Marketing

Leading from the inside out

To engage your clients and employees, you need to find their "why"—and yours

By Elisabeth Boone, CPCU

For generations, students of journalism have been taught to develop a story around "The Five W's": who, what, when, where, and why.

Generations of independent agents and brokers have been telling their stories to clients and prospects by focusing on the "what": what products and services they offer, what carriers they represent, and what they can deliver to the client.

In gathering information for use in preparing a proposal, agents also seek to discover what the prospect's company does, what it requires in terms of coverage and service, and what its current agency is and is not doing to meet those needs.

These "what" issues unquestionably are important to prospects as they evaluate a new agency's strengths and abilities. Of even greater importance, however, may be to identify and focus on another of The Five W's: why.

An enthusiastic advocate of this approach is Gregg Goodmanson, a respected agency coach and Vertical Growth Advisor at Sitkins International. In an interview with Rough Notes, Goodmanson elaborated on key points of his presentation at the Sitkins Extreme Networking event in Denver last fall and shared his insights into the process of "finding your 'why'."

Goodmanson brings to his position at Sitkins a rich blend of talent and experience that has prepared him to be an empathetic and effective sales coach. As assistant pastor at a church, he devoted a substantial portion of his time to counseling and discovered the power of attentive listening.

"I enjoyed some aspects of counseling, but I realized that what I really liked was coaching," Goodmanson says, "and there's a big difference between the two. I found that I was good at working with people who asked me to coach them on a weekly basis, giving them tasks to work on so they could change some aspect of their lives. I resigned my position with the church and started a coaching business.

"Early in this process," Goodmanson continues, "I realized that I needed to acquire some sales skills. I began to sell long-term care insurance in agencies, and it was a great learning experience for me in terms of both opportunities and challenges. I discovered a lot about myself that I'm able to use in my position today, where I help our members' producers overcome call reluctance through the SPQ Gold^® sales call reluctance assessment program.

"Like many insurance salespeople, one of the things I struggled with was call reluctance," he remembers. "Over time I became successful in obtaining appointments, but only after I identified and addressed my reasons for hating to get on the phone."

Goodmanson was invited to join Sitkins International as a coach in March 2007. "I was delighted to accept because my goal was always to get back into a coaching and advisory role," he declares. "That's my passion; it's where I thrive and where I do best."

In addition to being certified by Behavioral Sciences Research, Inc., which administers the SPQ Gold sales preference and call reluctance testing, Goodmanson is a licensed Kolbe™ consultant and works with agencies and brokerages to identify unique abilities on the team, create team synergy, and improve communication and productivity.

"My mission as a Sitkins coach is to deliver practical, implementable advice that brings quantifiable value to our members," Goodmanson says.

Getting to "why"

Having found his own personal and professional "why," Goodmanson is committed to helping agency and brokerage managers find theirs and those of their employees, and then to identify each client's and prospect's "why." This is at the heart of what he describes as "leading from the inside out," which is based on three core principles: trust, inspiration, and motivation.

It starts with trust. "For employees, the question comes down to: 'Do I trust the leadership?'" Goodmanson says. "A leader has to ask: 'Am I trustworthy?'

"That means: Are my intentions and behaviors in alignment? When I say we're going to be an accountable organization, do I really hold people accountable? When I say our organization is going to do X, Y and Z, are my behaviors in alignment with that intention, or do I say these things and not follow through?

"I think employees have difficulty trusting a leader who doesn't follow through on the commitments he or she has made and the things he or she has promised to do," Goodmanson comments. "Trust has to be in place in order for a leader to engage employees and get them working in the right direction."

Once trust has been established, Goodmanson explains, managers are positioned to begin leading by inspiration.

"In my experience, if people are on your staff simply to have a job and receive a paycheck, they're working for you but they're not working with you. When employees are inspired, they align with the agency and the clarity it has about why it's in business and why it wants to interact with clients in a certain way," he explains.

"Employees who are inspired feel a much stronger commitment and a much higher level of engagement. They feel empowered to lead as individuals and have some autonomy to make decisions about what to do on a daily basis, without having someone constantly telling them what to do next," Goodmanson declares. "Employ­ees naturally know what to do as a result of understanding the values and the 'why' of the organization."

What's more, he says, "It's also critical for agency owners and managers to understand what they're passionate about so they can align with their own unique abilities and engage more productively with employees and clients."

Inspiration, Goodmanson explains, drives the third critical component of leading from the inside out: motivation. "Motivation comes from aligning with someone else's 'why,'" he says. "The employer must take the time to understand the 'why' of each individual on the team: what it would take to move that individual to take the desired action. If a leader understands his or her own 'why' and those of each team member, the leader can motivate employees to become engaged and remain engaged.

"In the past, many leaders have managed by external motivation—the carrot and the stick. Some have managed by threat and intimidation; others have used support and encouragement. To me, the idea of leading from the inside out means understanding why you exist—why you're in business as an agency or brokerage—and being able to communicate that clearly to your employees so that they not only can understand it but also can align with those values," he explains. "This is the essential foundation for engagement."

The engagement equation

Far from being just an abstract theory or a popular buzzword, employee engagement—or the lack of it—is a serious dollars and cents issue for organizations, Goodmanson asserts.

"A study done by Gallup and Towers Perrin found that organizations were struggling with issues of employee engagement. As they assessed employees, they found that about 25% were very engaged. About 55% of employees were unengaged, and the remaining 20% were actively disengaged. Those who were actively disengaged could actually be a bit hostile toward the organization," Goodmanson says.

"In evaluating these results, Gallup and Towers came up with what they call a 'payroll efficiency factor' of 63%. For purposes of our discussion, we'll make that 65%. According to this formula, if 25% of my employees are engaged, 55% are unengaged, and 20% are actively disengaged, then for every dollar I spend, I'm getting only 65 cents' worth of productivity," Goodmanson explains.

"If my company has a $2.5 million payroll, because of inefficiencies that result from lack of engagement, I'm losing about $875,000. Just by increasing my payroll efficiency factor from 65% to 75%, I can improve my bottom line by $250,000," Goodmanson says. "To anyone who thinks employee engagement isn't a critical issue, I say: Think again.

"Engagement is a major issue, and we need to address it through trust, inspiration, and motivation," he declares.

Engaging with clients

Once the leaders of an agency or brokerage have found their "why" and have supported employees in finding theirs, Goodmanson says, they can use the principles of trust, inspiration, and motivation to discover the "why" of a client or prospect.

As was pointed out earlier, agency principals are accustomed to telling their story from the perspective of "what"—and many of them do a great job of it. Most principals also are able to communicate effectively to a prospect or client how they do what they do.

"The 'what' is the 'stuff' of an agency's skills and abilities," Goodmanson explains. "For example, a producer can tell a prospect: 'We have a disaster recovery program. We have a claims management system. We have a worksite safety program. We have a wellness strategy and program.'

"These are things the agency has developed and that it provides on an ongoing basis to respond to its clients' needs. As their client's businesses evolve, the agency creates new solutions and strategies to address emerging needs," Goodmanson says. "But if I call on a prospect and just talk about all the 'stuff' that we do, I'm likely to fall short because 'what' I can offer may not address a need that's critical to that prospect.

"If I try to sell the prospect on my agency's unique process, that's the 'how,'" he continues. "Again, that's important, but it's not enough, especially in today's marketplace. Producers tell us that when they go out and talk about what they do and how they do it, the prospect says, 'Great; if I ever have a problem, you'll be the first one I'll call.'

"So the problem we're finding is that producers aren't identifying and addressing the 'why' of that prospect. In other words, they're not finding out what would motivate that prospect to decide to move forward and do business with them. That won't come from telling the prospect only about the agency's 'what' or 'how,'" Goodmanson says.

"It happens when the producer asks questions to gain an understanding of what that business owner is going through and how the agency can align its strategy with the prospect's to address those specific issues.

"At the end of the day, it's not about us—it's about them. If we can't figure out why a prospect would be compelled to move forward with us, then we're missing the mark. It doesn't matter what we do or how we do it unless we can identify and connect with the prospect's 'why' in a meaningful, effective way," Goodmanson asserts.

"Our inspiration is our 'why'—our vision, our passion, our excitement about where we want to go. When we understand our 'why,' we can communicate it to our prospect in a way that invites him or her to join. 'Here's where we're going; do you want to go there with us?'

"The prospect's motivation is their 'why'—their vision and passion about where they want to go," Goodmanson continues. "When we connect with that, we catch the prospect's excitement and we can say: 'Let us help you get there!'"

For more information:

Sitkins International

Web site: www.sitkins.com