Seven Lessons That Will Pick a Winner
By Scott Primiano and Steve Jaffe

Once upon a time, not terribly long ago, marketing companies had to be legitimate to survive. They had to have designers, illustrators, copywriters, artists, and media placement experts on staff, in an office, pulling together to pitch and close clients. This meant that they incurred overhead and payroll so they had to be good. The barriers to entry in the marketing and communications industry were huge - cutthroat competition, large up-front investment, office space, etc. Not a place for the timid or untalented.

Needless to say, things have changed. Now, any enterprising young lass or lad with a laptop and a reasonable command of web site design software can profess to be a "marketeer". No training, no "cost of doing business", no credentials - just a good story and someone to buy it.

A couple of them get together and you have a firm. Make them a trio and you have "the three marketeers" - sorry, couldn't resist. Buyer beware, they're everywhere. And, by and large, they suck great sums of money out of optimistic clients trying to create and sustain a differentiated position in the market place.

One of their favorite targets is you, the insurance agency. They know enough about our industry to know that you have to fight everyday to get your clients and work even harder to keep them. They know how difficult it is for you to differentiate and they love to help you try. They usually don't ask you to make a "big decision"; most often they approach you with a $3,000 template mailer, a $5,000 template brochure, and/or a $10,000 template web site. These packages are designed especially for you and 1,000 others just like you - plug in your logo and off you go! The promise is always the same - big results. Unfortunately, the results are always the same - little or none.

They are like marketing piranhas - individually they are annoying nibblers at our industry, collectively they can really take some chunks out of our operating capital. Frankly, we have had enough and we hope that you have as well. To put it mildly, we dislike these people. They have an attitude that says "I'm entitled to start at the top, no working my way up or learning curve for me". The obvious problem? They know too little to be truly effective because they missed out on the wisdom that experience brings. So, it is time to take them to school. Here are the seven lessons that you can teach them and the ones that they definitely need to learn before you ever turnover another marketing dollar.

Lesson 1 - Do your homework, do your research, and define your position in the market.
This is the step most often skipped by slippery marketeers and anxious agents. We all have a hidden desire for instant gratification on any investment of time and attention and we can easily be swayed into believing that if we can create the next great mailer, advertisement, or marketing gimmick, success is just around the corner. So, the dance begins. Marketeer shows agent a pretty picture or crafty letter. Agent is impressed and sees name in lights. Marketeer speaks to the stunning results that can be achieved. Agent is mesmerized, thinking "If we get half of those results, production problem solved." Marketeer suggests agent move quickly, the opportunity is now. Agent is anxious, does not want to get beaten to the market. Marketeer presents quote. Agent winces, grows skeptical, and thinks "We've tried this before." Marketeer points back to stunning results. Agent winces again, thinks "Maybe this time." Marketeer reminds agent of need to move quickly, opportunity fading. Agent is overwhelmed by sense of urgency, no time to think, must act, Nike commercial comes to mind, tells marketeer to "just do it."

The outcome is predictable and far too common. The marketeer comes up with a "new" way to say "We're bigger, better, faster, cheaper." The letters go out, the ad is run, and the results are far less than stunning. Final step in this dance - marketeer blames agent for lack of follow-up and/or staff incompetence.

Start by asking yourself and your team what your agency brings to the table. What do you do or what can you do better than any other agency? What is it about your organization that makes it more unique and attractive than your competition and why would a client want to do business with you instead of them? Who is your client and what makes them attractive to you? The answers to these questions form the foundation of your marketing strategy and, ultimately your value-proposition. Any marketeer that doesn't engage you at this level is, we promise, looking for a quick buck rather than a partner.

In order to be heard, your marketing message must be distinctive and support your agency's unique operating culture and business practices. Surprise! To be unique and truly differentiated within the market requires that you actually are unique and do conduct yourself differently. Knowing that every agency is distinctive is one thing, knowing exactly what makes your agency special and how to market you is a challenge that marketeers cannot rise above. They are aware of it out of necessity, so they skip this lesson.

Lesson 2 - Cold calling sucks.
The votes are in my friends -over 10,000,000 people on the national "do-not-call" list can't be wrong. Nobody likes to get cold calls and, honestly, few people like to make them. They are always intrusive, sometimes disrespectful, and rarely effective. What they can do for you is create a lot of activity - non contributing activity that is inefficient and ineffective. Yes indeed, the paper will be flying, the phones might be ringing, but the book will not be growing. Instead, you will squander your most valuable resources - your time and attention - on fruitless follow-up, wasted quotes, meaningless appointments and the like. You also stand a very good chance of "upsetting" your carrier partners.

Question: Who is most likely to respond to a cold call?
Answer: Someone that needs you more than you need them.
Question: Who is most likely going to respond to a mass-mailing?
Answer: Same as above.

There is an old rule of thumb in our industry - clients will leave you for the same reason that they came to you. If they come to you on price, you'll lose them on price. If they come to you for service and you fail to meet their service expectations, they will look for someone that will. Steer a wide birth from the marketeer that claims ownership and authorship of the next great cold-calling-lead-getting-appointment-making-strategy. We promise - it's an old-school strategy whose day has come and gone. Get rid of them or they will burn you out quicker than you can say "we just got canceled for non-payment, come on over."

Lesson Three - Their time is your money.
How long does it take you to train an employee with no prior experience in the industry? Recognize that almost all of the marketeers have the same level of ignorance regarding the industry and your agency. Recognize this and get ready to shell out $50-$100 per hour to educate them if you decide to work with them. Add to that the value of your time that you'll spend teaching them and you very quickly hit diminishing returns. Nothing, dear friends, is as easy as the marketeers make it sound. Be leery of statements like - "our model is easily adaptable" or "business is business". These comments are made to disguise their inadequacies while making you feel like a marketing infant. Trust your instincts here - what they don't know will hurt you.

We do suggest that you work with a marketing partner (not a marketeer) that knows the industry, has experience at the agency level and across multiple product lines. Such a partner will recognize that you cannot blanket the entire market with the junk that everyone else is saturating the market with and they will spend fruitful time with you, up front and for a nominal charge, to identify your position, specialty, target market segment, and true opportunity. They will design a marketing strategy that attracts desirable clients rather than intrudes upon them. They will educate you. Not to overwhelm you, diminish you, or sell you; but to share their wisdom and experience and to provide you with enough information to make an educated decision regarding "the spend" of your marketing investment. Yes, investment, not expense. The difference between the two is also the difference between the marketeer and the marketing partner. The marketeer will talk expense and be expensive. The marketing partner will talk investment and show you a return for your time, attention, and spend. Know the difference and demand the best.

Lesson 4 - Marketing events don't work, marketing strategy does.
Another ad, mailer, call campaign or cheesy gimmick will only cost and never generate the return that you deserve. Additionally, your reputation and integrity suffers immeasurably. No matter how good you are, you are automatically grouped with all of the others that follow the same legacy marketing strategy. Doing what everyone else does, thinking that it worked for them, is an erroneous and dangerous assumption. Unfortunately it is one perpetuated by the marketeers in their tireless scramble for your marketing buck. It is an easy and effortless strategy, that of a copycat, and a worthless one for you. Don't let it happen to you. Understand that to differentiate you must do things differently. This starts with your identity, your message, and your value-proposition and extends deeply into the core of your culture and operation. It is not "another way" to do business; it is the way, it is your way.

Effective differentiation does not take place over night, but over time. It cannot be communicated in a once-and-done event but instead must be messaged, reinforced, demonstrated, and then restated creatively and uniquely in the context of a strategic environment. Such a strategy takes a knowledgeable pro, not a pretender.

Lesson 5 - Consistency and Clarity matter more than Cunning.
We can't even count the number of times that we have conducted a marketing and communications assessment with a client and discovered nothing. Their logo meant nothing, their web site said nothing, their tagline messaged nothing, and their "look and feel" was invisible and insipid. This drives us crazy because we know that they have spent a tremendous amount of money and have gotten nothing in return. Understand what the marketeers don't want you to know - your logo, your tagline, your look, and your feel are your identity! They tell all that view them who you are and what you represent. Imagine showing up at a formal wedding in torn jeans and a Springsteen t-shirt. Imagine showing up at a Bruce concert in a tux. Either place you'd be out of place so you have learned to dress appropriately for every occasion. Now think about how you dress your agency. Your look is your message to your identified market and it must be displayed with consistency so they see it every time they look at you or look you up.

You must always be appropriately dressed. Your look and feel symbolizes your culture and your value. Marketeers like logos and taglines that basically say "we sell insurance and stuff." Marketing partners like taglines that resonate with the viewer. We recently created three such taglines for clients, each matching up and harmonizing with a logo and a message. The first, for J.Krug & Associates (www. Jkrug.com) is "Relax. You're Covered". When we questioned Jeff about the E&O implications he said "good, it'll keep us sharp." Prime Meridian Insurance Group's tagline is "Earning Your Trust, Protecting Your Future, and the Dann Insurance tagline is "We Understand". All of these examples mean something.

Challenge any marketeer to design an agency identity that really communicates and they will start mumbling about knowing a guy that knows a guy that is good with "that stuff." Then, ask them to leave.

Lesson 6 - Be tasteful, not tacky.
Marketeers will let you do anything that you want and encourage you to believe that you really do have a talent for "this stuff." Sorry my friend, unless you do it for a living, you probably don't. Not to say that you shouldn't have opinions and offer input, that is always requested and required. However, you are hiring a creative team, so let them create and listen to their feedback, feedback that they will not hesitate to give if they are any good. Marketeers simply want to keep you happy, keep your money, and keep on keeping on. The more ownership and authorship you take in a project, the easier it is to point the finger at you when it fails. And so it goes. Marketing partners will listen carefully to what you want, however, they will commit to providing you with what you need and what will work best. They will keep working at it until they find a common ground or a balance between the needs and the wants. Like a true partner, they will work with you, not for you or around you, and they will count on your participation. Their primary objectives are maximum value, timely delivery, quality, effectiveness, and sustainability. They will base all of their decisions and recommendations on these focus objectives. Marketeers will base their ideas and recommendations on three different objectives - get in, get out, get paid.

Lesson 7 - Request a budget and a timeline, not a fee.
A good marketing strategy consists of multiple steps and events, each building on
the last and leading to the next. To create a budget and an implementation schedule requires the marketing partner to establish priorities, establish firm funding requirements up front, create performance benchmarks, and stagger the roll-out so that results can be measured and monitored. Even the very best marketing partners are basing much of the strategy on information gathered during the initial assessment. Things change as we know and, inevitably, some things will work and some results will prove disappointing. This is to be expected and is normally considered and acknowledged as a part of the program. Marketing partners understand that it is not any one marketing event or step in the program that makes the overall program work; it is an amalgamation of all events working together in an integrated program, steadily and overtime. Consistently we discover that when things go wrong, marketeers like to cast blame outward - usually at you or your staff or "those clients" that just don't get it. Conversely, marketing partners study disappointments, learn from them along with you, and move ahead with a revised strategy.

It is critically important for you to realize that by measuring and monitoring results against established performance objectives, by segmenting your grand strategy into small, manageable steps, your chances of managing the program to the desired outcomes and "overall objectives" increase dramatically. Not only are you able to conduct an accurate cost/benefit analysis each step of the way but, as conditions change, you and your marketing partner will be positioned to make the required adjustments. Marketeers talk only of the "grand scheme" and the "awesome potential." Push them for details and accountabilities and they start to mumble or fluff their egos.

So, go ahead and push.

It's your agency and your money that you, of course, are free to spend as you wish. You know that you need an updated web site, a brand, a differentiated theme, and a noticeable value-proposition. You know that you need to be equally visible and viable and, most importantly, you know how good you are and how good you can be - for the right client. We will tell you that your future clients, the ones you haven't met yet, have a right to work with you and to be provided with enough information to make an educated decision about where and how to build their insurance program.

So, in our mind, poor marketing and communications providers that do not affect this result are, in a word, negligent. Now you know what we know. Take your time with these investment decisions, interview many, take them to school and see who among them makes the grade.

Scott M. Primiano is the President of Polestar Performance Programs Inc. (www.goPolestar.com), a nationally recognized consulting and sales management company for the insurance industry.

Steve Jaffe is the President of Image Perpsective, LLC. (www.imageperspective.com), the leading design/marketing firm for insurance companies and agencies.

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