Agent Link September 2018

Agent Link September 2018

AGENT LINK

SEPTEMBER 2018

WHAT’S AT YOUR CORE?

Values Born From Purpose

insurance benefits and the life-changing impact of coverage and planning — or lack thereof.This changed our mindset forever. As we grew and added to our team, we found it necessary to share this purpose with our employees and clients through a strong set of core values so that anyone joining our staff and working with Agent Link would buy into them. It’s led us to 10 core values that define our company: All of our employees have a copy of these values. Knowing our values allows us to be led by them, and that builds a culture that attracts like-minded individuals. Of course, it’s not enough to have these written down — your team has to follow through on them every day.

To begin attracting younger agents, to start with, you need to have a defined culture in place. Why? Because culture is something younger generations value.Think of companies like Zappos — they sell shoes, but they do it with a well-defined culture that their methodical hiring process recruits for.Their retention strategy is working. The company averaged less than 20 percent attrition over a seven year period. If you haven’t defined your core values, it’s time to start doing so. At Agent Link, our purpose of empowering people is inextricably tied to a personal tragedy that happened about 10 years ago. Despite being familiar with insurance products and financial planning, it was only after being faced with tremendous grief following a catastrophic family event that we finally realized the true power of • We empower people. • We deliver what we promise. • We connect with people who like to help others. • We innovate and improve. • We believe in people and their potential.

If someone in our industry were to ask you why you do what you do, what would you tell them? If you struggled to come up with a definitive answer, it’s time to reevaluate what’s at the core of your business. Remember, you have the ability to change lives for the better! That’s an incredible capacity, and a big responsibility to fulfill the need for quality producers. By capturing producers who activate and deliver goods and services of value to consumers, you are delivering value to people, so you better know yours. People, by and large, want to succeed and be prosperous, and the key to prosperity is value. How are you adding value to the industry? As you set your core values in place, these questions should be at the forefront of your conversations. Why are defined values and culture so important in our industry? Consider this — we recently conducted research on over 100,000 licensed agents in the market. You probably won’t find our discoveries very surprising. Our research showed that the majority of producers in our industry are part of an aging demographic. Our best producers are getting closer to retirement, and attracting younger agents will require updating your recruitment strategies.

-Senia & Stu

AGENT LINK’S PURPOSE: To empower those who change lives for the better

• We practice open communication. • We do the right thing. • We have a can-do attitude and a positive mindset. • We believe in positive change through accountability. • We demonstrate a great work ethic.

1 +800 535 4545

Age of Indep In our effort to provide the best and most current information to our clients, we’re always looking at producer demographics.Through the many years working with carriers, BGAs, BD-affiliated organizations, and even retail-level agencies, finding producers and advisers who fit our clients’ value proposition sometimes brings age demographics into question. And while it’s easy to have ideas about what the age of a particular target market is or should be, only looking at statistical facts shows us what’s really there — the pot that one is actually pulling from.

3 Keys to Making Core Values Count

Establish the Guiding Heart of Your Business

Ultimately, we saw a sharp contrast between the age distributions among specific types of agents.

A cohesive vision for the future is central to any thriving company; it’s the road map by which you and your team steer the business to success. But a set of lofty goals isn’t quite enough to motivate and unify an organization. It’s important to have an overarching aim for the coming years, but you also need to provide some guidance on how your business should conduct itself today . You need core values that encourage a certain spirit for your team and hold them to a high standard of excellence. To build a set of core values that’s unique and valuable to your business, you must first decide whose input you want during the process.This should be a panel of the key players in your business and employees skilled at providing new and powerful ideas. Ensure that each of the members of your think tank embodies the qualities you want to see throughout your organization. Next, get everyone in a room to start brainstorming. Set a date for a meeting and encourage everyone to come prepared with a list of values they feel are the most important for your business. Ask your think tank which values are central to them as individuals and expand that to include values that are vital to your entire company. After you’ve got a healthy list of good ideas, combine and define them. Look for commonalities. It’s likely that many of them will orbit just a few key principles. After a bit of pruning and rewording, these principles become your core values. Once you’ve got your set of 5–10 main ideas, outline exactly what each of them means in a few sentences or a paragraph. You may want a skilled writer on board during this step to nail down a set of clear and compelling definitions. The process may be difficult, but once you’re done, you and your team will have a set of powerful, unifying core values.These will state your company’s purpose and drive your team to excellence. Core values may seem like a small consideration in the midst of day-to-day operations, but they can make an enormous difference.

The Producer’s Journey

And Why It Matters to You

It’s best when you accept it: With or without us, producers are on a journey.They are seeking a change from their existing situation to a more ideal one.The journey a producer travels is powered by the difference between his current situation — a state where he finds himself less than happy, less than fulfilled — and a desired state. By identifying these two states in the producer or advisor, you are targeting the key to your marketing and recruiting effort. Much like Odysseus trying to return home, along their journey producers come up against obstacles, barriers that prevent them from getting to their desired state. Whether these barriers are real or perceived, what matters is that you understand and empathize with their point of view. When seeking that particular type of agent or advisor to come and write business in your distribution line, you want to appeal to his challenges and passions. If you can find what makes them tick, what they desire, and appeal to it, you will attract and activate them. When it comes down to it, marketing is about helping people, and empathy is the key. Your work is about people and the difference you can make in their careers and lives. What is a producer’s outcome a year after writing business with you? How about two years? How have they changed? Are they happier, more prosperous, or more excited than they were when they started

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Gaining Clarity About What Value You Provide

Let’s look at some of these numbers. Analyzing >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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