Referral and Prospecting Gold

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Being an agency owner isn't for the faint of heart. Strategy, market conditions, building a team that lasts. This is From the Field, where Josh and Joe help you do it all without losing your mind.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

We're back again with another episode of From the Field. I've got the man, the myth, the legend, Josh Rickenaugh with me. What's happening? Something like that. I'm at least one of those three things. I think you're at least two most of the time. So just so you know. But uh I appreciate it. For sure. So, Josh, let's jump into an idea or a thought that sometimes keeps me up at night. I'd like to get your take on it. So obviously, the lifeblood of being successful as an agency owner comes back to your ability to get referrals and your ability to prospect, right? It's the ability to continue to grow. And I feel like that's two spots where uh there's constant questions, right? We could do a four-hour session on just these two topics, but we'll keep it short. I have some thoughts on the referral side that that really, like I said, really resonate with me because I've watched it for so long. And I'd like to hear your feedback and the direction that you think agency owners should go. But whether it be new appointments or it be uh annual reviews, there's the old saying that when when pushed, pull, and when you know you're in a position where you get pulled, you push, right? You kind of go the direction that the wind's blowing. One thing I've seen consistently that's been very successful that I don't see very many reps do is be super specific when it comes to the referrals that they ask for. So I think the first thing that I see is most agency owners don't actually ask for them, right? They either find it uncomfortable or it's very generic. So uh if they do ask, it's just put in a position to where they say, hey, if you know anyone I could help, would you please send them my direction? Once the most passive possible. Oh, it's passive. Right. And that's so I feel better.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

You don't know anybody looking for insurance, do you?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Like, shoot, like yes, yeah. That's exactly right. So I mean, and I think that's done. So me as the agency owner, I feel better because there's no pressure, right? The the the next step up I see is qualifying people very generically. But someone that that recently had a had a child that bought a home, that you know is going to retire, those type of things, which is a step above, but it's still not overly specific. So what I keep seeing that is so successful that I wish I could get more of the agency owners on my team to do is when you're inside of the initial appointment or you're inside of a review, is being so focused on what the conversation is that you're looking for opportunities where you can stack onto whatever their pain points are, right? You and I talk all the time. Great reviews and great appointments come down to being a fantastic question ask, right? It's not about knowing everything, it's not about talking the whole time, it's about asking a ton of questions. Well, anytime we ask questions, we're gonna find those pain points. And those pain points are gonna be fixed with a couple different things. If we get new business, we obviously fix the pain point because they chose us over whoever our competitor was. And insider reviews, oftentimes there's additional products and services, or we retain the clients, we find pain points there too. It's it's taking those though on the referral side, take financial services, for example. If I had a client that had no idea where they were at or how to get to where they wanted to go from the standpoint of um knowing where their money's at and being able to retire or have an idea what that picture looked like, if I end my appointment by being able to say, you know, so many people are just like you because they don't know where they're at and they don't know where they're going and they don't know what to do. So the people you care about around you, they're in the same boat that you're in. So if you know anybody that's inside of your circle that you care about, if you can send them my direction, I'll give them the exact same process and service that I've given you. Right. So maybe on a new, maybe on a new person, it's it's rate. Maybe all of a sudden you are cheaper and you can say, you know, there's other people that are overpaying as well. I think there's a million variations, but I think it's that specific um intent on the conversation throughout the entire appointment and then being able to leverage that back at the end to hit their pain points that get people to say, you know what, I do want to make sure that my friends and family are in a position where they're not having the same experience that I'm having. So I don't know what your thoughts are on the referral side, but to me, that's one of the cleanest and easiest ways to be consistent with referrals, and I don't see it done very often.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah, and I mean I think it may go in order of difficulty, right? If you save somebody a bunch of money. Like an agent is likely to, you know, brag about it and say, hey, if you've got anybody else, you know, I'd love to help them. You know, this is normal. We're seeing this a lot compared to X, Y, and Z company, we're in a better position. So it seems like that's a really easy ask, right? If you save somebody a bunch of money, it's there. I think a lot of times agents, right. Don't feel they've earned it. Like I think that's a real fear that you're not going to ask or or bring it up because did you do the greatest job? You know, a lot of times in reviews, right, we're re-interviewing for them to rehire us. It's not necessarily a thing where it's it's you know, trying to add more products or do something like that. It's it's explaining value. You mentioned pain points. When we ask questions, we we're double checking ourselves, our processes. Have we held up our end of the bargain? And man, that sometimes identifies something that maybe they'll tell a story. Hey, you know, actually, yeah, I appreciate that you do this because my neighbor was saying he doesn't ever meet with his agent. There's an opening right there. Man, I'd love to talk to your agent. Or I'd love to talk to your neighbor. For sure. You know, that opens up quickly if we ask the right questions and we listen to what their experience is and not just have this, hey, here's a list. Uh my manager told me to get five names. Can you fill this out for me and I'll give you a gift card? Like, that's weak. That's bad. Like, none of us want to do that. Right now. So I I do. I think it's I think it's order of difficulty. I think if we do something good, we're likely to feel good about that and say, hey, I h I saved you money. Can you give me somebody else? That's normal. But man, it's it's tough to quantify just being there for them.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yeah, and you know, you mentioned the fact that people don't feel like they've earned it. I think one thing that if someone could stick this in their mind is the one way you know that you've earned it is when you get complimented. So to me, a compliment is an invitation. If you don't stack on top of a compliment when somebody says, you know what, you made this really easy, or you know, every time we sit down, this, this, I learned so much. If you don't, if you don't leverage that compliment immediately to ask that question, I think you're missing a wide open door.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Well, and we use that. That's a teaching moment in our agency about Google reviews, right? Like every like I think Google review is the modern referral. You know, like you're saying I'm gonna go out there online and put my name on there and say, five stars, I recommend this person. Five stars, I had a great experience. Like that is an endorsement, whether we like it or not. You know, everybody gets the referrals, but I tell our team if someone compliments you that way, that's when you ask if they'd leave you a review. You know, they've given you that opportunity. That's your opportunity to stack that. And and really, you know, maybe we should be viewing Google as a modern referral because it's it's certainly your online presence. You know, people they may not buy online, but they're certainly gonna check you out online. For sure. If they get for you, like they're at least gonna Google you once and take a look and see if you're you know reputable, what people are saying about you, this, that, the other before they call you. I mean, people are gonna check you out online. There's the one that we bring up reviews, and I'll tell you that that the trusted neighbor, you know, the emergency contact, that's something that we you know believe in here. It's a it's a Troy Corps Gaiden taught principle, but it's so simple, it works great. Do you have anybody that that you're kind of mentoring over there or any of your agents that are having success with it? Because I know for us it's a staple of our review. You know, in an emergency, if we couldn't get a hold of you, your house is on fire, who would be the trusted person we would talk to? And they put that person in the file, we call, we introduce ourselves, not to sell them anything, but just to say, hey, my name's Josh, I own the Rick and I agency. So-and-so gave us your name as their trusted neighbor. In case of an emergency, they they asked that we would contact you. I just want to introduce myself. And and and so the first time I call you is not if the house is on fire or something. Sure. And that is a a very uh interesting dynamic because they'll go, wow, that's really great. I wish my agent did that. And you'd be surprised when people do just talk to you from that. Do you have any experience with that? I mean, what are what's your field seeing over there?

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, so I I've got one individual that that is really strong when it comes to doing that. I've had a lot of them that have pushed back because uh it makes them feel uncomfortable to actually ask the question. But I think, like you said, the positioning of it and being able to put it in a way to where it makes sense to the client as to why you're going to be reaching out and then being able to put the the emergency contact at ease at the fact that this isn't a sales call. I think when you do it like you just explained, the response from a lot of people is, huh? My my agent's never done something like that. They're they're not asking for emergency contacts. They're not taking that extra step to see, you know, where things are at. And even though it's not a sales call, Josh, the one thing I have seen my one individual agency owner that utilizes it effectively do is they've taken that emergency contact um basic bucket of people, and they actually have an event every year. So they end up, you know, end up with a wine tasting because, hey, you are listed as an emergency contact, therefore you're invited to this, you know, cigar and bourbon or wine tasting or whatever it may be, but they have an event that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I'd be putting my name down to be attrusted for everybody. Absolutely. I want to be invited to the event. Like, yeah. Free bourbon, I'll be your contact too. For sure. So that's doing well for them, though. Like it's not like it's not viewed as pushy because they are they're tying it to something positive.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yes. And they believe that that's actually an additional benefit for the client and not just a sales tactic to get additional people.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Well, and I mean, if if you if you do, and I know everybody at different stages of the industry, right, is either comfortable calling somebody, not calling, like there's nothing wrong with written communication, right? If if Joe, you're my trusted neighbor, you're my next door neighbor, and you know, I'm giving your name to this person. I might give them your email and be on the email and say, hey, you know, Joe, uh your neighbor Josh gave me your name. He's CC done this email. I just want to introduce myself, I own the agency here. Just in case we ever needed an emergency contact, I wanted to reach out now and not in the case of emergency, just so you had my contact. You know, if you see the house is on fire, please call me, those kind of things or or whatever it may be. But it doesn't have to be pushy. It's just about meeting more people and providing a higher level of service. And you'd be amazed at how many doors that opens up.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I I love that. So let me ask you in closing, as you know, an agency owner, depending if you're just getting started or if you're a veteran, is there any other prospecting or um referral tips that you think of that, again, if you could go back to starting off the first couple of years that you wish you'd focused on?

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, I mean, with referrals, I think any way that you get the business, right? If it's a mortgage lender, if it's if it's a realtor, if it's a hell of an inspector, who knows how you get referred the person, right? Keeping them in the communication, thanking them afterward, letting them know how it went and following up with the person that referred is very, very important. Like sometimes you send somebody a name, like, you know, you're just talking to me about where to buy a car, and I tell you this dealership. I don't know if you actually called them or not. You know, but if if you did, and then that they called me back and said, Hey, I just want to let you know, um, we helped Joe out with the car. It was really nice of you that you sent him over and kind of close that loop. It it really does help just kind of keep it going instead of a one-time, one-way referral. So I think, you know, keeping them in in not only the loop, but also letting them know how it happened, what the outcome was, what you were able to help them, did you try your best, does show that you went that extra mile and earned you more referrals.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yes. No, I think that's perfect. Uh I'll add one other thing too, um, because there's a million ideas, but I I have one agency owner, too, that's that's very mindful inside of what occupation the individuals have that are in front of the person. And I just watched a situation where uh this was a referral, ended up being a realtor, and he was able to set the stage to talk to the managing broker about talking to the group, and ended up in in front of 24 um real estate agents talking about our value add, what we did, so on and so forth. And that's turned into a tremendous uh referral stream. So sure, I I think sometimes knowing what people do and always always thinking of how you can help people on a deeper level from that direction can be really fruitful as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, I'll tell you, if I had one to think of, and you probably just inspired me there, you know, giving begins the receiving process, right? So sometimes everybody's like, what's in it for me? You know, how do I get referrals? Well, give them. Like look at your book of business, look at who you use. I just had a review last week with a guy that owns a fence company here in town. We had the opportunity out at our farm last year, um, we installed a solar powered gate. My dad's getting, you know, north of 70. Uh, you know, it's nighttime, it's hunting season, it's cold. Going out there and dragging the old gate with a padlock is is not the best when it's negative temperatures. So we installed a gate. He was a little bit more expensive, but he was the call we made. We used him. I didn't think anything of it. He was in for his review, and I was like, hey, he goes, Yeah, you used me. You know, and it was like I didn't even realize that he knew that we had used him. But that just, you know, we threw that out there in the world. He came in for his review, he sent me a couple clients since then. I didn't realize that, you know, he knew as the owner that I had used his company. You know, so I think giving does begin the receiving process. So it's not always looking out for what's in it for you. Just start taking care of good people and connecting others, and you'd be surprised what comes back around for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yes. Well said for sure. Well, with that, I think that keeps it short and concise, gives you a couple good ideas if you're an agency owner of things that you can start to implement into your practice if you're not doing so already. And with that, Josh, I look forward to seeing you on the next one. Good sesh. See you guys.