Hiring new insurance producers can be great for bringing in new accounts and revenue for your agency, but to ensure you both have the best experience possible, you need to have a detailed plan when searching for the right candidate. Here are some guidelines to follow:
Make sure the interview is thorough. Ask questions about the candidate’s abilities, their willingness, and motivation to do the job.
Provide training materials. Ideally, offer a written training curriculum that addresses both technical training and “people skills” training in sales techniques.
Review the pay structure. Most new producers have little understanding of how they’ll be paid. Remember, they’ll need some income until they establish a list of clients.
Offer lots of supervision. Meet daily to help new producers learn how to use their time and energy efficiently. Assign someone to act as sales manager to role play, accompany the producer on sales calls and provide positive feedback.
Set goals for prospecting. Do this right away and require those goals be met. This is important for setting expectations early on.
Let them go if they’re not a good fit. It doesn’t take long to see if a producer is going to be up to the task. When that happens, letting them go is in their best interests and in the best interests of your agency.
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