This sounds like a question you'd get during an awkward moment at a party. However, if you're managing an insurance agency, it's a question that you should address internally every day. Without rehearsing the meaning behind what you do, your agency is adrift, and you won't have the ability to hone your insurance marketing and give your clients a strong message about who you are and what you do.
What Do You Do?
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, a "mission statement help clarify what business you are in, your goals and your objectives." Your mission statement should:
Define what you offer
Consider your position in the marketplace
Look at the level of pricing, quality, and service you provide
Consider how you will grow and use technology
Think about your relationships with others, such as your customers and suppliers
Who Are You?
When you're defining your business's role in the insurance field, one additional question that you must answer is the question about who you are as an organization. This isn't a question of what you sell. It's a question of values.
According to Forbes, "Values need to have a purpose." There should be a reason why your business holds specific values. If your insurance agency's value is to be accommodating, it could be because you believe in inclusion and diversity.
They must also lead to action, whether this is the development of new products, new marketing campaigns, or new processes of interaction with your insurance clients. The accommodating insurance agency will make sure its website and its bricks and mortar store are accessible and that its products are simple to understand. Values determine how you interact with others: your customers, your suppliers, and your employees.
Along with your business mission, your values statements define who you are as a business: what you do and why you're here.
Clarity Around Your Business's Values and Mission Helps Define Your Insurance Marketing
When you combine strong business values with a focused mission statement, this helps you define both your goals and the reason behind your insurance marketing. For example, if you value protecting youth in your community and your mission involves reaching out to sell products to people of all ages, you could create and market insurance products that help young people drive safely and insure them for this as well. Values and mission statements give you the reasons behind the products you're selling and help you market to those who share those values.
Your Mission Helps You Hire for Insurance Jobs
Getting the right people into the job: that's the perennial problem of most businesses. You're not just looking for the people who can accomplish the tasks you set before them. You're looking for people who are committed to your insurance company's values and able to innovate along those lines as well.
Your business must know itself before it invites other people in. According to the Harvard Business Review, "Before the hiring team starts measuring candidates’ culture fit, they need to be able to define and articulate the organization’s culture – its values, goals, and practices — and then weave this understanding into the hiring process."
At American Agents Alliance, we're in the business of helping independent insurance agencies across the country. Talk with us about our many membership benefits and learn more about our Alliance Convention: contact us today.
