My interview with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan on Insurance Journal Radio…

Click Here and listen to the interview!

I believe that the insurance industry NEEDS indepdendent insurance agents because we are the backbone of the industry. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t own Hays Insurance Agencies (yet), but I have a great deal of respect for Bruce Hays and all the other agency principals who put in long hours and fight to get the very best value for every dollar their insured’s are spending on their insurance.

Yeah I’m a “young” agent (29) and new to the industry (3 years deep) but I know that people are sick and tired of being “sold”. The old way of selling doesn’t work anymore, and the only thing you (insurance agents) should be focused on is gaining a prospect’s attention…because unless you bring something of value to the table, other than “What if I could save you 30% on your premiums”, you’re going to struggle to get someone’s attention.

And once you have their attention, what are you going to do? How are you going to help them? How are you going to separate yourself from the other 1,632 agents in the 30 mile radius of your shop? Become a business within a business (speaking directly to producers) and determine who your ideal prospect is and how you can help them get more of what they really want as well as protect them and their families with your insurance products.

At the end of the day I firmly believe that the most successful insurance agent isn’t the one with the biggest book of business, but the one who could die and his insureds would come to his funeral because they valued their relationship with that agent.

I do take this stuff seriously, and hopefully more young insurance agents will stand up over the next few years and fight back against this online battle of instant quotes and price slashing, because I can tell you right now you’re not always going to be the cheapest price so you better have a damn good reason for people to want to do business with you and stay with you over the long haul. But that’ll mean you’ll have to do some work, quite a bit actually.

But I think it’s worth it. What do you think? Click Here and listen to the interview!

A big thank you to Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan for asking me to be on their show, completely honored and would highly recommend that you check out both of these guys as they are who I look up to when it comes to understanding the new media and personal branding strategies in the insurance industry.