We all own some policies that insure us against risks of loss, such as loss of property, loss of health, or loss of income. If you’re like me, you probably engaged with the first provider to whom you were introduced and didn’t think about whether that particular person would be providing value. Did you consider whether that person may be the reason you would lose one of your most valuable assets – your time?

Before you place your valuable time at risk again, you may want to meet my friend James Gurule with IMA Financial Group. Clients come to IMA because they understand the value of IMA’s people – which is in insurance. Clients appreciate collaborating with James and his team because of their insights on crafting strategies tailored to support their client’s business goals and the extraordinary resources at their disposal.

“Solving insurance problems is important,” James points out, “but it is really the other ways that we manage risk that are equally, if not more, important. Insurance is a tool to finance risk. Our clients know that we’re not asking them to pay higher premiums for our own benefit; they know we have their best interests at heart and want to make sure their insurance policies and the other ways they’re managing risk are working for them. We love being a friend, but at the same time we must make sure we’re doing what’s right by our client.”

Doing what’s right by the client is a process as well as a priority. James pointed out that he doesn’t typically know immediately if he can help since no two clients are internally the same. He first learns the client’s goals, the challenges they are experiencing, and the opportunities they’re chasing. A prospect may not become a client right away, but more often than not James is the first or second person the prospect calls because he demonstrated his ability to think outside the box and showed the prospect all the resources he uses to make sure they get the best affordable coverage.

Helping clients obtain the right program that’s been curated for them is IMA’s specialty. However, value shopping does not mean that James and the people at IMA lose their client-first focus. James says, “We like to think of ourselves as a company that has all the personal service touches as your regional boutique shops, but all the resources, specialties, and offerings as the publicly traded shops. As one of the largest employee-owned brokerages, it is not just about selling a policy to us. We help people protect assets, and making a difference is who we are.”

One of James’ tasks is solving client’s problems, which includes “looking around the corner” for things that can potentially impact them. James relies on a “smorgasbord of team members,” each of whom focuses on a particular area – complex risk, environmental, ERM, M&A, loss control, or cyber risk, – to name a few. Some members have an industry or specialized focus. “By enabling our team approach, we structure a game plan in lockstep with the client based on data and analytics that they may previously have overlooked or of which they might not be aware. It is all about asking the right questions, pulling together the right expertise, and building trust.” In one case, James used his methods to identify nineteen places where he and the IMA team could increase the client’s insurance coverage while saving over $700,000 in premiums. Although this is not the norm nor the overall goal, it is a potential by-product of IMA’s process.

IMA has the resources to provide that level of value to its clients, and James and his team know how to access and utilize the resources available to them to find the best value. “If you don’t know how to access the resources internally,” James says, “you can’t identify the value the client isn’t receiving.”

James shared his favorite part of collaborating with clients – seeing the look on their face when he’s able to solve a problem or help them accomplish something with which they’ve been struggling. For example, James met the newly-installed, growth-oriented CEO of a plumbing company that had enjoyed a 30-year long relationship with its insurance broker. James and the IMA team performed a “get-acquainted” insurance and risk audit, resulting in recommendations to change or eliminate coverage. After making the changes, James and his team helped the client adjust its rating criteria and lower its insurance premiums by 25%. The CEO could then hire more people, increase capital investments, and immediately start down the road to growth he envisioned. The secret to James’ success with this client’s circumstances, as with so many of James’ clients, was his ability to listen and customize coverage instead of simply looking for cheaper policy premiums.

In another example, a prospect had been notified at the last minute by the prospect’s existing broker of a $30,000 premium increase at the time the policy was scheduled to renew. The prospect contacted James seeking an alternative, while also sharing his feelings of frustration with the renewal process. To the prospect’s delight, James and his team dove into understanding the prospect and its risk profile, communicated the prospect’s profile properly to the underwriters, and obtained a policy from a carrier with more robust coverage and fewer exceptions at about the same premium the prospect historically paid.

James confided that, if he were looking for insurance, he’d want to deal with someone who helps educate and is willing to tell him things he may not want to hear. James said, “You want someone who’s going to give it to you straight, whether it’s good news or bad news.” Also, he would look for someone with experience who knows their way around insurance – not someone “slinging” insurance – and someone who knows your industry and its nuances – or at least bringing with them someone who does.” There are a lot of smart and trustworthy insurance professionals out there, and it’s important to find someone who is aligned with you.

James also stressed that the insurance application and policy writing process takes time, so avoid waiting until you receive a policy renewal notice to get the process started. James recommends starting 3 to 6 months before a policy expires to find a professional and to make sure you’re not simply analyzing premium cost.

If you might be interested to see if James can help you, please reach out to me. I’d be honored to connect you.

“Nobody wants to work anymore.” Is that what you’re hearing lately? Your business is growing, or you need to fill a gap in existing operations, but you can’t find a single qualified prospect? Have you endured a bunch of interviews, finally made an offer, and the person you hoped might be a good fit didn’t respond? Or – the nightmare continues – have you been showered with resumes from candidates who all applied through Indeed or LinkedIn but you have no way to differentiate them? Worse yet, did the candidate who accepted your offer fail to show up? If you’ve lived through any of these gut-wrenching situations, my friend Julie Mansfield of Auctus Search Partners, LLC can probably help you avoid repeating the experience.

Julie is a self-proclaimed “social butterfly” who loves meeting people and connecting them with others. “Over the years,” she said, “I’ve learned how to hone-in on what’s really important to each client and use that to differentiate between the candidates I’ll present.” This helps Julie stand head and shoulders above other recruiters – she invests time to intimately understand the client’s company, needs, and culture and to help them define the qualifications and qualities of candidates for which she will be searching. Julie shared that “I’m all about finding and making that match – finding exactly the person the company is looking for and being able to offer exactly what the candidate’s looking for.”

“Finding and entering an employment relationship is like dating,” Julie observed, “If you find the right person, the relationship blesses everyone.” Julie shared that searching for, finding, and cementing these matches is what she likes most about her work. “It’s a thrill to participate in a successful placement because the match makes everyone’s work life, and the other parts of their lives affected by the work life, better. The main thing,” she says, “is helping the client get their life back and saving their time.” She takes pride in successful placements, and many clients have commended Julie by telling her that the candidate she helped place was the best hire the client ever made.

Nearly all of Julie’s business comes to her through referrals. “New clients will be testing me,” Julie says, “and I’ll testing them. I’ll be seeing if we communicate well.” Julie’s recruiting and placement process makes the entire experience easier for both the client and for the prospect. One way Julie improves her client’s recruiting and placement function is by helping them define the position and what they’re looking for, putting that information it in the job description, and communicating the opportunity and desired outcomes well to prospects. “Sometimes,” Julie says, “clients don’t even have a job description or simply don’t know what to call the position.”

On the prospect side of the relationship, Julie personally interviews each candidate with whom she works. “I want to look them in the eye and make sure they’re someone I want to introduce to my client,” she said. Having worked in the talent acquisition arena for over twenty years, Julie trusts her own intuition. “I can quickly see when people are not telling the truth,” she says. “If a person can’t look me in the eye, or if they’re nervous and I can’t calm them down, that’s a red flag. You’re not going to recognize these red flags if you haven’t conducted lots of interviews, but I’ve interviewed thousands of people.”

Julie’s interviews make the hiring process easier for the client because Julie will narrow the field to two or three well-qualified candidates. Normally, all of us would be overwhelmed speaking with ten to fifty prospects. It’s simply beyond most of our capabilities to usefully store that much information. By narrowing the range of choices, Julie allows her client to focus on thoughtfully considering each candidate. This not only cuts down the time the client devotes to finding the candidates, which can be especially time-consuming in the current market; it also allows the client to spend their time effectively by interviewing only those candidates who are pre-qualified as a good match for the position.

Julie points out that mid-market and small companies often don’t have big human resources teams, a vice president of human resources, or a director of talent acquisition, so whoever is doing the recruiting, screening, interviewing, and hiring is probably handling these tasks alongside their regular functions. Most people performing dual roles come to a point where they can’t perform both roles well – that’s where Julie comes in. “Most people don’t enjoy going through dozens or hundreds of resumes, and most don’t enjoy preliminary interviews,” Julie says. “I let them do what they do best while I do what I do best,” she added.

Julie has access to tools and software that are not available to most companies. Julie also has access to information about salaries, industry norms, and other employment information that can help clients define job opportunities and set compensation. Julie uses all these tools to match job seekers with her clients’ needs. She also actively seeks out people who might be a good match for her client’s need and proactively approaches them. Julie is well connected, having grown up in the Denver area and lived here her entire life. Julie shared that she often finds the best candidates by networking and by soliciting recommendations. She has over 20 years of experience recruiting, both in corporate and agency settings, and is now a partner with Auctus Search Partners.

In addition to these local contacts, Julie recruits candidates throughout the United States. She is familiar with those states and localities that have greater or fewer candidates possessing particular qualifications. Whether an employment opportunity is desirable also often depends on the locality where candidate may be required to live. For example, it is often difficult to entice a candidate to move to Denver because of our high housing costs.

If Julie were looking for talent acquisition help, she recommends looking for someone with high integrity, who is dedicated, and who will treat both candidates and clients well. She shared that she would also look for a hard worker who values open communication, doesn’t hide things, and has a long record of experience.

Julie also emphasized that it’s extremely important for a single person in the company to be tasked with all the hiring. Even when working with Julie, it’s more efficient to have this point-person in the lead. If you think your company would benefit from Julie’s expertise, please reach out to me. I’d be honored to connect you.

Imagine you’re starting a regular day – a great day like any other day. You’re living the dream. You wake up, sip some coffee to get the motor going, and enjoy a delicious breakfast. Your spouse is happy, your kids are happy, you’re happy. You kiss everyone goodbye and head to the office… where you discover the network is down again and the employees are NOT happy. If, like most of us, you rely on lightning-fast computers and internet communication to accomplish just about everything, your business has come to another grinding, screeching, spark-spattering halt. Everyone has a guess about what’s wrong, but no one can make anything work. On top of that, you start to worry about losing data and losing customers. This snowballs into worry about whether the data has been backed up and whether your systems have been hacked. Your last though before losing consciousness is, “Will we be able to recover . . . ?”

Imagine instead (perhaps in a parallel universe in which you may also have starred in a movie released in 1998) you’re starting that same day – a great day like any other day. You’re living the dream. You wake up, sip some coffee to get the motor going, and enjoy a delicious breakfast. Your spouse is happy, your kids are happy, you’re happy. You kiss everyone goodbye and head to the office… where everyone is happily doing what they are supposed to be doing. After you’ve made your rounds and shared some cheerful greetings and funny stories, someone mentions that the computers and network went down, but the outsourced IT vendor that you wisely hired had fixed everything before anyone even noticed. (Cue the choir of angels performing “Alleluia!”)

If your typical day is more like the one described in the first paragraph, and you dream of enjoying more days like the one described in the second paragraph, you might be interested to meet my friend Greg Skahill with Perfect Cloud Solutions. Greg points out, with keen grasp of the obvious, that most business owners aren’t very good at “IT,” but he adds that they shouldn’t have to be.

In order to live their idyllic lives, Greg’s clients rely on Perfect Cloud Solutions to provide “full-service support” where Greg and his team not only identify needs and find solutions, but also put in place business continuity and recovery plans. Perfect Cloud’s client data security operation center provider helps with security tools for computers and networks that detect and immediately isolate threats as they occur. Coupled with Perfect Cloud’s domestic IT desktop support team that offers timely remote or on-site service, Greg and his team leave little opportunity for potential IT problems to arise

Greg shared that his clients’ biggest computer and data worries are about data theft or loss and persistent, non-stop email phishing scams. He shared that we should all be worried about these things because a large percentage of small businesses that have suffered a ransomware attack couldn’t recover and went out of business. Perfect Cloud’s threat prevention services are end-point monitoring, detection, and backup systems that reside on the client’s devices and are working 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Perfect Cloud also offers security awareness and compliance training tools to help their clients monitor potential security threats. Greg shared that Perfect Cloud highly recommends that its clients use multi-factor authentication for their devices, and the company can implement additional protection products such as DUO 2 MFA.

Greg highlighted that the Perfect Cloud team has helped many of their clients move away from the nightmare of their “break and fix” processes and to the dream-scene model featuring a proactive monthly service plan (however, a choir of angels is not included).

Perfect Cloud’s team has also helped many clients with their office phone and equipment needs with its newer, state-of-the-art voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service, giving clients more flexibility in the ever-changing remote work environment.

Perfect Cloud’s teams have also designed and built or overhauled the entire IT and communications infrastructure for their clients, with tasks ranging from re-cabling all the way to recommending or replacing switches, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, and security cameras.

If the client employs an in-house IT professional or CIO, Greg’s team is pleased to offer a co-managed IT solution that provides desktop support and handles day-to-day problems. These clients enjoy streamlined operational efficiencies, data protection, and peace of mind by putting in place a business continuity and data recovery plan.

Greg advises, when considering using an outsourced service like Perfect Cloud Solutions, to evaluate the provider’s knowledge and expertise. Also be sure that the provider has a solid operations center. But, Greg says, “the most important thing is to not lose the data.” He’d look for a company that’s resourceful, has a track record of providing results, and knows its limitations and strengths.

When not directly helping clients, Greg is involved in his community. “Community is key,” he says. Greg is a mentor and is involved in charitable work. He also continues to grow personally and professionally, building skills and continually learning.

If you are not hearing choirs of angels performing “Alleluia!” on a daily basis, perhaps you should meet Greg. I’d be honored to connect you.

What qualities should a person possess to excel at selling businesses? Probably a lot of things, and creating, buying, and selling a few businesses for your own account can’t hurt. Might you be thinking of selling your business, or are you within five to ten years of selling but want to make sure it’s well-positioned when that time arrives? If so, perhaps you should meet my friend Erik Porter of Business Acquisitions, Inc., who has bought and sold many businesses and probably knows exactly how to help you sell yours.

At the most basic level, Erik says, “business intermediaries (brokers) are much like real estate brokers. We’re the person who will interact with all those prospective buyers. As the seller, you the last thing you want to do is talk with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of potential buyers because your business will suffer.” He has found that most potential buyers have good intentions, but many are not familiar with what it takes to buy a business. “Finding a good buyer is like sifting through the ore to find a diamond,” he says, “we look through a lot of options to find the best.” Erik and his team at Business Acquisitions do all the work of finding qualified, capable buyers so their client can continue focusing on growing and operating their business.

While his own, first-hand experience of building and selling several businesses is helpful, Erik says it takes a lot more to successfully work with clients to help them sell their businesses. “What matters the most,” he says, “is temperament, availability, and how an intermediary represents clients.” Erik believes that the best intermediaries are consistent and do not overpromise or oversell. For example, at the time of our interview Erik was working on a deal for which the parties have been negotiating for 15 months but that Erik expected would close within a week. Erik attributed his success in shepherding the seller successfully through this lengthy process to having been consistent and patient and having helped the client understand and remember that successfully selling a business is a long process.

Not one for short-term relationships, Erik commented that if he enjoys a great relationship with a client, he rarely thinks about whether he’s getting paid because the client is important to him. For these clients, Erik’s entire focus is on negotiating the best outcome. “At the end of the day,” Erik shared, “having that special relationship, which often endures for years, and knowing the client appreciates you – that’s what it’s all about.” As an example, Erik noted that he’d played golf on the day before our interview with a client whose business he had sold more than six years prior.

When I asked what clients say about him most often, Erik replied, “I don’t know how you do it, dude.” When a seller tries to negotiate and close a sale and purchase transaction, most often the parties get frustrated, the process becomes complicated, and the seller struggles to manage the buyer and the never-ending barrage of interruptions and requests for information. Erik shared that he loves managing the whole process. He stated that he enjoys people and the process of working with clients and buyers to find the right combination and deal terms. While Erik focusses his attention on successfully moving the parties through the process, his client can remain focused on running their business. Erik is convinced that most of his clients only appreciate the amount of time and effort Erik devoted to working with the buyers, getting data and information to them, and following up after the transaction has closed.

Sellers who have tried to sell on their own find that their business suffers during the negotiation and closing process. Not only do these sellers experience all the complications, interruptions, anxiety, tension, and frustrations that accompany the process, but they often find that their financials suffer because their attention is consumed during the process. Many have also found that buyers use these deteriorating financials to justify lowering the sales price. Sellers who engage an intermediary not only avoid the emotional toll of the process, but also continue to focus on operating the business and maintain or increase the sales price.

Erik allowed me a peek into his personal values by sharing that he most respects clients who aren’t ready to sell, but who have an eye to the future. These people are identifying and improving the things that drive the value of their business, concentrating on what they should focus on now, and preparing for how their focus will change over time to continue to drive value. “I appreciate those who have thought about the things that drive value ahead of time, especially years before taking their business to market.”

“It’s a lot like going in for a checkup with your doctor – the best thing you can do is to have a full checkup every year. The result should tell you what buyers and their bankers will like about your business and what they’re likely to hate. Most important, here’s what you can do about it. Align yourself with somebody who’s not going to chase you, will check in once a year to get the data and stay up to date, and be there when you’re ready.” Erik says. “It’s a great pleasure to work with those who have already thought about what parts of their business might drive a lender or broker crazy. Even though there’s typically some peculiarity about every business, I appreciate working with those who have struggled with normalizing the peculiarities before they engage me.”

Erik told me that he strictly follows his onboarding and go-to-market process. Consistently following his process is likely why he’s so good at what he does. “I send you business because you have a process. That’s the one thing I hear from my referral partners all the time,” he says. “My banker colleagues tell me that our market valuations are never out of whack or don’t fairly estimate a business’ value.” To start with, Erik uses and sticks to his checklists, noting that his team won’t take a business to market until they have obtained and reviewed all the data. The client must also review and approve the documents and information Erik uses to present the business to the market.

While Erik’s valuations are typically conservative, he shared with me several examples in which he’d helped clients get the most from the sale. In some cases, Erik recommends going to market without stating an asking price so that the buyers’ offers inform the seller and the advisors the price the market will support. Another approach Erik frequently recommends involves specifying an asking price while anticipating that a seller-friendly market will provide a premium. In each case, Erik stresses that he will never over-promise what the client should expect. He’ll honestly tell clients what they should expect, knowing that some clients will be attracted to other intermediaries who inflate their promises to win the client’s business.

Another way Erik helps his clients is by finding, in the right circumstances, ways for the buyer to purchase the client’s stock instead of buying the assets of the business. In these cases, the seller’s tax bill is significantly lower, and in many cases the contracts and paperwork are simpler. Erik shared that in one such transaction he recently closed, the accountants who were working on both sides of the transaction were surprised that Erik successfully negotiated the sale to benefit both his client and the buyer.

When engaging the intermediaries for the sales of his own businesses, Erik asked himself “Do I like them? Do I trust them?” Business brokers aren’t necessarily easy to like,” he said, “they might do good work but they can still be hard to like. If you like the person, chances are that buyers are going to like them too.” You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of likeability because you will probably spend a lot of your time and attention interacting with the person you choose.

If any of this sounds like something you’d like more information about, or you’d like to get on Erik’s calendar for an annual wellness check-up for your business, please reach out to me. I’d be honored to connect you.

In this edition of our whitepaper, we present this challenge: Perform a search engine search of the phrase “most valuable brand.”  If your brand is listed among the top ten results, please call me immediately so that I can congratulate you!  If, like most of our brands, yours isn’t even listed among the results, may want to continue reading – not to become among that elite top 10, but to generate the appropriate value for your brand.

A starting point for building brand value is to answer these questions:  What is our brand story? Can anyone on our team tell our brand story? Do our team members effectively communicate our brand story to clients and prospects? My friend Cathy Lucas of Lucas Narratives, an expert in brand storytelling, brand ecosystems, and strategic planning and communication, helps her clients confidently answer all these questions.

Most of the prospects who arrive at Cathy’s threshold think they need help connecting with customers and prospects, telling their story better, or more effectively delivering their story.  Some ask for Cathy’s help rising above the “noise” and standing out to their customers and prospects.  Others want help getting team members to buy-in to the strategies they’re implementing.  Typically, the prospect really needs the creation, refreshing, or polishing of their brand story and help effectively sharing that story with the world.

Cathy shared that her starting points are understanding the client’s business and their goals so she will be helping fulfill their mission and attain their vision.  Next, Cathy and her team always conduct research, which may include focus groups, surveys, or interviews of stakeholders, employees, customers, prospects, benefactors, or board members.  Cathy and her team analyze the results and, based on understanding the business and the client’s goals, make recommendations about how the client and the client’s team can better convey their story and deliver on their promise.

Cathy gained some of her expertise helping clients develop and tell their brand stories while serving as Vice President of Strategy and External Affairs of Metropolitan State University of Denver.  “What I really do,” Cathy shared, “is provide that ‘strategic lens’ to understand marketing and communications.  Are you crafting and telling your story in a way that resonates with your intended audience? Do you have an ecosystem that demonstrates your value proposition?”

A great example of Cathy’s process having yielded powerful results is her work with the University of Northern Colorado (an institution still growing and thriving despite the author’s having graduated from it).  UNC learned of Cathy’s success developing and growing MSU’s brand and asked if she might lend her expertise to create a similar success for the Bears (UNC’s mascot).  With the help of two other team members, Cathy conducted a large survey, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews and developed an image of UNC’s brand status.  The image didn’t come as a surprise – the brand wasn’t “out there” at all.  UNC’s executives and staff hadn’t communicated to the community anything about what the University’s staff or students were accomplishing.  The institution wasn’t even using paid advertising.

Cathy worked with UNC’s President and senior leadership team and gave them recommendations about adopting a brand strategy.  The leaders adopted the strategy, and now Cathy’s working with the University’s marketing and communications teams to integrate her recommendations in the marketing strategy and implement it.

The strategy includes ‘proof points,’ information the team members share with the community. For example, 92% of students who attend UNC choose it because it’s a great fit and gives them a feeling of belonging.  Many of our readers are familiar with UNC’s history starting as a teacher’s college, but many of you may not know that lots of UNC’s teacher graduates take jobs at the university.  Another proof point: UNC employs some of the best-trained educators in the nation, and UNC professors are both teachers and experts in their fields of study.

Capitalizing on Greeley’s location within the 4^th fastest growing region in the country and the University’s leading rank in our state for the upward mobility of its students, Cathy and her team helped UNC garner buy-in on the in-house campaign “North of the Norm,” demonstrating the changing face of the brand of University and of Northern Colorado.

Another notable example Cathy shared with us was with the Colorado Business Roundtable.  However, Cathy had vastly different recommendations for the Roundtable.  The organization had a new CEO and new strategic plan and was seeking to amplify its brand by unapologetically sharing that business is a force for good.  By creating a video series of Roundtable member CEOs talking about the policy initiatives that they’d developed with the help of the Roundtable, and by sharing the videos by social media and through a partnership with 9News Cathy supported the Roundtable’s goal of better telling its story with academia, business, government and community.

As a final example, Cathy shared some details about her work for the Boettcher Foundation.  The Foundation had changed its strategy from funding capital projects only to funding programs throughout the state that equip leaders to meet Colorado’s challenges.  Cathy helped the Foundation create a suite of communication products to tell the Foundation’s story, including a brand storytelling hub and a podcast that is hosted by the CEO of the Foundation.  You may be familiar with the Boettcher Foundation’s history, having been created by Claude Boettcher in a hardware store in Leadville where he provided tools to miners.  Cathy and her team helped the Foundation develop and tell the current chapter of the Foundation’s story – its focus on providing the tools to help equip and bolster today’s leaders.

If Cathy were looking to hire someone like herself, she says she would ask for testimonials.  She would ask, “Who have you done this work for and what do they say about you?  What’s your success rate?”  She advises, “adopt the attitude ‘Don’t tell me, show me!’  Show me a case study or results about how you raised brand awareness over the last couple of years.”

Cathy shared that her ideal client is someone with a mission and that she loves helping organizations with strong stories to tell and who just need some help telling it.  Her favorite result involves a client embracing an idea that she created.

“You don’t want to be a well-kept secret!” Cathy warned, “Get your story out there and establish yourself as a business leader.  Create your strategy and position your CEO as a thought leader in your industry.”

If these admonitions ring true to you, please reach out to me.  I’ll be honored to connect you with Cathy.