Agency Intelligence

We are honored to have Dave Frees on our podcast to teach us some things about enhanced communications. If you haven’t heard him speak, just take a look at his bio below to understand that depth of his impact. In this podcast we get a teaser on some very powerful approaches in communicating, persuading and […] The post Insurance Agents – Communicating, Persuading, Influencing appeared first on .

There is no final destination for how your agency does things, there’s just a current state of being.Tell me if this sounds familiar, you want to improve the way things are done in your agency but you get so over whelmed with the best way to do it. So much so you end up doing nothing. Not only do you NOT build that new system, but your now so distracted by your inability to build that new system you stop focusing on your sales goals. On top of it all you realize you need to start saying no to the wrong prospects to make room for the right ones. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. That’s what Joey talks to Troy Thompson from Pinnacle Insurance about today. The importance of viewing your systems, processes and wow factor as a continued work in progress that never fully complete.

The last time Jason and Joey went to head to head, Google Hangouts was a big thing and they talked about The Internet of Things (IoT). In this Grow Show they talk about the customer experience and what it means to stand out and separate yourself from other agencies. And guess what? It has nothing to do […] The post Is Your Agency Connecting Its Decisions? appeared first on .

Two years ago, we first released our podcast with Chuck Blondino, where he uncovered some very important statistics on agencies across the country. To date, we’ve gotten over 5,000 downloads on that podcast. Chuck is the Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs at Safeco and studies the performance of agencies and how they grow. And it’s no hearsay when […] The post The Growing Gap Between Agents Who Do and Agents Who Don’t – Stats from Safeco’s Chuck Blondino appeared first on .

Impossible is nothing! – Muhammad Ali In this podcast, Jason talks about the different types of organizational cultures. As agents, we’re exposed to the sales and service cultures and he argues that sales cultures are inefficient and why a service based culture retains customers, which achieves growth beyond a sales driven focus. Is he wrong, or is he […] The post Sales Cultures and Why They’re Inefficient appeared first on .

Do you think any good business would keep selling a product if they always lost money on it? Why are you any different? Blindly selling any and every policy someone asks you for is becoming a more unhealthy recipe by the day? Knowing the margins, (commission – time = profit) on each policy you sell and market will make sure you’re always preparing a healthy dish for your agency. Not only will that vital information drive most, or all, of your marketing decisions, it will help you identify who you’re targeting and/or what improvements can be made to increase your margins. Joey talks with Erin Attkins about how they make these smart decisions in her agency and how they’re trying to improve those processes.

All time isn’t created equal, if you keep treating it like it is than you’ll always be out of control. You have to be able to react, but not nearly as much as we’ve been taught. Reacting to the wrong things will lead to an unpleasant cycle of order taking. The only thing stopping you […] The post Are You Controlling Your Day, or is it Controlling You? appeared first on .

This is podcast #4 in the “Times of the Young Agent” series. This is a bit different. We’ve invited Billy Van Jura back to host our podcast to interview Ryan Sautman and Travis Etheridge, partners with Jason Cass at the newly formed The Insurance Alliance. Like other young agents, they are tweaking the definition of the “independent insurance agent,” and they do so by distinguishing between salesman and advisor, captive and independent. They’ll tell you where they see opportunity as young agents and how they plan to capture their market going forward.

In this series, we are discussing “these times of the young agent,” and in this podcast, Jason Cass gives a heartfelt solo on his own experience navigating his way from a budding agent to an agency owner. He goes deep into his own trials starting his own agency, and points out the challenges of balancing “old” wisdom with new ideas.

We are looking at these “Times of the Young Agent” and for this episode, we are proud to have, for the first time ever,  an interview with a dynamic duo: Lisa and Will Lemanski, owners of Meiers, Lombardini, and Lemanski Insurance in East Lansing Michigan. We are also proud to interview Lisa Lemanski who was just awarded National Young Agent of the Year by the IIABA this past weekend in New Orleans. Their advice as young agents couldn’t have come at a better time.  These are agents who are turning the perception of insurance, insurance agents, and the insurance industry to meet today’s conscientious consumers.  They view themselves more as educators and counselors of insurance rather than sales people and they’ve cut out all the fat; meaning all the things that were a waste of time and a waste of marketing dollars. Listen to the podcast to see how you should be spending these resources.

It's been a few weeks since we released a podcast, busy with insurance work.  But don't fret because in this episode we pick right back up with Boyd McGee, the National Young Agent Committee Chair for the Big I. We are stepping into our new series, "Times of the Young Agent," where we discuss issues that young agents face. He gives some awesome thoughts on what the agency managements system of today and tomorrow should look like. Are you going to listen to it? Blog post reference: Why Young Agents Are Key to Choosing Agency Management Systems

Listen to the last podcast in the Summer of Marketing series with Eddie Emmett, The Godfather of Insurance Edutainment. He talks about some very valuable steps that agents should take to kickstart their local search on Google, spread their brand on Facebook, and ignite a referral program using YouTube. Learn some insights on Per-per-click and per-thousand on Facebook Ads. Join Eddie and Jason as they close the series by smooth sailing through the marketing advice that all agents should by now start adopting and implementing.

Is it: A.) Agents without a perpetuation plan? B.) The mass consolidation of large local brokers buying up smaller ones? C.) That companies demand high premium volumes but don’t hold up their end of the bargain by providing stable rates and help with marketing, etc…? Would you agree with him? Listen to Jason Cass and how he answers this question as Billy Van Jura interviews the host of Agents Influence.  Jason answers a wide range of tough questions from what thinks about large office signage to being part of a cluster.   

The Summer of Marketing wouldn't be The Summer of Marketing without our Part 2 of our Top Listen with Chuck Blondino.  In Part 1, Chuck Blondino discussed his background and his outlook on independent agents and the industry.  In Part 2, he discusses what he would do in 2014 to be successful in an era of rapidly changing consumer demands. Enjoy the remix version.

The Summer of Marketing would not be The Summer of Marketing without a special remixed edition of our all-time Top Listen with Chuck Blondino, currently the Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs at Safeco Insurance. Originally released in January, 2014, this podcast answers these questions: What do you see the future small and medium size agency looking like? In the ways of technology and doing business? Will there be just large agencies getting larger? When do you see the hard market balancing out to flat rate increases? Agents, particularly new agents and those moving from the captive field are having a hard time getting contracts with companies.  Any ideas on how to fix this? When companies take rate increases why do they do it all at once rather than slowly and spread out over a couple years? Is your company pro social marketing and digital media?  What are you doing to help agents use these tools more effectively?

Join us for the second podcast in the Summer of Marketing series with BrentKelly, CEO of BizzGrizz, formerly known as The Insurance Coach. Brent was an insurance agent for 15 years and continues to pour out his passion for the indendent insurance industry by providing coaching and mentoring services tailored to agents, as well as other small business owners.   He answers these meaty questions that are more relevant than ever. What’s the biggest challenge agents are having in evolving to the new age consumer? and How can agents get there? What questions can agents ask themselves to help them develop their personal branding? Brent tackles these questions point-by-point and distinguishes between selling and marketing and what you should do to stand out. Resources:www.brentmkelly.comwww.bizzgrizz.com - Join Brent Kelly’s FREE webinar seminar on Lifecycle Marketing Books:Ducttape Selling http://ducttapeselling.com/How to Sell Your Way Through Life by Napolean Hill    

If Ryan was going to start an insurance blog today his first three post would be validated content about:   ·        Your Company ·        Your Client ·        Your Community   Sounds hard right?  It was before you listened to this podcast.    Ryan Hanley, Head of Marketing for Trustedchoice.com / Managing Editor of Agency Nation stops by Agents Influence to breakdown strategies to GROW your business in today’s world.   Learn:  the difference between a referral vs. a lead how Ryan would strategize a brand new agency some inside scoop about Trusted Choice what new skill Jason Cass acquired at the base of the Mississippi River

While the summer of 1967 was tagged “The Summer of Love,” we are calling this summer, the summer of 2015: “The Summer of Marketing.”   Collectively, we can mark the edge of this industry’s creativity in marketing, and openness in marketing communication as we create a counter culture of marketing systems and approaches to the traditional, often archaic execution of the insurance industry.   In this podcast, we kick off with Jason Cass for The Summer of Marketing podcast series happening from July through August.

And last but not the least, we bring him in, by listener demand . . . Bob Juracka, the CEO of Nexsure. If you want to learn about a complete platform including a fully integrated accounting system with a high-level horsepower software, listen to this interview for the last segment for The Month of Maynagement Systems.   They were first to come out with mobile technology, first to be on a truly modern platform, and their name is now gaining popularity among smaller companies. Their strategy had previously been focused on larger accounts and agencies, but they’ve shifted gears to serve agencies of any size.Their core belief is that a portal must be a true portal, a unique access to that singular database by all its different constituencies. 

Just when we thought it was over, we realized we’re just in the middle. The Month of Maynagement Systems brought in a lot of listens and the demand for additional CEOs of management systems, so here we are extending The Month of Maynagement Systems. There are 10-20 good systems out there with the same core functionalities across the board, but what adds deep value is knowing that the developers speak your language and we can’t understate the importance of our mantra: “by agents for agents!” He's a programmer, a CEO, and an insurance agent who has been running his agency for 25 years.  If anyone knows how an agency management system should run, it would be Eddie Price, the CEO of Jenesis Agency Management Solutions. In this podcast, we’re not only getting to know the history of the system, but we’ve also broken down some of its proud features: No contract Offers the system as both a windows-based system and cloud-based system Integrated accounting E-signatures Open API integrations In