The Cajun Coyote: From Prey To Predator

THE CAJUN COYOTE: FROM PREY TO PREDATOR

By Mike Manes

With your competition evolving from day to day, so must your approach to marketing.

WARNING: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! This article is politically incorrect and will offend all members of PETA and some independent agents.

Did you hear about the Cajun coyote who was caught in a trap, gnawed off three legs — and remained ensnared?

Before you laugh or cry at the coyote’s plight, consider your situation as an independent agent.

For all our complaining, the Independent Agency System has been very lucrative for most of us for many years. Recurring renewal revenues compound into a highly addictive income stream that can entrap us all too easily. Our agency becomes a sales organization or distribution point for existing products and customers, with growth based primarily on account rounding and cross selling.

As today’s market continues to evolve with the development of new competitors and distribution systems, addiction to this comfort zone can easily lead to denial. We reassure ourselves by saying “We’ve always done it this way,” “Let’s not reinvent the wheel,” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” This attitude ignores the classic definition of insanity: Continuing to do what we’ve always done and expecting a different result.

Suddenly, the trap tightens! An extended soft market slashes revenue. Such new competitors as banks, CPA firms, roll-ups, and direct writers shrink our market share. Alternative Funding Mechanisms and consolidation of local businesses into other organizations erode our customer/prospect base. Feeling the pain in our status quo, were ready to do whatever’s needed for relief.

But as soon as the novocaine of a hardening market deadens our hurt, we hasten to reassure ourselves that “happy days are here again!” The numbness sets in and, once again, we forget our commitments.

It’s time for a reality check that will shift our focus from “feeling the pain” to “getting out of the trap” with all four legs ready to prowl. To meet this challenge, well need to address the wants and needs of our customers, add value to their lives, and keep our organizations “lean and mean” enough to make a profit regardless of market conditions. In other words, we must transform ourselves into predators.

If we’ve grown numb, dumb, fat, and happy (or chewed off our other legs), chances are that well end up as prey: road kill for more aggressive and creative competitors.

Here’s how you can transform the four legs of the trap into a foundation for future prosperity (a predator’s version of the “lemons to lemonade” theme):

1. Current products and current customers. Intensify your cross-selling/account rounding campaigns.
2. Existing products, services, and needs (remember, customers think in terms of their needs, not your products) to new customers. Focus on who you’ll sell to in the future: new niches, new territories, old customers in new life stages, and so forth.
3. New products, services, and needs to existing customers. Decide what you’ll sell: Life insurance, Health (including Dental, Vision, and wellness programs), Alternative Funding Mechanisms, investments, financial services, Group, pre-paid legal, warranty policies, Employee Assistance Program services, network access, strategic planning (the ultimate risk management tool), consulting, and so on.
4. New products, services, and needs to new customers. Combine who and what with a where that includes strategic alliances to create new markets with new needs: banks, CPAs, employers as “work site” buying facilitators, associations, affinity groups, etc.

To continue the metaphor of the Cajun coyote, too many agents have chewed off their other legs or spent far too long caught in the trap. That’s the bad news. The good news: Even a one-legged coyote can survive “with a little help from his friends.” The secret is to find other coyotes whose strengths complement and supplement your own weaknesses and vice versa.

Many agents weakened by their commitment to the status quo will need help to return to profitability or to maintain their current prosperity in the future. (Some agents could very well remain profitable until the day they’re forced to close their doors).

Although opportunity abounds, it will remain out of reach as long as you’re caught in the trap of the status quo. It’s time to return to your natural role as a predator independent or interdependent!

Michael G. Manes can be reached at Square One Consulting,
625 Weeks Street, New Iberia, LA 70560, (Cell) 337-577-3885, E-mail [email protected], Web Site www.squareoneconsulting.com.