Marketing Your Agency for Growth

Brent Kelly:

Welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast. My name is Brent Kelly, your host. Thanks so much for joining me on this episode. We have a great episode scheduled for today. I have a great guest who I'll introduce in just about a minute or so. She will blow you away. No pressure, Guest, who I'll introduce shortly. Will have a great background and just different level of experience in looking at agency development and growth and marketing. So if that's something you're looking for, stay tuned.

Before I get into the guest and do a full introduction. I do want to mention as always, the purpose of the Agent Leader Podcast is to help you, the agency leader, regardless of your specific role, to help you gain clarity, build consistency, and to make a commitment to become your Best Version Possible. For those video people, I always have to hold up a copy of our book, Best Version Possible.

We continue to expand, enhance the Best Version Possible experience. Oh, good. Well, I'll ask my guest here in a second about that. She's got a copy of the book. Again, our goal is we enhance the Best Version Possible experience with our agency partners, which one of those you're going to hear from today is to always improve the alignment of the agency, the culture of the agency, to help with that, to help be a guide and navigate. To get producers in the green zone, which is producer productivity, to retain and replicate your best clients and to help install a playbook that your agency can use, can be repeatable and effective.

Another thing that our agency guest, I don't know if she'll talk about it today or not, but it's something they've done in their agency as well. So I do want to introduce formally our guest today, Mary Savage, who is director of marketing at the UNICO Group based in the great state of Nebraska. Depending on when this gets released, we've had a few of our wonderful UNICO partners with us. Why? Because they've got a lot of great people that can share some great knowledge with you, the agency leaders. So, Mary, welcome to the Agent Leader Podcast.

Mary Savage:

Thanks, Brent. I'm happy to be here today.

Brent Kelly:

All right. Well, Mary's got many, many skills and we'll get to some of them, but we're not going to get to all of them because some of them probably we're not going to discuss on the podcast. Mary is multifaceted. I was very excited to get Mary on. She's very involved, obviously in different ways at UNICO in marketing, but well even beyond what I would think many people think of marketing from that perspective.

I was actually talking to you, Mary, before we were having a conversation, before we started recording. I said, you're not directly in sales, but you're always directly in sales. So I want to talk a little bit about that and maybe if you could just expand on what you do at UNICO, your role, how it's involved. Obviously you're a large, top 100 agency, you're a best practice agency. You guys do things really, really well. Explain to me your role, how it fits in, and what's your superpower?

Mary Savage:

Well, thanks Brent. As you said, my title is director of marketing at UNICO. As you mentioned, we take marketing a little bit maybe outside of what some other agencies might consider the role of the marketing team. That was really just an evolution of realizing what UNICO needed to be able to grow and to be the best sales organization that we could be.

So the marketing teams, we talk about having four pillars, but primarily it's to foster growth and profitability for the company. So I mean, you could say that about a lot of different departments within an agency, but specific to marketing, that's new business, retention, and to protect our brand. So there's some very traditional marketing things obviously that fit within that. Also, we've taken that to how do we directly make sure that we are supporting our sales team so that when they're out in front of the prospect and the client, that they look their best, that the materials that they put in front of them don't necessarily get in the way, but they also help lead the conversation in a way that we have it align with our sales process.

So there's a lot of other things outside of marketing, but I think that's where my role has evolved. Then I'm in a lot of those conversations as we're going in to sell with new prospects. Is talking about, how can I align the pieces of marketing or any of the collateral we're going to show to that prospect or client to align that with the way that we want to sell that so that it helps lead us to being able to close that.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, I love that. Again, you are, I know in our relationship and coaching calls and conversations we have and getting to know you in different aspects and some of the networking events that we're part of, you're involved in a lot of different aspects, which I think is great. What you said there really hits home because again, there's a lot of ways, I guess that people could define marketing. Maybe this is what I heard and what I see you do, but basically it's how can I help the salespeople sell more?

There's a lot of ways you think of traditional marketing and some of the things. I think it all can have a positive effect, but you and your team are very directly involved. Like you said, for that advisor, producer, advisor at UNICO, the term you use, basically every step is how can I make this easier for them to do that?

So if I could, I always ask about challenges that agencies have. So I want to get into that because I know that as well and great of a year you all just had at UNICO, which was fantastic, it doesn't mean there's not challenges, and even specifically challenges in your role of marketing and what you see from your perspective. So when you think of the challenges that you're facing at UNICO and even in your role, what jumps out at you, and what are some things that you are doing, your team is doing at UNICO to address them, Mary?

Mary Savage:

Sure. When I was reflecting about this, I thought about this from a marketing standpoint, but I think that this could apply to other places or other roles I have at UNICO as well. I think this is a rut that a marketing team specifically can get into. What I wrote down here is one of our number one challenges from a marketing team is to be seen as an order taker.

So one of the ruts, and I talked to some of my colleagues in the industry, and this is something that we often think about is you hear from an advisor or a leader at a team that said, "We need X," and you just order take. You're just a shorter order cook. You just do it and you provide it. So one of the challenges that we have, and we continue all the time to try and get better at this, is how do we then become part of the team?

I think at UNICO, between some work that I've done with the relationships I have with our advisors, being on the sales leader team, those kind of things, it helps that. But how do we be part of the team? Okay, you're asking for X. Okay, why are you asking for X? How is that going to support you in selling this? Well, it's because X, Y, and Z does it. Okay, may be a good place to start, but let's ask some questions about how's the best way to provide this? I need this thing on a template. Why are you sending it in the first place? Does this already exist? Some of those kind of things. So one of the ways that I've done and my team as well is just building relationships with our advisors so that we're seen as a trusted team member and not as a service center.

So again, like I said, UNICO has come a long way when it comes to this. I've been at UNICO for seven years, and when I came in, we were still operating really as a smaller, small town agency. When they brought on a director of marketing, they did that because they knew we needed to take some steps if we were going to get to the next level of our agency. We had really made a commitment to really refocusing on being a sales organization. In the last seven years, we've had an extreme amount of growth. I think our leadership team for thinking proactively about that. We thought about hiring some marketing teams. We hired some additional operations leaders that we hadn't had before. So we did a variety of things over that.

When I came in the marketing team, we did have a couple of people there, but they were order takers. They were put this on this template, here's the content, make it look pretty. Really working through to how does that actually integrate in the sales process? Are we just creating something that's just going to get thrown away? That wasn't what I wanted. I wanted it to actually be a piece that they could then use to actually help sell the account. So we've done a lot of work on this, but it continues. New advisors come in, people get back in the rut. You have to keep reminding people, we're part of the team too. Yes, we want to give you what you need, but I want to make sure that we're giving you the right thing and not just the black and white that you gave me.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. Boy, there's a lot I could unpack in that. A lot of wisdom there, Mary. See, I told you, listeners, she'd be great. What I wrote down was interesting, I have to be careful here because every year I have my own word of the year and it's become pretty popular out there, I know. My word this year is impact. So now I hear it more often, even when I don't hear it. Did something fall off your wall? This is real time, folks. It wasn't that loud. That was impact, for example. That was good timing. I said impact, and boom, there it was.

Mary Savage:

I actually did that on purpose. I had a button and I just pushed it, it fell.

Brent Kelly:

It's a special force. It really is what you do, and your team does around marketing. I love that. It's, yes, we'll get stuff done that we need to get done. I love, it's like, but what's the impact of actually doing this? There is a lot of things that we see in agencies that that's the way we've always done it. Whether it worked or not, I don't know. It's the way we've always done it.

I love that you and your team have challenged the advisors and challenged leadership to say, "Listen, why are we doing this?" Which seems like a pretty innocent question. I've got a five-year-old at home and I still get that, "Why? Why?" There are times as a parent that you're like, "Well, just because." Then you realize if you're really being honest with yourself, you're like, why am I doing that? It actually doesn't make any sense. That doesn't do anything.

So I think what I love about that, Mary, and you guys as a sales organization, you really brought that as part of the culture to question yourself, to challenge each other internally. Not just to be difficult. By the way, I do know very well your team at UNICO likes to give each other a hard time. That's good. That's fun, in the right way. But part of that too is because you want to get better.

Mary Savage:

Yes.

Brent Kelly:

To get better, we've got to challenge each other. Well, tell me why you're doing that? Does that even make sense to me? If you can explain it, great. Maybe I missed it, but it comes back to this idea of just doing a bunch of tactics without strategy is a bunch of noise sometimes. So I love that you as a sales organization are doing that. Also, the relationship we talk about at Sitkins of appreciation, of respect and trust goes a long way into that. So anything else that you want to add to that dynamic? Because I think it was a really important point you brought up.

Mary Savage:

No, just bringing it back to that relationship is, I think insurance is about relationships. Although my client is probably the advisor versus my client being the external client, it's all about relationships when it comes to that as well. If I hadn't done some of the work to prove that I was going to do what I said I was going to do, and by taking the approach that I take towards some projects and ending with a good product at the end, if I hadn't proven myself along the way, it's easy to say, if you just walk in a room and be like, "I'm just going to ask why." Well, that didn't work as well early on as it does now specifically.

Brent Kelly:

Sure.

Mary Savage:

That's because I have a personal relationship with most of these advisors. We've created some trust, they know I'm part of the team. All of those things.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, that's a great point, and why? Because, be quiet. You just got here. So you do have to earn that. Earn the right, and it is about the relationship. It's interesting because there's a lot of sales within a sale. We've said before, there's two sales, a sale to the underwriter and a sale of the client. I actually think there's probably three or four. I think there's the sale for an advisor or producer, individually, do you really believe in what you're doing and why you're doing it? There's that internal thing.

Then there's the team dynamic. Let's face it, our best agency performers like UNICO, they embrace that. It's team selling, whether it's cross-selling or it's internal selling with the account managers, account executives and marketing team. It's this idea that, "Hey, do we all buy into this?" There's a sale to be made there.

Some of it's just a sale of an idea or the sale of the relationship along the way that, "Hey, I trust enough to value your opinion, to help push me further in this." I tell you what, when you get those things going, and then of course the underwriter and then the client, the client part becomes, I don't want to say the easy part because it's not easy, but the other stuff done right can make it much easier. So I think that's really impactful.

All right. So I talked about the challenges. You guys have had a great year. Let's flip it to the successes. Again, from your vantage point, and I'm curious to whether it's the past year, recently, I mean, you can go wherever you want in this, Mary. What would be a success or two or a success you would highlight? Why did it work, and what are you doing at UNICO to replicate that success?

Mary Savage:

So maybe this is my personality, but I couldn't think of one thing that I wanted to share with you today, Brent. When I kept thinking about this question I thought, really I think one of the successes that I've tried to embrace as well as other leaders here is just the mindset of continual improvement. So talked a little bit earlier about when I originally came on at UNICO, the leaders had made some efforts to put some things into place so that we could improve.

I've continued to work with our teams on how we can continue to push the envelope so that we're a better marketing team for UNICO. I just think about all those mini successes along the way and how they just eventually start looking back and you go, "Wow, we've come a long way." We've made a lot of growth. I've had a lot of personal growth. My team is bigger than it was before. Our advisors are more successful, they've got better new business and retention numbers than they have before. Just all just kind of impacts.

You and I were talking a little bit earlier before we were recording, but I'm into weightlifting and into running. So I thought of bringing it back to those two things. I think about every day I get in the gym or every day I get out on the road and you do a little bit more to potentially make yourself a little bit better. It's not in that one run or that one lift that you all of a sudden you're like, oh man, I am now going to be able to... My max is now up 10, 15 more than it was. Every day you show up you do a little bit more, and then you go to compete and you realize, oh, all of that work counted.

So I compete in power lifting, every time I go out and I am able to increase the max that I'm able to compete there. All those little things I did. Every time I go out and run a half marathon and my time is in the place that I had as a goal. I'm like all those little things I did met that. So as I look back is just continuing to think all those little successes along the way, all those little wins, I look back and man, we made a big impact. It's just to continue that same thing is, every day just do the best. Question myself as well. Am I doing all of the right things? Not to get myself in that rut that I ask our advisors not to get in, which is "well thats how we've always done it." Just to continue to improve in that way.

Brent Kelly:

Well, I mean, it's just, again, and knowing you and some of the stuff we talked about doesn't surprise me, but it's one of those things I heard years ago. Is it about goals or growth? I think the answer should be probably both. I heard this years ago, it's like, and if you focus on goals but not growth, you may or may not hit your goals. If you focus on growth, like continual growth, intentional growth, you'll hit your goals. Guess what? You'll just keep growing because you're always looking for a slight edge, a way that I can prove something a little bit.

I love your analogy with, obviously if you can add another two and a half pounds on the end of the bar or take off another five seconds on that time, I mean, you're seeing some of that. Those are steps. By the way, I mean, this is me just thinking here out loud on this, in that whole process I'll ask you this, how often do you compete? Again, maybe it's a half marathon, maybe it depends, but on average, how far apart are the events?

Mary Savage:

Yeah, I try and compete in something about once a quarter. So every three to four months I've got some sort of goal in mind that I like to have. Like you said, talking goals. I like to have something that I'm training for, a reason to get in the gym. Sometimes the reason to get in the gym is just to block out what happened during the day, but a lot of times it's for a goal.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, I didn't know for sure, but you kind of hit where I was thinking. It doesn't have to be this, but I love even whether it's quarterly or if you want to do semi-annual, but something that you can really measure your progress. Part of that too, though, is interesting is that my guess is, and if I'm wrong, just tell me, there may be a week or two in there between training where you actually, at least the numbers don't progress, you may have an off week. Does that happen?

Mary Savage:

All the time.

Brent Kelly:

Sure. Right. So part of that, just like in the insurance business, you've got 90-day metrics or semi annual or annual goals. What too often happens is you have a bad week. So instead of saying, okay, what did I learn from that, and how can I get back on? It's, well, I guess it's not going to work, so I'll quit. That's a mindset issue. I think what I love about that, Mary, is I mean, can we force-feed that to every member of an agency? No, but you can set the tone. As you said, I can model that.

Hey, listen, we're not always going to have a great week. I hate to say that. We're just not. We're going to strive for it. The difference of us being great versus average is that if we don't, we're going to learn from that and not just take a loss and pack our bags. We're going to learn from it, and we're going to regroup for the next week or the next week or the next week. Because hey, I'm not great at math, but if there's 13 weeks in a quarter, and if I have two off par weeks and 11 great weeks, I'm still way ahead. Anyway, I don't know where I was going with that. It just hit me. Do you resonate with that?

Mary Savage:

Yeah, and I'll piggyback on that a little bit. In the quarterly, so we were talking about personally, do I have something to compete for? Yes. Three to four times a year I'm competing in something. At UNICO, we have a similar business plan. So we follow traction and what we call, we call it the VTO, Vision Traction Organizer, but it's our plan for how we're going to get where we want to go. So what's our five-year, three-year, one-year plan?

Then as departments and as individuals, we then break that up into quarterly goals to help meet those. So that's what it is. It's just kind of like incremental. It's like what as a marketing team or as Mary as an individual contributor, what can I do to hit those metrics for UNICO?

Brent Kelly:

Yeah. Obviously I'm familiar with working with you in Traction, and we're familiar with Traction at Sitkins as well. We look in our coaching relationships, we look at things in 90 days, and you guys already have that set up to a degree. What I love about it, and again, it just seems simplistic and simple, but not easy, is that you can identify what we're trying to achieve and say, listen, what are the two or three core behaviors or things that must be done on a progression ongoing?

So for a lot of people, one of the pitfalls I see in performance or results is not that they're not doing enough things. It's the fact they may be doing too many things that are sporadic saying, listen, let's just filter down. 90 days our goal is this. This is our big rock, this is our rock. So these are the two or three things that I have to do on an ongoing basis and just keep chugging away and stay focused on that. So I think that's really, really good information there, Mary.

All right. This is a bit of a selfish question when I ask members, but heck, it's my podcast. I can do what I want. So you have been with Sitkins for a while now and working with us, and I know I do find this interesting because there's a lot of different... We were joking before we were recording about all the different acronyms and things that we talk about. There are some things that we do with agencies, we want to make an impact. Back to that word, certainly. There's certain things that some agencies really engage with and take deeper than others, which is great. So I'm curious from you, what do you see that UNICO has taken from our relationship? How has that benefited UNICO? Give me an overview of that.

Mary Savage:

Yeah. So initially when I was thinking about this was, again, thinking about it with my marketing hat on, and then we can have a conversation a little bit further as to how it's impacted UNICO. Specifically for me, as I have gotten involved with your group and attended your sessions and trainings, the aha moment I had was with the Risk Concierge program. That ties back to marketing is for years, we talked about this, I've been asking the why. How do we make sure that our marketing is really in line with the way that we're selling and we are continuing our relationship with our current clients, and hadn't done it as well as I wanted to. I think everybody could say that.

I started digging into how you guys approached the risk concierge program and how you think through the stages and all of those sort of things. I had an aha moment about how this would look at UNICO and really started then just penciling it out. Timing wise, the good, the bad is it all kind of aha'd to me in the middle of COVID. The marketing team specifically had time on our hands that we had not had before to really dig deep on how to put all the pieces together.

So as I thought through, okay, here's the theory that Sitkins has, how does this fit at UNICO? How does this look based on what I know about our best advisors and why they're successful? Just putting the pieces together, put our marketing plus some additional pieces in there, really put it together. At UNICO, we call it the Ascent program. We're elevating your experience or taking you to the top of your mountain, all the marketing words. A big thanks to some additional team members for thinking through the creatives of that.

I kind of just had the vision of, okay, I know what I want this to look like at the end. Let's start putting it together. That really, once we got those marketing pieces to align with that and then in our sales meetings, we started training on the process of what the stages look like through our unique selling system. All of the things started clicking. Really, they did. We had been doing some really good things prior to that, but all of those things came together.

This also, we all came out of COVID as well, and now we had some additional marketing to help sell virtually that we didn't have before. So everything really came together, and that was my aha moment. We definitely want to continue to make some improvements on adhering to that program, and we all have places to learn. When that came together, that was when I was like, Sitkins really... Really was thankful for the trainings that I had received to get that one put together.

Brent Kelly:

Well, and I love that, you guys did it. I mean, there's a lot of that, you could have tools and resources and things, and we love to provide those, but to take it and to figure out how we're going to piece it together with our culture. We're obviously very proud of Risk Concierge and the playbook that our private client members like UNICO have access to. It's interesting of how agencies take it and piece it a little bit differently for your culture and your vision of things and how that works.

Then I think it sounds so obvious, but it really is missed, and I know you know this too, being around in the agency world is the preparation and training that goes around that. I mean, yes, I overuse sports analogies, but I know you're a sports fan, Mary. I mean, it's simple as, could you imagine your beloved Iowa State Cyclones having no offensive playbook?

Mary Savage:

I don't know if you saw us play last year, but that was what was happening.

Brent Kelly:

Well, I know that I realized as I was saying that I'm like, she's probably going to be like, "Well, maybe they didn't." Okay. Our college football team not having any offensive playbook, let alone then if they had one, not practicing around it. Quite frankly, out of agencies, maybe there's a concept or an idea of we kind of, sort of do this. We kind of run this offense, and then once in a while we may talk about it. Or maybe do a little preparation and then we can't figure out why we're not getting these great results. I don't know. You tell me. So I love what you guys have done with that and having that playbook in order. So very good.

All right. Mary, are you ready for my last question that I love to ask all of my guests and I get a variety of responses, and there's never a wrong answer here. It's only your answer. So I'm excited to hear where you're going to take this. I'll phrase it as I always do. I think we can learn so much from our own experiences. Actually as I'm recording this, I'll just say it because today is my birthday.

Mary Savage:

Happy birthday, Brent. I wish I'd known that before.

Brent Kelly:

Oh, that's okay. I don't really want to talk about that. I was just thinking about it. I'm like, you reflect on your birthday. Well, today's my birthday. But for any of us, you look back and the question is, if you were having a conversation with the younger Mary, and maybe as you're starting in your professional career, seems to be a good time. I mean, post some of the educational things that you're going through. You see the younger version of Mary on the street.

I don't know what that person's doing, but you come face to face and she says, "Wow, older version of me." You got 30 seconds. You don't have to give me 30 seconds, but give me one piece of advice that you could tell me right now that would be most helpful to me as I progress this younger version of me. So what would you tell your younger self, Mary?

Mary Savage:

I don't know if I would've listened to myself to be honest, and maybe that's what I would've told myself. No, I even texted my sister about this because I was like, "I don't know, what would I tell 21-year-old Mary?" She sent some joking things back and we had a giggle about it. I think, as I've gotten further into my career, one of the things that I wish I had done earlier was foster my professional relationships better.

I think back to early in my career, I had the opportunity to meet just in the career that I was in, meet a lot of influential people in the area that I was working in. I didn't realize how important knowing those people was going to be later in my career. I've unfortunately lost the connection to some of those people at this point. So I don't think that I could build on that like I wish I had. I wish I'd fostered those a little bit more and ask them more questions about how they got to where they are now. You know what I mean?

I think I've had some successes along the way, and maybe I fumbled through it and got here, but if somebody asked me that who was starting their career, I'm happy to answer all of the mistakes I made along the way or all the successes I had along the way. I'm sure all of those individuals that I had connected with earlier in my career would've done the same for me. I wish I had taken some of that wisdom with me instead of just not realizing what a gift that was.

Brent Kelly:

Yeah, that's really good. I don't think anybody's expressed it that way, and I love it. First of all, I do agree. I laugh at myself when I think about that question because the younger version of me would probably be like, "Yeah, whatever. Shut up, old man." If you're listening to that, I mean, there's such value in that because, and this is true for the agency leaders listening, whether you want to stay a leader. Maybe you're a producer getting your career started or your plateaued, or you're leading a team or whatever. You think about that. It's like the power, we know it's a relationship business, and that's a bit cliche, but it's true. You think about every opportunity of the relationship, even if it's just a quick moment to add value or to listen a little bit longer, to ask one more question.

Some of it may lead nowhere, but many of them could blossom into something really cool, and you don't even know when or where or how. I tell people, it's like I tell my daughter this, so she's about that age. She's 19, and whether you're working at a job, like, "This isn't going to be my career," and all that. I said, "I know that, but you never know who's watching." You just don't know. Your greatest opportunity of your life could be someone that's sitting at a restaurant when you're a server, and it may not come back for 10 years later, but because of the impression you made that day, I don't know. I mean, it just could go so many different places. So I love that.

So listen to Mary. Like I said, she's wise, she's strong. What did we learn about Mary? She's wise, she's strong. I will say this too, because you won't say this, is that you talk about respect and trust. You have earned the relationships. I think what you just said there, they tie together of the respect and trust at UNICO because of the things that you do. So I want to applaud you and give you kudos for that. So all the UNICO folk that are listening, you know that already. You're just a huge resource in the insurance world, and we thank you for that, and thank you for being a guest today.

Mary Savage:

Thanks, Brent.

Brent Kelly:

Any final things you want to say before we wrap up?

Mary Savage:

You can cut this if you want, but Iowa State plays Kansas this weekend. I'm a huge basketball fan, and that's a big game. So if this is probably going to go past that, but go Cyclones.

Brent Kelly:

Well, so basically my guess when this is released, it'll be post. So if Iowa State wins.

Mary Savage:

Yeah.

Brent Kelly:

What is that?

Mary Savage:

Maybe it'll be right before the second time they play.

Brent Kelly:

Whatever. So we get it. Hey, I totally understand. The football team struggled, but your basketball team is on fire right now. So hey, listen, take what you can get. I won't mention anything about the recent Nebraska game either because no one cares.

Mary Savage:

I saw you picked up your cup right when I was saying that, that had a big I on it.

Brent Kelly:

Oh, this one? Oh yeah. I don't know anything about that. So anyway, hey, thanks for listening. Mary, thank you so much for being a guest. We really appreciate you. Again, as a reminder, all the agency leaders out there, if you want to learn about the Sitkins Network, the Best Version Possible experience, the playbook, Risk Concierge, see if that is a fit for you and your agency, go to sitkins.com/experience to learn about how we work with agencies like UNICO and awesome people like Mary. So Mary, thanks again. Wishing you all the best in your success. Thanks for listening.