INS 002 - Death of the Insurance Salesman

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy.

Speaker 1 Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies.

Speaker 1 The process only takes minutes, and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save.

Speaker 1 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Speaker 2 Potential savings will vary, not available in all states.

Speaker 3 Thursday night football is on, and it's only on Prime Video. This week, the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans collide in an AFC showdown.
Coverage begins at 7 p.m.

Speaker 3 Eastern with football's best party, TNF Tonight, presented by Verizon. Not a Prime member, not a problem.
Simply sign up for a 30-day free trial. It's the Bills and the Texans Thursday at 7 p.m.

Speaker 3 Eastern, only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply.
See Amazon.com/slash Amazon Prime for details.

Speaker 4 Lowe's knows that saving is always top of mind, especially this season.

Speaker 5 That's why we've picked some great deals for early Black Friday. Get free select DeWalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit.
More tools? Why not?

Speaker 4 Plus, we've got select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees starting at $59.98 because it's never too early to think Christmas. Get Black Friday prices without the crowds.

Speaker 5 Lowe's, we help.

Speaker 4 You save.

Speaker 5 While supplies last, selection varies by location.

Speaker 5 Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Ryan Hanley Show.

Speaker 6 And this is an episode specifically for the insurance industry.

Speaker 6 So, if you don't work in the insurance industry or you're just simply not interested in listening to a podcast about insurance industry related stuff, then this is not the episode for you.

Speaker 6 Just click back to an old episode and listen to another one of those gorgeous episodes again, or just wait for the next one to come out, which will be on Monday.

Speaker 6 That being said, today we dive into the dynamic between

Speaker 6 or the disparity, excuse me, between

Speaker 6 what insurance consumers actually want and what insurance carrier executives believe insurance consumers want. And a new study out by Velocity and Salesforce in partnership with Newsweek finds that

Speaker 6 there is a fairly large disparity. And I think it is systemic in the industry.

Speaker 6 And I think that it speaks in large part to the principal agent dilemma between carriers and agencies, independent agencies in particular, that we addressed in the very first insurance

Speaker 6 episode that we did. That's INS 001, which was a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 6 So I think you're going to like this episode, especially if you work in the the insurance space or if you just enjoy business dynamics.

Speaker 6 There's lots of fun stuff. Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the podcast.

Speaker 6 If you haven't left a rating and review on iTunes, my friends, it's just a great way to help more people find this show.

Speaker 6 Do it if you want. If you don't, I still love you for listening.
Let's get to the episode. Thanks.

Speaker 8 Today we're going to be talking about the title. Well, the title of this live stream is Death of the Insurance Salesman.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 the purpose of that, it's really just a playoff, like death of a salesman.

Speaker 8 Although we certainly

Speaker 8 won't be as dire is that, because ultimately, just to kind of cut to the rub, I don't think the insurance salesperson, salespeople, I do not think in any way, shape, or form that they are dead.

Speaker 8 I do not think that they are dying. I do not think they're going away.
I do think that

Speaker 8 what is happening is a transition away from the traditional ground and pound agent to a hybrid style agent, an agent that is both

Speaker 8 a marketer, a salesperson, a technologist.

Speaker 8 I think that I think you have to be all three at a minimum in order to be successful moving into the future.

Speaker 8 Now, if any of you are watching this and you've developed your business over the last 20, 30 years and you did it through very classic means, you may be saying, Ryan, I've heard this story a thousand times and I'm still able to grow my business off of referrals and I built it this way and this works for us and this is who we are.

Speaker 8 And this, you know.

Speaker 8 this is just nonsense that keeps being run past me, but ultimately is not the reality that we live in.

Speaker 8 And my pushback to you would be: if you have that point of view, or to anyone who has that point of view, and I've shared this with people in many of the presentations that I've done at many different insurance organizations around the country, is you could not do that today.

Speaker 8 So, what I mean by that is, yes, you have established a reputation in a community or an ecosystem in which you people, people come to you.

Speaker 8 They're driven to you through referral partners, through current clients, through friends, through business associates,

Speaker 8 through just your reputation in a space that you have been in for a period of time.

Speaker 8 And what that allows you to do is disregard certain marketing, advertising, we'll say growth focused business tactics to continue to build your agency and your book or your book of business.

Speaker 8 Unfortunately, if you were to do, take that same philosophy and restart it today, the same philosophy that

Speaker 8 you used 20, 30 years ago, even really 15 years ago, although it was starting to change at that point.

Speaker 8 If you were to try to do that today,

Speaker 8 you would fail. That would not work.
It would, it just, it happens too slowly. There's too many people coming at your clients.

Speaker 8 It's so much harder to build a moat or a wall, whatever analogy you prefer around your client base today than it was 15, 20, 30 years ago.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 I thought it was important to address this topic because I was passed a study that was done by Salesforce and let's see, who else?

Speaker 8 It was done by Salesforce, Velocity, and Deloitte Digital in conjunction with Newsweek. And it was titled

Speaker 8 Empowering Consumers and Agents, the New Basis of an Insurance Competition. And what I found interesting about this study, and I'm going to have to apologize to whoever passed this study to me.

Speaker 8 I have completely forgotten who sent this to me. So if you're the person that sent this to me, know that I appreciate it.

Speaker 8 And if you reach out to me, I will give you credit down the road for passing this study to me because I do think it's a very, very important.

Speaker 8 a piece of research and findings.

Speaker 8 And I just have in reviewing it and it's been weeks since it was given to me, and I have completely forgotten who it was. So, I do apologize for that.
Okay, so in this study,

Speaker 8 in this study, 300 C-level insurance executives

Speaker 8 were surveyed, and their perspectives were collected and kind of digested for the findings.

Speaker 8 And I'm just going to kind of cut into the chase. There's a lot of stuff here, and we're going to go back through it.

Speaker 8 But what immediately jumped out to me, what immediately jumped out to me is actually on page,

Speaker 8 it's on like page 12 or 13,

Speaker 8 and it is a diagram. Now, if you go to, if you go to my website after this, this, the replay of this video will be there.
I also have a screen grab of this,

Speaker 8 of this,

Speaker 8 the particular slide or piece of the study that caught my attention that we're going to spend a lot of time talking about. I also have a link to this study there.

Speaker 8 If you just go to ryanhaley.com, it's like the top post. It's called death of an insurance salesman, and you can find all this information there.

Speaker 8 I will also have it in the comments below if you're watching this at a later time. But basically, they line up

Speaker 8 in terms of importance.

Speaker 8 They line up in terms of importance when making, when buying insurance products or services, what insurance buyers find important versus what insurance insurance carrier executives feel is important today.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 the,

Speaker 8 you know, there's some obvious, there's two obvious pieces that stand out.

Speaker 8 The first,

Speaker 8 if we're looking at, if we're looking at

Speaker 8 executives, what carrier executives think is important when during the buying experience of insurance products.

Speaker 8 If you look at carrier executives, they ranked mobile apps as the most important aspect of the buying process today, of the insurance buying process. A mobile app was

Speaker 8 the most important item.

Speaker 8 That was second to last for insurance buyers.

Speaker 8 If you look at insurance buyers, the most important aspect for for an insurance buyer in making a decision

Speaker 8 was a knowledgeable salesperson. And that was last for insurance carrier executives.

Speaker 8 Now, what's interesting is right below that, both insurance buyers and insurance carrier executives ranked a quick and easy checkout as number two. So

Speaker 8 here is the piece of this whole story that I find to be so tremendously interesting. And

Speaker 8 is the

Speaker 8 issue that we as an industry have to figure out. We have to have real dialogue about this, and we have to

Speaker 8 do that in a way that people are allowed to share their opinion without ramifications beyond disagreement.

Speaker 8 Because ultimately, I think most of us are pulling our punches and not really speaking our truth on this topic, which

Speaker 8 I'm going to do today.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 hopefully we can get some conversation going.

Speaker 8 Here's the deal. And before we get there, let's just see.
It sounds like audio is working. That's great.

Speaker 8 I see insurance nerds here.

Speaker 8 I see Mike Crowley's here.

Speaker 8 You know,

Speaker 8 Judson Norton, great. Guys, leave your comments, leave your thoughts in the chat as we get going on this.

Speaker 8 I'll be happy to answer those questions and call out some comments, call out some thoughts. Mike Crowley

Speaker 8 already jumped in with uh because because carriers don't have a clue i i think that there's an intrinsic difference in the way that we're viewing the business and this is a huge huge issue so let's let's let's dissect what what what this survey is providing with us so

Speaker 8 insurance buyers are saying there needs to be a human in the process somewhere in the process in order for me to make a decision the thing that's the most important to me it's not the only thing that's important And it, and I don't think what they're saying is that it always has to be part of it.

Speaker 8 But I feel as an insurance buyer, it is very important to have it.

Speaker 8 And ultimately, the most important thing to me making this decision is having a knowledgeable salesperson at some point during the buying process to help me validate my decision on coverages, on carrier, on price, you know, on making sure that when I leave this transaction, I don't have to think about insurance anymore.

Speaker 8 Because that's, you know,

Speaker 8 if we take a step back and we think about what insurance consumers actually want, it's a one-call transaction. That's what they want.
It's a one-touch transaction.

Speaker 8 They want to engage with an insurance provider, be it an agent or a direct carrier or captive or a mobile app, whatever that situation is.

Speaker 8 They want to engage with that insurance provider, have one interaction, and walk away with an insurance program, a package of policies or a single policy, an insurance program that they then don't have to think about anymore.

Speaker 8 That's what insurance, that's what the buyers want. That's what they've always wanted.
And, you know, I think

Speaker 8 we have done everything we can over the years to make that single interaction transaction as difficult as possible. I think that's fair to say.
We have, we have been sluggish on technology, we've

Speaker 8 overindulged a number of touch points. We've forced

Speaker 8 fairly ambiguous rules onto different processes.

Speaker 8 We've created these walled gardens, whether it's agency management systems or it's carrier pricing, in an effort to slow everything down so that we can control our data and build moats around our clients and ultimately just destroyed trust and respect and all the things that we ultimately want out of that

Speaker 8 buyer-insurance prior to relationship. So, despite all of that, insurance buyers are still saying that a knowledgeable salesperson is the most important part of the process.

Speaker 8 But the second most important thing, and I don't know what the differential is in how far like number one is from number two. This is just ranked in order.

Speaker 8 The most important thing is a knowledgeable salesperson. The second most important thing to insurance buyers is a quick and easy checkout.
That makes a lot of sense to me.

Speaker 8 Is I want this process to be easy. I want it to be as quick as possible.
But at some point, give me a human in this process to say, you know what? You missed this thing.

Speaker 8 You have a 2017 BMW and you don't, you forgot to put comp and collision on it.

Speaker 8 Is that really the decision that you want to make? Or whatever, right? You have a business that has lots of perishable goods and you have a really low limit on

Speaker 8 your perishable goods coverage or whatever for restaurants, right? Like, like, so you're missing something, or the human comes in and says, you know what?

Speaker 8 I've had a chance to look over your policies and here is a program that's going to work for you.

Speaker 8 You should feel fairly comfortable with this situation at this price moving on. Because the insurance customer, the insurance buyer never ever wants to have to think about that.

Speaker 8 insurance program again until they either need to use it or renew it. They don't want to have to think about it ever again.
So if we're forcing them to come back two, three, four, five times,

Speaker 8 that's degrading the trust, degrading respect, and ultimately that insurance buyer's connection to the insurance provider, whether it's an agent or a direct relationship with the carrier. Okay.

Speaker 8 So, now let's snap over to insurance executives, insurance carrier executives.

Speaker 8 So, insurance carrier executives, 300 insurance carrier executives reported that the most important thing to them is a mobile app, that the most important thing to the insurance buying process

Speaker 8 is a mobile app. And I think,

Speaker 8 first of all, I'm kind of with Crawley in that this

Speaker 8 to me feels in large part because I think many executives in carriers are disconnected from the insurance consumer. There's a disconnect.

Speaker 8 There's a lot of layers of opinion between the carrier executives making the decisions and the buyer-agent, buyer, you know, buying process interface, that there's a distance there.

Speaker 8 There's, there's, there's iterations and layers between them that are not that where the carrier executives are not necessarily tapped in. They're reading articles online, they're listening to their

Speaker 8 to their marketing people, their technology people, and they're hearing, you know, things like agents aren't adapting, agents aren't grabbing, aren't aren't doing business in a modern way.

Speaker 8 And they're saying, okay, well,

Speaker 8 if the agents aren't going to adapt and

Speaker 8 we need to sustain our business for survival's sake, we need to get things like mobile apps because it's 2019, soon to be 2020. And don't people use apps for buying things?

Speaker 8 And I think that's the type of narrative that gets passed up the chain to executives. by middle managers.

Speaker 8 I think we're looking at a human behavioral psychology psychology and survival instinct from middle managers inside of carriers pushing these ideals up to executives saying, you know, hey, if we just had a mobile app, we could be faster and quicker and we'd have more control over what the agents do and say and we'd get more consumer data and we'd

Speaker 8 own the experience.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 those are good ideas.

Speaker 8 And taken in a vacuum, none of those ideas are intrinsically wrong.

Speaker 8 But ultimately, I think what it shows is a lack of trust in agents, some of which is warranted, agents, we have to own that, some of which is not.

Speaker 8 And I think it also shows a disconnect between executive leadership and what's actually happening on the ground. And third, there's a piece there where

Speaker 8 I think middle managers, I think people looking to

Speaker 8 certain aspects of either the customer experience or technology or what have you, people trying to keep their job in a carrier are pushing things like mobile apps up the chain as resources as a way to

Speaker 8 backstop against agents falling apart, dropping the ball and not delivering.

Speaker 8 Okay, so that is that is my core hypothesis.

Speaker 8 I see you guys have jumped on this. So

Speaker 8 let's just run through some of the comments we have real quick before we go to the next step. So I see Ryan Keating's here.
What's up, dude? Josh Lipstone, Landon's here.

Speaker 8 Tim Gould's here. Julie,

Speaker 8 it's awesome to see you guys.

Speaker 8 Josh says, buying from an independent insurance agent is the most difficult way for a consumer to purchase insurance.

Speaker 8 I have to disagree with you, man. Like,

Speaker 8 you have to define most difficult in that case. Like,

Speaker 8 can, I can, I appreciate that opinion. I think if you're comparing buying something on Amazon to buying a home and auto policy from an independent agent, then that would feel difficult.

Speaker 8 That being said, I do not feel like it's the most difficult way to purchase insurance because it should be a guided experience.

Speaker 8 And really, if agents have even adopted the baseline of modern insurance technology, they should be able to one-call close an auto or bop

Speaker 8 product you really should like a main street bop product at a at a baseline go into chub hartford or traveler's raider throw that thing in ask the questions pump out a bop for them that should be a one call 30 minute close for a business owner and that process should be very easy and that person has had a guided tour through choosing the right products services um

Speaker 8 additional coverages deductibles um and then ultimately some ancillary products. Now, can you, you know, can you pump out a workers' compensation

Speaker 8 quote and bind that like on that call? Maybe not. You know, maybe that part, there's some additional feedback.
Maybe you got to reach out to a couple carriers,

Speaker 8 maybe some professional liability, stuff like that.

Speaker 8 Although I know

Speaker 8 RPS is doing some really good things where like in less than two minutes, you can have some professional liabilities.

Speaker 8 I don't think that process is perfect yet by any means from any carrier, but I do know that there's some quality providers that are working on making that possible. I think as agents,

Speaker 8 I think there's this narrative that we are difficult to deal with. And that's what I want to destroy.
Like we need to stop thinking of ourselves as difficult to deal with.

Speaker 8 Some of us are difficult, but

Speaker 8 we can adapt. And

Speaker 8 many times it's small course corrections. We're not talking about full pivots or tearing down the house and rebuilding it.
We're talking about small course correction.

Speaker 8 And so, dude, as much as I love you, I would have to disagree that it's the most difficult way. I think anything, I think it can be difficult, no doubt.

Speaker 8 But try dealing with someone who doesn't know what they're talking about at a call center, right?

Speaker 8 Or trying to navigate an online self-quote rater when you don't have a clue what half of the things mean. Like that to me.

Speaker 8 is not easy because now you're just guessing at coverages you should need and stuff like that. So that would be my opinion there.
All right. I see Joe Hollyer's here,

Speaker 8 who I think I have a call with this afternoon. Quentin,

Speaker 8 Quentin asked a question really good. We got a great chat going here.
So anyone who's watching this, make sure you check the chat as it's going. Quentin asked why.

Speaker 8 Josh thinks it's they're difficult to deal business with. I'd say that, let's see.

Speaker 8 Okay, Landon, they're trying to determine why buyers,

Speaker 8 where buyers will be tomorrow, not what they they want right now. The text thinks that's why consumers don't want it.
You know,

Speaker 8 Landon,

Speaker 8 I think that

Speaker 8 I could definitely appreciate that opinion to a certain extent, that right now there really isn't a high quality, like mobile app buying experience that works for insurance consumers.

Speaker 8 That being said, you know, Lemonade is a pretty decent app.

Speaker 8 Like for whether you appreciate the way that they handle their business, if you think their business model works or doesn't work, are different things.

Speaker 8 But their app is slick, it's fun, it comes with this supposedly AI chatbot.

Speaker 9 Um,

Speaker 8 and that's a pretty easy way. And I don't think that they're taking over the world.
I mean, they're not, um, they're doing they're writing business.

Speaker 8 They seem, it seems like they may eventually get to a viable business. We'll see.

Speaker 8 Um, last time I checked, they still weren't actually making money, so I don't think that the experience is so amazing that people are telling every one of their friends that rents and they're just being bombarded with new business.

Speaker 8 So I think the tech could be there. I think the issue is people don't want an insurance app.

Speaker 8 I think that's, I think, I just don't think that for quoting, for quoting purposes, I think that there's some a lot of functionality

Speaker 8 with service. But the problem is a single carrier app.

Speaker 8 right a single carrier app does not do me justice if i have my if i have my uh auto with a different carrier or my personal umbrella with RLI, or I have a boat policy with progressive

Speaker 8 and my home is with travelers, right?

Speaker 8 Like there's, as that gets muddled and the true value of an independent insurance agency, which is I can, you know, you always want to try to package all the policies with the same carrier if you can to make any type of, you know, mixed claims process easier.

Speaker 8 But ultimately, we can fit the pieces in place that suit that customer's needs. And when that happens, a single carrier app just doesn't do the trick, right?

Speaker 8 You're oftentimes shoving people down a path that isn't going to work for them. So I think, and I almost think intrinsically consumers get that.

Speaker 8 But from a service perspective and from like having your

Speaker 8 policy docs and information on an app,

Speaker 8 I think that has a lot of value.

Speaker 8 I think there's value there. I think it's tough to sell that value because people don't want to think about this stuff.
They don't want to think about it.

Speaker 8 So that's my perspective there. Carriers want their insureds to to care about what they purchased beyond the point of purchase.
Insurance don't want to think about it again.

Speaker 8 I completely agree with you. I completely agree with you

Speaker 8 that

Speaker 8 I think what's happening here is,

Speaker 8 all right, to this particular, to this particular

Speaker 8 point.

Speaker 8 I sent out a tweet the other day and it was just something that like hit my head. And,

Speaker 8 you know, I've been thinking a lot about

Speaker 8 what value, you know, now that I'm kind of re-engaged with the insurance industry, which I'm very happy to be back, I guess.

Speaker 8 And I'm thinking about like, how do I, I guess,

Speaker 8 I don't mean this to sound so self-oriented, but like, I was just thinking about, how do I add value back to the industry? Like, I had a place.

Speaker 8 I feel like going back to that place, I'm not sure what value that is. And I'm not sure what value I can bring to the industry or what.
how do I add value to all of your lives?

Speaker 8 Like, what's the best way for me to do that?

Speaker 8 And I look at the industry and, you know, are in general, you know, outside of a couple outliers who pay seven figure salaries to CMOs and even some of them don't do a tremendous job.

Speaker 8 Most of our insurance carriers do a horrifying job in their advertising. It is just,

Speaker 8 it is just vanilla and plain and boring and uninspired. And it,

Speaker 8 I think what we forget is the brand work, the community work, the outreach, the messaging, the marketing, the advertising, the connections, the handshakes,

Speaker 8 all that stuff plays that happens before someone ever purchases a policy with you.

Speaker 8 All that stuff is just or more important in setting the expectations and relationship that you're going to have when you do business with somebody. And I think what's happening is we're all waiting.

Speaker 8 We're waiting because we're, because we're unsure of how to do it. And it takes vision and it takes trust and it takes balls

Speaker 8 to do that work before the person's ever a client.

Speaker 8 So what we do instead as an industry is we wait until someone becomes a client and then we start to engage with them and then we start to try to build a relationship and provide a customer experience with them.

Speaker 8 And we're doing all this work after sale. And not that that stuff isn't important.
It is. But what we've forgotten about is that's the second half of the equation.

Speaker 8 The first half of the equation is all the stuff that happens before they ever do business with you. And

Speaker 8 that's why i think so few carriers and and agencies alike i think i think that's why there's this struggle to connect and really get your customers to care deeply about your business um because we wait until they become a customer to invest in them when in truth and this is why i've always preached to give value first relentlessly give value first is because there's so much of that has to happen before they ever ever become a customer, right?

Speaker 8 So much of that work has to happen before they become a customer to set expectations, to build brand value, trust, respect.

Speaker 8 And then they become a customer and now they're ready for that deeper relationship.

Speaker 8 Now they're ready for this whole side of what it means to be part of our company and our in our family or whatever, you know, however you brand yourself.

Speaker 8 And we just don't do that work. We just simply don't.
Carriers definitely don't.

Speaker 8 Independent carriers do not do that work in general. Broad sweeping stroke, they don't.

Speaker 8 And when you talk to a lot lot of execs in the independent agency space, what they say is that's why we pay commissions to agents. I think that mentality has to die.

Speaker 8 We have to pay agents because agents do a tremendous job of retaining business in general.

Speaker 8 You know, even the really poor independent agencies retain business at a higher rate than many directs or captives. So

Speaker 8 that commission is not a marketing fee.

Speaker 8 right so it's i i do i just and i've pitched this and i've run up against brick walls and i understand why but i think it's an old world mentality for an insurance carrier executive to say the commissions we pay agents are a marketing fee it's not it's a retention fee it's it's an experience fee it's a it's a it's a customer service fee it's a it's a it's a relationship fee it's the dynamic between your boots on the ground force the most connected individuals to the customers and your organization.

Speaker 8 That's what that fee is for. And you need to take and allocate some of your budget.
It doesn't have to be an enormous amount.

Speaker 8 I mean, to be honest with you, I don't even know what the right answer would be. It would probably be different for every carrier.
And take some of that money and go out into the market.

Speaker 8 You're not subverting agents by having a brand in the market space. I'm not telling you to spin up a direct model.

Speaker 8 I'm saying get customers and get insurance consumers to have an idea of who your brand is and what they're all about.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 I think that answers that question, in my opinion.

Speaker 8 All right, so let me kind of further down this conversation. This is really good stuff.
I hope this adds value to you guys to kind of dig into these comments and have commentary.

Speaker 8 Josh says, because of the reasons that Ryan is talking about, you call a direct company or a captive agent and they can do a proposal over the phone, sell you policies, and you're done.

Speaker 8 Josh, we can do that stuff, man. Most IAs.

Speaker 8 take a long time to look at their companies and require that the client to come into the office to write the policy and it applies to the majority of IAs, but not all.

Speaker 8 If you're still requiring that stuff, then you are making it difficult. And that is a problem.
I'm just, I hope that most agents these days understand that

Speaker 8 a relationship with a client is based on what that client wants and not what they want. So if they want to text, let them text.
If you want to email, let them email.

Speaker 8 If they want a phone, let them phone. If they want to come in, let them come in.
If they want you to come to their house and sit at their kitchen table at eight o'clock at night, go do that too.

Speaker 8 So, you know, it's kind of like the Bruce Lee philosophy of martial arts: no, no style is the best style.

Speaker 8 That's a, I'm paraphrasing there.

Speaker 8 Julie says, no one, literally no one has asked if we have an app. We do.
And I can't say that it's a selling point. I would have to agree with you.
Mike Crowley,

Speaker 8 that's why those agents are failing and the ones that create solutions and make it easier are succeeding. The consumer still wants the relationship.
Could not agree more. If anything.

Speaker 8 you know and i was actually you know now that i'm starting to take consulting clients and i have a couple agencies that i'm starting to work with um We are doubling into relationship, relationship messaging.

Speaker 8 How do we get customers to start to think about

Speaker 8 these agencies as more than just transactional service providers, but real human beings that are there to help, right?

Speaker 8 That's that's what it's about is you might not want to think about your insurance policy, but for one day a year when you have to renew it. Let me think about it for the other 364 days a year.

Speaker 8 Let our agency think about it. Here's the things that we're doing.
Here's what that means. And it means something different for every agency.

Speaker 8 And sometimes, you know, you certainly don't, you certainly would like it if your insurance,

Speaker 8 if your customer thought about your agency more than one day a year, but you certainly don't want them thinking about their policies more than one day a year, because then that's a burden on them.

Speaker 8 It's not what they want out of the experience. Just because it would be nice for you if they did, it doesn't mean that's what they want.

Speaker 8 So getting them to think about your agency more is different than getting them to think about their policies more.

Speaker 8 And that's something that I'm working on with some of the, some of the clients that I have.

Speaker 8 Let's see.

Speaker 8 Quentin said, virtually all of those reasons are negated via available technology and process doing business. In particular, Ryan is now articulating that.
Okay, so I'm not completely full of it.

Speaker 8 Let's see. Single carrier app comment is spot on.

Speaker 8 All right, I think you just found your place. You need to consult with carriers to get them to realize what the hell is going on.
I'm going to hopefully be working with some carriers.

Speaker 8 We'll see as time goes on.

Speaker 8 That's definitely on my to-do list. Right now, I just have some agency clients.
So,

Speaker 8 all right, we're about 30 minutes into this live stream.

Speaker 8 And there's a couple more places that I want to go with this particular report. I want to talk through just a few more things.
And hopefully, if you guys have more questions, comments, drop them in.

Speaker 8 We'll keep going.

Speaker 8 Or just comments in general. It doesn't have to be about this particular issue, but if you want it to be, or just insurance sales in general, happy to do that.
But

Speaker 8 let's keep going. Okay.

Speaker 8 So,

Speaker 8 and I highly encourage you to check out this report. Again, if you go to the website, you can find it there.
I'll put a link in the comments below

Speaker 8 that you can shoot out to the website, get see the particular slide that caught my attention, and then

Speaker 8 dive into the report in general.

Speaker 8 You can download it. So, one of the conclusions that came out of this,

Speaker 8 that the author of the study actually came up with was, and this is the first key conclusion, the traditional factors of price, product, and claim service are no longer differentiators.

Speaker 8 Who's been saying that shit for like 10 years?

Speaker 8 Have any ever seen me do the triangle of death, right? Quality, price, ease of business, no longer differentiators. Price, product, and superior claim service are necessary, but not sufficient.

Speaker 8 I feel like someone was at one of my presentations. These are table stakes.
I think I refer to it as the barrier to entry.

Speaker 8 Competitive advantage lies in delivering expected levels of customer experience and improving the effectiveness of distribution channels.

Speaker 8 I don't know that I think that that's the proper conclusion from the first three sentences. So let's do that again.

Speaker 8 The traditional factors of price, product, and claim service are no longer differentiators. True that, double true.
Price, product, and superior claim service are necessary. Absolutely, right?

Speaker 8 You have to be good. You have to deliver a good price.
You have to deliver a good product. You have to be easy to do business with.
Okay.

Speaker 8 These are the barriers to entry. They're your token through the gate.
You're table stakes. They're what get you in the game.

Speaker 8 If you're not doing these things, then you are losing and you're in and you are on the path to, you know,

Speaker 8 dissolve, you know, to blowing up, to having it not work, to all of a sudden looking at, you know, two or three years of losses

Speaker 8 or

Speaker 8 watching your business recline or decline.

Speaker 8 Recline doesn't make sense.

Speaker 8 It's not an armchair.

Speaker 8 And all of a sudden you have to sell at a reduced multiple. Like that's not what you want.

Speaker 8 That's not what, even if you're not planning on being in the business for a long time, like I feel like, I feel like if like one of the, I'm going to go side, side tangent here real quick.

Speaker 8 One of the arguments that I have gotten gotten against many of the things that I've preached for a while now is

Speaker 8 that, well, you know, I'm 65 years old. I'm only going to be in the business for five more years.
And, you know, I can just make it to the end.

Speaker 8 Some version of that. I'm way paraphrasing it.
No one has ever said it quite so direct, but that's basically what they say to me. Like, why would I do it? I got that.

Speaker 8 Because if you're looking to get out of this business in five years, you should be maximizing your multiple.

Speaker 8 Like you should be doing everything you can to drive that EBITDA up as high as you possibly can so that you can ring that bell and cash that check, right?

Speaker 8 Get your spouse the new seven series, buy the house in Florida or get the bigger house in Florida.

Speaker 8 Go from the condo to the 4,000 square foot, you know, little Mick mansion down on some beautiful golf course. Like that's what you should be thinking about.

Speaker 8 Like it crazy to me that we're going to coast into the finish line. You do 30 years of work and then we're going to coast into the into the finish line and take a reduced multiple.
Like it's bananas.

Speaker 8 Okay. So tangent done back to what we're talking about here.

Speaker 8 Um, price, product, and superior claims.

Speaker 8 I refer to that as ease of business because I think claims and customer service and you know, all of that is part of ease of business, from my personal opinion.

Speaker 8 Um, so price, product, and superior claims service are necessary, not sufficient. They are table stakes.

Speaker 8 So, then the author goes on to say: competitive advantage lies in deliver expected levels of customer experience.

Speaker 8 Now, I think I get what they're saying, like expected levels of customer experience, but versus versus what?

Speaker 8 And I don't actually think,

Speaker 8 I don't know what expected levels mean and improving the effectiveness of distribution channels. So this is definitely coming from a carrier's, that, this is coming from a carrier's perspective.

Speaker 8 I think that

Speaker 8 I think competitive advantage comes from your business having a purpose and delivering on that purpose.

Speaker 8 I do not think that competitive advantage comes from delivering expected levels of customer experience because to me, that falls under the table stakes.

Speaker 8 Like that's not a, you literally just define customer experience as price product and claim service and how all those things, three things mash together is your customer experience.

Speaker 8 And then you said that's also your competitive advantage. It's not.
Customer experience is,

Speaker 8 you know, in the way that they are defining it here,

Speaker 8 it doesn't, you need to,

Speaker 8 people need to be able to connect with your your business on a level deeper. Customer experience is a seven, 10 year old term that I think is no longer,

Speaker 8 it's no longer enough to define what creates the competitive advantage in your business. I've actually had a few people on my podcast recently.
Jeff Fromm is one of them.

Speaker 8 Maria Ross is another one.

Speaker 8 Even

Speaker 8 Nancy Duarte is another one talking about this idea of purpose in your business. And Grant Botma.

Speaker 8 Grant Batma was just recently on, and he's talking about his culture and all that, and how it's a purpose-driven organization.

Speaker 8 And I think it's allowing people to align with the purpose of your business. Now, like in Grant's case, I think it's something around the effect of like,

Speaker 8 ah, shoot, I'm going to butcher it. Go listen to the episode.
But it's, he uses the ideas of love and caring through financial services. And I'm butchering that a little bit.

Speaker 8 So don't hold me to it 100%.

Speaker 8 But

Speaker 8 what I'm saying is

Speaker 8 a good customer experience is no longer enough as well, right? It's not deep enough.

Speaker 8 It doesn't just getting slightly easier to do business with or having a mobile app or a one-click buy button on your website, like. Those are improved customer experiences and maybe

Speaker 8 an expected level of customer experience from an e-commerce standpoint. But it doesn't differentiate your business or provide you with a competitive advantage.

Speaker 8 I mean, one-click buy buttons online and insurance have been around for a long time.

Speaker 8 And none of the businesses that have them would consider them to be competitive advantages. I mean, travelers literally shut down their online, quote-to-buy personal lines product like years ago.
And

Speaker 8 so I just don't, I think that misses the mark. And I think it kind of shows that the disconnect between where

Speaker 8 carriers see what's happening and what's actually happening on the streets.

Speaker 8 I think there's still this complete misunderstanding of what the 45 and under buyers of insurance products actually want out of the relationship

Speaker 8 with

Speaker 8 the organizations that they do business with.

Speaker 8 that's my take on that

Speaker 9 um

Speaker 8 so

Speaker 8 i think it further proves to me

Speaker 8 like organizations have a purpose people have a purpose like i always used to say to people like i don't want to do business with you like my goal is not to do business with you it's not to sell you something that isn't exactly and everything that you need because my goal isn't to do business with you for one year.

Speaker 8 It's to do business with you for 30 years.

Speaker 8 Like my purpose, my goal was to make sure that when you have your worst day, when that awful day, that day that you hope never happens, and I honestly hope never happens to you, but God forbid it does happen financially, you're okay.

Speaker 8 That's my goal. And I'm going to do everything I can to get you there.
And if you're not into that, then I'm not the right guy to do business with, right?

Speaker 8 That's just, that's, and I would say that to people.

Speaker 8 and i i had people say like you know what like that's not what i'm into that was rare because i was decent salesperson by that point but like that was my purpose my purpose wasn't to sell more products my purpose wasn't even a charity not that i have anything against charities but that wasn't my purpose my purpose was to make sure that families were put fine were financially financially okay.

Speaker 8 So that if you're in a hospital or dealing with an injured loved one or a sick loved one or whatever, that when all the emotional crap that goes on with that moment, the financially you were like, you know what, we're going to be, we're going to be okay with that.

Speaker 8 The car is going to get repaired. The house is going to be okay.

Speaker 8 The business is going to be put back together. You know,

Speaker 8 the kids' college will be paid for. If it's a life insurance thing, God forbid, obviously.

Speaker 8 That was my purpose. And I think, and we all have that.
I was not unique in that I had a purpose.

Speaker 8 And frankly, most of your purposes, probably some version of what I just said, you've said to your clients. My point in saying that to you is I was very, very, very, very clear with every customer.

Speaker 8 That was my purpose. And it's that type of messaging that was a competitive advantage to me because no one else said that.
Certainly not.

Speaker 8 Few people said that the way that I said it to clients and not many in my local area, I would assume, because that pitch when I really had to dial in was at like 95 plus close rate.

Speaker 8 You know, like who doesn't want to make sure that on their worst, like if you've taken the time to

Speaker 8 interact with me about insurance,

Speaker 8 who doesn't then want to make sure that when they have their worst day, they're financially taken care of. Like, I can't stop.
a car from crossing a double yellow line and hitting you head on.

Speaker 8 I can't stop that from happening. But what I can make sure is that everyone in the car is financially taken care of, that the car is financially taken care of.

Speaker 8 And that anything that happens to you down the road

Speaker 8 in terms of replacing income or God forbid, replacing

Speaker 8 the, you know, if it were a life insurance thing, long-term care thing, personal injury protection, we max those things out. We make sure that those coverage is in place.
Okay, so that was my purpose.

Speaker 8 And what it did was it drew people in who appreciated that purpose. And they believed as I believed.

Speaker 8 And that's how we built this incredibly strong.

Speaker 8 And that wasn't my original thought. That was passed to me by my father-in-law, Jim Murray.
It was passed on to his son. He passed that on to his daughters, who are my sister-in-law and my wife.

Speaker 8 And then we all passed it on to the other team members of that organization. And it was that belief that was our driving purpose.
And

Speaker 8 that's why that business continues to be incredibly successful,

Speaker 8 you know, despite only doing moderate technology things that we do. So

Speaker 8 I feel like delivering expected levels of customer service is like a, is like a dry fart. Like it's, it's, it's not, it's not enough.
It's not, that's not a competitive advantage.

Speaker 8 That's just like catching up. That's just like.
sprinting a little bit to catch up with the pack. You're not actually separating yourself by delivering on an expected customer experience.

Speaker 8 So I just thought that that was a strange, a strange take given that

Speaker 8 I thought that was a strange take given what the rest of the findings in this study were. All right, let's see what some of the comments are.
We're about 45 minutes in.

Speaker 8 I got one more thing that I want to touch on real quick, and then we'll wrap up for the day. Let's see what people are saying.
Lannis said, I'm going to push back a little bit.

Speaker 8 The number of times I hear you're the first person who's actually called me back and answered the phone is staggering.

Speaker 8 If we can get everyone in the agency to give a quality experience to potential new businesses, we are different.

Speaker 8 Crowley, this happens all the time. It is crazy, Elaine said.
If it is table stakes, but so many can't even service those.

Speaker 8 So I understand what you're saying.

Speaker 8 I just don't know that those are the type of competitors that you want to align with, right?

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 I can appreciate that there is a

Speaker 8 decent portion of our independent insurance agency brothers and sisters who are pretty,

Speaker 8 pretty terrible at their job.

Speaker 8 That's just, I think we have to just say that. Like they're not responsive.
They're nine to three years. They go play golf at one o'clock on Friday afternoons and turn everything off.

Speaker 8 They expect you to adhere to their way they want to do business. And

Speaker 8 I just, if I were you guys,

Speaker 8 if I were at the Crowley Insurance Agency or Landon, if I were at your insurance agency, whose name I always forget,

Speaker 8 I would not use those agencies as the bar for expected customer experience because

Speaker 8 those are really poor customer experiences. So I just wouldn't use that as the bar.

Speaker 8 That's my personal opinion. I am completely aware that there are a lot of

Speaker 8 a lot of people who provide poor service in our industry.

Speaker 8 But if I were you, Landon, or I were you, Mike, I would be comparing each other. I'd be comparing against each other.
I'd be comparing against, you know.

Speaker 8 what some of the other people on this call or this video are doing, you know, Julie or Josh or, you know, who, you know, I'm just kind of scrolling through, but like, I would be looking at the other other agencies that I know that are pushing and saying, how do I separate myself from them?

Speaker 8 Because they're going to be the agencies that are around,

Speaker 8 not these agencies who don't call people back. I mean, those agencies aren't growing.
They're dying. They're falling apart.
And

Speaker 8 they're going to be gobbled up, most likely, by some big conglomerate.

Speaker 8 And they're going to be chopped up and spit out. And those customers are going to be unhappy and looking for new homes.

Speaker 8 And you guys are going to be the ones, if you set yourself against a higher standard, that are going to pick up that business and are going to be in a huge opportunity to to rapidly grow your business.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 that's, that's how I would answer that particular

Speaker 8 that's how I would answer that particular question.

Speaker 8 So does anyone have any other questions, like specific questions, specific ideas that you'd like me to address?

Speaker 8 I feel like,

Speaker 8 one, I feel like my throat is starting to get a little sore and I don't have water within arm's reach. So I'm kind of getting ready to wrap up in that regard.

Speaker 8 But I do want to answer any questions anyone has. So if you have questions, type them in.

Speaker 8 If you have questions later on, if you're watching this down the road, like not live, but in the future, leave any questions you have in the comments below.

Speaker 8 I get notified when you leave comments and I'll come in and answer them best I can or pull them forward and answer them on a future live stream. I really enjoy doing these.

Speaker 8 If you're not subscribed to this channel, I hope you will.

Speaker 8 I love doing these live streams and they're awesome. And if you subscribe and hit the little notification bell, you get notified when I go live.

Speaker 8 But I also am pushing out video versions of the podcast, which people seem to really like. And then I'm doing a lot of kind of one-off videos on topics that are interesting to me as well.

Speaker 8 I have a whole vein of content coming out around this idea of action is the answer. And this is just what I'm going to wrap up today with.

Speaker 8 So there's this idea I've been thinking about for a long time.

Speaker 8 It's kind of been a driving force in my own career. And I've really wanted to adjust.

Speaker 8 I'd say partially it's I want to improve the keynote presentation that I deliver to the marketplace. If I'm doing a full

Speaker 8 inspection of my own work, if I'm reviewing it from 10,000 feet, I think that it's very good. It's very real, raw, honest.
I think that's why organizations have asked me back.

Speaker 8 But I think there's a level of narrative that it misses. And

Speaker 8 I love doing the kind of

Speaker 8 you know,

Speaker 8 just

Speaker 8 plowing through all the different stuff that's going on in the industry.

Speaker 8 I love those kind of almost like Gary Veeesque style things where kind of I take the topics that are hottest in the space and just talk through them during keynotes. I think that's really cool.

Speaker 8 But there's this concept that I think.

Speaker 8 So one of the things that has bothered me, I've been doing a version of the keynote that I still do today,

Speaker 8 specific to the insurance industry for almost 10 years. And it basically outlines from easy, you know, from kind of 101 level to 301 level, you know, the various tactics and

Speaker 8 ideas that

Speaker 8 we can add into our business and our marketing and our advertising and our experience. And

Speaker 8 that's had many different names. I kind of left the final title as kind of crushed the customer experience.

Speaker 8 We'll say that

Speaker 8 it gets you to and possibly beyond the table stakes level of customer experience that we've described today. And I've been giving that presentation for some version of it.

Speaker 8 The versions 10 years ago were much different than the versions now, but there are pieces and ideas that have woven through almost a decade worth of giving that presentation.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 a lot of people still aren't doing it. Like a lot of people, and many of you on this call are, which is amazing.

Speaker 8 And it's why when I see you guys, it's awesome because we get to have higher level conversations and talk through different ideas. And it's my favorite thing.

Speaker 8 But there are so many of our friends and our colleagues and our peers from all over the country that are really great agencies that are not adopting these things.

Speaker 8 And it bothers me that they're not because I want them to be successful. I think they want to be successful.
I think they have it in them to be successful.

Speaker 8 They're not one of these dregs that just wants to kind of coast into oblivion. They're someone they really want to be successful, but they struggle to do the things necessary.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 it often just comes back to a lack of action, to just to a paralysis by analysis,

Speaker 8 fear,

Speaker 8 a fear of being judged, a fear of making the wrong decision, a fear of overextending, a fear of saying the wrong thing. And

Speaker 8 I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I actually was working on it while I was still in metabolic. And action is the answer.

Speaker 8 And I'm going to have a lot, I shouldn't say a lot, but I'm going to have videos coming out around that topic. How do we, what are the mental, what are the actual actions?

Speaker 8 What are the mindsets? What are the processes, strategies, hacks to taking action every day to move our businesses forward? Like action is the answer. You have to be doing something.

Speaker 8 Doing nothing is never the right thing. And at least that's my hypothesis.
That's my,

Speaker 8 as I get into this, this concept.

Speaker 8 I have a, man, I have a shit ton of notes in here. You see, like, I've been interviewing different people on purpose and reading a ton.

Speaker 8 I just finished a, I just finished a tremendous book, Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holliday. And then another one, You Are What You Do by Ben Horowitz.

Speaker 8 If you lead a team of any size, highly, highly recommend You Are What You Do by Ben Horowitz. Tremendous book, absolutely tremendous book.
I'm going to do some book notes on it.

Speaker 8 I have like three or four books I need to do book notes on still, but

Speaker 8 yeah, that was a really good one. And the whole concept is we have to be taking actions.
Actions

Speaker 8 drive results.

Speaker 8 We analyze our results.

Speaker 8 That analysis allows us to iterate, take more action, and ultimately only by doing action can you either, you know, can you create the

Speaker 8 can you create any type of results, good results, bad results, results that you're indifferent about, that yield you some sort of response that you can, that you can take in and then course correct and course correct and course correct.

Speaker 8 And that's how we get to where we need to be.

Speaker 8 And I think a lot of people get caught in the i'm not sure what to do next i'm not sure what blog post right i'm not sure what tool to use i'm not sure who to talk to i'm not sure not sure i'm not sure and and there's a lot of underlying psychology behind that and there's a lot of just old misconceptions and there's some really

Speaker 8 awful and uh traditions in our industry that just keep us from taking the actions that move our businesses forward so Long story short, this is the idea that's kind of

Speaker 8 wedged into my brain. And

Speaker 8 I'm working on that. So it's going to be a keynote um

Speaker 8 it may even be a book who knows we'll see i don't i can't tell my wife that though because she'll kill me um

Speaker 8 and it is uh the core underlying piece of the consulting that i'm doing for agencies and hopefully some carriers and uh and that should be a lot of fun and as as i learn and and learn new stuff

Speaker 8 This is obviously where I'll share it. So

Speaker 8 I appreciate you guys. Thank you for watching this.
These are a lot of fun for me. I'm kind of thinking through ideas on the fly as I go.
So it's very helpful for me to work my own thoughts out.

Speaker 8 You can probably see some of that

Speaker 8 as I think through these various topics.

Speaker 8 If you enjoyed this video and it provided any value for you, I'd love for you to hit that like button, share it out into social media or with friends.

Speaker 8 And if you're not subscribed, subscribe, hit that little bell so you get notified.

Speaker 8 That helps you get back to the video and all that other stuff helps other people find this video if you have questions comments concerns anything like that that you don't want to post publicly ryan at ryanhanley.com is my email and i love getting emails from you guys i love you guys i'm gonna get out of

Speaker 8 here

Speaker 7 thank you

Speaker 6 Close 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.

Speaker 6 This is the exact method we use to close 1,200 clients in under three years during the pandemic. No fluff, no end-nil follow-ups, just results fast.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 If you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning, visit mastertheclose.com. That's masteroftheclose.com.

Speaker 5 Do it today.

Speaker 2 Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus with customizable tools and charts you can access across all your devices. Try our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com fidelity.com slash trader plus.

Speaker 2 Investing in false risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, member NYSE, SIPC.

Speaker 10 10 years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs. As the owner of her own dog rescue, that is.

Speaker 10 A second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does.

Speaker 10 And she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs. That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP.
Learn more at AARP.org slash skills.

Speaker 11 At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone.

Speaker 12 You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment specialist who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve.

Speaker 12 You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals.

Speaker 12 A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

Speaker 11 Learn more at capella.edu.

Speaker 13 If you are an RIA or looking to become one, Schwab Advisor Services is the Watson to your homes. Smart, dependable, always has your back.

Speaker 13 It's no mystery why they're the number one choice for RIAs who want to be the ultimate solution for their clients.

Speaker 13 With all the wealth services, technology, and support your firm needs, the difference is so obvious? It's Schwab VS. Follow the clues at schwabias.com.

Speaker 5 Here for the Lowe's early Black Friday deals?

Speaker 4 You're right on time for some of our biggest savings. We're talking up to 50% off select major appliances, plus up to an extra 25% off when you bundle select major appliances.

Speaker 4 Holiday lights going up soon? Select ladders are up to 50% off right now. Get Black Friday prices without the Black Friday crowds.

Speaker 5 Lowe's, we we help.

Speaker 4 You save. Valent through 1119.
Selection varies by location. Select locations only.
While supplies last. See Lowe's.com for more details.