To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Reports of the death of the industry are greatly exaggerated.”
Many see the industry as on its deathbed. Between the unprecedented number of agencies selling, the belief that the industry can’t recruit new talent, and the countless other challenges weighing on it, many see these as the final days of the independent insurance agency system.
But, they are wrong.
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Insurance agencies clearly need help with marketing. And that need led us to start our marketing division at Q4i where we provide help and guidance in developing and managing the critical marketing functions all agencies need to be embracing.
At the core of what we do at Q4intelligence is what most would describe as sales training. We work with producers and the broader team to take more effective conversations to their prospects and clients.
I’m guessing sales training has been around since the first caveman wheel salesman (no gender equality in the workplace back then, I’m sure) tried to scale in order to meet the growing need/demand for the product. I’m also guessing it wasn’t long after that when the first sales trainee grunted, “Zog no need sales process. Zog sell wheel many years."
Even though I’ve worked my entire career in insurance either as a producer or with producers and agency owners, it’s been a while since I was a producer myself. It’s amazing how much has changed during that time.
I’m concerned about some of the activity I see playing out among brokers and advisors with their online social activity. And I’d like to note that paradoxically this concern is actually a cause for celebration.
At a time when the industry is paralyzed by an unprecedented amount of change, when bottom line profit is evaporating, when too many agency owners are giving up and selling, when effective agency leaders are hard to find, Barry Cohn is a rare find.
The insurance industry has two very distinct types of sales people. Back when health insurance was affordable, selling group policies was the norm for the benefits broker. As regulations and expenses have both risen to new heights, the ideas, advice, and outcomes employers need have also risen to new heights. And the way brokers and consultants work with clients must rise along with it.
The industry in which most of us have spent our careers has centered around two primary groups serving as “gate keepers” of healthcare: commercial carriers and government. To say they have failed us would be a huge understatement.
And inside-the-agency perspective from our long-time Q4iNetwork member, Bret Brummitt.
Being an insurance agency owner has been one of the greatest journeys you have likely embarked on. You have felt the immediate financial reward for doing a good job and you’ve been able to impact the lives of your clients in profoundly positive ways during their times of distress and turmoil. There are few professions that let you experience that combination punch of intrinsic and altruistic rewards simultaneously.
LinkedIn is an amazing tool if you choose to take advantage of it in a way that can expand your network and open your mind to new ideas and educational opportunities. At Q4i, we’ve long felt that the power of LinkedIn was substantial, and as more people joined in and started to participate in a productive way, we felt that it would grow in importance and we’d all benefit from it.