What Does it Take to Create a World Class Insurance Agency?

chillibreeze writer — Vikrant Pande

One of the most inspiring books by Dr. Wayne Dyer, American author and spiritual guide, is titled You’ll See It When You Believe in It. Belief is the starting point for success, especially in a frustrating but equally satisfying career in insurance sales. An insurance sales person has to face rejection each day. Jokes abound on how to lose friends quickly by becoming an Insurance agent and about getting stuck in an elevator with an insurance agent! Given the bad rap insurance agents get, it is indeed difficult to create a successful agency unless there is a belief that success is just a matter of doing things in the right manner and consistently.

So, what attributes must one have in order to be a part of an effective and successful insurance agency? Read on to find out.

First, you need to have been there and done that! It is unlike any other job where being a boss is reason enough to order and command your folks. You need to lead by example and tell your team how to handle objections, show them a few tricks of the trade, and most importantly, be a coach and a mentor. In my 20 years of sales experience, I have found this quality to be the most effective managerial skill but also the most challenging to execute. Being a coach is different from being a leader or a boss. A boss orders, a coach guides. A boss looks for results while a coach is interested in activities which will lead to result.

Second, you need to work toward the following specific goals that are endemic to high performing teams:
1) Clear discipline quotient.
2) Measure activities on a daily basis and not once in a while.
3) Do things which most people hate doing.
4) Constantly seek self-improvement, one step at a time.

As is the case with most sales processes, the success of a high performing team is do with managing the fundamentals. It is not about doing innovative or extraordinary things but doings ordinary things extraordinarily. The elements of a sales process are easy to understand and implement. The difficulty is in doing it consistently each day. Let us take the example of asking for referrals. While most of the sales folks are taught and know how to ask for referrals they don’t get them simply because they don’t ask for them consistently. A top performer asks for referrals in each meeting, irrespective of what the outcome of the meeting is. He converts each meeting into an opportunity to ask for referrals. This creates more meetings hence more opportunities. He understands the value of this endless productive loop.

One of the most consistent traits of a top performing team is the ability to do things that most people hate doing. If most people do not like calling strangers, top performers convert this into an opportunity to meet new people that may lead to more sales. Most people do not like memorizing a script, but top performers do it because they know the value of a fluent script.

High performing teams do not always know the route to success. In fact, most of them fix goals for which they do not have answers. They ‘invent the how’ – often off the cuff. The ability to put himself/herself in a situation of discomfort deliberately creates a sense of challenge and adventure in a top performer. S/he thrives in this atmosphere and the coach challenges their paradigms each time they achieve a particular benchmark.

There is an anecdote of a manager in an insurance company addressing a group of MDRT agents. He was asked by the audience what differentiates his team which is far exceeding the benchmark set by others. He gave his usual answers which were related to the elements of a sales process. Most of the members in the audience, who themselves were high performers said they knew what he was talking about. They wanted to know what his mantra for success was. The manager thought for some time and answered: “I suppose we do what people talk of doing”.

That to me is finally the essence of success. The knowing-doing gap cannot be filled by more knowledge. You need to get up and start doing. And the results will automatically flow!

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in March, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

Vikrant is an engineer and IIM Bangalore alumnus. He has over 20 years of work experience primarily in financial services distribution including insurance. He successfully ran a large insurance distribution company for over 2 years. He enjoys creating and working with high performance teams. He currently heads a PE funded startup company focused on solving financial problems for retail customers. He is based in Gurgaon, NCR.

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