Cognitive Distortion: Agency Sales Leaders & Producer Worth

Have you ever been guilty of saying something to someone and they took it wrong and maybe got offended. In defense, you said, “That’s not what I meant.”

The same could be true in this instance if you’re the agency sales leader, you’re saying things that your producers are taking as fact, as in, “This is how it is.” You probably don’t mean it this way, however that’s how they are taking it.

Let’s look at two phrases that if you are not careful, will cause great harm to your producers and radically affect their lifetime earning capability.

‘It’s All about Relationships’

Relationships are like the quarter in my pocket – they have two sides.

In business the same is true, and particularly true when selling insurance. It’s a well-known fact that people do business with others that they know, like and trust. So it could be said, “It’s all about relationships.”

The question that hasn’t been answered is this: What happens when the incumbent relationship is as good, or better, than the one your producer has been able to build? What should they do?

Like the coin in my pocket, there is another side. And that side is, “How do you bust the incumbent relationship?”

Think about the implications, if you focus only on building the relationship, and you don’t have a strategy for busting the incumbent relationship, you’ll make a lot of great friends, improve a lot of programs but not make a lot of money for your efforts.

Here’s what happens too often to producers who are great people, who have great intentions, but don’t have a strategy to deal with the incumbent.

They will set an appointment with a new prospect. Having been trained in relationships, they will build rapport, share common stories, they are friendly and likable. From there they will ask probing questions that lead to a chance to quote the prospect’s insurance.

At some point in the near future, they will present their quote and ask for the order. The buyer, being appreciative but cautious will share this information with the incumbent. At that point the incumbent will find a way to match the price and coverage and will keep the business.

The buyer now feels bad, because they have a relationship with your producer, but they had a relationship with the incumbent, too. So, it’s relatively easy to justify keeping the business with the incumbent.

After this happens your producer becomes confused. What else could they have done?

If you’re not careful, your producer will lose their enthusiasm. They start to hate the business, they stop trusting prospects even though they act like they do. They soon start questioning why they should spend time prospecting if this is the most predictable result. So they wait for referrals to come in rather than actively prospecting and assertively growing their book.

And it all started with a simple little phrase, “It’s all about relationships.” Unfortunately, no one told them the other side of that story. You have to build a relationship with your prospect and you have to bust the incumbent’s relationship with your prospect. If not, you’ll get rolled.

When that happens, this goes from being a great money making career to a daily grind.

‘Go Sell Yourself’

Have you ever seen a struggling producer reach out for some help and the sales leader says, “Just go sell yourself, you’ll be fine.” If a producer was more confident they would say, “I’ve been trying, it’s not working out so well, that’s why I’m asking for advice.”

But, they don’t in most cases. What they say is, “OK, I’ll give it try.”

Is “go sell yourself” what the agency owner really meant to say? Or do they say that because they don’t really know how to help this producer? Either way, it’s not very useful.

Most producers need something more than charm and personality to be remarkably successful. They need value beyond what they know about coverage, and they need something more than “we have great people, service and markets.”

What they really need is a value proposition that is tangible and training on how to use it to win new business. Teach them how to sell themselves and un-sell the incumbent. That would be useful in helping them earn what they’re worth.