Reduce Your Business Risk

Written by Cheryl Clausen

You’re in the insurance business. Isn’t it your job to help your clients reduce their risks? Then why don’t you protect your own, and I don’t mean just having the necessary insurance products in place for you and your business?

I’m referring to the risk of bringing another producer into your business. As a successful producer yourself you’ve come to a point where you’re trading time for dollars. You’ve run out of time so you’ve capped your dollars, so to speak.

This is both a good and bad position to be in. You’re no rookie and you know how hard it was to build this business. You know you’re one of the rare few who’ve actually succeeded in this business in spite of all the misguided advice you were given.

You did it right. You invested in yourself and you developed a business where you attract the right kind of prospects to you, and you help them to buy from you. You’ve built a solid reputation among your clients and you hold a positive position in the minds of both your clients and your prospects.

Any new producer you bring in to your business will be a direct reflection on that reputation and position you’ve worked so hard to build for yourself and your business. You can’t afford to risk tarnishing this reputation or position. When you allow the “industry” experts to train your new producer for you, you’re risking damage to your reputation and positioning.

Things have changed and things have remained the same since you were a new agent yourself. The industry is still pushing the same manipulative and coercive marketing tactics that don’t work. Now, however, the industry has gotten even greedier and they’re pushing products with multiple hidden fees and tiered payouts. You know how to protect your clients and prospects, but will this new producer?

You’re already faced with a time versus dollar crunch will you have time to invest in developing a producer that meets your standards for excellence? It’s no secret, the industry as a whole is doing a poor job of properly training agents. Your new producer won’t learn how to ethically market themselves and generate sales from the “industry”.

You’ve seen it perhaps you’ve even been there. An agent who can’t pay their bills is a desperate agent. Desperate people do and say desperate things to close a sale. Those moments of desperation can translate into a lifetime of distrust for your business.

You don’t have to be locked into this catch 22 situation. The problem isn’t you and the problem isn’t the new agent. The new agent is a blank slate waiting to be filled with the right stuff. Training doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

Training is an incomplete solution you buy over and over again. Training is based on symptomatic treatment without addressing the root cause of the problem in the first place. Plus you certainly don’t want your new producer to be “trained” to follow the unethical practices of scaring people, and using manipulative or coercive language.

Instead you need this person to develop the skills to ethically market and sell themselves. As you know these skills don’t develop in a predefined “training” event timeline. Plus you have to grow into your own skin and build on your existing strengths.

You could work intensely with the new producer yourself and act as their mentor. Although when you choose to do so you pay through your own decreased productivity. You wanted to increase the productivity of the agency and decrease your time commitment, right?

You can alleviate your risks and lower your investment through coaching. Coaching is proven to produce positive results. The new agent gets the one-one-one help they need so they’re productive sooner, and you get the increased agency production and more free time you want. You don’t want an agency puppy mill making money from agents you know are predestined to fail. You want a successful financially secure stable business that reflects your values and protects your clients. Coaching is an option for you. Get your new agent off to a good start by sharing the free 7 Secrets report available at http://increasesalescoach.com.

Cheryl Clausen -
	Are you where you want to be? Cheryl Clausen's experience working with clients has been that many insurance agents and financial advisors aren’t where they want to be.At certain points in your business you just get really stuck, and you don’t know what to do to get you where you want to go.Well, my purpose is to help agents and advisors to get unstuck and get going again. Read a daily article to get yourself or your team going: My Blog Read More >>
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