3 Mark Financial Playbookmarketing.3mark.com/.../14372/f-0013/1/-/-/-/-/3Mark-PC-Playbook.pdf · 3 Mark Financial Playbook A Game Winning Strategy for Partnering with P & C Agencies

3 Mark Financial Playbook

A Game Winning Strategy for Partnering with P & C Agencies

3 Mark Playbook | Introduction

The quickly changing property and casualty market presents a compelling potential for agencies to expand beyond the traditional life agent channel. There are several dynamics that create the need and timely opportunity for P&C agencies to expand beyond traditional personal and commercial lines business. However, because the offering of life insurance is non-core to P&Cs’ existing business, human asset risks of their existing clients. From providing a more comprehensive overview of current market trends and challenges, to providing strategic solutions, to truly becoming your P & C agencies’ trusted advisor, this program will help you become even better at gaining loyalty while also growing your pipeline of agencies.

3 Mark Playbook | Contents 1

Playbook Contents

1. Introduction

• Learning Objectives

• Maximize the Playbook

2. Building Your Business

• Market Trends & Challenges

• Market Overview

• Changing the Agent’s Paradigm

• Profile of the Ideal P&C Agency

• Building & Making Use of Your Network

3. Plan

• Why a Sales Process?

• What to Know Before You Call

• Defining a Purpose & Desired Outcome

4. Getting In

• Crafting Your Hook

• Defining the Elements of Your Story

• The Credibility Statement

5. Open

• Sharing an Agenda

• Building Rapport

3 Mark Playbook | Contents 2

6. Identify

• Identifying Emotional & Logical Needs

• Why Ask Questions?

• Creating an Opportunity Gap

• Following the Discovery Flow

• Summarizing Your Discovery

7. Recommend

• What Makes You Different?

• Describing Benefits, Not Features

• Designing a customized solution

• Setting expectations and next steps

8. Handle

• Overcoming Objections

• Responding to Specific Objections

9. Recap

• Post Meeting Process

• Meeting Recap

• Post Meeting Template

10. Additional Resources

• Pre-Meeting/Call Checklist

• Best Practices

• Customer Finder USA

• iPipeline web based life insurance quoting

3 Mark Playbook | Introduction 3

Learning Objectives

After completing the self-guided lessons in this playbook, you should be able to:

• Execute on the vast opportunities that are involved in helping P&C agencies to expand beyond the traditional life agent channel.

• Be able to strategically grow your business through intentional networking.

• Implement a repeatable sales process that will enable you to consistently do the right things on purpose.

• Be even more purposeful in your client interactions by practicing more thoughtful pre-call planning.

• Practice even more effective inquiry to identify the P&C agency’s challenges and opportunities.

• Present your recommendations in a way that engages the P&C agency’s logical and emotional decision-making process.

• Gain commitment from P&C agencies for desired next steps.

• Confidently overcome objections and strengthen your relationship with the P&C agency.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi

3 Mark Playbook | Introduction 4

Maximizing the Playbook

There are a few things you should keep in mind that will help you maximize the playbook:

• Be open to change. To become even more effective we must be open to new ideas that can enhance our performance.

• Take practice exercises seriously. You might feel the urge to simply “go through the motions, “but remember, perfect practice makes perfect performance.

• Take good notes in this manual so that you can use it as a resource to prepare for client conversations.

• Suspend judgment on the skills and techniques you are learning until you have applied them in the field for at least 30 days. Using this playbook and practicing the skills will be a process. Don’t make the mistake of judging a new skill when your competency level with that skill is at its lowest.

• Remember that you get out of the playbook what you put into it.

“It is what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden

3 Mark Playbook | Building Your Business 5

Market Trends & Challenges There are a variety of current challenges that are driving P&C firms to explore new revenue sources. Some of them are outlined below: Client acquisition costs are high.

Client acquisition costs within the P&C space are high. In order for a P&C agency to

reach a break-even point for costs, they must retain the customer for 1-2 years. This places a significant premium on client retention. Because of this, many agencies look for ways to retain clients past the breakeven point ensuring the customer becomes profitable.

One of the ways in which P&C firms can increase client retention is to increase the number of products each customer purchases with the P&C firm. By adding life insurance and increasing the number of customers that have multiple products, the P&C agency will stand a much better chance of creating long-term client relationships, loyalty and in turn create a much more profitability from each of these relationships. P&C agencies need flexibility. In the approach to adding life insurance, P&C agencies need flexibility. Firms that have already begun to add life insurance have explored the model where a life agent comes in and reviews the book of business with particular agents. From there, the agents are introduced specific opportunities within that book. Unfortunately, research and post training discovery sessions showed that these scenarios did not yield the results they had hoped for.

Some of the reasons for the breakdown in results include P&C agents who are resistant to introducing an outside party to the relationship due to risk of a poor experience or someone trying to “steal” their client. As the life agent, it is important that you understand this perspective, communicate your understanding to the P&C agency and let them know there are options regarding how the relationship is formed and can evolve over time. The

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success.

When you do anything, put your whole soul into

it. Stamp it with our personality. Nothing

great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”


process of how to build this relationship and overcome these concerns and objections will be discussed throughout the book.

There are various factors that make those offering personal and commercial lines of insurance attractive candidates for the addition of life insurance. The ability to sell life insurance through each channel, however, has some variation and nuances that should be understood.

Management Support

• In order for the expansion into other insurance areas to be successful, there must be a high level of senior management support. For successful execution you, as the quaterback, must ensure that there is a champion in a senior leadership position that is taking ownership of this opportunity, setting expectations, and creating structures for accountability.

Internal Life Specialist • The size of some agencies may require an internal life specialist. Some P&C firms that

have added the life component have also added an internal life specialist. This is a resource that agents can turn to and someone that can get involved in certain sales situations when needed.


Access to Group of Agents • The ability of an internal leader to bring together groups of agents all at one time for

discussions and training with you, the agency principal, is crucial to creating momentum and leveraging your limited time.

Celebrate Wins • Sharing wins early and often with the agents within an organization will be critical to

adoption. You are likely to find a few receptive agents early on, while others wait and see. Effective communication across the organization of these early wins and success stories will be a vital factor in building momentum and engaging agents, who may be skeptical, previously had a poor experience, or are just not excited to sell life insurance.

Market, Market, Market • Marketing that keeps the message going will help you remain on the forefront of their

minds and help your agencies to be even more successful. You can do this through sample letters, statement stuffers, etc. Selling life insurance may be new for your P&C agencies and they may not know how to let their customers know they sell life insurance. You are their resource and partner!


Challenges with adoption at the producer level include: Selling • Unlike property and casualty, life insurance has to be sold. Many personal lines agents

are used to competing on price for a product the consumer is required to have. Because of this, the personal lines agent must be trained how to discuss and sell life insurance with existing customers. They will likely need coaching on their first few customer conversations regarding life insurance. Having the ability as an life specialists to teach the P&C agents what to look for to find an opportunity and how to have a simple conversation with a current client to uncover the opportunity is a value added element that will resonate with the senior managers and leaders of P&C agencies.

Lack of Training • Without the proper training and guidance P&C agents can misquote health classes or

stick to only the insurance firms they are comfortable speaking to. Misquoted health classes often lead to a mispriced policy that is identified after the mini health check. The result is often an upset customer and an agent who has a bad experience, and consequently stops presenting insurance policies. This issue must be understood and quickly resolved. This challenging situation also presents the opportunity for the life specialists to demonstrate a key insight and provide a compelling solution, such as a sales process.

Customer Says “Yes” • One of the things a large P&C agency learned from agent focus groups is that the biggest

fear a P&C agent has in selling the customer life insurance is what to do if the customer actually says “yes.” You can mitigate this as an issue by properly training the agents so they are confident in not only selling, but also in the steps following the sale.


P&C Market Overview The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America estimates that the

Property and casualty market is $461B in market size in 2009, with direct premiums written almost equally split between commercial and personal lines ($230B commercial, 231B personal).

2009 P&C Insurance- Overall Direct Premium

Written % Share % Premium Growth

2008-2009 National $131.4B 28.5% -6.2% Regional $128.5B 27.9% -5.6% Exclusive $170.2B 36.9% -2.4% Direct $31.0B 6.7% 7.9% TOTAL $461.2B 100% -3.8%

2009 Commercial Lines Direct Premium


2008-2009 National $107.6B 46.8% -6.8% Regional $74.4B 32.4% -9.4% Exclusive $45.6B 19.9% -9.0% Direct $2.1B 0.9% 1.6% TOTAL $229.8B 100% -8.1%

2009 Personal Lines

Direct Premium


2008-2009 National $23.9B 10.3% -3.0%


Regional $54.0B 23.3% 0% Exclusive $124.5B 53.8% 0.3% Direct $29.0B 12.5% 8.6% TOTAL $231.4B 100% -0.8%

Premiums written are concentrated with the largest P&C carriers. In 2011, the Insurance Institute of America estimates approximately 1,300 companies, with almost 60% of direct premiums written coming from the top 18 companies and greater than 80% coming from the top 72 carriers.

Net New Premiums 2011

# of Companies Sum of Direct Premiums

Written ($000)

% Companies % Premiums

5B 18 $285,909,465 1% 59% 1B-4.9B 54 $107,387,217 4% 22%

500-999M 49 $34,469,753 4% 7% 100-499M 198 $43,180,120 15% 9%

10-99M 376 $14,371,620 29% 3% 1-9M 366 $1,616,654 28% 0% <1M 204 $38,275 16% 0% N/A 30 - 2% 0%

GRAND TOTAL 1295 $486,973,104 100% 100% Source: http://www.iii.org/index.html

Personal Lines Detail • While the potential for a bigger ticket within the commercial lines space appears to be a

logical opportunity, personal lines are in a position to have a higher number of conversations and potentially generate a higher number of policy opportunities.

• Having a conversation about life insurance is a more natural conversation for personal lines than commercial. However, the agents still have to be trained in how to have the conversation.

• Policy premiums will likely range from $500-$2,000 with higher premiums sometimes possible based on more complicated client situations.

• If you are calling on a high volume agency it is likely that the ease of use for the consumer will be a critical factor in their decision making process. The technological


capabilities you offer is an area that creates competitive differentiation and something you must use to your advantage. Progressive Insurance is a great example of a technology company that happens to be in the insurance business. It is very easy to acquire and submit business with them because of the technology platform they have created. Your ability to articulate similar value will resonate with many P&C leaders.

Commercial Lines Detail • Agents with a commercial lines focus offer big case opportunity. The client profile of

many commercial lines agents includes builders, retirees and business owners. • The potential case size may also require a greater level of POS support. • Some of the issues commercial lines agents would benefit from understanding include

buy sell, key man and teaching them what avenues offer big case opportunity. • Agents are used to splitting cases 50/50 when there is point of sale support provided. Why are they receptive? • Competitive pressures are driving premiums lower. • Agencies are seeking new revenue sources in an environment of slow economic activity. • Life insurance is a natural extension to offer their client base. • Greater client retention results from an increase in additional products per client.


Profile of the Ideal P&C Agency

The profile of the ideal P&C agency typically has at least 10 agents and a high volume of customers. They may already have an existing life partner, but not necessarily. An additional consideration that may play a role in the success of the P&C agency is if they have a consumer portal that allows customers to receive quotes online. If so, this could be indicative of a tech savvy agency that would have a great understanding and appreciation of the value 3 Mark technologies and adding life insurance to the consumer portal can bring to their business. Having a digital platform is important to many P&C firms and is an area where 3 Mark excels and has a competitive advantage over similar firms.


Changing the Agent’s Paradigm Many agents already have built-in ‘purpose driven’ meetings such as an Annual

Review with their clients to review their coverage. Currently, the conversation focuses only the P&C lines of business (home and auto usually). It would be very natural for the P&C agent to add a “Personal Risk Review” to their agenda. Helping your Agents set up the Personal Risk Review:

• Agent call to their client: o Mike, I hope your year has been going great. I’m looking forward to sitting

down with you and Nancy to make sure we are protecting you and the family appropriately. Also, I’m excited this year because my firm and I have instituted a Human Asset Risk Review to our meetings and it has been very beneficial to my clients like you. The point is to make sure we take a much more holistic approach to your coverage and take into account not just your home and auto needs, but also your life, Long Term Care and Disability Insurance needs too. My clients needs’ seem to change every 3 to 5 years, so we want to make sure your and Nancy are adequately covered, and the coverage is consistent with your goals… not too much, not too little. Does this make sense Mike?

Tip: Although many P&C Agencies that have online customer portal value a digital platform, don’t assume this is most important to every client. We will cover how to introduce benefits for your clients later in this playbook.


So if you can get your P&C agents or any of your agents that have regular ‘purpose driven’ meetings to add a Human Asset Risk Review to their agenda, it will drive additional revenue to your agents and help them create the all illusive ‘sticky’ client. The key is to adopt this in 100% of their annual reviews.

Building & Making Use of Your Network

The quality of the people on the list you use to call for new appointments will have an enormous impact on the results of your prospecting. This will require you to be intentional about the prospects you put into your pipeline. While purchased marketing information can yield fruitful relationships, the prospects you find on your own will most likely be your “highest probability prospects.”

Referrals

Most successful sales people agree that the absolute best lead of all is a good referral. A good referral is similar to a warm call because they are either already expecting your call or their resistance softens when you mention the person who referred you.

Additionally, the old adage, “birds of a feather flock together” is quite true. Meaning, referrals from current clients are likely to fit your business model and are easier for you to work with. Subsequently, these same referrals are much more likely to become a loyal client with more referrals to share.

65% of new business comes from referrals.

-New York Times


List a few of P&C agency owners that you already know:

If you want to quickly expand your reach and ability to have focused and meaningful conversations, call the P&C agency owners you already know. Here’s how that conversation might sound: “I am looking to expand the number of

conversations I am having with agency owners regarding ways to grow revenues and customer retention by adding life insurance. Who do you know that you would be willing to introduce me to that may benefit from this?”

Take an opportunity to make it your own:

When asked about how they would go about

reaching others in the industry, agency owners

said, “ask us who we know and we would be

willing to introduce them to you”


Each conversation you have presents an opportunity to expand your network and quickly reach the right quickly the right decision maker. Not doing this on a regular and structured basis is a tremendous opportunity lost that your competitors will, at some point, take advantage of. Expanding your network

Networking is all about making connections and building enduring, mutually beneficial relationships. As previously discussed, a great way to start is tuning in to your existing contacts. This is not just limited to P&C agency owners. EVERY person you know is a contact with a contact list of potential connections.

A great place to quickly determine who you may know in your current network that can introduce you to someone else and help you expand your network is LinkedIn.

1. Go to the “advanced search” function in LinkedIn


2. Within the “relationship” section on the left hand tool bar, check the box you would like to search

3. Along the left side, click on the “Advanced” arrow to open a box that will allow you

to add keywords. Type in “property and casualty insurance”

Tip: 1st connection, 2nd connection, Group members- 1st and 2nd are your highest probability opportunities for introduction.


4. Go down to the postal code and enter your zip code and expand the search to 100mi 5. Click the “View Results” button. This will show you all of your 1st and 2nd degree

connections that are affiliated with P&C. Look for branch managers, sales managers, and agency owners. Tip: When you meet someone new that you had a great conversation with, take a

moment and write a personal note and invite them to connect via LinkedIn.

Who are you connected with that you can start having conversations with?

3 Mark Playbook | Plan 19

Email Marketing

3 Mark Financial can help P&C agents use email marketing to find new customers in their community using a package from Customer Finder USA. More information on the program is available in the Additional Resources section of the Playbook.

Website based Term Quote Engine

Life Insurance doesn’t often sell itself and when asked about the cost of life insurance most consumers overestimate the true cost. More and more buyers love to research products and services on the web. If the P&C agency would like to host a life insurance quote engine on their website you can assist with a referral to iPipeline. Contact information for iPipeline is included in the Additional Resources section of the Playbook.

Why a Sales Process?

The world’s greatest athletes, musicians, and performers know that they have to continually focus on the fundamentals in order to be successful. Rather than limiting their performance, a repeatable process built on fundamentals provides a flexible yet supportive framework for becoming even more creative in the moment. It is only when the fundamentals become second nature that one is truly free to be oneself.


P&C Sales Process:

Plan

Open

Identify Recommend

Close

Tip: People always want to know, “What are other people like me doing that’s working?”


Know Before You Call

Clients don’t have time to sit and play 20 questions anymore. (If they do, that may not be someone whose business you want.) Clients expect their partners to have done their homework, to know the basic facts about their business, and to be prepared to offer insights and value before they even sit down for a meeting. The more prepared you are, the greater your credibility. What should you review before your call?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Defining the Purpose and Desired Outcome

Defining these two simple objectives can have a tremendous impact on the results of your calls. Clarifying the purpose and desired outcomes helps to focus your energy and set the stage for the rest of your preparation. The challenge is that you must give yourself the mental space to stop and think, even if only for a couple of minutes. In fact, two minutes is usually all it takes to kick start your preparation so that the best version of yourself shows up at the meeting. Purpose: “Why am I calling? What is the benefit to the client?” Desired outcomes: “What does success look like at the end of this call?”

Choose one of your key upcoming calls and think through these key questions. Purpose

Desired Outcome

3 Mark Playbook | Getting In 23

Crafting your Hook

The introductory call is your first opportunity, and possibly your last, to create a case for a potential client to want to speak with you and hear more. A hook is a great way to catch attention and frame the conversation with a benefit or compelling point of view to share with the P&C manager/owner.

Examples of challenges include:

• Need for new revenue sources • Increasing competitive pressures • Competitors are adding life Insurance • Increasing client retention

Examples of compelling points of view:

• We can help you develop new revenue sources that are a natural extension of your current client conversations and would not require you to develop a new client base.

• We can help your agents write more business.

What are examples of challenges you have heard?

What are some compelling points of view you can bring to the table?

Hook (h k), n.

Attracting interest or attention; an enticement.


This might sound like:

What are some hooks you can use on your next set of calls?

Agent Hook: “Jim, I work with P&C agencies who are trying to increase client retention and

grow revenues. Is this an issue your firm is

dealing with?”

Jim: Yes, this is.

Agent: “Great, I would love to chat with you for

15 minutes and see if what we are doing for other P&C firms would

be a fit for your business. Do you have 15 minutes right now, or should we schedule something?”

Jim: No, I don't have that problem.

Agent: "Well, that's great to hear! I would love to

hear more about what is working well for you. "

*This is an opportunity to get them talking and then ask them more discovery questions to determine the challenges they are

having.


What can you do to help them solve their challenge/issue?

If the P&C manager/owner is already working with someone, follow up with additional questions to get a better idea of where there may be opportunity for you to solve a problem or present a compelling point of view:

• Are you getting the revenues you want? • Are they managing the relationships you want? • Would you be interested in greater numbers?

• What amount of revenue are you driving off of how many accounts?

What are some additional questions you can ask?

Tip: Offering to pilot a group of agents and compare results vs. existing

relationships can be a way to earn trust and credibility with a potential client hesitant to work with someone new.


Defining the Elements of Your Story

In the previous section we looked at a cold call example with Jim, a P&C agency owner. If Jim asked you how you plan to help him increase client retention and grow revenues, would you be prepared to answer (without info dumping)? While you may not always get this question in the initial call, being prepared with a solid success story will allow you to easily transition into a more in-depth conversation.

A success story will help you to succinctly share how you’ve helped other agencies and will be an integral part of your credibility statement which we will discuss in the following section.

Name a P&C agency that you were able to help solve a problem:

What was their issue?

Tip: Collect a variety of client success

stories. Write them down and review them

from time to time so they are always

fresh in your mind. Every solution

presentation should


How did you do to resolve the issue? What was the financial impact?


Success Story Outline & Example

P&C agency you helped

• Example: I'm working with xxxx.

What was their issue?

• Example: They were looking for ways to increase client retention and revenues by adding life insurance without having to be the experts.

How did you resolve their

issue?

• Example: We partnered with them to add these capabilities onto their existing platform, trained their agents how to discuss life insurance, and helped them develop and execute a marketing plan. The firm added $500,000 in premiums during the first year.

Transition

• Example: I don't know if I can do the same for you, but if I can ask you a few questions about your busineess we will be able to determine if there is a possible fit. If so, we can discuss possible next steps.


Try sharing your success story on your next call. What went well? What would make it even better?

The Credibility Statement

Establishing credibility in your potential clients mind helps you stand out amongst the competition. You must quickly let them know that you have experience without sounding boastful. If you can do this at the beginning of the conversation, the impact of the subsequent conversation will have more impact on your prospect and the more they will open up to your questions.

The elements of a credibility statement are as follows:

1. Brief overview of you and your organization.

2. Describe a few of the common issues the P&C agencies you currently work with have

3. Success Story: • Agency • Issue • Resolution • Benefit

4. Transition to the Identify Step with a question (This will be covered in an upcoming chapter about the opportunity gap.)

Tip: Keep your overview of you and your organization

shorter than a minute. Consider it similar to an

elevator speech.


Write a brief overview of you and your firm:

3 Mark Playbook | Open 31

Sharing the Agenda

Opening the business conversation can happen in a formal way (e.g. using a printed agenda) or a less formal way (e.g. asking the client subtle questions to determine their priorities). Regardless of whether you are deliberate about sharing your agenda or not, having a clear, pre-determined agenda is a best practice. It’s also critical, as you start the meeting, that the client is part of the agenda creation process. You must gain their input along the way to make sure you are headed down the proper path. Doing so can also help you lower their resistance and receptivity to the rest of the meeting and the solutions you may recommend.

Elements of an effective agenda/agenda statement are as follows:

Purpose: State the purpose of the meeting in a client benefit-oriented manner. I.E., why

are we having the meeting and what’s in it for the client?

Objectives/topics: List the few topics that you expect to discuss with the client that will

enable the meeting’s purpose to be accomplished. Keep it short & to the point.

Input: Solicit feedback to make sure you are headed down the right path and addressing

what’s most important to the client.

Transition to your positioning statement: Once you confirm the agenda, transition to

your positioning statement.

“I have more fun and enjoy more success when I stop trying to get what I want

and start helping others get what they want.” –Spencer Johnson


Here’s an example of how that might sound:

Purpose: The purpose of this call (or meeting) is to learn about you and your firm and give

you the opportunity to learn a little bit more about how we are helping P&C agencies successfully increase the profitability of their current customer base.

Objectives /topics: There are a few things I would like to cover during the time we have

together:

1. A brief overview of you and your organization. 2. Discuss your agency and some of the current opportunities and challenges you are

facing. 3. What your expectations of a partner like us may be. 4. Then we can share with you some of the strategies and ways we are working with

other P&C firms. 5. Finally, if it sounds like there would be a great fit, we can discuss some potential

next steps.

Input: Is there anything else you want to make sure we cover during this conversation?

Transition: Great, then to get us started is it okay if I give you a brief overview of our firm?

(Wait for a yes!)

Tip: After the transition, you will use your credibility statement.


Agenda Statement Worksheet

Prepare your agenda statement for an upcoming call or meeting. Purpose

Outline

Input

Transition (to Credibility Statement)


Building Rapport

When you meet with a client, your immediate goal is to build rapport. This is true on the first meeting, the second meeting, or the 20th meeting. Rapport refers to a level of comfort between two people.

• Be prepared and genuinely interested.

• Know your audience. In their limited available time, P&C owners and managers are more interested in knowing how you will create value for their organization. With others you are working with on a day-to-day basis, you may need to spend (or be more open to spending) more time building personal rapport – they want to know that you’ll be someone they can work closely with.

• Know when to bring preliminary pleasantries to an end and transition in to the business conversation.

Preliminary Pleasantries

Most meetings begin with some preliminary pleasantries. With new relationships, this is especially important and a great opportunity to find some common ground with clients, outside the scope of the typical discussions. What research might you do beforehand to build rapport and find common ground?

Tip: Have you ever heard the saying, “All things being equal, people prefer to do business with people they like”? Research shows that actually,

people prefer to do business with people whom they think like them. So the best way to build rapport and long term relationships with clients is to

demonstrate genuine interest and curiosity about them, and their business.

3 Mark Playbook | Identify 35

Emotional & Logical Needs Regardless of the situation, we all have emotional and logical needs that influence the

decisions we make. Your clients are no different, and their motivating factors will likely be a mix of emotional and logical needs.

Top-performers know how to identify their client’s needs and then respond in a way that satisfies them. The difference between the average agent and the extraordinary agent usually lies in their ability to perceive, and then satisfy their client’s emotional needs. When we properly identify and address our client’s logical and emotional needs, their level of trust and willingness to accept our solution increases dramatically.

Take a look at some of the examples of logical and emotional needs of P&C agents. Are there other emotional and logical needs that should be added to the list?

Logical Needs Emotional Needs

Make more money

Makes sense for my client

Viewed as a resource for clients

Need to feel confident in process & product

“We rationalize with logic what we want

emotionally” –Anonymous


Why Ask Questions?

What logical needs is the client attempting to address? What are the emotional needs that will convince him or her to act? Identifying these needs is the next step of the process.

A conversation that begins with an info dump of all the features you can offer the potential candidate will not provide adequate context and value on the true benefits, and they will likely end up feeling like they are being sold.

Tip: You will know you are asking enough engaging, open-ended questions if the client is doing 80% of the talking and you are doing

20%.

Do • Listen for what’s different • See your client as a

unique person • Listen to understand • Be a “curious” listener

Don’t • Listen for what’s familiar • See your client as

someone filling a role • Listen to respond • Be a “judgmental” listener

“Good questions do not merely elicit information the client already knows; they provoke a deeper exploration and insight on the part of

the client.” - Mahan Khalsa


Creating an Opportunity Gap

The initial meeting with the P&C owner or manager, if done correctly, should allow you to walk them through a process and let them come to the realization that your solution is the logical solution that will solve their problem. Sometimes this problem may be something they didn’t realize existed, or knew existed, but didn’t know how to solve. It is crucial that this conversation begin around the client and their agency, as opposed to an exposé about all of the wonderful things you and your firm can do for them.

Instead, begin by asking general current situation questions and then move to more

specific questions about the business. The goal of the discovery flow, as outlined in the below diagram, is to create an opportunity gap by making your client aware of the “gap” between where he is and where he wants to be. You also need to discuss goals and priorities and why these are so important.

Discovery Flow

Tip: The majority of the time, an initial meeting should be spent in discovery mode (asking questions) because it provides the

information needed to present a relevant solution that addresses the client’s objectives, pain points, and goals.


Current Situation Questions

• Tell me a little bit about the history of your firm. • When you first started what was your competitive advantage? How has that changed

over time? • What are the biggest challenges to growth today? • Tell me a little bit about your firms operating structure. • What are the biggest challenges you face right now in competing to keep clients or

attract new ones? • Who are the key stakeholders in the organization? • How did you get into the business? • Describe your typical client. • How do your current clients find you? • What products and services are you currently offering? • What is the average length of time your customers are with you? • What is the breakdown between commercial and personal lines business? • Given your current customer acquisition costs, how long do you need to retain a

customer to break even? • Have you considered the addition of life insurance previously?

o If so, what held you back? • What concerns or obstacles would you have or anticipate having if you were to offer life

insurance to your existing customer base? • What challenges have you had with your current (life insurance) relationships? • Describe the process and any challenges with getting applications through

underwriting.

Are there other questions you think would be important to ask to determine their current state?


Desired Situation Questions

• What does success look like for you for the rest of the year? In 5 years? • What challenges do you anticipate in reaching these goals? • What additional products or services would you like to add to your practice? • How would they help your practice in attracting and keeping clients? • What are some of the goals you have for yourself and the firm beyond this year? • How would additional revenue streams help you and the firm? • What would you look for in a partner that could help you expand your insurance

offerings? • What revenue contribution from life insurance would be meaningful to your firm? [Back

calculate – that would mean you have to sell life insurance to [xx]% of your client base of approximately $[yy] in premiums. Provide perspective on whether that is a realistic target and why.

Are there other questions you think would be important to ask about their desired situation?

Tip: Ask the client to expand on how solving a problem or taking advantage of an opportunity

would help them:

• What would the impact be if …?


Expectations

• What do you expect from a partner?

• (If there’s a current partner) What does your current partner do really well?

• What is your timeline for implementation?

• Who else should be involved in these discussions?

• What concerns do you have?

Are there other questions you think would be important to ask to better understand their expectations?

“The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.” – Roy Hollister Williams


Summarizing What the Client Shared

All too often, sales people ask questions, take a few notes and then… do nothing. People need to know that they have been heard and understood. The best way to ensure that this has happened is by delivering an effective summary following a structure like this.

Introduce the summary

Bridging Phrase: Let’s review what we talked about to make sure we are on the same page.

Summarize Current Situation

Bridging Phrase: Currently…

• Summarize key points of the current situation

Summarize Desired Situation

Bridging Phrase: The main goals/priorities/outcomes are…

• Review key goals, priorities and timelines and the results your client wants to produce

Ask Confirming Questions

Key Questions: • Does that accurately sum up your situation? • Can you think of anything important that we have

not discussed?

Transition to Next Steps

Bridging Phrase: Great. Let’s talk about some possible next steps …


Summary Practice

Use the discovery flow on your next call and practice delivering a summary.

Introduce the Recap Transition Phrase:

Summarize Current Situation Transition Phrase:

Summarize Desired Situation Transition Phrase:

Ask Confirming Questions Key Questions:

Transition to Next Steps Transition Phrase:


Ideas to Practice

• Ask questions and listen. Your client should feel important and validated.

• Start easy. Start discovery with more basic/general questions and then move to the complicated and specific areas. This approach puts the client at ease.

• Use clarifying questions. When you uncover an important priority, use clarifying questions to go deeper. E.g., “Why is that important right now? How does that impact you in your role?” etc.

• Focus on client outcomes, not products. Focus on what the client is trying to achieve and show him how your products and services will help to make that happen.

• Follow a discovery flow by asking current situation questions followed by desired situation questions (goals) which will help to create a selling gap.

• Use questions to move deeper within the organization. What challenges and opportunities is your client being asked to address by his boss?

• Questions lead to credibility. Asking thoughtful questions about specific topics relevant to your client is one of the best ways to gain credibility.

• Take accurate notes. You will be able to do a discovery summary and effectively customize your recommendations.

“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.”

- Neurologist Donald Galne

3 Mark Playbook | Recommend 44

What Makes You Different?

One of the keys to selling is being able communicate how your products and services solve problems and create value for the clients. While mastery of product knowledge is critical, understanding how clients leverage those products and how it impacts their business is a story we can all get better at telling.

What value does your firm provide? What are some key features of your firm? What are the benefits (to the client) of those features?

Features

Benefits

Drop Ticket

Use of our platform

Easy! we take care of the rest!

User friendly for you & your clients

Tip: In speaking with several P&C firms during this project we found something consistent the agencies liked about the 3 Mark value proposition. They like the fact that you make

adding life insurance as a new revenue source easy. Use this to your advantage during the conversation and specifically

position the flexibility an agency has with regards to how they choose to engage with you.


Speak in Terms of the Customer’s Interests

You can tell the P&C agency manager/owner a lot about you, your company, and your products and services but if you do not connect that information to problems your client wants to solve, it will make very little difference. Information must be communicated in a way that immediately answers the question, “What’s in it for me, the client?”

Using the structure of Link – Feature – Bridge – Benefit (LFBB) is a simple way to consistently communicate in a way that speaks to the customer’s interests.

A link calls back to something the customer said previously.

Ron, you mentioned before that you are really working towards taking Fridays off.

A feature is a fact about a product (that can be proven).

The great thing about adding life insurance and using our drop ticket feature is that all you

have to do is continue to be a resource for your clients, and once you submit the ticket, we

take care of the rest!

A bridge is a short phrase using the word “you” that pivots the feature to the benefit.

What this means for you…

A benefit is how the customer would use or experience the feature.

…is that you can add an additional revenue stream to your business, while working the same

amount, and add an additional 52 days off a year to spend time with your family.


Write out a few of your own LFBBs.

LFBB: Product: ____________________

Strategic Discovery Question

Link

Feature

Bridge

Benefits


LFBB: Product: ____________________


Link

Feature

Bridge

Benefits


LFBB: Product: ____________________


Link

Feature

Bridge

Benefits


Designing a Customized Solution

If you’ve done a good job in building a relationship and seeking to understand the client through rapport building, discovery, and discovery summary process then the client is probably in a receptive mindset to hear you talk about your agency and what you can do for him or her. The client will be paying close attention to what you say, how you say it and how you support what you say. The solution presentation is your opportunity to present a compelling reason why the client should do business with you. It can start with a range of options and the ability to evolve over time or it can be very specific around specific products and/or services that will help them reach their objectives.

The Solution Presentation Agenda Statement The following example outlines the presentation of solutions on a follow-up call or meeting. After preliminary pleasantries on this second call or meeting we will use the agenda statement to transition into the business conversation. It follows the same steps we learned for the initial meeting, but uses slightly different words because the agenda is different. Step One – State the purpose of the meeting Steve, I really appreciate you taking the time to meet with me today. My purpose today is to share a comprehensive 3 Mark solution that can give you the life insurance capabilities you need to help your company improve client profitability and provide greater value to your existing client base.

Tip: The presentation should: • Be tailored to the client’s needs we uncovered during the discovery

step. • Show our client how our products and services can move them

from their current situation to their desired situation in the goal areas that were identified during discovery.


Step Two – Briefly outline what you will cover In order to make this meeting as productive as possible, I suggest we discuss the following: • First, let’s briefly review some of the key things we discussed at our last meeting. • After that, let’s determine if anything has changed since we last got together that would

have any impact on your needs. • Then, we can look at some specific recommendations our team has come up with that

will help you reach some of your company’s goals. • Finally, we can talk about what the possible next steps may be. Step Three – Gain client input on agenda Is there anything else you’d like to add to that? (If the client says “yes,” be sure to write down the item, ask if there is anything else, and let them know you’ll be sure to cover that with them, but continue through to step 4). Step Four – Transition into discovery summary from previous call/meeting Great, then if it’s alright with you, may I start by giving you a quick review of what we talked about in our last meeting? (Wait for a yes!) The Two Major Solution Presentation Areas The goal of the solution presentation is to use a variety of different tools to show your client why 3 Mark is a good choice for their insurance relationship. The presentation itself will be comprised of a few different pieces:

1. Specific solution recommendations. 2. Details of a proposal. 3. Specific products that can help the client. 4. Other 3 Mark resources and capabilities that might be useful to the client at

some time in the future.

Tip: 7% of your message is communicated with your

words, 38% with your tone, and about 55% with body

language. Study body language.


How to Communicate Specific Solution Recommendations Now it’s time to dive into the second part of the solution presentation – communicating specific recommendations. In most cases when you present a proposal, you will have some type of accompanying document (proposal) that spells out in detail the terms of your offer. Sometimes, we can fall into the habit of thinking that “the numbers speak for themselves” Now that you’ve communicated your solution, you’ll want to show your client that You have the resources and capabilities to truly provide the services they need. This is the third part of the solution presentation where you get the opportunity to use the LFBBs to build value in the products and services and how they relate to what the client discussed as important.

Tip: Do not assume the client is familiar with your products and services as you are. Although the benefits of a specific feature may sound obvious to you, it may not necessarily be obvious to your client.

3 Mark Playbook | Recap 52

Overcoming Objections

Objections, concerns and hesitations are a natural part of the decision making process and can come up at any time. They are not necessarily an indication that the client does not want to do business with you. The approach to dealing with resistance can be more important than the actual response.


Listen

When you hear an objection, your initial impulse may be to respond immediately. It’s a natural reaction and one that can take a lot of effort to stifle. The first step is to listen truly to what the customer is saying. We spoke earlier about the difference between listening to respond and listening to understand - the latter will serve you well here.

Before you say anything, pause.

Clarify Ask questions to clarify what the customer’s concern is truly about. “That sounds expensive,” can mean many different things. Make sure you know which one it is before you develop a response. Good things happen when you ask clarifying questions:

• The emotion behind the objection often dissipates as the client talks about it. This can help make him or her more receptive to your response.

• You will hear clues as to the best way to respond. Often client will talk themselves out of the objection as they explain why the objection is an important concern.

• Questions help you to gather more information, which leads to more questions.

• Questions help you to uncover the real issues.

• Questions keep you from contracting the most dreaded illness of sales people – talking too much.

• Questions help you to gain credibility in the eyes of the customer.

Some clarifying questions to try:

• Please help me better understand your hesitation.

• What is it specifically that you are concerned about?

• What were you expecting? How did you arrive at that expectation?

• Could you tell me a little more about that concern so that I can understand it better?

• Could you please explain it to me in more detail?


Restate After you’ve asked some clarifying questions, restate the objection back to the client

to ensure that you have correctly identified the issue. Are you and your client on the same page? If the answer is yes, proceed to the next step – Cushion. If not, go back to the Listen step and repeat the process until you’ve reached agreement on the restate.

Cushion A cushion is an acknowledgement or statement of empathy that shows the customer

that you have heard her and that you know this issue is important. Put yourself “on the same side of the table” as the client – you are working with your client, not against. Respond Finally, respond to the objection.

Responding to Specific Objections Objection: We tried to sell insurance before and it was a disaster. What clarifying questions would you ask?

How did the customer respond to your clarifying question?

What would you say to respond to this objection?


What evidence can you use that will help you when responding to this objection?

What clarifying questions would you ask?

How did the customer respond to your clarifying question?

What would you say to respond to this objection?

Tip: Avoid the words “but, however, and actually.” They typically connect opposing ideas.

Tip: When you have more than one objection, ask the customer to tell you which objection is the one causing the greatest concern

and begin there.


What evidence can you use that will help you when responding to this objection?

Post Meeting Process

The post meeting process is designed to help you to capture your thoughts while they are fresh so you can efficiently share relevant information with your teammates and build on this information as you grow your relationship with this client. There are three steps to the post meeting process:

1. Debrief

While the meeting is still very clear in your mind, quickly capture your thoughts.

2. Clarify Goals and Next Actions What are the main goals and next actions?

3. Meeting Recap to the Client Follow up with a brief summary of the key points and next actions.


The Meeting Recap

After a client meeting it is important to maintain momentum and capitalize on the enthusiasm you have generated. By following up quickly with clients you help to build trust and keep the conversation going. A simple yet often overlooked, practice is to provide the client with a brief summary of the meeting including next actions. An effective, timely (within 24 hours) recap produces multiple benefits:

• The client can easily share this information with others in his organization.

• You can more easily engage your team members and get them up to speed.

• It helps you to refresh your thinking when you are preparing for the next call/meeting with this client.

How does a timely recap help you? How does it help the client?

Post Meeting Template

Immediate Discussion

Debrief While the meeting is still clear in your mind, quickly capture your thoughts.

Did we achieve our desired outcomes?

What did we learn?

Insights to share with team

Client reaction

What resonated & what didn’t?


Capture This Clarify Goals and Next Actions Confirm:

What are the near term goals for the client?

What ideas should we capture for future discussions?

What do we need to share with other colleagues?

What are the specific next actions and who is responsible for each?

Who will write the recap?

Email within 24 hrs

Meeting Recap to the Client Send an email recap to all meeting attendees (cc: other stakeholders) summarizing the following:

Attendees (client/your company)

“Thanks for your time and the opportunity to discuss…”

Key insights

Next meeting/call scheduled

Next actions


Recap Practice

Take some time to practice writing a recap for your last meeting.

Notes

3 Mark Playbook | Additional Resources 60

Pre-Call& Pre-Meeting Planning and 10 Key Questions

No matter if you are going on a meeting by yourself or as part of a team, pre-call and pre-meeting planning is a must. Pre-meeting planning is even more essential in team-selling situations because you have to coordinate all the team members.

The key questions to ask before the call:

1. What does success look like at the end of the meeting?

2. What do I know about this person? Their agency?

3. What don’t I know that I need to know or should I know?

4. What are the roles and responsibilities for each team member?

5. What is the agenda for the meeting (POINT)?

6. What collateral you need and decide who is going to bring it?

7. What obstacles and/or objections you are likely to face?

8. What objections am I likely to face?

9. How will we/I respond to each objection? Who will respond?

10. How are we going to articulate the benefits to the client?

11. Are you going to ask the prospect to purchase new products or services?

12. What additional resources might be needed?

13. What are the next steps going to be?

Answering each of these questions is a great start to creating success on purpose.

Tip: Even if you are handling the sales call or

meeting solo, you should answer these same 13 questions as part of your pre-call planning.


Pre-Call Planning Checklist

Prepare call objectives.

If team selling, conduct a Pre-Call Planning meeting with your team to discuss roles & responsibilities.

Have a clearly defined agenda for the meeting.

Prepare and practice your Credibility Statement in advance.

Plan, prepare and bring appropriate presentation tools and colleagues to support your key points.

Anticipate the objections your client might have and rehearse effective responses.

Rehearse your closing strategy and next steps.

Plan how you are going to ask for referrals.

Always be on time.

Google the company and client(s) you are meeting.

Adequately address the key 10 issues.

Iron your briefcase by preparing it the night before.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” – Alan Lakein


Purpose Client Name

Date Desired Outcome

Agenda Items 1 2 3 4 Credibility Statement

Discovery Areas 1 2

3

4

Potential Concern Plan to Address Next Steps 1

2

3


Best Practices

• While on the surface it may seem attractive to call on captive agents due to the size and volume potential, our research indicates it may be premature to make this a high commitment focus. Some of the national carriers are expanding into these markets and beginning to allow, and in some cases, adding quotas to agents to write health and life insurance business. However, the carriers either limit who this can be written with or require it be written internally.

• Look into smaller organizations that support P&C industry such as American Agents Lines. There are several of these in the U.S. and if you can get them to endorse the life specialists you will have the ability to reach a significant number of people.

• Consider trade shows. There are many of these each year. If you can illustrate a couple

of messages you will likely attract interest. o We have a solution, all you need to do is pass information to us and we do the

rest. o There is a lot of hand holding that goes into life. If they (the P&C agency) didn’t

have to do it life insurance would be attractive.

• Drip marketing to agents. Life Insurance Carriers can assist with material. They have

created a number of agent and client pieces that will keep life insurance fresh in the minds of agents and comsumers.

Term Quote Engine

For information on adding a customer term quote engine to and existing website contact: Eric Steffensen National Account Executive with iPipeline. Eric can be reached at 801-410-7148 or [email protected].

Make sure you mention your affiliation with 3 Mark Financial to gain access to our discounted pricing. General questions about the quote engine can be addressed to Glen Clay: [email protected] or 281-269-2315.

mailto:[email protected]



Customer Finder USA

Customer Finder USA can help your P&C agents find new customers in their community with a turnkey email marketing platform. 3 Mark Financial in conjunction with Customer Finder USA has created a Private Template Gallery with custom email templates which are available for to market insurance products. To experience Customer Finder USA we have developed a special introductory program that includes 1000 monthly email sending for 6 months with an option to purchase additional credits at a discount. To learn more about this program and receive the Promo Code which entitles you to the free 1000 monthly emails and discounts on additional email sending credits contact Bruce Alfredson, CLU, ChFC [email protected] 281-269-2352, or visit www.customerfinderusa.com


http://www.customerfinderusa.com/

Documents

3 Mark Financial Playbookmarketing.3mark.com/.../14372/f-0013/1/-/-/-/-/3Mark-PC-Playbook.pdf · 3 Mark Financial Playbook A Game Winning Strategy for Partnering with P & C Agencies