Are your producers not producing?

I was talking with a friend who owns a business and he repeated something I’ve heard from a lot of business owners recently. He said, “Every year around my insurance expiration date, I have anywhere from three to six insurance agents—in addition to my current agent—show up looking to quote my insurance. You know how many showed up this year? Zero.”

Why are so many producers not producing? Here are some of the reasons: 1. They’re brand new. 2. They aren’t putting in the necessary hours. 3. They aren’t doing enough of the right activities. 4. They aren’t new, but even after years of being in the business they still don’t know what they’re doing, and they’ve never made an effort to learn. The only acceptable reason on this list is the first one. That said, once the employee has been with your agency for more than six months, he or she can no longer use this excuse. So, what causes producers to fall into the other categories on the list? Maybe they lack work ethic or mental toughness; are two years from retirement, so they lack motivation; are in their comfort zone because they have

SALES

Help Build Your Family’s Financial Future With PIA Trust Insurance Plans

INSURANCE PLANS DESIGNED WITH LOCAL AGENTS IN MIND

As a PIA Member* serving Main Street America, you and your employees have access to a variety of highquality, competitively priced insurance plans.

Plans available include:  Basic Term Life**  Voluntary Term Life  Dependent Term Life  Hospital Indemnity  Long Term Disability  Short Term Disability  Business Overhead Expense  Accidental Death & Dismemberment PIA SERVICES GROUP INSURANCE FUND

*PIA National membership, when required, must be current at all times. **Only available if 100% employer paid and if the employer and 100% of the employees enroll. No medical underwriting necessary up to guaranteed issue limits.

For more information about PIA Trust Insurance Plans, please contact your local PIA Affiliate or call the Plan Administrator at 1-800-336-4759. Additional information is also available on-line at www.piatrust.com.

Policies or provisions may vary or be unavailable in some states. Policies have exclusions or limitations which may affect any benefits payable. Underwritten by Unimerica Insurance Company, Portland, ME. Administered by Lockton Risk Services.

enough money to pay the bills; are getting paid, even if they aren’t hitting their goals; or aren’t cut out for sales. Regardless of the issue, here are the solutions to make sure you have producers who actually produce: • Hire correctly from the start. • Set rules and expectations up front and hold people accountable to them. • Supervise your people. Micromanage rookies, lightly coach top producers. • Have a sales system and sales process in place. • Provide training, tools and resources. Sales training is the most important. • Have support staff in place so 80% or more of the producer’s prime selling time is spent on sales activities. • Provide the right environment—one that is positive, supportive, and free from negativity, gossip and other childish behaviors. • Have a good relationship with your producers. • Know what motivates and demotivates them, and use that knowledge wisely. Of all of these solutions, hiring correctly is vital. Why? Winners find a way to win Winners find even when the circumstances are dire. You can throw them into almost any situ- a way to win ation, and they’ll figure it out. On the even when the other hand, you can give the wrong person every break and helping hand in the circumstances world, and he or she still will find a way are dire. You to underperform. Regarding training: I’ve also found that can throw them about 35% of producers need mental- into almost any toughness training in addition to sales training. This is because, even if you situation, and can get someone who is afraid to make they’ll figure the calls, he or she still will fail because most communication is nonverbal. If the it out. producer lacks belief and conviction, he or she won’t get anywhere. To prove my point, I know an insurance producer, who has been in the business for 15 years who recently increased his sales by 638% in a year by combining mentaltoughness training and sales skills training. How does all of this factor into my friend’s comment at the beginning of this article? In my experience, 60% to 80% of producers look for any distraction, any reason to avoid the discomfort of hard work. The pandemic has provided them with an excellent excuse because it gives them seemingly valid reasons to stop making sales calls. Let me give you another example:

This past Columbus Day I called an agent who I’ve been working with for a couple of months for our phone call that we have every Monday, at 9 a.m.

I got her voicemail and left a message to call me. About an hour later, she sent me a text that read: “Our agency is closed today. Email me another day this week that works for you, or let’s chat next Monday!

Have a great day!” My rule has always been, if your customers’ businesses are open then you’re open—even if your office isn’t. Here is what I know about Columbus Day—and similar holidays, for the insurance agent in the story and many other salespeople—almost all the businesses they call are open, there’s less traffic and it’s easier to get to the decision makers. Additionally, since most producers aren’t working, you’ll stand out. That’s a win, win, win, win. You don’t train people to think proactively. They come to you with that ability already or they don’t. If it’s not in their blood, when you ask people to call during a pandemic or on Columbus Day, they either will laugh because they think you’re joking or they will say OK and then dismiss your directive. So, do your best to hire hard workers who are positive and self-motivated, and who like people. Then provide as many of the bullet-pointed solutions discussed in this article, so they have the training and tools to be successful. Chapin is a motivational sales speaker, coach and trainer. For his free eBook: 30 Ideas to Double Sales and his monthly articles, or to have him speak at your next event, go to www.completeselling.com. He has over 33 years of sales experience as a No. 1 sales representative and he is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year Sales Encyclopedia (Axiom Book Awards). Reach him at johnchapin@completeselling.com.