I hear from a fair number of insurance producers. They are either considering a job change to consulting or they like insurance sales but are unhappy with their current agency situation. I'm not saying all agents are in these categories. Just the ones who call me.
This note focuses on the later "" agents miserable with their current situation.
The common theme among unhappy agents is that their agency is terrible at marketing. I also hear complaints about the advertising, the quality of insurance companies represented, and the agency's support staff.
One agent actually complained about the quality of calendars their agency gave out. I told him it wasn't the most important problem he had.
Here is my general advice to those who want to stay in the agency business:
--Realize that your success depends more on you than on your agency.
--Stop wishing things were different. Stop wishing that the agency owner would run more newspaper or yellow page ads. Stop complaining that someone else gets all the call-in leads or the referrals. Change agencies or buck up and get on with maximizing your current opportunity.
--If you do decide to change agencies, the odds are about 90/10 that you will end up in an agency that has the same faults as the one you're in now.
--Objectively, most insurance agencies offer tremendous opportunities. Even poorly run agencies offer a great chance for producers to provide exceptional service and make a great living. It's up to the individual to maximize the opportunity.
--Marketing your services and abilities is, ultimately, up to you. Realize that you are in the marketing business "" marketing you. Now get on with it!
--Build your own brand. Build your name and your reputation in the community and industries you work in. Make yourself the go-to person for amazing insurance value "" coverage, price, and service.
--Establish your own service standards. Let clients and prospects know how you manage your business. Return phone calls in 90 minutes. Be incredibly responsive. Show extreme dedication to the value you provide.
--Networking and building a network are different animals. A network comes from building relationships where you are seen as valuable and a person of interest. Become remarkable "" worthy of remark.
--Build your credentials. Prove to yourself, your agency, your clients, and your prospects that you are an insurance superstar. Get your CPCU. Take classes, read magazines, books, and websites that expand what you know about the policies and exposures you manage. Read the writings of the great idea people "" Seth Godin, Peter Drucker, and Alan Weiss.
--Build a team to help you. If your agency doesn't provide a coach or mentor, get your own. Work with another producer in your agency to bounce ideas off of. Use a non-competing agent you respect. Perhaps there is someone you met at a seminar or educational session with whom you can work. Another option is to hire a coach or mentor.
This industry offers almost limitless opportunities for agents and consultants. Success depends on smart-work, education, intelligence, dedication, and high self esteem.
Agents and Agencies
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scott
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Agents and Agencies
Scott Simmonds, CPCU, ARM
Insurance Consultant
Insurance Consultant
agents & agencies
Nice Post, Scott.
As an agency owner, I want a producer (agent) that has a self-starter attitude. I do pay for the yellow pages, etc... to help get the calls to come in, but, frankly, the best source of new business is in my current files. I bought an agency 10 years ago and have not finished rounding out the accounts yet! There is tons of business in the filing cabinet (yup, I still have paper files... but that's another thread).
I suspect that other agencies are like mine... the owners want the producers to work through the current accounts and to ask for referrals as they progress. I even pay extra for their account rounding efforts! If they did this religiously they would not have any time to even think about complaining! They'd be looking for a good investment advisor!
Swymmer
As an agency owner, I want a producer (agent) that has a self-starter attitude. I do pay for the yellow pages, etc... to help get the calls to come in, but, frankly, the best source of new business is in my current files. I bought an agency 10 years ago and have not finished rounding out the accounts yet! There is tons of business in the filing cabinet (yup, I still have paper files... but that's another thread).
I suspect that other agencies are like mine... the owners want the producers to work through the current accounts and to ask for referrals as they progress. I even pay extra for their account rounding efforts! If they did this religiously they would not have any time to even think about complaining! They'd be looking for a good investment advisor!
Swymmer
Scott "" good post. When I first became a consultant in 1992, my peer insurance agents/brokers told me I was crazy and that nobody was going to pay me for what their insurance agent already does for free. They were wrong; however, I had to market myself and not my agency, or the companies I represented. If I couldn't cut it as an agent, I would have starved as a consultant.
Overtime, my practice has evolved and today I, personally, spend more time developing productive work environments than auditing risk management and insurance purchasing practices. My risk management practice carries on, but my personal focus has turned to working with people"¦ and that has brought me to the very issues you have raised. Everyone wants to drive the agency owner's BMW, but very few are willing to invest the time it takes to develop their most valuable asset - themselves.
Yellow Page Ads "" I am still laughing. I know agencies who recruit smart well dressed young people from the direct writers to become independent agents and then the agency managers are surprised when the new recruits start complaining about name recognition. These people are used to responding to phone calls and referrals that arise from their Company's position within the market "" not because they are the best insurance agent in town. Recruit the right person based upon who they are and not their experience; then provide them training that includes a road map for achieving individual financial success and you will have an agency filled with excited cooperative people developing opportunities out of thin air.
Recruiting the right people for your agency is more than simply having them complete a professional assessment to see if they are inclined to be a good sales person "" although I do use assessments in my practice as part of the larger picture. Moreover, training new agents to be successful is different than training them to pass their agents/brokers' license exam.
There is more that agency owners can do to help their young guns succeed, but buying more Yellow Page Advertising Space is not one of them. I work with a very successful independent agent who keeps his offices in a lousy part of town; so that his agents are not inclined to hang around the office"¦ he hosts weekly support meetings that last three to four hours each Monday at a local hotel that caters their continental breakfast. The experience is first class and the agenda is set to provide sales and leadership skills training for at least one hour every week... more often longer. They do not sit around and talk about sales leads, or budgets, or sales goals"¦ they do sit around and talk about how to get to a specific prospective client, or how to address a specific client issue.
In my world, weak individuals are never hired and those that are hired receive the type of training that would lead to their success in any field.
Yellow Page Ads "" ha-ha.
Overtime, my practice has evolved and today I, personally, spend more time developing productive work environments than auditing risk management and insurance purchasing practices. My risk management practice carries on, but my personal focus has turned to working with people"¦ and that has brought me to the very issues you have raised. Everyone wants to drive the agency owner's BMW, but very few are willing to invest the time it takes to develop their most valuable asset - themselves.
Yellow Page Ads "" I am still laughing. I know agencies who recruit smart well dressed young people from the direct writers to become independent agents and then the agency managers are surprised when the new recruits start complaining about name recognition. These people are used to responding to phone calls and referrals that arise from their Company's position within the market "" not because they are the best insurance agent in town. Recruit the right person based upon who they are and not their experience; then provide them training that includes a road map for achieving individual financial success and you will have an agency filled with excited cooperative people developing opportunities out of thin air.
Recruiting the right people for your agency is more than simply having them complete a professional assessment to see if they are inclined to be a good sales person "" although I do use assessments in my practice as part of the larger picture. Moreover, training new agents to be successful is different than training them to pass their agents/brokers' license exam.
There is more that agency owners can do to help their young guns succeed, but buying more Yellow Page Advertising Space is not one of them. I work with a very successful independent agent who keeps his offices in a lousy part of town; so that his agents are not inclined to hang around the office"¦ he hosts weekly support meetings that last three to four hours each Monday at a local hotel that caters their continental breakfast. The experience is first class and the agenda is set to provide sales and leadership skills training for at least one hour every week... more often longer. They do not sit around and talk about sales leads, or budgets, or sales goals"¦ they do sit around and talk about how to get to a specific prospective client, or how to address a specific client issue.
In my world, weak individuals are never hired and those that are hired receive the type of training that would lead to their success in any field.
Yellow Page Ads "" ha-ha.
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captivenomore
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As a former CSR who recently moved into the producers chair, this post was especially timely. This is all stuff I know but it's good to have it reinforced. I have worked hard to earn a reputation that I will do what I say I will do and I try to get back to people as quickly as possible. You can promise the world but it is useless without followup. My biggest hold-up at times is hearing back from underwriters so I can get the quote to the prospect.
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scott
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The measure of good service is always meeting the client's expectations. If you tell them you will call on Tuesday - call Tuesday. If you know you won't have the answer on the promised date, due to some snag, let the client know as soon as you know.
Nobody disputes that the above is correct. It's amazing how few act on the agreed standard.
Nobody disputes that the above is correct. It's amazing how few act on the agreed standard.
Scott Simmonds, CPCU, ARM
Insurance Consultant
Insurance Consultant
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GrowthAgent
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Scott,
Is the insurance business soley a relationship business or is there more to it?
Personally I think there is more to it; Relationships are critical, but they not the only variable.....Product availability, Service level agreements, ease of doing businesss, quick turn around etc.
Curious to read your thoughts.
Is the insurance business soley a relationship business or is there more to it?
Personally I think there is more to it; Relationships are critical, but they not the only variable.....Product availability, Service level agreements, ease of doing businesss, quick turn around etc.
Curious to read your thoughts.
Scott,
I think you have missed the point. The relationship between an agency and a producer is a two way street. Typically agencies keep 2/3 to 3/4 of a producer's commissions and in return, they should be providing great marketing, advertising and client service.
I agree that a producer's success is their own responsibility. Producer's should work hard to be the best sales people they can be. That's just it though, they should be sales people, not branding specialists, telemarketer or CSRs. In exchange for the commission they keep, an agency owner has a responsibility to the sales staff. They must provide the best marketing, advertising and client services available.
An insurance agency should: 1) identify a target market where they can have a competitive advantage; 2) create and implement a marketing program that attracts prospects to the agency; 3) nurture those potential leads until they are sales ready; 4) when a lead is sales ready, turns them over to the producer to convert the lead into a client.
Step#2 should be supported by helping producers brand themselves. Getting the word out that they are experts in their target market. Helping them find speaking engagements in their target industries. Supporting them in writing articles for trade papers and magazines. Getting good public relations.
But most of all, client service is paramount. It is really sad when a producer who has none of the above benefits goes out and works diligently to aquire a client only to loose them because of an indifferent CSR cannot be bothered to make a client call back in a timely manner.
To the agency owners who have posted here feeling that somehow Scott is telling you the problem is the producers think about his one comment, "--If you decide to change agencies, the odds are about 90/10 that you will end up in an agency that has the same faults as the one you're in now." Read that to mean, 90% of all agency have faults that need to be corrected.
I think you have missed the point. The relationship between an agency and a producer is a two way street. Typically agencies keep 2/3 to 3/4 of a producer's commissions and in return, they should be providing great marketing, advertising and client service.
I agree that a producer's success is their own responsibility. Producer's should work hard to be the best sales people they can be. That's just it though, they should be sales people, not branding specialists, telemarketer or CSRs. In exchange for the commission they keep, an agency owner has a responsibility to the sales staff. They must provide the best marketing, advertising and client services available.
An insurance agency should: 1) identify a target market where they can have a competitive advantage; 2) create and implement a marketing program that attracts prospects to the agency; 3) nurture those potential leads until they are sales ready; 4) when a lead is sales ready, turns them over to the producer to convert the lead into a client.
Step#2 should be supported by helping producers brand themselves. Getting the word out that they are experts in their target market. Helping them find speaking engagements in their target industries. Supporting them in writing articles for trade papers and magazines. Getting good public relations.
But most of all, client service is paramount. It is really sad when a producer who has none of the above benefits goes out and works diligently to aquire a client only to loose them because of an indifferent CSR cannot be bothered to make a client call back in a timely manner.
To the agency owners who have posted here feeling that somehow Scott is telling you the problem is the producers think about his one comment, "--If you decide to change agencies, the odds are about 90/10 that you will end up in an agency that has the same faults as the one you're in now." Read that to mean, 90% of all agency have faults that need to be corrected.
ttdat, your feedback is appropriate for a larger agency. For us smaller firms most everyone needs to wear multiple hats. I own the place and do most of the active marketing, some CSR stuff... and the dishes... and the bathrooms... you get the point.
Also, I have provided the producer a place to work. A job. Therefore, your comment about the agency keeping 2/3 or 3/4 of the producer's commission is not correct at all. I pay my producer a part of MY COMMISSION!!! It is my business, not his or hers.
The rest of your post is good. Thanks for stepping into the blog. Welcome aboard!
Swymmer
Also, I have provided the producer a place to work. A job. Therefore, your comment about the agency keeping 2/3 or 3/4 of the producer's commission is not correct at all. I pay my producer a part of MY COMMISSION!!! It is my business, not his or hers.
The rest of your post is good. Thanks for stepping into the blog. Welcome aboard!
Swymmer