Recently, there was a post in Insurance Soup around how to work with more referral partners. I am going to take a page out of my friend Jeff Moore's book.
Jeff is one of VERY few people in our Insurance Soup Facebook group who is not in insurance. He is known as the "mentor's mentor" in many circles and his network within the online space is pretty top notch.
I look up to Jeff in a million and one ways in the business world. He is just a wealth of knowledge around running good businesses, being an entrepreneur, networking, and most importantly being a pretty good human being.
I met him at a mastermind 4 or 5 years ago and we've stayed in touch over the years and helped each other out with some things. When I met Jeff at the event I met him at a few years back, he was a speaker and presenter and what I learned from him that day ultimately had a tremendous impact on Soup.
I'm not sure I've ever shared this with him or not, so this may be new news even for him, but he spoke about how important it is for your clients to not view you as simply "the person they know who does X", X being insurance in this case. They can find "a guy or gal that does insurance" with a very simple click of the mouse and a little google search.
You need to make yourself stand out.
Now, how do you go about doing that in a world where everyone and everything looks and sounds the same?
By being different.
Now we struggle to be different from a product standpoint because plain and simply, very few of us have anything truly unique to offer. But what each and every one of us has that IS unique to offer is ourselves.
Now this isn't a typical "rah rah be the best Agent you can be" speech. We all know the reason that your Agency is special is because of YOU! That's what your Mommy tells you anyway, right?
The truth is - your Agency is NOT special because of you. Every Kyle and Karen in this industry thinks they're special. And I agree. I agree with your Mom. You are special.
But what makes you STAND OUT?
The idea Jeff always speaks so vividly about is the idea that you are not an "X" (insert career choice), but you ARE a problem solver and a people connector who happens to own an Insurance Agency.
When you become the person that everyone knows has an answer or a direction to point them in, you become needed.
You become a more valuable asset to your client.
You become a more valuable asset to your referral partners.
You become a more valuable asset to your community.
When you're able to move establish yourself as "not just an insurance agent" in your clients heads and into the role of "the guy that always helps whenever I need something", you will get more referrals.
Not only will you get more referrals, you will HAVE more referrals to SEND because people come to you when they do not know what to do.
Jeff is in the seafood world, amongst some other niches. He gave the closeout speech at a beef and cattle event to a standing ovation once.
What the heck was The King of Seafood doing giving the keynote speech at an event for BEEF LOVERS?
Well, almost every single person in that room had received help or guidance from Jeff at some point. They knew him and benefitted from a relationship with him despite not necessarily doing business WITH him.
But most of them have gone on to DO business with him at some point because he's just a wealth of knowledge, always positive, and has a tremendous network. And if they don'y actively do business with him, they're referring people to him that definitely DO.
So how does that all tie in with us and how we try and run our group? And how does it factor in to how YOU may want to consider looking at your Agency?
Well, while we may not ALWAYS come across positive in our Facebook group because maybe our tone or sarcasm gets lost. Or maybe we're publicly going after a rule breaker or someone who may be going hard on another member... behind the scenes, our goal to either have the answer or to know people that do have the answer so we can point you all towards them has become a paramount vision and goal of ours.
And for me personally, it all started to become purposeful and intentional, not just occasionally and randomly, thanks to Jeff Moore.
You want more referrals?
You want more referral partners?
Become a connector. Become a problem solver. Become the business in your town that connects everyone.
Once you are known and seen as the person who can solve many problems, or at the very least, the person who can get you connected to the right people, you're well on your way to being connected yourself.