Dear Owner and Sales Manager,

There is a gap between brokerages and their commercial lines producers. It’s a marketing gap. Insurance broking is a classic “relationship sale”. The producer, holding the keys to both knowledge and markets, have historically been responsible for building their book of business by simply “going out and producing”.

If LinkedIn is any indicator, it would seem that not much has changed over the last number of decades. A producers’ success is still based less on their insurance knowledge, and more on their ability to cold call. 

But here are the realities:

• Competition is higher than it ever has been;
• Commoditization of service and messaging is high as well, making it especially difficult to differentiate and standout in this crowded market;
• Being an effective and relentless cold caller does not the best insurance broker make;
• Producers face increasing pressure to validate i.e. build a big enough book of business to replace a salary with commission in three years;
• Insurance is an unsought, low-involvement purchase that is either legally required or begrudgingly purchased;
• A customer’s best case scenario is to spend money year after year and never have to make a claim. Essentially, to spend money you never get back.

Today’s digital world is marked by a changing media landscape. We no longer read magazines. Most of us don’t watch cable TV. And fewer still listen to radio. The channels of marketing have been decentralized, digitized.

Many brokerages engage in SEO, with varying degrees of success. This is likely for personal lines like home and auto. Small business owners may search online for insurance as well, but these often carry premiums smaller than home and auto policies. 

But SEO is a rental game. It’s the digital version of the Yellow Pages. After all of that effort and investment, it does little to build equity in a brand. Fall off page one and poof, you’ve lost that money.

Many brokerages engage in social media marketing. This is mostly organic and quite often terribly boring. It could be engaging and entertaining. Yet we see the same post about “get your free quote” and “Add insurance to your wish list this Christmas”. It does nothing to build brand or drive sales. Especially for the producer.

And yet little of this helps the producer produce. She is expected to step out into the world and make it rain. She has no brand recognition. She has no strength behind her name. There’s been little help to elevate her above the crowded market. So she begins the process of cold outreach to have conversations with business owners, hoping to hit on the 5% of the population who may be looking for insurance right now.

Believe me, I’m not slagging the cold call approach. As a good friend explained, it is the fastest way to get an answer. Fair enough. I do not argue the merits of that.

I do argue there is more brokerages can do to build brand trust within the segments they wish to compete and help their commercial lines producers be more effective in the process. It takes time, creative courage and a willingness to invest in a potential future outcome. 

Some call it risky, this marketing. But I ask, with less than 50% of new producers failing to validate, which is riskier: three years of underperformance or three years of intentionally building your brand’s equity?

If you are an owner or sales manager looking to give your producing team an edge, let’s talk. Benevolent Marketing is on a mission to help select brokerages and producers close the marketing & sales gap and build brands that evoke the “why would I choose anyone else” feeling. 

It won’t be easy. It may take time. But nobody said becoming the “go-to” broker before prospects search google would be.

If you’re willing to take a step towards building a magnetic brand, I’ll meet you there.