I never say a negative word about my competitors. I don’t agree with upset clients, I don’t make jokes in my videos, I don’t reference others in my ads.
Negativity is a thing that I try my best to keep out of my life. It’s like a parasite…When you let it in, it tends to spread. As an industry leader, I can’t afford to speak negatively about my competition.
As I’ve navigated my interactions with clients and their experiences with my competitors, I’ve learned 3 things:
- I never hear from a competitor’s happy clients..
- You tend to reap what you sow.
- There is room for everyone.
I never hear from their happy clients…
In my world, word tends to spread on how we talk and who we are. In the realm of Insurance Agents, I’m known as Mr. Positive and I’d like to keep it that way.
When a disgruntled former customer of a competitor calls me, I can be emphatic without agreeing with them. For example, lets say I’m on a call with a potential new client who just left one of my competitors. I often hear something like “Can you believe COMPETITOR’S NAME?! Their products suck, don’t you think?” In those moments I can hold my core value as a positive person and not get lured into bad-mouthing. My typical reply is something like “I’m sorry you had that experience. To be honest, I’ve never worked with COMPETITOR’S NAME so I can’t speak for their products personally but here are some ways in which I can help you.” Redirect the conversation away from the competitor and to ways in which you can serve them.
And I’ve never had a competitor’s happy customer call me to communicate how happy they are with the competitor’s service. That seems relatively obvious but it exposes some important truths. There are always two sides to every story. What I do know is that my competitor must be doing something right if they are in business.
You reap what you sow
That which you give attention to tends to flourish. In my life I’ve surrounded myself with positivity. . I have an incredible team who works hard for me, I have a loving family who champions me daily, and we have a business full of happy clients that thrive because of their experience working with us! But this didn’t happen by accident. Before any of this came on the scene, I started working on me.
I surrounded myself with positivity. I invested in coaches and programs that built me up as a person and an entrepreneur. And over the years, what I became I began to attract into my life.
The same goes for my business. I refuse to build an empire based on bad-mouthing the competition. I honestly love the friendships I’ve made in the Insurance Agent world and refuse to use negativity to make a quick sale.
There’s room for everyone
I live my life knowing that there is an abundance for everyone who creates a world-class product. Many people look at the world through lens of lack; not enough customers, no money to go around and so on… I truly believe if someone puts in hard work into creating excellent products they will find their niche market and fill the needs of their clients.
I want people like me—people also building solutions for Insurance Agents’ daily hurdles–to succeed as well! There are more than enough opportunities out there right now for all those willing to put forth effort towards what it takes: developing high-quality content marketing, designing pieces that really stand out from competitors’, or simply providing stellar customer service by phone or email there is room for everyone to flourish.