Written by John F. Carroll on February
9, 2016. Posted in Agency Management, Customer Service, Sales
Where
were you on Y2K?
I’m not
sure where I was (which I’m sure is related to whatever I was
drinking) but that’s not important.
I bring
it up because that 22 year-old “kid” you just hired at your agency
was asleep in bed.
He was
in 3rd grade!
He grew
up in a different world with different parents instilling different
values and expectations. And if you want to get the most out of him, you need
to understand how.
One of
the most popular articles I’ve written on this blog is this one: 21 Insurance
Sales Tips for Young or Inexperienced Insurance Agents.
From
what agents tell me, I think the reason its so popular is because so
many agents require their new hires read it.
And I
thought that if all these agents are making their new employees read
that article, why not write one for the agents?
So I
did.
Here’s
25 tips for training young or inexperienced insurance agents:
1) Forget About How Hard it Was For You
Agents love
telling me about how hard it was for them to get their start.
No
training, no leads, no nothing. Just a phone book and a finger to dial with.
It
might be true that it worked out for you, but here’s a few other truths:
1.
The more you support your new staff, the more money you’ll make.
2.
Forcing new employees to “figure it out themselves” causes lots
of turnover.
3.
Many younger people weren’t lucky enough to be taught the
value of persistence and hard work while growing up like you were. (Not
all of them of course)
To be
100% honest, I think the “I had to figure it out myself so they should too”
approach is really just a way for agents to justify being less involved and/or
not having to learn new skills.
It’s an
excuse. And if you read this article you won’t have to use it any more.
2) Random Prospect Spot-Checks
Choose
random prospects they’ve been working and ask them to explain everything
they can about their process for making contact, identifying the prospect’s
needs, presenting the value of your agency, closing the sale, etc.
Basically
you grill them about every aspect of how they handled the lead.
Random
lead spot checks are great because:
1.
They allow you to go into greater detail about what
happened on one lead than you’d ever go if you reviewed every lead.
This results in more opportunities to educate.
2.
If you make your salesperson explain every lead to you
they’ll start thinking too much about what they’re going to say to you
when they should be focusing on the prospect.
3.
You have to monitor what’s going on somehow and it’s
micromanaging to review every lead they work.
3) Force Them to Practice
3
Truths about practicing sales:
·
Everybody hates it.
·
Everybody gets better from it.
·
Nobody will do it on their own consistently without nudging.
Your new salespeople should be practicing sales every single
day. If you want ideas, tips and strategies read this
article with 17 of them.
4) Send Them Networking
Young
people and new employees want to feel important. They also want to get out from
behind their desks and change up the routine.
Send
them on a mission to make contacts and represent your agency at as many local
networking events as possible.
Give
them very specific goals like getting and handing out a certain number of
business cards or getting a certain number of LinkedIn connections with each
event.
And
make them read this article with 33 networking
tips for agents. (might want to check it out yourself)
5) Make Behaviors The Goals
The
worst goal you can give to a new salesperson is “make X sales this month”.
Set
goals for the behaviors that result in sales like:
·
Ask for X referrals every day.
·
Talk about life insurance with X new customers every day.
·
Give out X business cards every day.
·
Make X new LinkedIn Connections every week.
·
Make X outbound phone calls every day.
·
Visit X local businesses every week.
Think
of it like baseball.
Of
course runs are the only thing that really counts, but do baseball managers
push their players to score runs? Or do they push them to do the things that
result in runs?
Speaking
of sports…
6) Turn Sales Into a Game
Young
people have grown up playing games and they’ve got a lot of competitive spirit
in them.
They’re
also easily distracted and easily bored so they need new stuff going on
to keep the interest.
Use it
to your advantage and come up with different games with prizes and recognition
for the winners.
And
don’t think every game has to cost you money. The younger generation of workers
is more hungry for praise, recognition, and a sense of importance than you
probably were at that age.
And
guess what? Old people like games too. They’re fun. And happy
salespeople sell more.
7) MakeThem Identify Buying Triggers (Other Than Price)
For Every Lead
When
you’re new to sales, it’s hard to comprehend the idea that anybody cares about
anything other than price.
Force
your new salespeople to identify a buying trigger for every new lead.
And it
can never be price.
It’s
okay to acknowledge that price is often the largest factor, otherwise you’d
lose credibility, but you have to train your new salespeople to see for
themselves that despite what people say, there’s always more to the equation
than price.
Otherwise
we’d all be driving Chevy Sparks.
8) Buy Them Books
You
don’t have to do all the training yourself. In fact, it’s probably better that
you don’t.
You can
hire the best sales trainers in the world if you just buy your salespeople
books from the greats.
Offer to
buy your salespeople any sales, motivation, or other type of helpful book
they want as long as they present their learnings to the rest of the team.
Here’s
7 books that I’ve read (or listened to) and would recommend to new
salespeople:
9) Set The Right Example
Remember
that someone who is new to insurance or even just the workforce in general is
going to be paying close attention to everything you do and say to develop
their own idea of what’s right and wrong.
You
don’t have to be the best salesperson, that’s not your job.
But if
you talk badly about customers behind their backs, say bad things about
the carriers you sell for, or fail to execute on promises you’ve made you’re
asking for trouble.
10) Record and Listen to Phone Calls
It can
be a really helpful training tool to play back a phone conversation with
your salesperson and discuss what changes could be made on the next call.
You can
get equipment to record calls for under $30 online.
But
don’t overdo it. You don’t want your salespeople to feel like they’re
constantly under surveillance or they won’t perform at their best.
You’re
not the NSA.
11) Team Them Up With Winners
I
honestly think the best way to learn how to sell anything is to watch
someone else sell it.
But
don’t expect really good salespeople to be good
educators because the habits and skills they’ve acquired over the years
come so naturally they’ve forgotten what they all are and aren’t very
understanding of people who haven’t figured it out yet.
That’s
where you come in.
Partner
your new people up with a seasoned veteran and facilitate their learning
from the expert through conversations and by asking questions about what
they’ve observed during each interaction.
12) Break It Down Into the Smallest Pieces
Younger
people and new hires in general are usually very eager to be good at their
jobs.
The
problem is they are rarely given crystal clear directives about what to do.
Break
everything down into the smallest pieces. They don’t know ANYTHING and are
probably wondering what the heck they’re supposed to be doing 80% of the time.
I read
a book a few years ago that really nails this point down. It’s called, How I Built a $37 Million Dollar Insurance Agency and the
author explains how he develops a fool-proof sales system that is broken down
into such detail that practically anyone could execute it.
Then he
just puts it in the hands of the hungriest people and the rest is history. It’d
be a good book for you to read (especially if you sell group health)
but it’s not for the new salespeople like the ones above.
13) Talk About The Mistakes
Mistakes
are great, but only when you learn from them.
And if
you don’t help your new sales people learn from their mistakes,
they’re going to cost you a lot of money over and over again.
Make a
point to regularly ask your new salespeople what mistakes they made recently.
If they say them out loud to you they’re 1000% times less likely to repeat
them.
14) Give Them Questions To Ask
One of
my biggest pet peeves is “experts” who tell you what to do without ever really
telling you what to do. That’s why I write long articles like this, so you
can actually take action on my advice.
I hear
a lot of people say that sales is all about “asking the right questions”.
But when you ask them what the right questions are, they don’t know.
Give
your salespeople specific questions to ask prospects. Put them in a list right
on their desk so they’re always front and center.
If you
need some ideas, check out this article with 26 sales
questions to ask prospects
15) Harness Their Enthusiasm
My
first job ever was shoveling horse manure at the great New York State Fair. We
got paid the same $6.25 per hour no matter how hard we worked, but I
would race against my friend to see who could shovel more stalls out
over the course of an 8 hour day.
My
first job out of college was selling long distance phone service door-to-door
in a suit and tie during the summer in Albuquerque and I was proud of the fact
that I’d consistently walk into more businesses every day than any of the other
grunts.
Why did
I do those things?
Because
I was enthusiastic. (And didn’t know any better)
Take
advantage of your young employee’s enthusiasm and let them do the dirty jobs
nobody else would even consider doing, like door-to-door cold calls!
16) Sales Worksheets
Any
direction you can give inexperienced insurance salespeople to use during the
sales process is going to be helpful.
And
visual stuff like worksheets and checklists works great!
It
doesn’t have to be complicated, a simple checklist to make sure they
addressed all the coverages for a new client or a one-page sheet that explains
all the different products you sell can be really helpful.
17) Give Them The Easiest Leads and The Hardest Leads
But not
the best leads.
Have
your newest and youngest salespeople work all the old leads from 10 years ago.
They can get a lot of experience without making mistakes on good
opportunities.
And
toss them a few bones too, like upselling a really good client who
needs higher liability limits or is missing a coverage they really
should have so they can build confidence.
Don’t
burn through good fresh leads with your newbie.
18) Let Them Run With Their Bad Ideas
Inevitably,
every new and young salesperson is going to come to you with some bad ideas to
drum up business or close more sales.
And you
know it’s a bad idea because you’ve seen it fail a hundred times before!
But
they haven’t.
And despite
the fact that you know that whopper of an idea doesn’t stand a chance, if you
constantly shoot down a young employee’s ideas they’re going to start
to think they’re unappreciated, they have no voice, and you have no vision.
If a
millennial in your agency feels that way, he’s not going to work out.
You
don’t have to always say yes, but you can’t always say no and the key is to pay
attention, limit the exposure, and help them see the truth as quickly as
possible.
19) Telemarketing for X-Dates
I know
it’s tempting to run your new salesperson on the phones to drum up quotes for
40 hours a week. After all, that’s probably how you got started.
But
it’s a sure-fire way to burn them out and its not effective.
If
you’re going to do telemarketing, come up with a script that will get you the
quote if there’s interest, but the real objective is to capture the x-date.
And
then use your young salesperson’s eagerness to nurture that lead up until that
renewal comes up.
20) Puff Up Their Egos
Yeah… I
said it.
Haven’t
you ever said anything to make a prospect feel good in order to make a sale?
It’s the same thing really.
Young
people today need to feel appreciated, they need to feel fulfilled…
They
need to feel loved.
Don’t
blame them… it’s Barney’s fault.
21) Give Them The Social Media Work
At the
very least, they’ll know how to avoid doing things on social media that
make you look like an amateur.
Just
put some tabs on it. Establish a specific plan and determine exactly how
much time should be spent on it each week with specific time periods set aside.
If you
don’t set aside specific times it’ll eat into everything they do.
Speaking
of which…
22) Structure the Day
One of
the easiest ways to be ineffective at sales is to manage your time poorly
and like everything else – this needs to be taught.
Fortunately
it doesn’t take Zig Ziglar to organize your day into chunks so that your new
salespeople will always know what they’re supposed to be doing.
And
make yourself accountable by saying something like this to your new hires, “You
should always know what you’re supposed to be doing at any given time during
the day. If you’re ever not sure ask me right away.”
It’s
easy for new people to spend hours on the wrong tasks just because they don’t
know what the right tasks are.
23) Just Let Them Play With Technology
Young
people don’t want to be told or shown how to use computer programs.
They just need to experiment and figure it out.
It has
to do with their age and situation they were in when first introduced to
computers but it’s also a major liability.
While
they can pick up technology stuff faster, they’re also more prone to mistakes
because they don’t think through every click. Don’t assume just because
they can fly through a quote on the first try they’re absorbing all the details
and getting the right rate.
They’re
paying less attention to the details than you are.
Let
them play, but then make them explain how it all works to you.
24) Show Them the Good Claims
When
you work in an insurance agency, it’s natural to start thinking that all your
customer’s claims go badly.
They
don’t.
The
majority of insurance claims go smoothly, it’s just that people don’t call the
agency when everything goes well and they’re back to normal.
Go out
of your way to show all your salespeople, young or old, experienced or
brand-new, that you’re selling a quality product that helps people in
their greatest time of need.
25) Give Them Greater Purpose
Let’s
face it, most young people today were raised to believe that they are
special. They’re here do do great things and make a large impact in the
world.
I’m not
trying to say that’s right or wrong, after all I hope my girls grow up to think
that too.
But I
will say this, if you can’t help your young salespeople understand a bigger
picture, that it’s about more than closing auto policies, you’ll be replacing
them soon.
Help
them see the nobility in what you do.
Help
them understand the threat posed by insurance companies selling
direct not just to the future of the insurance agency
industry but also to the customers!
We NEED
the next generation to step up and take the reigns eventually. And they’re
going to do it with the right guidance today.
Here’s What to Do Next:
If you
found a piece of helpful information or two in this article, here’s what to do
next:
1.
Go back through this article and make a list of the tips
you can take action on this month.
2.
Remember #9 and follow-through with your intentions to improve
your training
3.
Share this article with another agent or manager you think would
like it
4.
And make sure to click the like button or share it on social
media so I know you like stuff like this.
I hope
this helps,
John
John
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