How to Nurture Producer Productivity

Your distribution network is likely full of agents who don’t bring much to your business. You’re not alone in this. In fact, a mathematical principle has been developed to explain this very common phenomenon. It’s called Price’s Law.

According to Price’s Law, 50% of the results in a productive community will be achieved by the square root of the total group. Based on this principle, if you have 100 agents, you can expect 10 of them to produce 50% of all sales. These 10 agents are your most successful, most productive team members. The other 90 agents can’t keep up – but that might just be because they don’t have the support they need.

People can underperform for many reasons. In some cases, it may come down to a lack of motivation or effort. However, many people want to excel. They just don’t know how to. To beat Price’s Law, you need to give your underperformers the tools and support they need to succeed.

1. Foster Top-of-Mind Awareness

Communication is key. You know the saying “out of sight, out of mind.” You can avoid this by sending helpful tips and resources every month at a minimum. Depending on your model, it may make sense to communicate on a weekly basis.

To foster top-of-mind awareness, provide a steady stream of tools and information to help agents move prospects through all phases of the buyer’s journey – awareness, preference, and decision.

Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of only sharing product information. Product information is necessary, but on its own, it will not create superstar sales performances. Your producers need practical training tips on how to prospect, use social media, manage their leads, build presentations, overcome objections and more. Don’t assume they already know how to sell. Adopt the mindset that learning never stops.

2. Supply Sales Tools

Well-designed sales tools can make selling insurance much easier. Many times, the only sales collateral pieces available are specific to a carrier or product. Yet, early in the customer journey, agents are building relationships, fact-finding and educating their customers about potential exposures. They aren’t ready to present carrier-specific product information until much later in the sales process.

To help agents facilitate earlier phases of the buyer’s journey, provide them with general client handouts that educate and increase understanding. If prospects don’t fully understand their exposures, they won’t feel any urgent need to buy your product. As the old saying goes, confused minds never buy. Fact sheets, infographics and quizzes and checklists can be great conversation starters.

Consider supplying agents with:

• Campaigns in a Box. A campaign in a box is an all-in-one resource with everything producers need to launch a one-day or multiday campaign.
• Coverage checklists are a great way to ensure that no coverage options or considerations are missed, creating cross-selling and upselling opportunities and preventing oversights that could kill the sale.
• Producer-facing articles can help agents learn about sales strategies and coverage issues, while consumer-facing articles are perfect for sharing with prospects to educate them on the need for coverage.
• Social Posts. Many agents underutilize social media. Having a social media account isn’t enough. Agents need to post eye-catching content regularly. Unfortunately, many agents don’t know what to post or where to find images that they can post without committing copyright infringement. You can help by supplying social media posts with images.
• Client Handouts. Client handouts are a fantastic way to educate prospects on coverage needs and options either before a meeting or after a meeting to give the prospects something to think about.

These resources should be easily downloadable from the agent-facing area of your website or agent portal. Consider leaving your logo off these pieces so independent agents will be more likely to use them.

3. Provide Sales Training

Do your producers have a go-to sales presentation? Do they know how to overcome common objections and avoid sticker shock? Do they know how to nurture leads or to follow up after a meeting?

If they’re not performing well, they probably don’t. All these sales tactics need to be learned somewhere. Even experienced agents need reminders so they can sharpen their skills and avoid bad habits.

You can help by providing sales training tips and education. In addition to offering webinars, post articles, videos and guides that can be accessed on demand.

4. Make It Easy for Agents to Be Active in Social Channels

Many agents want to be active in social media, but they’re not sure what to post, or they don’t have time to come up with content ideas. You solve this issue for them in two ways:

1. Include posts on your own feed that are appropriate to share with your agents’ customers. Then, encourage agents to like and share your content on their own feeds. They will be more likely to share your content if you use imagery that does not include your company’s name or branding.
2. Add a social post library to your agent resources section of your website. This can include a page of ready-to-use social media posts that agents can download in a click and then upload to their social media feeds. Again, don’t put your logo on these posts so that agents will be more likely to use them.

We’ve already touched on how producers can use social media posts to reach prospects, and you can help by providing social media posts that producers can simply copy or download and post on their own feeds. You can also use social media to stay in touch with your producers and widen your reach.

Producers are busy, and they may miss content on your website. You can make it easier for them to keep up by posting useful information on your social media profile.

Building Strong Relationships

You want your producers to perform well so your business can succeed. They want to close sales so they can succeed. By providing the support needed to nurture producer productivity, you can develop a mutually beneficial relationship.

Inbound Insurance Marketing helps carriers, wholesalers, networks, FMOs, IMOs and brokerages provide all the content mentioned here to improve the performance of their distribution networks. Schedule a call to discuss your needs or explore our resource subscription options.