Getting your producers to perform at their best can often be a challenging task. Many agencies invest huge amounts of time and money in order to motivate their employees and improve morale.
Though it may be a challenging endeavor, motivating your producers to perform their best day after day is very rewarding to the business as a whole. Steven Balzac, president of the organizational development firm 7 Steps Ahead, states, “You can’t threaten or compel people to perform at a high level; top level performance comes only from a highly motivated work force.”
Here are some effective ways to motivate your producers.
Create a Positive Work Environment
A negative working environment is one of the major factors behind poor productivity. Employee happiness is directly linked to motivation according to the National Institute of Health. Creating a positive work environment can have a tremendous effect on producer motivation. Here are some suggestions to creating a positive work environment:
Look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What kind of leader am I?” or better “Would I follow me?”
Create a productive and constructive work environment through positive reinforcement. It is important to maintain focus and stay upbeat even when things are challenging.
Build producer confidence by establishing routines, setting realistic/challenging goals, and remind producers of past successes instead of failures.
Be Generous and Share the Company’s Success
The sense of contributing to the overall goals and success of a company can be a tremendous motivator for producers. After all, no one wants to feel as if the work they do does not matter to the success of the whole. By enabling producers to share in the success of business success, you ultimately enhance productivity. Some examples are:
Profit Sharing
Company Stock Options
Weekly meetings to discuss company goals and successes with employee recognition for a job well done.
Set Goals and Reward Success
Goals set should be attainable and applicable to the success of the employee and the business as a whole. Provide detailed information to producers how these goals fit into the overall business strategy and both company/ employee success. It is also imperative that the goals provided to a producer are relevant to their current work responsibilities.
While rewards are an important outcome to goals achieved, it is important that they not be the main motivator for employee performance. Rewards do not need to be monetary; instead, try using feedback or appreciation for continued hard work.
As owners/operators of a “small business”, we at SIS understand how challenging it can be to motivate employees. Through our collective wisdom we have learned that one of the best motivational tools out there is to always look for reasons to celebrate success, no matter how small. This provides everyone with an opportunity to stop and appreciate the fruits of their labor. Aside from providing a solid software to help agencies run better, we aim to provide assistance in key business initiatives such as those described in this blog.
For more information, please feel free to contact us at 800-747-9273 or [email protected].
Independent insurance agency owners and executive interested in migrating to a new agency management system will benefit from a new, interactive eGuide, “How to Choose an Agency Management System,” published recently by Strategic Insurance Software (SIS).
Understanding that no one system is right for every agency, SIS, created the resource to help independent agencies determine which of the over 70 agency management systems on the market today is the “right” one for their particular circumstance.
“Choosing the wrong agency management system could cost an agency thousands of dollars and months of lost productivity,” said Michael Doran, EVP of Sales for SIS. “Having observed hundreds of agencies making buying-decisions, and wanting to help agencies make informed decisions, we decided to outline the major factors that must be evaluated by agencies as they evaluate a potential purchase.”
The resulting guide addresses eight key areas for an agency to consider and presents thought provoking questions that will assist owners as they evaluate systems and the companies that support them.
About SIS: Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio,SIS is the team behind Partner XE insurance software – an innovative web-based insurance agency management system that helps independent agencies streamline workflow and grow their business. Built on a foundation of strong technology and exceptional service, we’re moving forward with a constant eye on innovation that will make independent agents’ lives easier.
Independent Insurance Agencies Must Plan for Future Growth
Right now, there are many factors affecting the growth and success of insurance agencies. Factors such as the internet, generational differences, legislation, case law, the economy, the soft market, and the vast fortune carriers have made the last five years have placed many insurance agencies at a disadvantage. From increased technology to a focus on identity fraud protection, there are many angles to consider when thinking of the future of your agency.
Recently, an article titled 5 Ways Agency Principals Can Seize the Future was published by the chair of ACT’s Agencies of the Future initiative Peter van Aartrijk. In this article, Aartrijk provided 5 insightful ways that an Agency can seize the future and in turn grow a successful agency. In this article, Aartrijk not only discussed the 5 ways an agency can seize the future, he also provided helpful links to additional resources covering each point.
The 5 points included in Aartrijk’s article were:
Brand – Aartrijk emphasizes the understanding that “a brand isn’t tangible”. It is a result of the actions that you take and the customer service that you provide that resides in the minds of your owners, employees, customers, prospects, business partners, and opinion leaders.
Leadership – Here Aartrijk discusses the need for both transformational and transactional leadership in order to succeed. A successful agency leader must be willing to gain new information and insight from a multitude of sources.
Staffing – “Smart agency owners invest in people and training.” Aartrijk states that within the next 10 years, nearly half of the individuals working in the insurance agency will retire. If you do not embrace the next generational leaders that are currently ready to get involved now, your agency could be stuck with a minimal work force that is lacking the skills that could be passed down from tenured agents.
Social – Aartrijk emphasizes the importance of not sitting on the sidelines of the current consumer revolution. To ensure a strong future in the insurance business, agencies need to be “fully engaged, year round, in online and social networking activities”. He stresses that relationships are very important to the industry, and building these relationships with digital media is imperative to success.
Metrics- Finally, Aartrijk stresses the need for agencies to focus on the effectiveness of the marketing and sales efforts. “Knowing your numbers is a key differentiator between the growing agency and the one that is not.”
To review the full article, 5 Ways Agency Principals Can Seize the Future, written by Peter van Aartrijk, please click on the link below.
Practical Resolutions – and tips on how to keep them.
As we turn the corner into the New Year, everyone seems to be making a resolution of one sort or another. Some want to lose weight, others want to cut out sugar,quit smoking, exercise more, spend more time with the family, … you name it. Ironically or not, many make the same resolution year in and year out and never keep them past February or March. Instead of same old, same old (or maybe in addition to same old, same old) in 2013 think about streamlining business processes and get your office organized for the year ahead.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started…
Improve your renewal processes.
Create custom reports to bring the information to the forefront.
Look internally. Get your team together and collectively figure out if there is a better way to handing the large amounts of policies that are downloading or being manually renewed.
Get your house in order
Update workstations and old equipment
Set new goals for going paperless and, if you haven’t already, document your plan to do so. (For suggestions on how to move to a more paperless work environment, read Best Practices: Go Paperless )
Beef up agency security
Keep data in a password-protected, encrypted space
Create “strong” passwords and keep them secure
Keep User Permissions Tightly Controlled
For more practical suggestions on how to improve the security of your agency data read Keeping Agency Data Secure
Invest in the future
Take the time to review, document and share internal Best Practices
Make continual improvement and training of all staff members a priority. (For additional insight, read Steve Anderson’s Training Pays Big Dividends
Focus on Marketing Strategy and on Setting and Meeting aggressive sales goals.
Identify the marketing channels that your customers and prospects will respond to. There are numerous ways to attract new business. As Steve Anderson wrote in Create A Balanced Approach to Marketing, “go where your prospects and customers already gather.”
If we all had an infinite amount of money we could throw our marketing dollars to the wind – putting money into the fad of the moment or whatever happened to suit our fancy at the time. But if that were the case, would we really be working the business or would we be off lounging on the beach somewhere? Since it is safe to assume that money is not infinite and that decisions need to be made as to where to best spend your marketing dollars (any dollars really) the logical next step is to determine where and how to get the best return on your investment.
In a recent article published by ACT, Grow Your Agency & Improve Your Marketing by Tracking Key Metrics, Chuck Blondino, Northwest Region Marketing Director for Safeco Insurance makes a strong case for using metrics to track what is and isn’t working, where your best business is coming from and adjusting your tactics accordingly.
High growth agencies, he says, track metrics.
“While most agencies change little in size of their personal lines books, there are a select few high growth agencies consistently increasing their total personal lines books by 10 to 24%. (Safeco NW Region top 25 personal lines high growth agencies study in 2011) Comparing the commonalities of these agencies, it’s clear that they stand out in their sales methods, training, and support. One thing really was truly unique – these agencies tracked their marketing efforts and knew what was effective and what was not.”
Every effort needs to start somewhere. When it comes to tracking the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, that start is as basic as they come. The first question that must be asked of every new client is “How did you hear about us.” The caveat is, don’t just ask it, track it. With this information at your fingertips, it all flows from there.
What makes this article really valuable is that Blondino not only tells you that you need to start tracking metrics… he gives solid examples of what to track and how to track it.
Thanks to all of our clients who chose to participate in the Partner XE Regional Learning events in Iowa and Missouri! These were held in mid-May 2017.
Getting your producers to perform at their best can often be a challenging task. Many agencies invest huge amounts of time and money in order to motivate their employees and improve morale.