In the early eighties, I was headhunted by an insurance company looking to recruit Product Managers. At that time there were no product managers in the insurance industry so I didn’t know what was expected in the job. However, one thing was made clear – an essential skill required of all the new appointments (5 Product Managers and 2 Regional Sales Managers) was that we had to be outstanding public speakers.
I had plenty of qualifications in insurance, marketing and PR and had been employed as a sales training manager – but I had started to build a reputation as a speaker around the insurance industry, speaking at regional events. This was actively encouraged by my employer because it helped to promote the company and attract new salespeople.
Most event organisers look for senior managers and executives who are happy to speak for no fee in exchange for the opportunity to promote the company’s name and services. This is still an important PR strategy for most companies, but what my new employer did took the strategy to another level.
While many businesses restrict speaking at industry events to a few senior corporate executives often sticking to corporate messages, we were all encouraged to continue speaking at as many industry events as possible and were given considerable freedom regarding our content.
Because we were all extremely good at speaking, we were all in demand. Importantly, we each had different topics and specialisations so that often at major events more than one of us would be on the programme.
Very quickly the name of our company, Crown Life, was appearing everywhere. The CEO actively encouraged us to compete with each other, not just in the development and sales of our products but in our industry presence as speakers. That, in turn, encouraged other managers to emulate our success.
We sold our products through three primary sales channels and quickly the sales agents learned that our training sessions and meetings would feature high-profile speakers. The presence of high-profile speakers encouraged other managers to work on developing their speaking skills because it was clear that this was a major factor in any potential job promotion.
There is never a huge amount of difference between the products of any leading business. Even if one business develops an innovative product – it is easy for others to replicate it. If one company pays higher commissions in sales, the penalty is that the products are less competitive, or there are fewer product features.
Our competitive advantage became our team of industry-leading speakers. Doing business with Crown Life gave agents access to the best meetings, the best training, and the best experts. And despite the fact that we were one of the smallest companies in the market, our presence made it look as if we were one of the largest.
Within a few years, Crown Life had grown to fill its image and was one of the leading companies in terms of new business, at one point taking almost 50% of the market for a pension product.
How many of the senior management team in your company are outstanding speakers; are regularly on the programme at industry events; are the reason that high-quality recruits are attracted to your company.? If you host an event, how do your company speakers compare to the hired-in keynote speaker?
Why not schedule a call to find out how I could help your business to raise its profile by encouraging and helping your team to become Outstanding Speakers?
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