PERSONAL LINES SELLING
By Troy Korsgaden
Identifying agency weaknesses and hiring specialists to
fill the void are part of the overall training program
Every new hire should be someone who can help the agency run more effectively while at the same time helping your clients receive the type of service they desire and have the right to expect.
This is the second in a series of articles focusing on staff training.
Agencies across the United States and around the world have fully embraced the concept of running their agencies as a business. In the April issue, we discussed developing the vision for your agency as well as refining the communications strategy that managers need to use with employees and customers. Next we talked about developing a roadmap and focused on the need to move toward specialization.
Hiring a specialist
Now that you have recognized the benefits of specialization in your agency, you are probably asking the question we receive most in our consulting work: "Who is the next person [position] I should hire in my agency?" Regardless of how many employees you have, the questions you should be asking are: "What do we, as an agency, do best? What are the agency's strengths?"
Of course, you also need to ask: "What are the greatest weaknesses in the agency? What are the areas that need more focus and attention?" These questions would even apply to those agents who are starting from scratch and have no employees. For those agency owners with employees, it is important to sit down with your staff and have a frank discussion about these issues.
Perhaps you will determine that the agency needs to focus more attention on life and financial services. Or perhaps you need more support staff in the personal lines or commercial lines areas. If you, the agency owner, are still involved with service work, you need to bring someone in who can take over that task for you.
We do not advocate hiring a new person just to have another warm body in the building. We believe strongly that every new hire should be someone who can help the agency run more effectively and provide the agency's clients the type of service they desire and have the right to expect.
Ensure success through training
Once you have decided which role is needed in your agency--possibly a life specialist, a financial services specialist, a commercial specialist or a personal lines specialist--the next step is crucial. It is important that once the person is hired, he or she has some basic tools to ensure success in that job. Number one, the person needs a thorough and complete job description. Also, it is important that he or she has some basic training to get off on the right foot. If your agency is like most, you are asking yourself more questions at this juncture such as: "How am I going to train this person to be an effective profit center in my agency?" And the number one question I hear is: "Where am I going to find the time to train this person?"
The answer is to make a short-term commitment to training in order to achieve a long-term gain. Remember you are hiring a specialist to correct or fill in a gap in the agency structure. Another comment I hear frequently is: "I am wasting my time because I can never find the right tools to make the person a profit center." The first thing you need to do is to create a standard operating procedure in your office. We will review this procedure in an upcoming article called "Continuity Books." You may not be aware of it yet, but your business has--or should have--a standard operating procedure for handling questions regarding certain lines of insurance. Because the purpose of hiring someone is to strengthen one of the agency's weaknesses, there may not be much of a continuity book already developed. However, you will be building your continuity book on a go-forward basis. The key is to write down daily, weekly, monthly procedures that go along with this job title. Again, we will be talking about this in a future issue.
Remember, also, you will want to use all of the other training methods available to you. What resources are available to you? If you are a captive agent, you can go to your local leadership because many of these companies have specialist representatives to help you. Whether it is a state office or a specialist who represents the state or region, or even home office, there are resources available for you to contact to receive on-the-job training. Many companies have online training or even online universities for interactive training. The important thing in this area is that you utilize the information that is available. If you are not a captive agent, you will want to use many of the other association resources. In addition, there are manuals, CDs or Internet resources. Trade magazines and other publications can also be quite helpful. These training materials are inexpensive but, more important, they are accessible in today's environment.
Continue to focus on the vision
In last month's issue, we also talked about the vision--your vision of what you want your agency to become. It is important that everyone on the team understands that the agency needs to earn more commissions and create a higher profit margin as it adds staff. How CSRs handle incoming calls can make a huge difference in the agency bottom line. Some CSRs view incoming service calls as a negative, a burden on their time and resources. As an agency owner, you can help your CSRs see the opportunity. Every incoming call is an opportunity to help the client. Then, once the client has been helped, the CSR can develop this into an opportunity for a face-to-face appointment to talk about another line of insurance. Many of your clients who seek help for a specific problem may also learn that your agency can assist them with all their insurance and financial services needs.
So focus the early stages of agency training on setting appointments and not just handling problems that arise. Many of the issues that we deal with are best handled face-to-face rather than over the phone. By meeting with your client to address his or her questions, you have the opportunity to be in front of that individual to talk about additional products and services. You will be surprised that many of your clients want to physically meet with a person when they have major problems with their insurance or financial services. This not only allows you to handle their current issues, but also allows you to talk further about discounts and services that set you apart from your competition.
Don't get lost
In last month's column, we discussed the need for a roadmap. A roadmap is important because in the day-to-day running of your business, it is easy to get distracted. Now that you know whom to hire and how to train, it is important to know how often you should consider hiring. Your roadmap should include hiring and training one person on average every six months. Because you are hiring a staff specialist, you will want to focus on this one individual to make him or her a profit center. This takes approximately six months. When managers try to train more than one person at a time, the success rate is not as high. We will go into greater detail on the roadmap to success in future articles.
The specialist whom we hired was chosen because we identified our agency's strengths and weaknesses. We hired someone to help us overcome our current weaknesses. In a typical agency, this action frees up current staff to focus on their strengths. This next step is an important part of the equation. After you have hired and trained someone for a specialist role, be sure to evaluate his or her performance at regular intervals. We suggest 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and six months. Has the new hire become a profit center to the agency or a cost center? Assuming that this person is a profit center after six months, you will want to hire a new specialist to continue the agency transformation. If, for whatever reason, the person is a cost center to the agency, you will need to reevaluate whether your training program and roadmap are on the right track.
Summary
Let us review the important steps for your agency to move toward future growth and greater profitability:
1. Develop your vision of how you want your agency to look like five years down the road. Then sell your vision to current staff using a communications strategy that is inclusive, focusing on strengths so that all staff members "buy into" your vision.
2. Develop your roadmap, your tactical plan for turning your vision into reality. Set your timetable for adding staff specialists.
3. Put your plan into action. Transforming your generalist agency into the specialist model takes time and that's okay. It's the journey that is the most fun and rewarding.
To be continued ... *
The author
Troy Korsgaden is a recognized authority on personal agency distribution systems and is currently co-writing a new book about the agency distribution system. His book, "Power Position Your Agency; A Guide to Insurance Agency Success," explores in-depth, strategies for growing and retaining insurance agency business. For more information, call TKS at (800) 524-6390 or go to www.tksystems.org.