Business Planning, Systems. Easy to understand truth, brings peace

It seems the past few years as the economy has turned I have spent a lot of time working more as a business consultant with many of my clients than an insurance broker. My core business belief is that my job is to help my clients in whatever way I can. Insurance is somewhat complicated, but we have systematized everything so well that we can easily get good coverage terms, and the best rates.

One thing about using systems well is it is a bit boring, and very easy to accomplish the few things an insurance agency needs to do… Get the lowest rates, for the right coverage. In about a week I can train a person right out of high school which buttons to push on the key board to do this.

So I find myself doing more for our clients, in fact it is the very system I developed to run GDI that I end up sharing with most of my clients to help them run their businesses. It seems the concepts are adaptable to other kinds of products and services.

Lately most businesses I work with need more sales. They have already cut back, and done the things they needed to do to save money. Now they need to start to grow again. The last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about this, and last night walking in my almond orchard looking at the new nuts starting to show on various trees I was thinking that not every tree in the orchard is the same. I considered that my orchard had many trees, and even sections of my orchard

I know that sounds like a very simple truth. But then again all positive change starts with understanding a simple truth. Keep in mind that truth is much different than correct. Being correct doesn’t always mean you are working with truth! In the attached picture I took this morning of one of my trees, the tree is correctly growing and looks healthy. The truth is as you look closer there are some bare spots, and some dead wood, there are on this one tree some branches that are producing a lot more nuts than other branches. So the truth is this tree can be improved.

The second thing I always do is once I have found the truth, I need to be able to present it, and explain it in a manner that can be easily understood, and accepted by whoever I am working on. So the details of how this tree can be improved, and what that improvement will mean to the owner of the tree in terms of production, or cost savings is vital. But you see how first understanding the truth is vital.

What do I sell then? Peace! I sell peace! The peace that comes from understanding the truth of a situation, developing a plan that is easy to understand and implement to correct a bad situation, or improve a good situation, etc… My goal then is to simply help my clients with whatever they need help with.

Sometimes it is getting a lower premium. Other times it is getting the proper coverage. Sometimes it is helping them with their marketing, or sales systems, or budgets, or taxes, etc… If it is in me it is available to my clients.

Many of use are in a service business.  I think as we consider what service we are offering, all comes down to helping someone, or a business solve a problem, and improve the quality of life and or business.