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Agency-Insurer Productivity Top 50 traits of great producers Years of working with successful producers reveals a pattern By Scott M. Primiano Time does indeed fly when you are having fun. Last March marked the third consecutive year of the “Great Producers Program” sponsored by the Michigan Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA), and it seems like just yesterday that we were designing the program for the first class. Though each program has been unique with respect to our participants, their backgrounds, and their tenure in the industry, we have been able to identify some common traits exhibited by our most successful participants in that program. These traits mirror those that we have identified in the many hundreds of participants who graduate from our other programs conducted around the country each year. You might be surprised that these behaviors are not complex, process-driven, mechanical, or gimmick-driven strategies, but are, instead, elementary habits that work well without regard to product, price, market conditions, education, style, finesse, hype, or height. You should also know that although no single producer displays all of these traits all of the time, we can say that each one has an uncanny ability to develop most of them and consistently demonstrate them over time. So, here they are. Steeped in common sense rather than complication, these 50 traits represent a timeless composite of every Great Producer. How they view their goals Success in life, both professionally and personally, is determined by our ability to establish crystallized objectives, develop a plan to achieve those objectives, and discipline ourselves to execute the plan. All too often, life’s preoccupations and distractions derail our plans with an earsplitting crash, and we fall victim to the noise. Others’ priorities overwhelm our own; a need for instant gratification erodes the promise of patience and cumulative results; urgency and emergency replace systematic assessment and provocative thought. As we ply our way through the wreckage, it is easy to settle into a belief that it was never meant to be. Great Producers view their goals a bit differently: 1. Great Producers are on a mission—they decide what they can have, believe that they should have it, and then go and get it. No excuses. 2. Great Producers have goals that far exceed others’ expectations—assigned objectives are understated. 3. Great Producers are never content or comfortable with today’s progress. 4. Great Producers review their goals and measure their progress daily. 5. Great Producers visualize achieving their goals and are guided toward them by an internal compass. 6. Great Producers evaluate their performance and the quality of their activity on a regular basis. 7. Great Producers celebrate victories. 8. Great Producers are disciplined daily—even on Friday afternoon. 9. Great Producers run marathons, not sprints. 10. Great Producers are emotionally attached to their objectives. They may give in but they never give up. How they work Time is our most valuable possession. It is the measure of our existence on the face of this earth, and the decisions that we make about how to allocate our time ultimately determine the quality and usefulness of our stay. Given that we begin each day with the same 24 hours and that it elapses at exactly the same rate for all of us, what we do with each moment is the single greatest and most controllable variable in our formula for success. Great Producers worship their time and protect it well. Priorities are established based upon the task’s or project’s ability to move them in the direction of the accomplishment of their objectives—rather than ease, expediency, preference, or pleasure. Great Producers see the light … usually the first light. 11. Great Producers start early, every day—7 a.m. or earlier. 12. Great Producers sell during selling hours. Administration/housekeeping hours are before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. 13. Great Producers spend a minimum of 50% of their time outside of the office. 14. Great Producers are selling at least 70% of the time. 15. Great Producers remember to have fun, and they plan for it. 16. Great Producers return their calls quickly. Not every call, but every high-payoff call, usually from their cell phone. 17. Great Producers look for efficiencies. They are consumed with finding a better way, not an easier way. 18. Great Producers are always learning, and they learn by doing. 19. Great Producers are stable and consistent. 20. Great Producers do their homework … at home. What they work on In the beginning, there was the cold call. It was intrusive, inefficient, and discomforting for peddler and prospect alike. Most producers have justifiably abandoned this legacy prospecting tool in favor of a more palatable one—after all, 100 million people on the national “do not call” list can’t be wrong. That said, I continue to find that a “cold-call mentality” still dominates in a majority of alternative marketing and prospecting systems. The basic premise is that selling is a numbers game. Cast a wide net (through mass-mailing, advertising, volume quoting, and extensive bidding), reel it in, sort it out and work frantically to find a keeper. Although this method generates an impressive amount of work, it does so by exacting a huge opportunity cost on efficiency and client quality while creating a culture of urgency and desperation. This game of numbers simply does not and will not provide enough quality return for the time and attention invested. Great Producers are consistently more selective. Maintaining what Stephen Covey refers to as “an abundance mentality,” Great Producers understand that opportunity is limitless and timeless. After all, everybody needs what we have to offer, and they all have to buy it every year! Targeting opportunity appears to be the Great Producer’s favorite sport, one that is played strategically and deliberately, without concern for a quota or a calendar. They identify their niche markets, learn and stay educated about the unique needs of their markets, and become specialists in serving those markets. Great Producers work the market with a scalpel, not a machete. 21. Great Producers know their product, their competition, and their market, inside and out. 22. Great Producers selectively quote. They analyze and pick every shot. 23. Great Producers are calculated, and figure angles. They find and work from positions of strength. 24. Great Producers look to be unique and search for unique opportunities. 25. Great Producers show up when everyone else has given up. 26. Great Producers speak of a selling process rather than transactional selling events. 27. Great Producers thrive on new activity, not old. 28. Great Producers enjoy the challenge of complexity, flourish on creativity, and are bored by normalcy. 29. Great Producers know what others don’t, or they will take the time to find out. 30. Great Producers move quickly away from lost causes and focus on developing opportunity. Who they work with The most dynamic, unpredictable, and fascinating components of any sales process are the relationships—relationships between people who sell things for a living and people who buy from them. Ordinary people, perhaps, at first glance. But if you dig below the surface a bit you’ll find an extraordinary glossary of experiences, motives, values, behaviors, habits, beliefs, ambitions, fears, emotions, expectations, likes, and dislikes that combine to form the core of our existence and define who we really are. It is at this level that decisions are evaluated and made, and, though this may appear quite obvious, it is also the “human element” most ignored by those of us whose livelihood depends on our ability to influence the decision-making process. Great Producers seem to do a better job than most at attracting, creating, and maintaining long-term client, industry, organizational, and personal relationships. While many producers focus on product, policy, price, and transactions, Great Producers focus their attention on the people and their needs and expectations. Further, Great Producers demand the same from those who work with them and for them. As a result, they tend to work with fewer, more carefully selected clients. Great Producers build networks with like-minded professionals, and usually attract new clients through referrals and reputation. 31. Great Producers don’t discover clients; they create them. 32. Great Producers fish in stocked ponds, not open oceans. 33. Great Producers work exclusively with clients who will work with them. 34. Great Producers know that some relationships come and go. They focus on the comers. 35. Great Producers conduct a formal client needs assessment prior to making product recommendations. 36. Great Producers educate rather than “sell”—they provide their clients with enough information to make informed decisions. 37. Great Producers view each relationship uniquely. 38. Great Producers are heavily networked within the industry and their community. 39. Great Producers go beyond product to provide their clients with value, integrity, and trust. 40. Great Producers are magnets for new and creative opportunities. How they think Some of the most positive, well-balanced people I have ever had the opportunity to meet are at the top of their game. Knowing that they didn’t start there, I ask them how they, above most others, overcame the challenges, frustrations, turmoil, and anxiety inherent in building a career and a stable book of business. The answer to this question is always the same: They simply never believed they couldn’t. The power of positive thinking and its associated benefits are well documented and impact everything that we do. Great Producers are very positive people. 41. Great Producers never believe that they “can’t” or they “won’t,” so they don’t … fail. 42. Great Producers aren’t consumed by what’s on their desk; they are consumed by what isn’t. 43. Great Producers are competitive, internally and externally. 44. Great Producers have a decent boldness; they often say no but rarely hear no. 45. Great Producers view their profession as challenging but not difficult. 46. Great Producers play hurt. 47. Great Producers are proud, determined, and appropriately entitled. 48. Great Producers depend on faith and work, not luck and circumstance. 49. Great Producers find success; they do not wait for it to find them. 50. Great Producers have bad moments, not bad days. Those are what I consider to be the top 50 traits of Great Producers. Their methods are simple, the ideas logical, and the potential for personal and professional growth phenomenal. In my 15 years of coaching, supporting, and training via this program and our process, I have watched good producers become great producers, the impossible become probable, and the theoretical become practical. I have watched countless participants forever bridge the gap between potential and performance. * The author |
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