Producers School graduates stellar sellers

To an inexperienced agent, just learning the insurance industry’s ropes–and many acronyms–can be difficult; Forget about picking a niche or becoming an agency’s top seller too soon. Yet throughout the industry, there are many educational opportunities designed to do just that: To help young agents become better performers and top sellers.

One such program is the National Alliance School for Producer Development. The three week course, which is held in four regional locations throughout the year, is designed to turn novice producers into disciplined, street-smart sales professionals.

“We hope to provide the foundation for students’ careers,” said Jeff Wodicka, national program director for the Producer School and a 30-year veteran of the insurance industry and chairman/CEO of Casswood Insurance Agency.

The Producers School targets producers with six months to two years of experience from all areas of the country and Canada. “We like students to have a working awareness of insurance so that they’re in a position to speak the language, as well as have a willingness to learn,” Wodicka said. “They immerse themselves in the training so that when they leave at the end of three weeks, they have the confidence not to sell all aspects of insurance, but a specific niche.”

As part of the program, students receive two hefty “game books” that become resources once they return to their agencies. Students also roleplay to learn practical applications about the dynamics of selling, managing the sales process and the importance of price, value, coverage, service and relationships.

According to Wodicka, the instructors, senior commercial producers and faculty from the National Alliance’s Dynamics of Selling training course, act as mentors. Through group work and one-on-one discussions, the instructors provide hands-on training to develop individual skills.

“We don’t just focus on technical knowledge without the ability to function day-to-day,” Wodicka said. In fact, one of the hallmarks of the Producers School is to present students with real-life scenarios that they can practice solving.

Julian Summers of Julian Summer’s Insurance Agency believed he has benefited from the hands-on experience. He sought the Producers School based on information he had seen on the Internet.

“I wanted to be the best in my field,” Summers said. “I looked around at a lot of opportunities and everything was technical. And the one thing I kept coming back to was the Producers School because it had a balance of technical, product knowledge and real world scenarios.”

According to Wodicka, that fits the goal of the Producers School. “The end result is not just to train, but to give graduating students confidence so that they feel comfortable hitting the streets in selling insurance,” he said. “We’re not teaching underwriters, we’re teaching students to go out and risk manage and sell.”

Additionally, the Producers School helps to instruct managers too. During the program, agency and sales managers are invited to participate in the opening program and attend special classes during the first week.

This is a relatively new component to the program, Wodicka explained. “We wanted to make sure when we send students back to their agencies that the nests were ready. We decided let’s strongly advise students to come with the person they report to, so they can learn how to nurture them as well.”

Although he has just completed only one week of the three-week program, Matt Carlson, sales executive at Beecher Carlson based in Woodland Hills, Calif., believed he has already benefited from the interactive training.

“I’m pretty much going to be putting everything I’ve learned so far to use. Being a new producer, any education is good education … I’ll know how to handle myself when I’m in front of a client much better than I have in the past. We have game plans and different strategies to go forward and to get those prospects and make them clients,” he said. “It’s given me that confidence to know what to do when I first initially meet the client and where I need to take the situation. Before I was kind of fumbling and didn’t necessarily know what I was trying to get.”

Carlson is the recipient of the Matt Wells Scholarship for Producer Development. Matt was the son of Insurance Journal magazine publisher Mark Wells and worked for Insurance Journal’s West and Texas editions.

According to Summers, he’s learned about “taking things to another level,” being professional, making sure that the customer is properly protected.

“Our instructors have taught us things that I never would have thought of before,” he said. [I’ve learned about] “gaps in coverage and all kinds of problems that now I can suddenly see and I can provide benefit because I know these things.”

Wodicka said 2006 marked the sixth year of the program, or the 20th school–a testament to its success. Some might initially balk at the cost of tuition and travel, plus three weeks an employee will be out of the office, he said, but the education pays off.

“If you look at it as a $5,000 or $6,000 investment, it is nothing compared to a $30,000 or $40,000 mistake,” he said.

The remaining 2006 National Alliance Schools for Producer Development are being held in Plymouth, Mass., and Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. Classes are limited to 60 persons. For more information, visit www.scic.com.