Real training and support would have an extremely small effect. The reason is simple - 99% of this is pure self-motivation and you cannot give that to anyone. Motivation and support is like a warm bath - feels great when you're in the tub but you're cold as hell when you're out. You cannot give someone drive to succeed. You can give them leads, set appointment for them, training, the whole nine yards. Without an incredibly high degree of self-drive you're dead in the water.
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What every independent agents needs to understand is they're running their own business. Think of it as a type of franchise situation - you buy a Subway and they provide the location, food, training and name. Same with being independent - you are provided with the products, training and company names.
I'm not too sure Subway corporate likes phone calls from the new owners going like this:
"This sucks. I've had three sandwich makers quit already. Also, I apparently have to advertise in local papers and offer specials. The problem is I'm dead broke so I don't have any adverting money. I also really don't like interviewing and hiring new help. I'm also being bugged all the time with small problems while I'm trying to relax at my pool. These assistant managers are real needy. To be honest, I'm really not into subs anyway. I'm more into Italian food."
No, I seriously doubt Subway or McDonald's would even entertain such a discussion with a Franchise Owner. Years ago, I was told something, don't create your own problems, I think that is what I'm hearing here. Someone calls up with such a discussion you tell them "NO" end of discussion, you do not entertain such discussions! Then again you have to have various levels of support depending upon the production of the person, of course those with high production gets more attention then those that don't produce, simple fact of life or one that should be, don't oil the squeaky wheel, replace it!
Real training and support would have an extremely small effect. The reason is simple - 99% of this is pure self-motivation and you cannot give that to anyone. Motivation and support is like a warm bath - feels great when you're in the tub but you're cold as hell when you're out. You cannot give someone drive to succeed. You can give them leads, set appointment for them, training, the whole nine yards. Without an incredibly high degree of self-drive you're dead in the water.
Yes I agree, you can not train someone to be motivated or being a self starter. This would be the Churn and Burn side of giving seminars and recruiting Independent Agents, I can not see any way around it? I would suggest cutting them sooner and removing that headache! Now how many Independent Insurance Agents can one find that can actually produce? I really don't know?
I'm posted this before but one of my best friends owns a Pepperidge Farm franchise. He has the Towson area in MD. He's up at 4:30 and off to the warehouse to load his truck up. Oh....he had to buy the truck - Pepperidge doesn't give him one:-)
He starts hitting his stores by 6am since a lot of grocery stores require him to get the shelves in order before customers come in. As he loses accounts he cold-calls stores to get new ones. He also is required to pitch the store managers to get specially placed displays.
Every store must be managed and he can't have more than a certain percentage of spoilage. All the cookies have dates and he has to know how much of what cookie to put out. Put out too many Milano's? They expire and he eats it. Don't put out enough? The store manager calls him at home and tells him to get your ass down there to re-stock. He's also paid per-item so if he doesn't put out enough he loses money.
Each store has a different dynamic and what sells well at one store is the worst seller at another. All that must be tracked. He actually had a nice hand-held computer that helps him. I've gone with him on several days and by the end of the day I'm totally exhaused.
He pulls in about $160,000 before expenses. Then I see insurance agents with the capacity to make the same amount of money or actually more but can't put in more than 10 hours a week. Pikers.
Last edited by healthagent : 06-28-2007 at 12:57 PM.
What you are failing to see is that these companies find people like your friend and they succeed doing it. It isn't the others that screw with you or I, it is us! It is what I refered to as, "Creating your own failure". Now don't get me wrong, I've created some failures in my day, oh well sometimes I really enjoyed my failures, good thing I suppose?
What you are saying is the point of my seminar. Can you make 100,000 the first year. Yes, but you have to be moytivated to do it. You have to work the 12-16 hour days, and be "on" all the time. If you want to sit around and do nothing in your undwear find another career. The first screen of my presentation is all about reasonable expectations and the amount of work you have to put in. If a manager is really interested in your sucess then having this spelled out by someone is what they will want. In the end it comes down to this. You can read ever book and go to every seminar but no one can do the work for you.
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Steph
My job is so secret I don't even know what I'm doing!
Management is a funny thing, often misused and misplaced set of rules circle this field. IMHO managing independent agents is not feasible, by definition! So the real issue is in Recruiting and Motivation, which is at the heart of the issue. Personally I believe anyone can be motivated if they are willing, now identifying those willing is the key! This is where Churn and Burn is all but the rule of the day, sure you can interview all day long and come up with any personality test you care, but every time these ideas are totally turn on their heads by achievers that shouldn't be achievers! And unfortunely yes, those that should be achievers turn out to be the biggest loosers! In the end its a number game, recruit via seminars and let those that stick stick and those that fall fall, and maybe if you figure out the formula on how to pick correctly serious money will follow! In fact if you figure that out you'll likely be the richest person in the world.
Real training and support would have an extremely small effect. The reason is simple - 99% of this is pure self-motivation and you cannot give that to anyone.
That's exactly what this business is all about, pure and simple!
Most of the people I have interviewed were in their 30's or older and had been in the workforce for some time. Some had been agents for a number of years. They all had one thing in common, they had been unsuccessful at everything else they had tried. Failed even. Tupperwear, Amway, encyclopedia sales, vacuum cleaner sales, car sales, advertising sales, etc.
The other thing they had in common was that they were looking for an "easy", fast way to make a lot of money. When I told them I would expect them to work 10 to 12 hours a day, five and even six days a week while they were learning the business they lost interest. I also told them that the first week would be intense training with a lot of reading and learning the policies and the history of Medicare they lost even more interest.
If these people were really motivated then they would not have been sitting in front of me in the first place. They would be out making real money.
Granted, they weren't all like that but that describes over 90% of them.
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Medicare Supplement Sales Training and Coaching.
"The Perfect Contact Management Program (CMP) for the Insurance Professional" www.YourInsuranceOffice.com
877.633.0808
After selling Pontiacs I wanted to upgrade and interviewed at BMW. It was a pretty short interview - I had to give them my statements showing how many cars I sold the previous year, how much I held on the front (gross profit) and how much on the back (finance.) That was the interview. I gave them what they needed and I was hired. My manager told me "nothing cuts through the bullshit like proven past performance."
So basically what I'm hearing is this, "We tried but they failed us, so it doesn't work". Or am I misreading something here?
No, not at all. I didn't say "it doesn't work", nor did I mean to imply that. I said I tried and I didn't have the kind of success I hoped for. I explored an idea that didn't work for me and I didn't see enough potential for the kind of success I was looking for to spend more time trying to figure out how to make it work.
I became an independent agent so I could be independent. Not to be a babysitter for a bunch of people who needed someone to hold their hand all day, every day.
When I was captive I made as much or more money than the managers who had 3 or 4 agents working under them. I also had a lot more quality in my life than they did. Money alone isn't worth much if you don't have quality of life to go with it.
James, have you ever tried to hire, train and motivate agents to work under you? Just curious to know what your experience has been.
James, have you ever tried to hire, train and motivate agents to work under you? Just curious to know what your experience has been.
Not in Insurance but other fields. Photography and DME (Durable Medical Equipment), where I recruited, trained, manage etc etc. Some years with Olan Mills and some years on my own. In DME I took the Knoxville area for a small company just starting out in the Nashville area, in two years I was in three States and basically was 70% of the company.
I have had a couple agents that wanted to ork under me. Spnet a little bit of time with them, one never ended up getting a license, the other is still working for UA and bitching about it everyday. Some agnets are as dumb as prospects.
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