Rob's Diner: If you like slow, rude service and bland food stop on by. We're open 3 days a week for your convenience.

Rob's Auto: We guarantee that if you bring your car in we'll find something to charge you for even if nothing is broken. That's our promise.

Rob's Insurance: At Rob's Insurance our #1 concern is making a commission. We're not known for our customer service and we wouldn't call ourselves "experts". But one thing we will do is answer our phone when you call, unless we don't because we're playing golf.

These are bad Value Propositions.

A good Value Proposition is going to tell your prospective customers why they should choose you over your competition. Let's go back to the diner example for a moment. Regardless of the occasion we all have our minimum expectations when dining out: a prompt greeting, a clean restaurant, food prepared as described and ordered. For a restaurant to stand out among their competition they need to talk about something other than what is expected of them.

In the world of business insurance this is no different. Decision makers have basic service expectations of what their P&C broker or Benefits broker should be doing for their business. Let's look at some of the things clients expect:

Ability to negotiate with the carrier
Excellent customer service
Understanding of their business, industry, and policy

These are the minimum expectations of business owners and decision makers today. That means for a broker to have higher retention than the industry average (90%) and bring in new business they must do MORE than the minimum. If your Value Proposition sounds anything like "We provide the best customer service and are experts in getting you the right coverage at the best price!" you're probably not getting a lot of referrals.

If you want to enhance your Value Proposition so that your clients give you more referrals and you spend less time asking people to let you give them a "FREE Quote!" take a look at your service model. Start by identifying your strengths & weaknesses. If you're not sure what your strengths are send your clients a survey. Then assess your competition's strengths & weaknesses (check out their website). What do you do better than them? What do they do better than you? Then take a look at the business challenges of the clients you WANT. Provide them with a solution to their problems and you've got a strong Value Proposition.

You may find that you already have resources internally to provide solutions that your prospects want. If you don't you can hire an employee to do it or bring on a strategic partner or vendor. Start by looking at your associations that you pay thousands of dollars a year to be a part of. They vet and recommend lots of different service providers who also have great Value Propositions.

Once you have a strong Value Proposition you need to shout it from the roof tops! Make sure every single customer facing employee can recite it on demand. Go on meetings with all of your producers so you can give them feedback and coach them to your new expectations. Make this a part of your culture and embrace it from the top of your organization all the way down to the summer interns.

-R