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Winning Strategies What are your responsibilities as a producer? Producers play a dual role as members of an agency and as individual entrepreneurs By Roger Sitkins
Most individual producers think of themselves as agency employees rather than as owner/operators of their own company, which I refer to as “Me, Inc.” Because you have your own book of business, you really need to think more like an entrepreneur than an employee. Although you should never forget that you are still part of an agency that we’ll call “We, Inc.,” as an entrepreneur, you have to understand the roles you play as the head of “Me, Inc.” They include: Please note that “service person” is missing from the job list at Me, Inc. It’s something we talk about all the time and refer to in The Sales Ten Great Plays™. We firmly believe that Play #1 is the service hand-off, which recognizes the distinction between sales and service functions. Salespeople sell, service people service, and rarely the twain shall meet. That aside, let’s discuss your duties and responsi-bilities as the head of Me, Inc. More important, as you read this article I want you to rate yourself in terms of meeting each of the following responsibilities: 1. Round Out, Retain and Replicate Your Clients. Not only do you want to sell your clients all of their insurance, you want to retain those clients for as long as possible and you want to get more clients just like them. It’s really not that difficult to replicate your most profitable clients when you consider that every one of them probably knows at least three or four people who can become your new clients. They WILL become your new clients if you’re properly focused. Are you meeting this responsibility? 2. Install Exit Barriers. This is a concept we’ve discussed before, but the bottom line is, if your business is really all about obtaining and retaining clients, you must make sure that the following exit barriers are in place: By “installing” those four barriers, you’ll make it extremely difficult for a client to leave. Are you meeting this responsibility? 3. Proactively Manage Relationships. As the head of your company, if you truly believe that relationships are the key to your success, you will have a formal proactive—not reactive—relationship management program. Basically, there are five types of relationships that have to be managed: clients, prospects, insurance companies, team members and centers of influence. Are you meeting this responsibility? 4. Be a True Risk Manager. When you’re providing insurance to your clients, what you’re really providing is risk management. While it’s true that you’re providing a risk-transfer vehicle (a.k.a. insurance), your real goal is to provide value-added services to ensure that your clients lower their Total Cost of Risk. So your focus should be much more on pre-loss than post-loss. Are you meeting this responsibility? 5. Be a Member of your Key Clients’ Trusted Advisor Team. If you ask most clients who their trusted advisors are, they’ll usually name their CPA, their attorney, their banker and their financial planner. You’ll rarely hear them mention their property and casualty agent. Unfortunately, most agents are still positioned as vendors of a commodity. They sell based on product and price, not on value-added services. The litmus test is to ask yourself when it is that your clients call you. Is it before or after an event? Let’s say a client is getting ready to expand or diversify his business. Would that client call you before the transaction, seeking your professional opinion and advice? If so, you’re a trusted advisor. On the other hand, if he calls you after the fact to tell you what he needs from you, then you’re simply a vendor—a facilitator of an insurance transaction. Your goal is to get on equal footing with the other trusted advisors. Are you meeting this responsibility? 6. Keep Your Pipelines Filled. Without question, one of your key responsibilities is to keep your prospect pipelines filled. One of the major challenges facing independent insurance agencies today is that they are reactive vs. proactive in the sales arena because their pipelines are not nearly full enough. As the leader of a public company, wouldn’t you want to make sure that your salespeople always had enough prospects to talk to? It’s the same for you as the leader of Me, Inc. The bottom line is, you have to be in a position where you have more opportunities than time. When you always have something better to do, you have walk-away power on accounts that you shouldn’t be working on. You do this by keeping the pipelines full. How do you fill your pipelines? Here’s a blinding flash of the obvious: Ask for referrals! Of course, you’ve heard that a thousand times before, but are you doing it? Are you earning and generating introductions where a client or a center of influence refers you to your next great client? I’ve heard it said many times, and I firmly believe it’s true, that your next great client wants to meet you through a referral. I mean, if you needed heart surgery, you wouldn’t look in the Yellow Pages so you could get quotes from cardiovascular specialists, would you? Probably not. You’d probably want a referral from someone you trust. And that’s what we want. So remember, your next great client wants to meet you not just through a referral, but more likely by way of introduction from somebody he or she trusts. How full are your pipelines? Are you meeting this responsibility? 7. Focus on the Vital Few. As the leader of Me, Inc., you should focus on the vital few activities you do each and every day that absolutely get you the best results. We all know about the 80/20 Rule as it applies to business—that the top 20% of your customers provide 80% of your revenue and that the bottom 80% provide just 20% of your revenue. The same applies to an individual’s efforts at work, in that 20% of what you do generates 80% of your results. Because a very small amount of properly focused energy will yield a tremendous amount of results, you need to figure out where to channel your energy. What vital few activities or accounts are producing the greatest results for you? What things do you do 20% of the time that generate the greatest amount of energy and passion in you on the job? Why not do them 40% or even 60% of the time? Think how great your results would be! Are you meeting this responsibility? 8. Earn a Profit. Is your Me, Inc., earning a profit? An acceptable profit? Just like any business owner, you have income and expenses. You generate income at work, but your expenses are personal and occur at home (mortgage, car payment, education, food, etc.). Our challenge to you as a producer is to complete a profit and loss statement each month. You really should determine if your Me, Inc., is making an acceptable profit each and every month. Do you track your finances sufficiently (via an accounting system such as Quicken)? If you need additional information on this topic, go to www.finishrich.com and read what my friend David Bach has to say about this. Keep in mind that any business has to operate at a profit of at least 15% if not 25% or more (which is what the Vertical Growth Experience is all about). How are you doing in your leadership role as a financial manager? Are you meeting this responsibility? 9. Plan and Fund Retirement. Historically, producers are not the greatest at saving for the future. However, it is absolutely your responsibility to plan for, and fund, your retirement (rather than bank on Social Insecurity to still be around when you retire). Or are you hoping to get a big hit when your agency’s 401(k) or profit-sharing plan kicks in? Even if it does, it may not help you attain financial freedom. That’s one reason we harp on the idea that producers must earn a profit. More important, you must have the discipline to pay yourself first, not last, to fund your retirement. Are you meeting this responsibility? 10. Seek Training and Education. If you want Me, Inc., to get better, you must work continually to improve it. A big part of “working on” vs. “working in” is pursuing ongoing training and education above and beyond what’s required to maintain your insurance license. That means working on your sales skills, presentation skills and other skill sets needed to be a great producer. We see that the great ones never graduate. Conversely, we see that the average producer is “too busy” to get better. If you’re not improving faster than your competition, you’re falling behind. Do you spend enough time learning about risk management on behalf of your clients? What about learning about the business world (outside of insurance)? Are you knowledgeable enough to advise your clients on how a business should operate? Are you meeting this responsibility? 11. Build Your COIN (Center of Influence Network). It’s critical that you build a COIN within your business community. Often we’ve said that it’s okay for your success to be easy; that it’s okay if every sale you make is from a direct introduction from your center of influence. Just keep in mind that besides building your network, you must woo it, so to speak. Are you proactively managing and cultivating your COIN? In our perfect world, producers have at least 10 centers of influence and host a relationship event with each of them at least once a quarter. Consistency is the key to building your business through your COIN. Are you meeting this responsibility? 12. Be a Positive Role Model. Whether you accept it or not, we are all role models, for better or for worse. This is true at work and after hours. In business, do other people look up to you and try to emulate you? Do they admire and respect you? In this case, “they” could be your clients, people within the agency or those in the community. If you met yourself for the first time, what would you think? Be aware that acting as a role model is one of your responsibilities. Are you meeting this responsibility? 13. Maintain Energy. I believe that energy and passion go hand in hand, and that there’s a big difference between having a vocation and an avocation. If you’re a negative person with a bad attitude about your job and life in general, you’re going to be an energy drain. But if you love what you do and can’t wait to get started each day, you’ll generate energy. As leader of Me, Inc., it’s important to focus on maintaining your energy so you can get out there and do the things you need to do. Are you taking care of yourself physically, mentally and spiritually? Do people around you feel energized and inspired? Are you meeting this responsibility? 14. Give Back. Unequivocally, it is your responsibility to give back to others. The Good Book says that what you give will come back to you tenfold (although based on my recent trip to help build homes in Nicaragua, I firmly believe that the returns are even higher). You do not give out of a sense of obligation or expectation, but because you’ve been blessed. As you approach financial freedom, share your good fortune in some way with others. It’s only by giving that you truly receive. Are you meeting this responsibility? The bottom line is that great leaders understand their responsibilities, they focus on their responsibilities and they exceed their responsibilities. Is that what you’re doing as the head of Me, Inc.? It’s your choice. * The author |
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