to do something. I've done it all. I've prospect referral partners. I've cold called. I've done hard mail. I've sent out hard mail. I've done basically cold email drip marketing, paid advertising, traditional paid advertising, networking. I mean, if there is a way to generate business into an independent insurance agency, I have done it over the course of my career. And while most of them, I think, work incredibly well, and really all of them work if you're going to become a master at them, The one that I see used the least, which has the largest impact is inbound sales and marketing, right? So for me, where I believe to this industry, I can generate the most ROI to you guys is this activity called inbound sales and marketing. I believe so few agencies are doing it and so few are doing it correctly that by teaching and advocating in this area and drawing up the general awareness around inbound sales and marketing, the agencies who practice it and ultimately the industry as a whole can gather the largest ROI. That's why I spend my time here. If you want me to talk about cold calling or other types of prospecting or retention strategies or whatever, I'm happy to do those things. I mean, you know, I've got more than 13 years directly inside of independent insurance agencies, one of which I own, founded, sold and exited from. You know, I've worked with literally hundreds of other agencies. And if you count the phone calls that I've listened to through trustedchoice.com and when we were doing quality assurance, I've listened to thousands, quite literally thousands of agencies handle inbound leads. And I just feel like I can add value to you. So I just want to get that out of the way. I know that's a bit of a diatribe, but guys, you've probably seen me talking a ton about inbound and that's why. I just believe it's got the largest ROI for us for something that we currently aren't doing and that there isn't a lot of education around. So with all that being said, if you're still watching this or listening to this six minutes in, I want to talk through the three ways I believe we as agency owners or leaders of a sales team you know we you know for a sales manager vice president of sales et cetera in a larger agency the three ways we can quickly build confidence in young producers.
--:-- Ryan Handley: Now, I think what happens far too often is we bring someone in because they have potential or they're related to us or they're enthusiastic or outgoing, et cetera. and we throw them into how we currently prospect. And then when they struggle, when they flail, when they get frustrated, we act like it's maybe generationally they don't work as hard. Now, I will say that my general perception is the current, what is it, Gen Z, just has a complete different philosophical structure around work than say even my generation, right? Which I'm 42 going on 43 as of the making of this video. So I don't wanna say that they won't work hard, but I do believe that I don't necessarily understand personally all of their work ethic. And I also don't understand necessarily what they view and want out of their careers because it seemingly is much different than the way that I was taught and I was raised. But I don't want to say that what they're doing is wrong because regardless if we agree, disagree, understand, do not understand, there is an entire generation of people who we can bring into our agency. and if we can train them and provide them with the proper tools, resources, philosophy, culture, et cetera, can create dramatic and scaled growth, right? Because they have the energy, right? Like you just have more energy when you're in your 20s and 30s than you do in your 40s, 50s, 60s. So we wanna be able to leverage these people, but I do not think we can just drop them into the way we've always trained young producers and have them be successful.
--:-- Ryan Handley: So, all right. So how do we quickly build confidence in young producers? I have three ways to do this that I have tried and had success with. I think you have to tailor which of these you choose based on your agency setup and culture, et cetera, how you compensate people. I think you also have to take into consideration some of the unique characteristics of that individual. You know, are they a great problem solver, but not as extroverted? Do they have more phone skills, et cetera. There's, there's all kinds of things to take into account. I would love your thoughts, ideas, your own experiences. If you're watching on YouTube, great place to put comments, great place to collect comments, et cetera. Would love you to just pop your comments down on YouTube. I'll answer them. We can pull those comments out. If you're listening to the show via audio, either comment on social media. I would love to hear that, or just pop over to the YouTube channel and leave your comments, et cetera, on the YouTube video as it just creates a really easy place to collect those comments for future videos. We can address those comments and talk through some of the ideas that you share.
--:-- Ryan Handley: So with that, the first way that I found that we as leaders, BS agency owners or just executives, managers, et cetera, can build confidence in young producers is by cross-selling monoline accounts. And I'll put this as like a 1A, calling lost accounts. So depending on that, now again, this depends on the setup of your agency. If you have an agency culture where the initial selling producer owns that account, that account is theirs to cross-sell, upsell, et cetera, maybe you have to do something where you have a revenue share. Or if you have a lot of house accounts, this becomes much easier because now you can just take all the monoline house accounts and have these young producers with a call track, with a set of tools, with a value proposition. We can have them start to reach out and call these monoline clients and try to cross-sell them, try to upsell them. You could ask simply for Google reviews, right? Another good way is to call monoline clients who haven't left a Google review and say, hey, we really appreciate you being part of our agency. It means a lot that you would choose to put your workers comp with us or your homeowners with us. Uh, and you know, really I'm just reaching out to say, thank you. And if you've had a good experience, it would mean a tremendous amount for us. If you'd leave a Google review, would you be willing to do that? Right. That's a great touch point because you can also just open up that conversation. If the person says, well, this is a problem. There's a problem. And you just, again, you empower these young producers through talk tracks and scripts to if they have problems, say, hi, I, you know, just, just so you're aware, I don't have a hundred percent knowledge of what your issue is that you're bringing to me, but I'm taking notes and I am going to make sure that I prioritize today, uh, getting out ahead of whatever the issue is that they have right now. It sounds you're, you're not accusing them of anything or, or you're not creating new problems. You're not trying to have this new person to your agency solve that problem. You're basically just having them acknowledge to your customer that there is a problem and that they will take ownership over addressing it and making sure the right person finds out. That's a tremendous touch point. And if you get a Google review, that's amazing. And now that young producer is talking to someone, hearing, communicating, just getting comfortable over the phone. That's a wonderful way to build confidence with them. You can ask for referrals. You can have them do the same thing asking for referrals. If they did have a good experience, you can also say, hey, I know you have your workers comp with us, but would you be interested at all in moving your package over? We can rewrite your package. We can keep it with whoever they currently have it with, et cetera. Is there anything else? Do you need bonding? Do you need a commercial auto, et cetera? And looking through the notes in your agency management system, maybe you already know that they have these things and you're just asking. But that reach out for a young producer to a current client. Again, you have to make sure that you're coaching them. It would make sense to be on a few of those calls with them if you have a whisper line, et cetera, just to get them used to it. But having them reach out to people who already have accounts with you, it should be a little warmer. It should be a little more casual and it gets them some touch points and hopefully something of value in either referrals, a Google review or a cross sell in rounding out that account post sale. So monoline accounts. I think another way to go slightly more aggressive, and again, I put this under the same heading, but as like a 1A would be lost accounts. So reaching back out to accounts who have left and saying, hey, it's been 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, et cetera, since you were a client here. I know you canceled your policies with us. I'm just reaching out to learn a little bit more about why and if there's any opportunity potentially for us to work with you again, something like that. Right. And they're going to get more no's. Right. Maybe you start with the rounding out of monoline accounts or asking for reviews or referrals, etc. And then then you go to lost accounts. Right. So then you're now the lost accounts are going to get a few more no's. You're going to get some people who have some negative things to say. But hearing negative feedback is part of the job. But being that, you know, the way that this builds confidence is that they're reaching out to someone in a lost account who may have a negative interaction with them, but they don't feel like it's them personally since they're not the reason that the person left. Does that make sense? So because there's a bit of detachment between the reason the person left and the negative feedback, that young producer isn going to take as much of a psychological hit at first Again what we trying to do is get them comfortable on the phone comfortable asking for things comfortable asking questions and in this case comfortable hearing some negative feedback, but because there's a level of detachment from it, hopefully they don't take it as personally. Now, if you have a producer who can't call a lost account and take that feedback that's really breaking them, they may not actually be a good producer, right? So some of this is a way to figure out fairly rapidly if this person has the chops to be a good producer or a good revenue generating individual for your organization. Because essentially there's three types of revenue generating positions. There are producers, outbounds, hunters, et cetera. There are closers, inbound, and then there are account executives, account managers, which are more retention, cross-sell, upsell, renewals. So, you know, figuring out which one of those positions the person's the best fit for can also be rapidly figured out as well by putting them through some of these tasks.
--:-- [stage direction: Transition to a promotional aside]
--:-- Ryan Handley: Sorry to take you away from the episode. But as you know, we do not run ads on this show. And in exchange for that, I need your help. If you're loving this episode, if you enjoy this podcast, whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, I would love for you to subscribe, share, comment if you're on YouTube, leave a rating review if you're on Spotify or Apple iTunes, etc. This helps the show grow. It helps me bring more guests in. We have a tremendous lineup of people coming in, men and women who've done incredible things, sharing their stories around peak performance, leadership, growth, sales, the things that are going to help you grow as a person and grow your business. But they all check out comments, ratings, reviews. They check out all this information before they come on. So as I reach out to more and more people and want to bring them in and share their stories with you, I need your help. Share the show. Subscribe if you're not subscribed. and I'd love for you to leave a comment about the show because I read all the comments. Or if you're on Apple or Spotify, leave a rating review of this show. I love you for listening to this show and I hope you enjoy it. Listening as much as I do, creating the show for you. All right, I'm out of here. Peace.
--:-- [stage direction: Return to the main content]
--:-- Ryan Handley: Our industry that can teach you how to get better at it, but it can be very, very daunting. And one way that I've used to help some of our producers who weren't as comfortable with cold calling was to use cold video outreach. So what that looks like, and we go into a lot more detail in this kind of stuff inside of Finding Peak, but just to give you the high level, is you are using Loom and maybe going to that prospect if it's a commercial alliance client website or if it's a personal alliance client, although cold outreach to personal alliance clients is kind of necessarily frowned upon. So if you're calling particularly for commercial lines, you may pull up that business's website. You got the little bubble in the bottom left-hand corner if it's a loom video, and you just introduce yourself something like, let's say the guy's name is Steve. Hey, Steve, Ryan here. Just wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I've worked through your website and determined that based on some of the programs we have inside our agency, we might be a real value provider for you. We know that insert problem, you know, X, Y, Z that that type of client particularly has. We know how to address those things. And if you ever have a need or if you are struggling with any of those items, would love to just have a conversation. Something like that. Keep it, you know, I'm kind of going through it very quickly. The actual scripted version is a little more detail-oriented. But, you know, you want to keep it light. Keep it high level. But by showing their website, by showing your face, you are making a real connection. You're showing them that you've spent the time to actually review their website and that you get five to 10 of those out a day. They're fairly easy. You can send them out via LinkedIn direct message or email if you have that. And it just differentiates you. Additionally, if you're using a tool like Bloom, you can see if they actually watch it. And then if they watch it, it gives that young producer the confidence to reach out knowing that that business owner has actually watched the video, whether they've responded or not. And that's another way to quickly build some confidence because one, they're getting used to giving their pitch over and over and over again in a format that doesn't feel like it has as much pressure because the person's not actually on the phone yet. And also the kind of more digital outreach doesn't come with as much pressure as well. Again, eventually you may want to get to just straight pick up the phone and make the call. That's great. The idea here is not this is the only way you ever prospect. It's a way to allow young producers to build confidence in what they're trying to do. in this case, which is their kind of cold pitch to people, which will also help them be more confident when they see people in person, when they're networking, et cetera, when someone calls in. Because by doing it over and over again and doing it in a format that they're comfortable with, they build the repetition of getting good at their pitch.
--:-- Ryan Handley: So number two, cold loom video outreaches as a way to prospect and just do introductions. Last but not least, certainly not least and you know kind of coming all the way back to the beginning of this video is creating a steady inbound flow of leads. So by focusing on inbound sales and marketing in your agency making it one of the tools that you use and in my opinion it should be a core or foundational tool for generating opportunities for your agency to grow. Inbound business when done right has a consistency to it and a infinite nature, right? If you're consistently creating content, if you're consistently working referral partners, if you're consistently, you know, have like a steady stream of even paid leads coming from a tool like Tivoli, et cetera, when those leads are always coming in and you're getting five a day, seven a day, you know, 15 a day, whatever, whatever you can get to over time, when you bring in a young producer and you put them say in a closers position, that inbound revenue production position, which we call it finding peak of closer, they have a lot of at-bats, right? So as a young producer, the thing you're most worried about is, oh my gosh, if I don't sign this opportunity that I got, I'm not going to eat this week, or my boss is going to get mad at me because you just don have as many accounts in your pipeline When you put a closer on inbound yes you always are trying to maximize the number of accounts you write and you certainly don just want to throw accounts on the floor However, if you know you're getting five new inbound leads every day and you put that young producer on those inbound leads, they can have the confidence to know that if they screw one up, there's another one coming right behind it, right? And that confidence, that detachment from I have to sell every single one of these or I'm going to get fired provides a level of security that I do not think comes from any other format of new business opportunity. So, again, you want to be – you have to manage them. You have to be working with them. You certainly don't want them just like screwing all of them up. But there is a level of security and confidence that comes from knowing, hey, I could have three good calls today and two bad calls or poor calls as I learn. And those two poor calls aren't going to cost me my job. They're not going to cost me my paycheck. They're not going to cost me getting yelled at by my boss. Like I know that I can have a bad call here or there. I can screw things up as I'm learning. Eventually, we want to get to where we're crushing all of them. But I can have some of these misses early on because there's another lead coming right behind it. When we put young producers directly onto cold call prospecting or outbound prospecting or just, hey, go out and start networking or whatever. Well, eventually, if they do that right and consistently, you're going to build up a pipeline and everything should be fine over time. You can lose a lot of talented people if they don't get early wins or if they let their nerves get to them early on and they miss some early accounts. Those are things that can cost them months of development, where if we put them on inbound first and they just get used to talking to prospects, they just get used to answering questions, solving problems, working with carriers, filling out forms, et cetera, all the blocking and tackling that can waste brain cycles during the sales process. Now they come in when you do decide to say, hey, let's start pushing you into outbound. Let's start working on some larger accounts. Let's go prospect a certain niche, et cetera, that our agency is really good at or has some good programs for. They feel confident in the areas of the business, like asking questions, like working through problems, like communicating with underwriters because they've had so many reps on the inbound side of the business.
--:-- Ryan Handley: So guys, I think we have to be continually recruiting. Part of our job as leaders in a business is to always have our eyes open for new product, especially in my opinion, production associated, revenue generating associated employees. employees. And in order to make sure that the individuals we decide to invest in work and are successful, I think having programs or processes set up like these three items that I just discussed, cross-selling, monoline accounts, asking for ratings and reviews, current clients, etc., lost clients, reaching out to those, doing Loom Video cold outreaches, and working the inbound lead funnel. I think these are the types of activities that can allow us to rapidly evaluate while also rapidly building confidence in our young producers. But I would love your thoughts on this. I'm sure these aren't the only activities that you can do. I'm sure that some of this you may even disagree with or have tried and hasn't worked. I would love your comments. I would love your feedback. What are you finding out in the market when you bring a young producer in? How How do you make sure that you maximize their success early on? And I don't mean necessarily just young in age, but young to the business, right? We have a, this is a unique business. As much as I fought for most of my career that this was like insurance was some unique snowflake of a business. It really actually is. I just didn't believe it for the longest time. But over the course of the last half decade or so, I really developed the mindset that we do have kind of a unique and dynamic thing here. And people who work in other industries and come into particularly the independent side of our business, I think they find out pretty quickly that this isn't just a plug and play like other spaces, right? You can move in other spaces and plug and play similar tactics. Our industry tends to, we tend to have to massage activities that work in other spaces into ours to fit what we do. And I think having these types of tools, processes, resources at our fingertips helps us be successful faster. So love your thoughts, love your ideas, love you for watching this. If you want to learn more about what we're doing at Finding Peak, if you want to work with us at Finding Peak, you can go to masterclass.insure. That's masterclass.insure. Sign up for the wait list if you're interested in the DIY program. If you want to reach out to me directly, ryan at findingpeak.com. That's ryan at findingpeak.com. Love to talk to you, hear what's going on, and figure out if we can help. Guys, I love you for being part of this community. I love you for listening and watching to this show. I'm out of here. Peace. I'm going to shampoo. Thank you. Thank you. I'm out. twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible? It's not. With the one call close system, you'll stop chasing leads and start closing deals in one call. This is the exact method we use to close 1,200 clients in under three years during the pandemic. No fluff, no endless follow-ups, just results fast. Based in behavioral psychology and battle tested, the one call close system eliminates excuses and gets the prospect saying yes, more than you ever thought possible. If you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning, visit masteroftheclothes.com. That's masteroftheclothes.com. Do it today.
--:-- Promotional Speaker: Twice as many deals by this time next week. Sound impossible? It's not. With the one call close system, you'll stop chasing leads and start closing deals in one call. This is the exact method we use to close 1,200 clients in under three years during the pandemic. No fluff, no endless follow-ups, just results fast. Based in behavioral psychology and battle tested, the one call close system eliminates excuses and gets the prospect saying yes, more than you ever thought possible. If you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning, visit masteroftheclothes.com. That's masteroftheclothes.com. Do it today.
