Straying can result in an agency’s
loss of efficiency, profitability, and client satisfaction
To have a successful high-performance agency, your producers
and salespeople must first have clarity about what their job entails and how they will be held accountable.
By Roger Sitkins
When producers and service reps focus on their respective zones of genius and do what they were hired to do, the entire agency operates at a higher level of efficiency, profitability, and client satisfaction. This is much like a major highway, where everything runs smoothly when people stay in their lane. Conversely, you have the chaos of “overlap” when people stray from their lanes.
As a producer, you’re either getting paid or you’re not getting paid. In working with thousands of producers, we’ve noticed that most spend only 30% of their time in the Green Zone, meaning 70% of their time is wasted in the Red Zone on no-pay activities, namely service. Producers get stuck in the service trap when they’re handling service requests, chasing down paperwork and tending to other non-revenue-generating activities. This creates bottlenecks and frustrates service team members who should be operating in the Blue Zone but are constantly interrupted by producers. Ultimately, inefficiencies and errors cost the agency money. That’s why staying in your lane is so critical.
What color is your lane?
Green. If you play a sport, you know you can’t score any points if you’re sitting on the bench or folding towels. To score, you must be in the game. Similarly, if you’re a producer, you earn money only when you’re in your lane, which is the Green Zone. Picture it as a highway’s center lane painted green.
As you know, there are four key Green Zone activities. This is where producers should be spending 80% of their time.
- Sales. Actively closing deals and generating new business
- Relationship management. Strengthening connections with top clients and centers of influence
- Continuations. Proactively managing renewals to retain ideal clients
- Pipeline building. Developing future opportunities by prospecting and asking for referrals
When producers focus on Green Zone activities, they maximize their sales capacity and dramatically increase revenue. Currently, the average producer is a part-time producer; our goal is to make them a full-time producer or at least an 80% producer. It’s not unusual for agencies that are $5 million and above in revenue to increase their organic growth rate by 21% or more without hiring additional producers. As we’ve said before, in the real world, getting producers into the Green Zone is the world’s greatest and most profitable producer recruitment program.
Blue. The Blue Zone is where service professionals shine. They focus on handling client needs with precision, efficiency, and minimal interruptions. Tasks include processing policies, managing claims, and ensuring a seamless experience for clients. Blue Zone work is all about creating a calm, controlled environment where service reps can excel without distractions.
When service reps are empowered to own the Blue Zone, they can handle client needs more effectively, thereby reducing errors and improving client satisfaction. Further, when they’re not constantly interrupted by producers, their productivity and morale jump dramatically.
For the agency, this alignment leads to higher revenue per employee, better client retention, and a more cohesive team. In working with our private clients, our goal is to get them above $300,000 of revenue per employee.
Address the challenges
Without a doubt, most agencies face numerous obstacles when they introduce this model. That’s because most agencies are doing very well without modifying the way they do business, so there’s little motivation to change. However, there will always be challenges when agencies try to implement new programs or ideas.
The key to overcoming them is to recognize the “why” behind the objections.
- Producers resisting change. Many producers are stuck in the good (or good enough) results trap because they’re comfortable there. But good results are not great results and, if producers are willing to accept them, they won’t have the freedoms most people want: financial freedom, relationship freedom, and time freedom.
- Service teams feeling overloaded. One reason service reps feel overwhelmed is because of the extra work that often comes from producer involvement. Typically, the producer provides incomplete information, forcing the service person to follow up with the client several times for a single transaction. Instead, day-to-day service should be between the client and the assigned service professional, not between the client and the producer.
It’s an ongoing educational process. Despite their common goal of obtaining and retaining ideal clients, sales and service personnel must agree to distinctly different roles and responsibilities. Then the client must be educated about whom to contact with problems or questions. It’s helpful to give every client a service directory with contacts in every department (accounting, claims and service). If not, clients will contact the producer each time they have a problem or need. - Lack of leadership accountability. It’s up to agency leaders to set clear expectations, provide ongoing coaching, and hold everyone accountable for staying in their lane.
Taking the next steps
There are several steps agencies must take in order to implement this model.
- Define roles and responsibilities. Clearly outline which tasks belong in the Green Zone (where producers should be 80% of the time) and which ones belong in the Blue Zone (where service people can work uninterrupted at least 80% of the time). Beyond having a common goal of obtaining and retaining clients, team members must appreciate, respect and trust their teammates’ different roles.
- Set up the producer’s perfect schedule. If there’s no clarity about what the producers should be doing, they’ll just randomly go through the week. The key to being in the Green Zone is having scheduled activities. For instance, Monday is devoted to preparing for the week ahead. That’s the day you have your sales meeting, High Performance Team meeting, business development and whatever else you need to get ready for your upcoming appointments. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are when producers should be meeting with clients, future ideal clients and centers of influence. This helps producers prioritize Green Zone activities and achieve actionable goals.
Although producers should aim for at least 10 appointments per week, there’s a good chance they don’t have a single one. In fact, we have found that it’s rare for any producer to have more than five. It’s not that they don’t have time to make them, but that they don’t have the structure with which to do it. Some of the best producers we’ve worked with leave the office on Monday and don’t come back until Friday because they’re on appointments. And with today’s technology, they don’t need to come back to the office. - Empower service teams. Service reps must own the Blue Zone. While the producer’s job is like that of a pilot—takeoffs, landings, and emergencies in flight— many producers see everything as an emergency in flight. For that reason, the best High Performing Teams clearly define what constitutes an emergency. Obviously, we want producers to interrupt their service rep if they’re experiencing a true emergency in flight on a big account.
However, we empower service people to say no to non-urgent demands and to not stop what they’re doing every time a producer calls for help. We also recommend that producers trust their service teams and avoid micromanaging. Once they understand that the agency is serious about this issue, they’ll stop interrupting with non-emergencies. Instead, they will send a request via text or email detailing their needs.
The bottom line
To have a successful high-performance agency, your producers and salespeople must first have clarity about what their job entails and how they will be held accountable. After that, they must stay in their lane and do their job. The path to greater growth, profitability, and freedom starts with this simple but powerful shift. Are you ready to make it happen or will your team members continue to trip over each other in an unproductive overlap of roles? The choice is yours.
To learn more about how we can help your agency maximize its profitable growth, we invite you to download our recently published white paper on the subject at www.sitkins.com/whitepaper.
The author
Roger Sitkins is the CEO of Sitkins Group, Inc. After over 40 years he has truly become an icon in the insurance industry having trained and mentored thousands of insurance professionals.
Roger was inducted into the Michigan Insurance Hall of Fame in 2017 and in that same year also received the Dr. Henry C. Martin Award from Rough Notes magazine. Roger is among only six people to have the honor of receiving this prestigious award.
Recognized as the nation’s top insurance agency results coach and renowned leader for improvement, he believes that if you improve the life of one person, you improve the world. To learn more, visit www.sitkins.com.
