The Most Asked Question I Get and Here's The Answer!

The question I get like clockwork, nearly every week from Advisors is: “What are the top people in the business doing?” It’s always a very complex question, because there are so many things to that question. But the question should really be, “What are the top people in the business doing that I am not?” This is a much easier question for me to answer, because I know the answer immediately. They make it simple! So simple, that you just “get” what they are talking about.

Let’s talk about another great in the business: Warren Buffett. A few weeks ago I read his Annual Shareholders Letter (https://www.dhirubhai.net/hp/update/6241317490622767104), a tradition I’ve been doing since at least 1997. If you want to see an interesting angle on the letter, check out Shawn Todd’s Article here (https://www.dhirubhai.net/hp/update/6247477815885721600). There is always some great information in the letter each year, but the reason millions of people read year in and year out, is that Buffett has the ability to take extremely complex topics from tax to archaic accounting rules to corporate governance and make his case simple and easy to understand for the layman — those in the business and those so far away from it. I heard that he writes every letter as if he was writing to his sister. People who read the letter walk away thinking — “I now know all about purchase price adjustments in the US, thanks Warren.” But that’s the power of being simple.

I was joking with an Advisor the other day, “Don’t do as Warren says, do as Warren does.” Let me explain, Warren Buffett recommends doing lots of things that he never does himself, like Indexing or Paying More Tax, neither that he does himself. Instead, just copy what Buffett actually does, in this case, “Keep It Simple”. I know the allure of appearing smarter than we are, using fancy acronyms or standing behind designations that no one understands — we try to shroud our discussion in complexity, thinking that is what is important. I’m here to tell you it is not important! I’m not a Consultant, Insurance as much as I’m a person helping Advisors explain insurance to their clients, so that they will buy it, if it makes sense. Consultant, Insurance sounds so much better — but “What Am I Really?”

When it comes to clients, we need to make it about “them," because to be honest with you, they probably don’t care about you that much. Sure, they might be nice to you, but they are probably just thinking about themselves, they’re thinking, “Can this person in front of me, help me?” A few years back I rejoined this company, after leaving through a restructuring, luckily they took me back. Upon my return, I had some anxiety on how I would answer questions like: “What have you been doing,” or “Why did you come back," so I prepared answers. I wanted to be back, that was the reason. But here’s what happened, none of those questions ever came. The questions instead were, “Welcome back, when can you meet?”. This is not a critique on anyone, this is just human nature - Most People Care About “Me," so let’s make it about “Them”.

Let’s not hide behind acronyms or complex ideas, because they don’t work, maybe they make you feel good to use them, but we have to make it about “them”. I recounted a story in my last article about buying a car (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/i-teach-you-rich-interested-andrew-mckeown) and how the salespeople kept on telling me about their jargon (Torque, RPMs, etc). I know why they were doing this, it wasn’t because I was asking — believe me, I didn’t care; it was that they were comfortable talking about those things, they knew the information. They were talking about "them" and not "me". Don’t get me wrong, it was harmless, but it was about them.

One additional note on this topic, “Making something simple might make me appear to be simple” is a question I get from time to time. The answer is wrong, the question is wrong, making something simple puts you into a whole other category of “SMART”. See, making something simple and easy to understand takes an insane amount of work and time. In my last article (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/i-teach-you-rich-interested-andrew-mckeown) I provided a quote from Woodrow Wilson - I’m paraphrasing here, but basically the message was this: Making ideas simple and easy will put you in a category that few sales people operate in, its too time consuming and most won’t do it.

Long winded and incoherent is the flavour of choice for most.

I spend most days simplifying ideas and concepts for the people that consume them, clients and advisors. Basically all of my work on this platform is about taking fairly complex ideas and distilling them to their most basic element for the Bakers and Plumbers To the Lawyers and Accountants - the point is this, it doesn’t matter who we are talking to, you need to always be in the position of simplifying. OK, lecture done!

Let’s close this article out with a nice little summary; if you take the time to distill your complex ideas into simple and easy to understand discussions - I can imagine 3 things will start to emerge:

• Your clients will be saying this, “I Love This Guy (Gal)” or “This Guy Just Gets Me”.
• Your clients will buy more, because they will understand better.
• Your clients will refer you more, because they know you can help!

Andrew McKeown is an Insurance Consultant at a leading Canadian Insurance Company. He writes about sales and insurance ideas.

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