Sales Lessons You Can Learn from the Presidential Primaries

This is the heart of the presidential primary season. The media is full of pundits discussing what the leading candidates did right and what the dropouts did wrong. If you pay close enough attention, there are some valuable lessons to be learned from the candidates’ efforts; growth lessons that you can apply to your P/C insurance agency.

Establish a campaign HQ. Political campaigns, by their very nature, are short-term events. Strategy, urgency and execution are the central elements to a candidate’s success. Their targets and goals are well known in advance. The lesson here is that important campaigns will take on a greater sense of urgency when you do the same. Here’s how: set aside a separate room or area in your office. Post a map of your marketing territory. Determine the prospects you wish to target. Establish practical strategies to identify, solicit and write them. Place a traditional push pin on your map to mark each successful sale. Also create two flip-charts, each with decreasing numbers: one chart indicates the number of days left in your sales campaign (maximum length: a calendar quarter); the other to indicate the total number of sales left to meet your pre-set campaign goal. These manual campaign tools serve as much stronger icons than automating such actions on your PC.

Adapt your message. Politicians are famous for pandering to the crowd. They deliver targeted messages and focus on issues that directly appeal to their audience. The clear lesson is that one marketing message does not fit all. Similarly, you should always identify the targets you want to go after, before communicating your sales message to them. Prepare agency ads, postcards, memos, letters, inserts and brochures, all with specific targets in mind. Original, tailored campaigns, with target-specific marketing materials, will always outdraw those using generic company sales brochures directed to an unsegmented group of prospects.

Bring your message to your audience.Politicians conduct town hall-type meetings to reach potential voters. People attend to learn if the speaker can help them in their personal or business lives. You can do something similar by conducting target-marketing insurance seminars that inform, but not overtly sell, to the people in attendance. Marketing insurance by seminar works best when you have the right target audience, helpful ideas to present, and an entertaining and energetic speaker. Note: Sales are made during one-to-one follow-ups, not at the seminar itself.

Make the incumbent accountable. When selling, politely demand that each prospect that you encounter hold his present agent responsible for every act of underperformance. These acts may include missing discounts to which the policyholder was clearly entitled, uncovered exposures, using a financially weak carrier, etc. Point out each significant problem area that you’ve uncovered and discuss how it can impact the prospect’s financial security. If you find enough serious issues, invite the prospect to vote with their feet and move their account to your office. Of course, it’s always easier when you’re the challenger, because you don’t yet have a record to stand on.

Don’t allow misinformation about you to go unanswered. One reason why former President Clinton won his party’s nomination in 1992, and his first term in office, was his “rapid-response team.” It immediately contacted the press after every perceived wrong. It is now standard operating procedure in many political campaigns. Use this lesson to aggressively protect your professional reputation. At times, competing agents who are aggressively seeking to keep or write an account will try to undercut and underprice you through misinformation. Their techniques may include understating sales and payrolls, replacing coverage forms, slicing coverages, reducing limits, etc. When you uncover these unethical actions, point them out quickly and professionally to the affected insureds, prospects, and carriers. Defend your integrity with alacrity, but without directly attacking the other agent.

Don’t attack your opposition. Negative campaign ads are a dangerous tool. Sure, occasionally, they are effective but they can just as easily backfire on the campaigner who uses them. The lesson is that harsh, unwarranted statements about another agent can injure you more than your intended target. Ethics aside, they’re dangerous territory since you can’t predict their impact. Your attack can be viewed as unprofessional, a sign of desperation, or worse. Instead of acting like a pit bull when competing with another sales professional, calmly point out the differences in your agency’s proposal, philosophy, its people, and services, in a calm measured style. Focus on your advantages and not your competitors.

Take credit for favorable factors. Incumbent politicians do this at every opportunity. They want you to believe that everything good that happened during their term in office was due to their efforts. You can do something similar. For example, you may have had nothing to do with the fact that a commercial client’s premium was reduced or that his coverage was broadened, especially now that the hard market is beginning to soften. But since you are routinely held accountable for every negative factor that’s beyond your control, you may as well grab the glory for the things that go right. So blow your own horn, with style, whenever it’s to your advantage.

Shoot straight with the professionals who can “make or break you.” In a political campaign, these individuals are the reporters. They can magnify a small event into something wonderful or something catastrophic. It’s clearly in their power to do either. In the insurance business, the make-or-break professionals are your company markets. If you alienate these pros by being less than forthright with them in your everyday dealings, your chances for growth are nil.

Cultivate media relationships. Politicians fully recognize the dollar value of free publicity. A national interview on the evening news is worth a small fortune and is often more effective than a campaign ad. The lesson is clear. Work the media. Endeavor to become the agent that local consumer reporters or business magazine writers call for insurance insight and information. Build relationships with these influential people by calling to introduce yourself and asking for a 10-minute appointment. Present a press kit that highlights your experience, expertise and eagerness. Then follow up with a written summary of your brief meeting. When invited, call in or e-mail whenever you have an idea for an insurance-related story or can provide a local slant on a major disaster. Examples include floods, tornados, hurricanes, new insurance regulations or coverages, major rate changes, etc. Once your credibility and communication skills are recognized, your agency may become the media darling; the goal of every successful politician.

Turn the negative into something positive. Whenever a politician encounters bad news, he often tries to spin it around so that when he discusses it, it actually sounds like it’s something good. This act is known as “spinning.” It doesn’t always work, but the lesson is that perception is often more important than reality. You may already do the same thing, without realizing it. For instance, you may say that a 20 percent premium increase is “good” because some of your clients are encountering much higher increases or having their coverages nonrenewed. Consequently, spinning isn’t a bad thing. It all depends on the degree. In terms of insurance sales, it can be a helpful tool; one that tries to make an insured or prospect feel better about an unpleasant event. Problems arise when you don’t make any explanatory effort, spinning or otherwise. It can appear that you don’t care what the other person thinks.

Conclusion. Political service is a high privilege and a deep responsibility. The same can be said of providing insurance, as you are routinely entrusted to protect the assets of others. Similarly, politicians and insurance professionals require the continuous approval of their respective constituencies, or they’ll literally be replaced by another person. But in practice, your vote of acceptance lasts much longer than those of most elected officials.

Alan Shulman, CPCU, is the publisher of Agency Ideas, a subscription-only sales and marketing newsletter. He is also the author of the 1001 Agency Ideas book series and other popular P/C sales resources. He may be reached at (800) 724-1435 or by e-mail at shulman@agencyideas.com. His Web site is www.agencyideas.com.