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To do this, I recommend that you conduct a thorough needs assessment. Your needs assessment (or risk management assessment, or strategic fitness assessment, or whatever you wish to call it) should be as specialized as you are and is normally "custom-fit" for the size and complexity of the client. A complex risk requires a more comprehensive assessment, whereas a scaled-back version can be used for a smaller client.
If you don't have an industry-specific assessment at your fingertips, I recommend that you investigate using The Rough Notes Agency OnLine program. It offers an abundance of industry- and segment-specific information that will provide ample fodder to create your first assessment or update an existing one. Additionally, your carrier partners will help create and actually facilitate such an assessment if the client is large enough.
Regardless of size, every client should be appropriately assessed before you submit any recommendations. This critical discovery step, most often missed by the generalist, is the single greatest differentiator you will have. With it, you'll be learning; without it, you'll be guessing. Had any of the previously mentioned producers approached me with this additional step in the insurance buying process, he or she would certainly have gotten my attention, if not my business.
Some additional advantages of specialization and client assessment, advantages that far exceed the effort of taking the additional step in the sales process, are:
New producers get a jump start. No longer forced to be "product experts," they become client focused and segment experts-an immediate credibility builder. They "sell" themselves, their process for client discovery, its benefits and impact.
No more bidding contests. The client becomes rightfully focused on the process and the impact, not the price and the product. You work much more efficiently and effectively, closing over 80% of your prospects and retaining over 95% of those.
Your carrier partners love you. They can trust your submissions and they adore the fact that you are willing to pre-select the market and co-develop business. This saves them an enormous amount of time and qualifies you as a preferred partner.
Client cultural compatibility. The assessment acts as a prospect pre-screener, enabling you to quickly determine whether the client is a value buyer or a price buyer.
Service expectations, intentions, and manageable plans can be determined proactively. After conducting an assessment and developing a program, you know exactly what your level of visibility and viability should be with each client. It's an easy and natural step to completing and managing a proactive, value-added service plan.
Cross-selling becomes cross-servicing. You are an insurance consultant, not a product peddler. The assessment allows you to consult on every facet of the client's insurance world and to match them up with like-minded consultants from other lines within your own agency or networking group.
A winning formula. You are doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons, with the right people. How's that for making our world a little better than you found it?
And so, a specialist is born. Each assessment leads to heightened levels of awareness and information about the unique needs of each market segment. Armed with this advanced knowledge, you, the specialist, become further
embedded within your selected market. As your expertise grows, so too do your impact, contribution, and reputation within the circles of influence that matter most in every industry. Your "insider's" perspective allows you to reach beyond common coverage and match unique needs with custom-developed solutions. Your ability to build a book of carefully selected clients based upon referral and networking opportunities is greatly enhanced, and you find yourself consulting rather than bidding.
Best of all, I get to sleep at night because you cared enough to scratch my niche. *
Scott Primiano is the founding partner of Polestar Performance Programs Inc, the industry leader in agency and carrier management training and consulting programs (www.goPolestar.com). He is the author of the industry best seller “Hard Market Selling – Thriving In the New Insurance Era”, and is nationally recognized for his inspiring and effective approach to producer and underwriter professional development.
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