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Branding the Agent

Author: James M Heidema

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Branding is not a familiar concept to agents from the East or from the West. Another way to consider branding is the agent's personal style or reputation. One other reason to consider branding is that the agent is indeed the primary representative of the company. Your personal brand is the image that comes into the customer's mind when they think about you. Let's spend a few moments considering why people or organizations would brand themselves.

Branding has been around for hundreds of years. Large international firms are highly protective of their brand, such as Coca Cola, IBM, Mercedes Benz, etc. When we think of a particular product, a certain image comes to mind. When we consider buying an expensive vehicle, we might consider a Mercedes Benz. We attach certain qualities and a reputation to that vehicle such as safety, quality of workmanship and resale value. Generally people think the Mercedes Benz brand is a positive one.

Branding can be applied to services and people as well. One such group of individuals is the accountants who work for large international accounting like KPMG. The individuals within this firm are known for their attention to detail, the quality of their advice and their international experience. Each member of the firm has a positive brand because they are associated with the company.

Let's now consider the insurance industry. If I am a potential customer in China and I am called on by you, an agent from China Life, what am I thinking? We can assume I have heard of China Life before through their advertisements and also through word-of-mouth from my friends. I have read good things about China Life and I have heard good things about China Life from my friends. I have probably formed some sort of opinion about insurance agents in general. Now based on the behaviours of the agents in China, my opinion may be positive, neutral or negative. Based on your behaviours on the phone and in person, you either confirm my original opinion or you change it. As you speak to me on the phone and as you meet with me in person, you begin to develop a reputation, a style and a brand in my mind. I am forming an opinion of you. If the opinion is positive, I will listen to you, I will accept your advice, I will buy from you and I will refer you to my friends.

When a customer meets with an that agent is China Life. Regardless of what China Life has said in its advertisements, you are China Life. If my experience with you is positive, then I attach a positive image to the China Life brand. If the experience is negative, then the brand image is negative. So what can we do to develop a positive brand image or reputation?

If you have read anything else by me or experienced my training style, you know that I feel agents talk too much. Agents have to learn to shut-up! If you talk too much, your personal brand is not a positive one. If you are too busy talking, then you have no time to really listen. The greatest compliment you can give another human being it to listen to them. So the first thing we need to consider, when we consider our personal style, reputation or brand, is our behaviours.

Unsuccessful agents rely too heavily on their words to make the sale happen. Successful agents understand it is a combination of words and behaviours. If you as the agent are talking more than 50% of the time in the interview, then it is likely the customer will not trust you and your brand will be a negative one.

To determine your brand you need to ask yourself some questions. This is a very simple test. You need to be honest, for if you lie, the only person who loses from that lie is you! Do you,

1. Talk more than you listen? (Yes/No)
2. Listen more than you talk? (Yes/No)
3. Care more about the sale than the customer? (Yes/No)
4. Care more about the customer than the sale? (Yes/No)
5. Ask simple questions that lead to the sale? (Yes/No)
6. Ask questions that lead to your understanding of the customer's situation? (Yes/No)
7. Talk mostly about the product you are offering? (Yes/No)
8. Talk mostly about the need of the customer and the solution to that need? (Yes/No)
9. Apply pressure to the customer to get them to buy? (Yes/No)
10. Assist the customers to understand their own needs and assist them to take responsibility to solve those needs? (Yes/No)

If you answered Yes to the majority of odd questions (#'s 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9) and you answered No to the majority of the even questions (#'s 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10) then you are developing a negative brand. In other words, your reputation is negative and it is unlikely you will make many sales or that many of your customers will refer you to others.

Ideally you should be answering No to the odd questions (#'s 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9) and Yes to the even questions (#'s 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10)! Then your behaviours would indicate you put the needs of your customers before your own personal needs. Think about each of the questions and consider how you might behave to achieve a positive brand. Slow down your sales process, ask more questions, really listen to the customer, re-phrase their responses and you will develop a positive brand.

The next area of branding is your own personal beliefs and behaviors around customer service. Many customers have a common complaint about insurance agents. They say the agent is very interested in them during the phone calls and meetings before the sale. After the sale the agent moves on to another potential customer and totally ignores the new customer. I think this is short-sighted or short-term thinking on the part of the agent. Agents who behave this way miss out on future sales to that customer and referrals to other potential family members or friends of that customer. Let's look at your sales process numbers. Typically you need 50-100 prospects, 30-50 phone calls, 5-15 appointments to make one sale. The prospect numbers are very large because they are not referrals from a customer who has a positive image of your brand!

Case Study

I have been working with an Agent in Canada for the past 2 years. When I was a manager with London Life, he was one of my agents. I was impressed with Tim Laskey from the first moment I met him. He is a sincere, interesting, knowledgeable, bright and articulate individual. Tim has built a good book of business and clients over the past years in the business.

Tim approached me last year to help him evolve his business. I took Tim through a process. Here are the steps:

Step one
I asked Tim what he stood for. What does he value? If I asked his customers to describe Tim, what would they say about him? These questions were asked to help Tim articulate who he is and what he stands for as a Life Insurance agent. We considered his family and business life for I don't believe you can separate the two. Especially in Tim's case as he is very committed to his family and it is reflected in how he does his work as a life insurance agent.

Step two
Does his life insurance practice reflect what he stands for as an agent? Do his behaviours and words reflect the branding he is striving for as an agent? Does it reflect who he is as a human being?

Step three
When he compares himself to all the agents working in his city, what is his competitive advantage? I learned years ago that successful agents sell differences rather than similarities. They maximize their strengths and manage their weaknesses. I had Tim do a complete SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on himself. For more information on use of the SWOT analysis, read my book The Passionate Manager or The Passionate Agent.

Step four
If there are gaps between where he is and where he would like to be as an agent, what are the gaps? What does he think is causing the gaps? After completing the SWOT analysis, we discussed each strength and weakness. For each weakness, we examined where he is now and where he would like to be in the future. The difference became the gap!

Step five
We then built a plan to address each of the gaps. This process took time to initiate and is taking time to apply. Some gaps were readily solvable, where others are a work in progress. They will take time to resolve. He and I will continue working together until he feels he is happy with his brand, reputation and image.

Resolution with Tim

My time with Tim has cost him time, money and resources. He seems to be happy with our results and he seems to have a clear picture of the future of his business. We are currently in the process of incorporating his name and his company and are aggressively looking for partners to join his company who share his vision.

You can visit Tim's website to see the results of our work together. It would be easy for me to say that Tim has changed because of me. That would be incorrect, for Tim has changed because he wanted to do so, and he was open to my advice. His website is www.legacypartners.ca and I believe it is one of the more comprehensive sites in the life insurance business because it effectively brands Tim Laskey as a professional insurance agent.

When I left London Life to start my own company, Professional Sales Plus, Inc (www.heidema.com) and I needed an agent to handle my life insurance portfolio, I had no hesitation in asking Tim to be my agent. I could have chosen any number of people to fulfill this role. Many individuals have greater time and experience in the industry. But I chose Tim because I saw and still see greatness in him. He is truly a customer-focused and needs-based seller of life insurance products. Customer-focused sellers put the needs of the customer before the needs of the salesperson. He really wants me to succeed. As a needs-based seller, he continually is looking for my needs, if there is a need, and if life insurance or related products will solve that need, he has no hesitation in recommending an appropriate solution. He has become what I think a professional life insurance agent should become. His brand is integrity!

Conclusion

Branding is much more than just a phase or a name. There are many other factors that effect the customer's perception of the company behind the brand. Factors like the industry reputation, the behaviours of the people who work for the company, the policies and procedure that affect the customer, the quality of after sales service and the customers preconceived opinions of the brand.

As an agent you cannot worry about the things you cannot control, such as the behaviours of the other agents. You can only control your behaviours. There is a quote I love and try to honour and it is "Let deeds, not words be your adorning!" Too many agents talk too much and listen too little. To be able to succeed in your efforts to establish your brand, reputation and image, pay more attention to your behaviours and less attention to your words. If you do this, you will become known for your brand and be recognized as a different kind of agent who can be trusted. If they trust you, you can develop a relationship and then everything is possible, like making a sale and referring you to others. Branding is critical to your future. I wish you continued success!

Good luck,
James M. Heidema

About Author

James Heidema has been in the sales, management and leadership training field for over 20 years, with the majority of this time with London Life. Jim's corporation (Professional Sales Plus, Inc.) is in its sixth year of business. It provides training, coaching, facilitation and consultation for large and medium-sized corporations in Canada and throughout the world. Jim is also a multiple best selling author of The Passionate Manager and The Passionate Agent. (http://professionalsalesplus.com)

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Branding the Agent