The Biggest Gap Between the Home Office and the Field is Marketing
Ask an insurance producer about marketing. Whether it’s a top producer or a newbie, the most common responses are:
- A blank stare
- An admission of cluelessness when it comes to creating/executing a marketing strategy
- Ignorance of or frustration at the home office’s ability to help producers market themselves
Next, ask the marketing team in the home office about the support they provide to producers. You’ll hear about the myriad resources available, including a slew of one-off programs and materials designed to help producers engage everyone from retiring CEOs to female small business owners. And you’ll also hear the same frustration about producers’ inability to take advantage of these resources and execute a good marketing strategy.
This is a big problem. After spending nearly three months this year immersed in the practices of 40+ producers and talking with 25 home office execs, I think marketing represents the biggest gap between the home office and the field.
Consider this progression of what are, to me, true statements:
- Home offices produce solid marketing materials.
- Home offices promote these resources, albeit in mostly nondescript fashion (e-mail, Web site postings, etc.)
- Producers lack the time, ability, and support to effectively navigate and understand all of the marketing resources available to them.
The results?
- Marketing resources remain underutilized.
- Producers continue to be lousy marketers.
- Everyone is frustrated.
Changing the behavior of thousands of producers seems unlikely. So fixing this requires a different approach from the home office. Specifically, the marketing team needs to find a way to focus less on materials, messages, and programs, and more on direct, in-person hand-holding and coaching for producers.
While this oversimplifies, what if an insurance company:
- Slashes spending on developing/producing materials by $500k.
- Uses the savings to hire 3 full-time marketing consultants.
- Has the consultants meet with 200-300 producers twice each year to devise a marketing plan.
The point is, I think the home office, and specifically the marketing team, needs to be a lot more hands-on. And while it’s not the most scalable of approaches, it seems like the best way to change marketing from a source of confusion and frustration to a more valuable asset to producers.