Unfolding Your Brand Story

Let’s shatter a myth: Brand does not belong to marketing. In fact, when leveraged well, a brand is a powerful tool that can boost your company’s performance and profits. As an insurance agent, you need to get comfortable with the success stories of your brand in the marketplace and make those stories part of your company’s selling arsenal. By articulating your brand story, you will convey your company’s impenetrable advantages, engage the customer and differentiate your products and services from those of competitors.

You should be able to tell your brand story in 30 seconds. Brand is the crown jewel of the company, yet for too long it’s been the considered the property of marketing. A great brand story in your hands will give you more focus in your profession, boost performance at work and improve your customer relationships.

Your brand is made up of the collective experiences of the customers who engage it and the employees who represent it every day. It’s your agency’s story. Branding does not happen overnight. You need to practice it and, most important, live it. First, though, you need to start crafting a brand story. Start by answering these questions:

• What is the history of your brand?
• What is the language of your brand? What are the compelling and emotional words that represent your brand well?
• What has been the impact of your brand on you, your buyers or the marketplace?

How do you start speaking brand language? Start by becoming a student of your brand. Learn from your customers how they perceive the brand and what words they would attach to it. Ask your clients questions that help build your brand language— questions that can get at the customer’s perception of your brand. These questions can be utilized one-on-one or in a group setting, such as an end-user panel, market research, customer forum or customer feedback surveys. Your end users are closest to the product and have a keen sense of what the brand means to them. They can articulate it.

Once you have your story and language set, get it on the lips of your salespeople—the most vital links to the customer. A survey by Prophet Company, management consultants based in San Francisco, finds that companies “ranked the sales force as their most effective brand-building tool, ahead of traditional tools such as advertising and marketing.” The study goes on to say that “what drives customer perceptions during the purchase cycle is traditionally managed by other parts of the company, outside of marketing.”

Salespeople need to tell a brand story that is rich and has history, using brand language that is evocative and memorable. A great brand story will knit you and your customers together as
people with similar experiences and similar heritage—just like a family. Once your customers know this story, they will understand how your company thinks, who you are, and why it makes sense to do business with you.

Dan Stiff is president of Leadership Performance Development, Inc., and author of “Sell the Brand First: How to Sell Your Brand and Create Lasting Customer Loyalty.”

Carrier Branding Connection:
Selective Insurance Group, Inc.

Selective Insurance Group, Inc., employs a holistic approach to branding. Its high-tech, high-touch business model underpins all decisions, according to Chairman, President and CEO Greg Murphy.

“We view every interaction we have with our agency partners and their customers as an integral element of our branding effort,” Murphy says. “For example, when agents integrate Selective’s claims and safety management specialists into their sales and service process, they provide
their customers with a tangible way to meet the faces behind the Selective name. Our experienced and caring professionals represent Selective’s brand better than any advertisement ever could.”

The company is dedicated to helping independent agents brand themselves as well. According to Murphy, Selective provides agents with tools and resources to grow profitably over the long term and to differentiate themselves when it comes to expertise, ease of doing business and superior customer service.

Murphy sees Trusted Choice® as playing an integral role in the agent-branding process. A long-time Trusted Choice® partner, Selective’s agent Internet portal includes a direct link to the Trusted Choice® Web site as well as the branding program’s guide for agents.

“Trusted Choice® works on many of the same principles that Selective does,” he says. “It provides a way for agencies to set themselves apart from the competition by pledging to provide customized solutions, competitive pricing and individualized attention.

“The bottom line is that we believe the commitment to customized service that Selective and
Trusted Choice® agents have to offer is the basis for a great relationship—and one that all customers deserve,” Murphy says.

—Jennifer Sikorski