On this episode of The Ridiculously Amazing Insurance Podcast, we are celebrating the 5 year anniversary of Agency Performance Partners and passing the milestone of 1,000 completed Agency Assessment team member surveys. While many agencies continue on to participate in the APPX Retention and Sales programs, the majority of agencies start with the Agency Assessment to get an accurate evaluation of where they are in comparison to where they want to be.
To mark this milestone, Kelly, Scott, and Dave talk through the facts and figures that stuck out to them during a recent review of the Assessment survey data. This data is not only beneficial for the individual agencies, but critical to understanding the industry overall when viewing the aggregate data collected.
Here are their top insights:
- Leadership development program – Only 59% of leaders surveyed have participated in management training during their career and 79% of survey respondents say there is no continuous training program available to them. It is crucial to invest in the development of leaders and team members alike.
- Leadership drives culture – If communication is open, positive, constructive, and clear, employees will be more receptive to change. This is especially true about the actions leaders recognize need to be taken after the feedback from secret shopper calls comes in.
- Sales process – Frequently, the secret shopper calls reveal that there is no sales process in place. In fact, 51% of team members say they have never had sales training and 79% do not know their close ratio. But it is important to distinguish here between “training” and “development” – what you want is to implement an initial training to get everyone on the same page and then follow up with sustained development efforts. In conjunction with this process, leaders should have a handle on the metrics they want to track and how to set goals that are appropriate.
- Where sales is falling short – Too many people in sales are not asking for referrals, not directly asking for the business, and not educating their customers on what certain coverages entail.
- Employee motivation – Many employees are task-focused instead of results-focused, and it could be that all they need is incentives like recognition, time off, or jeans days when their managers think all they care about is bonuses.
- Negativity – Many times, during the Agency Assessment, the APPX team recommends that a certain person be terminated due to their negative impact on the office environment. When leaders follow that advice, they notice the morale and productivity of the whole agency improve.
For more information about the Agency Assessment, check out the website below. If this assessment seems like a huge time commitment for you and you wonder if it will be effective, keep in mind that the data gleaned through this process has a lasting impact on your efficiency, effectiveness, customer service, and overall agency culture.
Links:
Agency Assessment: https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/services/agency-assessment/
Connect with Agency Performance Partners:
https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/
https://twitter.com/Appsinsurance
https://www.linkedin.com/company/agency-performance-partners/
https://www.facebook.com/agencyperformancepartners
