A decade ago, I sold my agency and entered management with the passion that I could help more people and touch more lives (my “why”) by developing a team of agents.
I was previously ranked the top producing agent with one of the nation’s oldest and largest insurance companies. I truly thought management would come easy for me based on my prior experience. What I soon found is that not only recruiting, but “Launching Successful Recruits” is easier said than done.
“You can recruit yourself out of any situation.”
In Management, we all know that recruiting is the lifeblood of our business. And recruit I did. I did mass mailings, telemarketing, job fairs, traditional ads, online recruiting, and tried every other means I found to draw talent into my organization.
Looking back over the past decade of a leadership position, I now have more names in my X-Agent file than my Active-Agent file. My first year as a manager, I recruited 16 new agents. I won an award for this and felt successful at the time. Ten years later, only one agent is still here of those original 16.
“If your fledglings fail, either you hired them wrong or you trained them wrong!”
I think we all would agree to this and as leaders take this to heart. I sure have.
We cannot have a 100% success rate in launching new recruits but can challenge ourselves to try! Two years ago, I started changing my focus and efforts. If recruiting is the “what”. Then launching successful recruits is the “how“. And this is where I was failing. Of course, you already know my “why“.
“Looking back as a successful producer, I asked myself, “What are the TOP 3 things that I needed to succeed?””
Number one was MARKETING. I had to get in front of more people someway, somehow. Because pricing was all over the board, I had to WIN P&C at any price. As a ML producer, I needed to sell more LIFE insurance, period.
Now, in my three-month training period, I give recruits MAC (MyAgentConnector.com) for free. My last four agents have connected with two or more loan officers and dozens of realtors, securing a steady flow of REFERRED LEADS prior to their start date. Then I co-op this program 50%=50% allowing them to continue growing their referral sources and referred leads. Secondly, I give them the VSP (ValueSalesPresentation.com) that teaches them how to sell value over price when presenting P&C. What if each of your agents won just one more quote a month? Not only would you make more, but it might just save their young careers. Lastly, I built my agents LIT (LifeInsuranceTrainers.com) to help my agents have more meaningful life discussions with clients.
This platform was built for my team, field tested by my agents, and now available for your agency at www.IATrainers.com. Email info@iatrainers.com or call (858) 848-5302
