Equipping Expertise Productivity
Equipping Leaders
Let's face it -- to make a decent living in the insurance industry,
producers must sell and close good accounts. While some producers have the wonderful
fortune of working within an agency with some type of established support structure,
most agencies give the producer full charge of their own destiny believing they
either have fortitude or they don't have it! This is the old "Throw It Up Against
a Wall and See What Sticks" method of producing salespeople.
Yet, how many producers truly possess the organizational skills, time-management
skills, communication skills and phone skills necessary to make a good living? Some
develop them over time, but many don't, and either way translates into wasted time
and dollars within your agency.
|
Ask yourself these
seven questions . . .
How
satisfied are you with the amount and quality of new business your producers bring into the agency?
How
important is it to you that your producers get into enough doors to close
enough sales to make a good living?
How would
your agency benefit if your producers had so many open doors for appointments with new prospects
that they turn prospects away?
How much more would your
producers enjoy working with your agency if they had the luxury to pick and choose who they quoted while closing more
sales?
How many of those "diamond producers" the consultants speak of would
you be able to recruit if you had a warm pipeline ready for them to start with?
How
much additional revenue would your agency generate if you would generate
one or two of these improvements?
|
The true answers to these questions
are evidenced by your agency's bottom-line profit!
MAPSTMReduces New
Producer Hiring Expense
One of the costliest endeavors an agency undertakes is the hiring and training of
a new producer. We've designed MAPSTM to help you save
perhaps thousands of dollars when bringing in a new producer. How?
MAPSTM can begin a new pipeline of prospects in advance
of the producer accepting the position so your new producer is ready to hit the
pavement running with warm prospects already aware of your agency's name. This simple
process gives your new producer the means to validate in one-half the time, saving
your agency potentially thousands of dollars. Plus, as your new producer is in training,
MAPSTM faithfully works in the background "staying
in touch" with prospects. Even before they make their first phone call, your agent
already has the reputation of being reliable.
MAPSTM Help New Producers Cope with Rejection
Perhaps one of the most advantageous aspects of MAPS,TM
especially for the new producer, is the way it helps them cope with rejection. Even
with strong ego strength and ego drive, it is difficult to train a new producer
to enjoy being rejected. MAPSTM can turn this around
using the principle of reciprocity. Today's "no" can be turned into tomorrow's "yes"
with a little persistence. If the producer hears a "no" and makes no contact during
the following year, the prospect feels little or no obligation to say "yes" the
second time. If the prospect only receives junk-type mail in the form of impersonal
newsletters, there is still no relationship.
Yet when your agency uses MAPS,TM and the prospect
receives 12 personally signed, professional, relationship-developed letters from
the producer, the law of reciprocity makes it very difficult for the prospect to
say "no." It is easier to reward the producer's hard, persistent work with an appointment
because the producer has honored the prospect in advance. A greater appointment-
to-call ratio will create more sales no matter how experienced the producer might
be.
Develop Producers & Monitor Their Results =
Attainment!
Its clear MAPSTM fills a producer's pipeline with qualified
prospects interested in an appointment! Still, bringing a horse to water doesn't
mean it will drink! In the vast majority of cases, a producer fails because of one
of four reasons:
-
the producer
lacked the ability or motivation required for success in insurance sales;
-
the producer
was poorly trained;
-
the producer
was poorly managed; or
-
the compensation
system was defective.
Although it may seem unfair to place responsibility for the failure of unsuccessful
producers entirely on management, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion the producer
who fails should have been better trained or managed, or should not have been selected
in the first place.
In the same way, your Marketing AutoPilot SalesTM System
can't make the sale for your producers. MAPSTM will
get producers in the door, yet they must qualify the prospect, close the sale and
pick up the check!
Training vs. Sales Management
While training provides the basic knowledge and skills needed for success, coaching
helps your producers perfect the application of these skills. Once the basic skills
are taught, many sales managers consider the learning experience complete, and they
leave the producer to survive or fail with little more in the way of assistance,
except for the occasional, "You need to make more calls."
After analyzing numerous successes and failures, we are convinced the single most
important factor in the success or failure of new producers in the agency business
is the agency's effectiveness in sales management. You see, there is a great deal
more to sales management than pumping up the enthusiasm of producers with pep talks,
sales contests and trips to Bermuda!
The amount of coaching required is determined by several factors and experienced,
competent sales personnel will usually require a minimum amount of assistance, while
young, inexperienced personnel may require considerable help.
The National Sales Executive's Digest surveyed several thousand salespersons, from
all fields, in an attempt to discover their most secret thoughts, feelings, and
frustrations about their careers in selling. The results of the survey are good
guidelines for you as the MAPSTM Manager in your agency
to follow in accomplishing your responsibilities.
The three most frequently stated needs of the salespersons surveyed were:
-
specific methods for improving sales;
-
a complete
understanding of the techniques of selling, and how to apply them in day-to-day
selling;
-
training in capsule and digest form.
Above all, the salesperson wants a coach in his or her manager,
someone who can show them "how to do it," rather than a cheerleader on the sidelines.
One of the reasons Teddy Roosevelt succeeded in leading the charge up San Juan Hill
because he said, "Follow me!" and stormed up the hill instead of yelling "Charge!"
and expecting his troops to fight up the hill.
Productive Sales Meetings!
Sales meetings are a fact of business life in the corporate world. Yet, few agencies
take the time to make productive sales meetings a normal part of operations. An
effective weekly sales meeting, one planned for in advance and lasting between 45
minutes to one hour, will provide a great platform for coaching producers through
difficulties, solving real-life objections, reviewing results, giving recognition
and discussing changes necessary to focus the team efforts toward greater results.
To advance results, MarTech'sSM master consultants coach managers
on ways to increase the effectiveness of sales meetings by providing a clear, definable
direction for the entire agency.