Speaker 1: 0:00

InsurTech specs to avoid wrecks. Ooh.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Insurance dudes are on a mission to escape being handcuffed by our agencies.

Speaker 1: 0:10

How? By uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent and profitable agency sales machine. I am Craig Pritzker. I am Jason Feltman. We are agents. We are insurance dudes. I'm Jason the tech titan Feltman. We are agents. We are insurance students. I'm Jason the Tech Titan Feltman. Welcome back insurance innovators. Today we are tackling a topic near and dear to my little heart leveraging technology to streamline your agency's operations. Again, I'm Jason the Tech Titan Feltman. What's your name?

Speaker 2: 0:48

Oh, I'm going to tell you in just a second, Mr Jason, but I think almost every word in that first paragraph are words you love.

Speaker 1: 0:55

The Tech Titan. Yeah, all the tech stuff and tackling topics, tackling topics Dear to my heart.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Innovators, all of it, sure. Well, you never would guess, but I am, craig, the efficiency emperor, and, and as the efficiency emperor, along with the tech titan, mr. Mr jason, we learned the hard way that trying to run an agency without the right tech tools is a lot like trying to climb Mount Everest in flip-flops it's painful, it's inefficient and it's freaking downright impossible.

Speaker 1: 1:32

You know this firsthand that it's painful, Mr Emperor. I love that you referred to yourself as an emperor. Listen, this is the name that you gave me emperor listen, this is the name that you gave me. Oh man, mr craig, you're giving me flashbacks to my early days as an agency owner. I remember drowning in emails, drowning, pulling all-nighters to manually enter data True story too, because this agency didn't have an online CRM and consistently dropping the ball on client communications. Well, at least at first. I solved that problem immediately, because it was a nightmare.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Dude, I feel your pain. So I had similar wake up, a wake up call, when I realized I was spending all this time on all these administrative things instead of actually growing my agency. That's when I knew I had to do something, that we had to change.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Absolutely, and for me that change started with identifying the biggest bottlenecks and inefficiencies in my operations. It was eye-opening to see how much time and money I was wasting on just horrible repetitive and manual tasks.

Speaker 2: 3:00

Yeah, yeah, and that's a crucial first step, right Once you've pinpointed those pain points so poignantly.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Same here, mr Craig. I'll never forget the day that I finally bit the bullet and implemented a new AMS. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders Suddenly. All my client data policies was in a centralized place. I could automate a bunch of tedious processes that was just eating up my time and making me pass out on my desk.

Speaker 2: 3:53

I remember when you were doing that, that's when I first, around the time when I first met you and you were talking about your system all excited, making all these calls, and you got callers and all this stuff, and I'm thinking, whatever, I got a phone system. I don't know anything about all that, and you know automation. That automation piece, though, was the key Cause. As you're talking about it nonstop, I started getting interested, and then I started looking at it, and now I can't even imagine life without that Right, so we could focus on those high value activities we're building. We're spending time on the relationships and all of the important things instead of filling out paperwork.

Speaker 1: 4:35

That is funny. That was our first conversation. Our first conversation was you with your coaching business and you jumped on a call with me and I remember spending two hours and we were talking about all the automation and everything in the agency.

Speaker 2: 4:50

And I'm going. Oh wait, that sounds good.

Speaker 1: 4:52

The first conversation.

Speaker 2: 4:55

And you know what's funny.

Speaker 1: 4:57

We had a conversation yesterday that was supposed to be five minutes, it ended up being two hours. Two hours.

Speaker 2: 5:03

It was like you were sick of my text, so you, so you're just like that, and then call me, and then two hours.

Speaker 1: 5:12

It's true, true story all right back on track. Uh, let's not forget the power of data and analytics. Mr craig, before I started leveraging leveraging my agency's data I was essentially flying blind. I had no real insight to my performance, of my client's needs. I literally had I think it was 13 filing cabinets and these crates. The agent before me had these crates of files and information about the clients which, and if I wanted to find something, it was not like, like, like, let's say, client a like Sarah, right? Let's say, if I was looking up a policy for Sarah, I'd have to look. It was alphabetically filed either in this set of filing cabinets and then I'd have to check another set of filing cabinets that was alphabetically filed, and then there are all these other crates. So I mean, if I had to look for something, it could take an hour to find what I was looking for. It was bananas.

Speaker 2: 6:16

Wow, sounds a lot like you too. You still couldn't find what you were looking for.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Well played.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Same thing, same thing, same thing here. Right it was. I had all these file cabinets. I came in and then this is how little I knew. I took all those. I think there was probably like 30 file. It was insane. There were so many and you know how heavy they are. Right, they're the worst Dude, so bad. And I unload those things. But the regional person told me, like this is 15 year ago, craig listening to the people, and he said, oh, you have to hold those for X amount of time, you know, and I had just bought it, like they could not be there, right, why there, who knows? Right. But instead I got a rental like a storage place. I brought all that crap to the storage place and put it in there and then about three years later I went there, took it all out and threw it away. So that was horrible. Oh man, 30, there were so many, it was it. So that office was really big and it was. It was on every wall I.

Speaker 1: 7:36

I hope they weren't even and I hope you paid someone to scan every document before you discard. Of course we did right.

Speaker 2: 7:45

I mean, that was that was back when you had to put each paper down one at a time. Yeah, unreal, unreal, yeah. So you know, um, and then, oh, then our talks like the the day. So you're now talking about things like cost per sale, you're talking about contact rate, you're talking about quotes, and then you're saying, yeah, we're doing eight quotes a day. And I said eight quotes a day and I'm thinking man, I can't get my team to do eight quotes. And he's like no, no, eight quotes each. And I'm like what? Like? I, I remember like twitching, like what eight? What like it's not possible. And then, oh wait, it is because you had the data and you had the numbers and you had all the information, like that. You weren't doing file cabinets, you weren't doing all that stuff. Right.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Yep, and, and it's also, I mean it also helps with your current clients. So, like, after the sale, we always talk about that right, the quoting and all that stuff, which of course it helped, but like it made a big difference after they were sold, once they were clients of ours. It just really helped the client's experience. Obviously, if it was taking me an hour to try to find something in a filing cabinet and get back to them on the phone, having all that data available and being able to data available and being able to, yeah, just like, like everything became incredibly quicker and more efficient for our agents as well. And I learned this the hard way when I lost a big client early on because they were frustrated with how difficult it was to get in touch with us.

Speaker 1: 9:24

And yeah, I, I remember it took like probably like an hour. No, this had to have taken at least two hours to get their policy information. So I came in as a new agent, I'm in the agency, I can't find any of their information and, like a dummy early on, I think I might have even kind of said that. So they had zero trust in me. So they said you know what Well, you took over the agency. You're an idiot and I'm getting a new agent.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Yeah, it is remarkable because they hand you the agency and you're like, right, yeah, who's they? Yeah, I mean amazing, though, and same thing, right, I had similar lessons myself because I'm over there doing these things that were taking up all the time making, making us inefficient, and it's. It's interesting because you just if you think that you're you're putting in a good day because you're busy, right, like I was, I was doing something all day long, but all those things I was doing were not moving the needle at all, like nothing was. We were not growing from me searching for an hour for a file or whatever, right, yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Yeah. It's funny too, cause I remember when, like the self-service portals and the apps came out and a lot of agents thought that that was going to take away their need, but then we shifted more to the model of let's help them use these tools, which we did, and they were very grateful for it and it helped. It really did help the client experience and it helped them. Man, there's times that we had older clients that we were able to help them with all of their technology, including their emails and texts and all this stuff, and they were so incredibly grateful. On another level, right, because now they're learning technology from their insurance agent, which is nuts, um, but it. But the best part is it reduced the workload on our team because when, when your clients can access information, perform basic tasks on their own, it frees up time in the agency to focus on more complex, higher value interactions, like sales across sales right, and that is the most important thing in your sales first, organization right.

Speaker 2: 11:54

So, and then, of course, implementing new tech isn't always smooth sailing. There's going to be challenges and it's it's important to take this lesson. I typically will see something and just go, and that's not a good idea with the agency. When you're, when you're putting in some new tech, it's really good to slowly roll those things out. Yeah, I learned that the hard way.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Yeah, you get some frustrated staff. Huh, I've been there. It is so important to have a clear strategy and implementation plan. First, start small, get buy-in from the team you got to sell your team on it and make sure everyone is properly onboarded. It really makes a difference on the vibe in the agency, I think.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Yeah, and at the end of the day, leveraging technology is about working smarter, not harder, and we say it all the time. Right, we want to work smarter, not harder. So free up that time and energy so you can focus on the thing that moves the needle, which is serving your clients and growing your business.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Couldn't agree more, mr Craig, and if you're not sure where to start, we got a worksheet. I know you're waiting for it, I know it. It will guide you through the process of evaluating your current operations, identifying areas for improvement and developing a technology strategy that aligns with your goals, and it's in the show notes down below.

Speaker 2: 13:25

True story, remember embracing technology isn't just about keeping up with the times, it's about positioning your agency for long-term success. Always be positioning, so don't be afraid to take the first step. Well, that's a wrap.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Mr Craig and for all you folks, until next time, keep innovating, keep thriving.

Speaker 2: 13:48

This is Craig, the Efficiency Empire Emperor.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Emp wow and Jason the Tech Titan.