Agency Nation Radio - Insurance Marketing, Sales And Technology

In this episode of Agency Nation Radio, Ryan and Marty break down the "Wine in a Can" trend and what insurance professionals can learn. In particular the time it takes micro-trends to become actual trends. Get more Agency Nation Radio: https://www.agencynation.com/podcast

We all use the same tired descriptions to explain why our agency is different from the competition. It's officially time to change that. In this episode of Agency Nation Radio, we break down why the common insurance agency "Brags" are meaningless to the prospects we're hoping to attract and when does differentiate one insurance agency from another. Get more Agency Nation Radio here. This episode of Agency Nation Radio is sponsored by Vertafore —the Leader in Modern Insurance Technology. If you haven’t been to the Vertafore website lately, you need to spend some time on the blog. They update that site a couple times a week with information about industry trends and news to keep you ahead of your competition. They have great information for producers, principals and customer service professionals. It’s worth spending some time on the site and reading the blog.  Go to Vertafore dot com, check out the blog in the resources section.

For the first time in 6 years, small insurance companies have taken the lead for insurance buyer satisfaction. This is in large part due to the independent insurance agent sales force partnered with small insurance companies. Agents are still at the front lines of the insurance companies, but things like instant quotes and messenger services change the way consumers interact with agents. Instead of calling a voicemail or making an appointment, interested consumers can speak directly with an agent almost immediately and ask any question they choose. Agents aren’t just in sales anymore. We’ve become mentors and advisors, and the way we treat our clients is why people keep coming back. Get more Agency Nation Radio here.

“Usage-based insurance is a unique or innovative thing because the industry historically has sort of been in a ‘purchase-once-and-forget’ mentality... I think it’s a real opportunity for the industry because it’s thinking about things in a completely different way than we ever thought about them.” Marty Agather Get more Agency Nation Radio.

In this episode of Agency Nation Radio we discuss the tough work of insurance industry trailblazing and why phone trees suck. Something as archaic as a phone tree has been a staple of the insurance agency for decades. But today’s customers don’t have the patience for voicemail. In a digital age of immediate response and gratification, all your phone tree tells them is that you’re too busy to help them.

Emily Huling, recently published an article on her blog with 17 Terrific Tips When Visiting Clients. The one we want to discuss is #14, where she recommends not using an iPad or any other technology when taking notes and meeting with new and old clients. This is the 21st century, we should be able to use tech for absolutely everything. It’s automated, it’s easy, and it lightens your work load, but it does not reflect well with the customer. As Marty says, when you’re using tech to make your job easier, you are not putting the needs of your client first. Get this podcast and more here: agencynation.com/podcast

We have a lot of contention with today’s topic of discussion. Whitney Arthofer’s article on Tech Crunch “Insurance Brokerage is Broken” hits us where it hurts. It’s clear from this article that she’s never worked one single day as an insurance agent, but that doesn’t make her conclusions any less true, or any easier to swallow.

In this episode, we discuss Drew Aldrich’s article on CBInsights, “Going Micro is the Next Big Thing for Insurance Tech”, breaks down how it works and shares a few tactics from the successful startups who helped bring microinsurance to the forefront of the industry. We also discuss microinsurance and why most insurance startups don't understand how to be successful.

Today we dissect the epic fall of the darling medical testing company, Theranos and what it means to the insurance industry. Once upon a time, Theranos was defended as one of the most ground-breaking companies, using unheard of and cutting edge micro-technology to streamline all sorts of medical testing. Where they once bragged to be innovators, Theranos – and its creator Elizabeth Holmes – are facing serious accusations and ruining their reputation. That brings us to the second topic of our episode: Agency Nation’s brand new Agency Nation University.

“We are experimenters just like you, our listeners, and I want to bring out a situation where our experiment didn’t quite go as planned.” Marty Agather In this episode, Ryan Hanley explains the biggest marketing failure experienced by TrustedChoice.com in 2015. 

Insurance is a tricky arena. The role of the independent insurance agent has always been as the navigator, or the advisor. But with the ease of the internet, insurance is becoming less and less complicated. Sam Friedman points out that while small business insurance is getting more and more mainstream, the generation of those buying from agents like us is dwindling. Especially among Millennials. But there are ways to combat these changes.

Marty opens today’s episode discussing what he learned from his recent trip to Canada. He just got back from the He just got back from the Insurance-Canada Broker Forum where he met with some of our Canadian insurance friends to discuss the different insurance systems used by our northern neighbor. Interestingly enough, they are having the same discussions we’re having down here in the states. Insurance agents are getting more and more clever with the way they contact clients and deliver product in an increasingly digital and mobile world.

Today we are taking a pragmatic look at what happened to Google Compare. Recently Google announced that they are shutting down their Google Compare insurance industry here in the United States. If you tuned in to one our earlier episodes this past month where we discussed Google’s failings as an insurance comparison company, then this should come as no surprise. But what we’re looking at today is why this happened and what Google did and did not do that ultimately led to their downfall.

“If you’re an insurance broker, we’re going to drink your milkshake.” Parker Conrad, Former CEO of Zenefits.  April 29, 2013   “We’ve talked about this numerous times, “the new normal” and how everybody wants to do everything now, “it’s when I want to do it, not when you want to get it to me”, and they are leveraging that consumer sentiment and they are using technology to do it. That’s why they’ve been so successful. The challenge is that they just bent some rules and skirted some issues, and now it’s come back to bite them.” Marty Agather

  Recently, Google launched their Google Compare insurance pricing program in the United States after its huge success in the UK. Unfortunately, they haven’t been as successful as they anticipated. Google is one of the most successful businesses on the planet, but they made some huge mistakes with their latest campaign that’s now forcing them to re-evaluate their fiscal plans and growth for Google Compare. We know all too well that insurance is a fairly complicated business, and the American way of buying insurance is very different from the way they do it across the pond. Regional regulations, trustworthy insurance agents, and varying prices all influence how/when/where people buy their insurance, and Google failed to incorporate these very big cultural differences into their plans.

The landscape of the insurance industry is changing. Today Marty and Ryan talk about an overlooked demographic, the shopper. “One of the ‘new normal’ behaviors is the fact we want to get a deal on everything.” — Marty Agather Shoppers are clients who look for the best deal when choosing a major purchase. Shoppers exist in all industries, but independent agents often make the mistake of considering a “shopper” as a waste of time. The truth is shoppers can be one of the most loyal of customer bases. Shopping is an American cultural activity. It is celebrated and encouraged.

Today we are going to discuss the changing face of marketing in today’s insurance business. Our first topic will be the article B2B Marketing Professionals: Prepare for 2016 by Considering these Predictions, written by Forrester Researcher, Peter O’Neill. Marketing has become a marriage of both the sales team and the marketing team.

It takes work to reach digital marketing paydirt. Do you have what it takes? Today we are discussing two topics that we believe you can apply to increase productivity and attract customers to your agency. One idea deals with making yourself stand out in a good and unique way that attracts customers. The other addresses the fact that it takes time and hard work to hit pay dirt. We talk about some ways to shorten your work through the overburden. A recent blog post by Seth Godin titled Idiosyncratic deals with the idea that perfection is sort of boring.

Are you creating unscalable human experiences in your business?   I recently read an article called “Three Tips for Future-Proofing Your Digital Career”, and it inspired today’s episode. With so many industries developing automation, you need to find a way to protect your business from the changes future technology presents. As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to keep up with the latest trends and innovations in order to keep your brand modern and relevant. We cover automation quite a bit in this episode of Agency Nation Radio, but today we’re focusing on what you can do as a business owner to keep up-to-date with the latest, greatest, and maybe a little bit terrifying changes that come with automation.

This episode is Part II of our series on digital disruption in the insurance industry. Click here to listen to Part I. There are many factors that can lead to disruption inside the insurance industry. In Part I of this two part podcast series we discussed the definitions of Innovation and Disruption: Innovation – new methods, ideas, or products which improve upon an existing process or product. Disruption – that which causes you to make a fundamental change in business strategy. Too often we confuse innovation and disruption. Innovations in process, strategy and technology happen all the time. Think of innovation as a strong set of waves washing away a bit of beach.