How To Increase Insurance Agent Productivity

Has your agency been struggling with how to increase insurance agent productivity? Maybe you’re tired of hearing how “busy” everyone is, dealing with a constant backlog, or seeing lower revenue per team member compared to the industry average. If so, you should definitely focus on improving productivity! 
We have a statement at APP – More People, More Problems. I’d rather have a few highly paid, efficient people than add more staff, confusion, and training to the mix.

So now the question is, how do we increase insurance agent productivity? This is a question I absolutely love! In insurance, we often overlook areas where we could be more efficient and effective. There won’t ever be more hours in the day—just better ways to use our time! 

In this blog, we’ll share 15 time-management hacks that any agency or team member can start using today. 

Warning: This blog will challenge you to think differently, and that’s a good thing! When you change your perspective on clients and time management, you can truly master it. I love thinking, reading, and learning about time management and efficiency.

Here’s the startling statistic that made me realize its power:

5 Minutes Saved Every Work Day = 1.6 Hours per Month

5 Minutes Saved Every Work Day = 20 Hours Saved per Year

There is a power in compounding your time. 

15 Insurance Agent Productivity Hacks

Here’s a little tip: don’t try to implement all these hacks at once. If you’re focused on boosting insurance agent productivity, consider taking on one hack per month. To truly master your time, you need to stay consistent and disciplined, keeping up these habits both when it’s easy and when it’s tough.

Eat the Frog

Imagine you have to eat a live, ribbiting frog, or something terrible will happen to your favorite person in the world. You must eat this frog by midnight—when’s the best time to do it?

The answer: right now!

If you delay eating the frog, it starts consuming all your mental energy. You can’t stop thinking about it, you might start gagging all day, and the frog feels as big as an elephant.

So what does this have to do with insurance agent productivity? Think about the tasks you avoid—maybe a big quote, telling a client their claim isn’t covered, or putting off renewal review calls. When you delay, these tasks grow and become more daunting.

Every day, tackle the hardest task first. This is called “Eating the Frog,” and here’s why it works:

• You feel productive first thing in the day
• You often have more energy in the morning to tackle hard things
• When other pressing items come up, you can handle them more efficiently
• You’re not avoiding it—delaying might mean the client finds out first, making your job harder

Two-Minute Rule

So many times we struggle in insurance with how to prioritize. Let’s be honest, so much comes at us at once. The two-minute rule suggests that if something comes across your desk, email, activities, or phone call and it takes two minutes, just do it and document it.

If it takes more than two minutes, add it as an activity in your management system, create a priority and deadline, and then get back to your biggest priority. We need to break our habit of chasing shiny objects and focus on the most important activities of the day!

Lottery at Lunch

I may have been an under-documenter in my youth…

My mentor once asked me, “What if you get hit by a bus?” I replied, “Who cares? I’d be dead, you should be sad…” (Remember, I was in my early 20s).

But after thinking it over, I realized something important. My life would be easier if I could access any file at any time and know exactly what’s going on. Plus, my team could support me better. I just didn’t like thinking about the “hit by a bus” part.

If everyone works like they’re going to win the lottery at lunch, it means everything is documented in real-time, and organized, and the system keeps everyone on track.

So, embrace the idea of working like you’re going to win the lottery at lunch, and everything will run smoother!

Slow Down To Speed Up

We often rush through insurance tasks like bulls in a china shop, wanting to just get them done. However, when we bulldoze through, we miss opportunities to boost insurance agent productivity.

Let’s consider these questions:

• Do you take the time to learn new technology or carriers, or do you just get frustrated?
• Are you using all your technology to support efficiency, or are you too busy to set it up?
• When someone calls in, do we confirm their contact information, conduct a mini-review, or clear all tasks on their account?

Our goal is to do the best job, not the fastest. Taking an extra 30 seconds or watching that training video will help you speed up in the long run.

Time Vampire Clients

How often do the wrong clients suck up all our time?

Things like payments, high claims, and frequent remarkets. The bottom line is the best clients don’t need you that much! They pay their bills, are low-drama, and are dream clients. 

The issue is that the wrong clients take up so much of our time that we can’t be proactive with our best clients. We miss out on cross-sells, referrals, and upsells because we’re too busy dealing with the less ideal clients.

We recommend every agency identify client tiers and focus on letting go of the worst clients so you can grow with the best ones.

By When?

One common time management concern many insurance agency team members have is understanding priorities. We often hear that everyone needs everything right now. But do they?

We find that when agents are not using their management systems, they feel they have to do everything immediately to avoid forgetting or dropping a ball.

If you ask each team member, client, or producer one question: “By when do you need this?” you can prioritize and set expectations! When someone says “right now,” you can redirect. If you’re working on big projects, you might instead tell the client or team member that you can get it to them by the end of the day tomorrow.

The goal is to have clear deadlines and expectations for every single item!

If It’s Not in the Management System It Didn’t Happen

You may have picked up by now that we need to use our management system if we really want to figure out how to increase insurance agent productivity. When your client’s account isn’t updated in the management system, it drains your team’s resources in several ways:

• Everyone has to interrupt each other to ask questions 
• Clients have delayed service 
• First-call resolution is impossible 
• You won’t remember everything 
• Balls will get dropped
• Mistakes cost us time and money

Management system documentation is a necessity for time management. You may think it takes more time to document, but slow down to speed yourself up!

Break Up With Duplicate Work – Including Writing in Notebooks

Some of you are trying really hard to skip this paragraph. Give up notepads? What will we do? 

Well, let’s go back to my top statistic: 

5 Minutes Saved Every Work Day = 20 Hours per Year…

When we write client notes in the notepad and then add them to the management system, we’re doing double the work. Get used to entering them directly!

The same goes for quoting – can you go right to the rater, application, or carrier site?  Yes, yes you can! 

Think about how many times we handwrite items because it’s easy, but let’s also be honest, it’s not efficient and it’s not effective. (Hint: how many of you have looked at your notes and wondered what you actually wrote?)

Price & Remarketing Mantra

Remarketing takes up a great deal of time. However, we still need to do it. Let’s think about it like this: can we set clear standards for who should be remarketed, who needs more education, and which clients we’re okay with losing over price to make room for better clients?

The problem is we often think we need to fix everyone’s insurance issues. If someone is unhappy with the price, we think we have to fix it. But we don’t.

We only need to do three things:

• Qualify the remarket and shop it if they meet our standards
• Educate the client on why they should stay
• Let them know that’s their best option, and if they leave, it’s okay!

Remember, we don’t make money on every client – we can be selective.

Personal Drama Gets Left in the Car

When you think about how to increase insurance agent productivity – do cell phones, personal matters, and distractions come to mind? They sure do for me!

In my 20s, I had some very severe, complicated, and serious family matters going on. Being in my early 20s, I really didn’t have the skills or tools for how to handle this. I worked with several older ladies who gave me advice. My manager even sat me down to tell me I was damaging my career. 

My mentor’s point was that my bringing personal matters to work was unprofessional. She was also clear that this would hold me back from my next promotion. So I asked, “What do I do?”

She took me out to my car and told me to leave my personal matters in there, lock them up, and visit them at lunch. She even had me unlock my car and drop them in. Then she said something that clicked: “You need a break from them too. They will be waiting here for you.”

From that point on, I learned to leave my personal stuff in the car and get to work. And it worked to help keep me focused and on track at work. 

Headsets & Head Up

One of my favorite parts of agency efficiency (other than wrestling notebooks from people’s cold hands) is talking about the use of headsets. 

Agency owners – it’s time you mandate (yes mandate) headset use. Everyone needs one and should use it daily. You can’t be efficient, complete direct entry and/or first-call resolution typing, and hold a phone. It just can’t be done.

There is also a ton of judgment about using headsets. People say they don’t like how it feels, it will ruin their hair, or it hurts their ears. But these issues can be solved by finding the right headset. Honestly, most people who judge headsets have never even used one.

In order to be an efficiency aficionado, you need to rock the headset and get on track to free your hands up!

Be an ER Nurse

In insurance, we often get overwhelmed during busy seasons. It’s always super busy, and that’s our constant complaint. But just saying you’re busy is a grievance, not a plan. So I always ask, “Okay, what’s your plan?” Everyone just looks at me with wide eyes and no plan.

There’s a great TED talk about how ERs triage patients. In insurance, we need a plan for busy times too. We simply must triage and treat a rise in work as an opportunity, not a threat. ER nurses have a plan for New Year’s Eve and for a mild Tuesday. They adjust their schedules based on what’s happening that day. 

Every agency should have plans to shift. 

Delegate To Elevate

Too many people working in insurance hoard work because of fear of delegation. 

You often hear things like:

• “No one does it like I do”
• “It only takes a few minutes”
• “It’s faster if I do it myself”
• “I have to check it; it takes just as long”

All are WRONG. With good processes and procedures in place, anyone in the agency can do the work. Plus, delegating tasks can be a valuable training opportunity for others.

Appointments Are Your Friend

It’s critical that we realize almost nothing in insurance is an emergency. You don’t need to be available 24/7. Instead, set appointments with your clients. When you want to deliver a quote or do a renewal review, set an appointment.

Even when someone comes in – you can grab their information and set an appointment. Yes, even then. Your job is to educate your clients and set expectations. Remember, you want to make sure you provide fair service to everyone, not just those who are immediately visible.

Zero Backlog (Emails & System Activities)

Imagine this: you leave on Friday with an empty inbox and all activities completed in your management system – how cool would that be? 

You need to set a goal for the team! If you have a target and make it fun, people get behind it. 

If you go home for the weekend with a backlog – more comes in over the weekend! By Monday, you have three days of emails and tasks waiting. Set yourself up for a successful and productive Monday!

Conclusion on How To Increase Insurance Agent Productivity

It’s time to challenge our insurance agent productivity. If you have been wondering how to increase insurance agent productivity, you now have 15 strategies to help you boost your efficiency. 

Need more help? Check out our Agency Efficiency Program!

🔥 Dive into our latest blog and unlock the secrets of 🚀 Boosting Performance: How To Increase Insurance Agent Productivity ⏱️: https://bit.ly/4dRC8sA

🔑 Struggling to manage your email? They just keep coming – grab your zero inbox guide at: https://bit.ly/4bMB6g9 🚀💬

🎉 Ready to elevate your style? 🕶️ Explore our Ridiculously Amazing Insurance Agent Swag Store! 🛍️ Unleash the new agent distressed trucker cap. 👔 Don’t miss out on our 🔥 Ridiculously Amazing Insurance Agent Distressed Trucker Cap ultimate accessory for your hardworking team.🧢 Dive into the swag: https://bit.ly/3WV4SdH

🚀 Supercharge your insurance agency’s success with our Process Pack! 🌟 Access proven strategies now: https://bit.ly/3MQuFNH

🚀 Get a jump start with our process packs. 🌟 Ready to transform your agency’s performance? Book a meeting with our Agency Performance Partners and unlock tailored strategies for unparalleled success. Elevate your agency’s game – schedule your consultation now! 📈🤝: https://bit.ly/meetwithAPP

We’re Agency Performance Partners; APP is your insurance agency’s best friend when it comes to training, strategies, brutal truth, & tough love that’ll grow your agency with hugs & high fives along the way… just like a BFF. LEARN MORE: https://bit.ly/APP-Website