Why Carriers Invest in Education

For years, many insurance companies prided themselves on running successful producer training programs for the independent agents who represented them. Over time, some of these programs have fallen victim to strategy shifts. Others disappeared amid corporate belt-tightening. Still, many carriers remain committed to producer education. They’ve maintained strong support staff and continue to build on these programs.

Carriers invest in producer education for a number of reasons.

First, they recognize the value of relationships in the independent agency system. People do business with friends. That’s true in agent-carrier interactions as in consumer-agent dealings.

Second, familiarity breeds success. Producers are comfortable and confident in directing insurance buyers to the products and people — the promise behind the products — they know. In addition, good producer education encourages better integration of agency and company technology.

Combined, these factors deliver better business, because producers can more thoroughly analyze risks, more fully understand carrier appetites, and more efficiently process business.

Today’s producer schools tend to operate differently than they did years ago. Automation advances have driven some of the change. Today, carriers can offer various options. Online learning lets producers learn whenever and from wherever. Some online courses are even interactive.

In-person training is, of course, interactive, too. But it’s more costly to provide. As carriers reviewed their programs and their capabilities over the years, some cut programs. But others refocused their resources, delivering internal training where it provides the greatest value and outsourcing other elements. This combination helps them meet training and growth objectives while managing costs.

A Blended Approach

By and large, companies continue to provide in-house training — sometimes augmented by specialized outside education — on the technical aspects of their products. They also handle their own education on their competitive advantages, the ancillary services they provide and the target markets or ideal clients they seek. This all makes sense. After all, it’s the heart of their business.

Carrier-specific technology is another education area often handled by internal staff. Insurance companies employ a cadre of field trainers, who go out and visit agencies to teach producers and service professionals on how to navigate proprietary company Web sites and make sure data is thorough and accurately entered.

Where we’ve seen companies look outside for producer education is in the area of sales training. More and more, marketing and sales components are addressed by qualified consultants rather than in-house staff. To the extent companies can integrate their company philosophy and process knowledge with the leading sales and service practices these external resources understand, the carrier can deliver greater value to agents and brokers.

Rewards Worth Reaping

As carriers augment internal product education and procedural training with outsourced sales and marketing education, they see tangible results on a number of fronts. For instance, in a rapidly changing agency environment, the sales training they deliver agents can incorporate the latest in automation offerings and agency workflow enhancements. Carriers can use the outside resource to deliver this contemporary training without having to develop or maintain this specialized proficiency and awareness within their internal education departments.

Of course, while sales and sales technology are changing dramatically, sales skills are generally the same across the board. Agency workflows and processes don’t necessarily change based on which company will ultimately underwrite the business. So carriers can deliver leading-edge sales training by insurance experts, again, without having to build and keep such expertise in house.

Many carriers find benefit in working with sales and marketing training providers whose facilitators are familiar with insurance and insurance agency operations. This allows them to incorporate discussions about workflows and how automation can be harnessed to streamline processes. This is key to making sure agents use the various tools carriers make available and ensures that carriers recognize a return on their investment in these tools.

Good sales and marketing training also helps underwriting staff. Educating agents on marketing policies to carriers — not just insurance buyers — can help improve business quality. Underwriters will tell you that submissions with the most thorough narrative go to the top of the pile.

Good training can help producers understand how to create such narratives and how to make sure the underwriter has a good feel for accounts early on.

Timing of producer sales training affects payback. One company we work with offers sales training only to producers with a year or more of agency experience. Here’s the rationale, in the company liaison’s own words: “Fools rush in. You can’t throw everything at new producers all at once. Insurance is complicated. Producers need time to learn and understand the various products and their benefits. We give them that time to learn, and then round it out with sales training. It’s been a great, great asset for our producers.”

Perhaps the best return on investment comes when carriers partner with sales and marketing training resources that know insurance and can customize education around the company’s products and culture. This helps the carrier provide valuable training that brings together the various components seamlessly.

Well-Timed Investment

Insurance is a partnership business — on virtually every level. The relationship between producer and carrier can help boost each one’s success. Building strong bonds with producers — new, young ones, in particular — can yield tremendous ongoing carrier rewards.

In economic downturns, of course, companies must be lean. As they cut back, producer sales and marketing education may get relegated to a lesser position. Many carriers recognize the short-sightedness of this.

We’re in a cyclical business. Carriers that build strong producer relationships will benefit when conditions improve. Lean times present a perfect opportunity for a carrier to distinguish itself from the agency’s other carriers by delivering value that others don’t.

My insurance company friend sums up her firm’s approach like this: “We believe in the value of sales and marketing education for our career producers — and that’s what we call them, ‘career producers,’ because they’re going to be working with us over the long haul. It’s an important investment in their future and in our own.”