The #1 Thing Your Insurance Agency Needs More Of: Insurance Training Tip
Don’t think I’m nuts, but when I poll the team’s of agencies one thing always comes up. Its like Spring after Winter, I can count on it each and every time. It’s COMMUNICATION! In todays society, we are all horrible communicators. We have abandoned real human communication for texts and emails. In the wake of these new methods for communicating are ways to communicate effectively via new mediums. What can be more important than a clear communication and expectations set from you to your team?
It’s a common story, agency team members don’t know what a good job is and only hear when something has gone wrong. This leads to instability and low morale. We need to build people up, train them and set them up for success rather than failure. Agencies today need processes that are designed to be customer-centric, easy to follow and built to last. In addition, agencies need to communicate alternative plans. If the day gets away from you, what should happen? Who should you tell to reprioritize your day. Agency leadership needs to set the standard that team members need to raise their hands if they are drowning so tasks can be reprioritized.
I strongly encourage agencies to share monthly metrics with their team. Numbers do not need to be a secret. They should be published so the team can clearly see where the agency is and why they need to focus and finish on certain agency initiatives. Many team members feel agency owners are making tons of money and the team is doing a great job. The number either support that or don’t, either way the team needs to know what is working or what is not. Here are some numbers to share:
- # of New Policies
- # of Account Rounds
- Retention %
- Lost Business Numbers
- Net New Policies
When you communicate what is happening, you can then communicate what you need from them and how they can impact the numbers for the positive.
