LIFE SALES IN A P/C AGENCY QUESTIONNAIRE
Enough agencies have had enough experience with Life to have created some guidelines in what will work, what won't work, and how much leeway there is in the general rules.
Each problem or barrier can be identified; none is unique. Once identified, each can be addressed and resolved.
Resolve now: You will have a solid, profitable Life operation. It can be done.
Each of the following statements is taken from real-life P/C agency principals in explaining their agencies' disappointing Life production. Distribute the following questionnaire to producers and principals in your agency, and use their responses to generate a discussion on ways of improving Life production in your agency. Keep for future reference.
( ) 1. 'We got along fine for many years without Life, and I'm not going to start now.'
( ) 2. 'I sold Life some years ago, but I didn't like it and prefer to stick with P/C.'
( ) 3. 'I don't feel comfortable with Life, Health, or Group products, and don't want to sell anything I'm not comfortable with.'
( ) 4. 'I had expertise in Life some years ago, but everything has changed so much that now my knowledge is obsolete-I won't touch it.'
( ) 5. 'I'm not willing (or able) to spend the time it would take to learn enough about Life products to feel like a professional.'
( ) 6. 'I know enough about Life products to sell some of the simple ones, but I can't keep up with all the companies and the differences among them.'
( ) 7. 'I'm still not convinced that there's real money to be made in Life, or that there is any other advantage to selling it.'
( ) 8. 'I (or a friend) had a bad experience with a Life company and now I'm not sure I can trust any of them.'
( ) 9. 'I'm comfortable with my level of expertise in Life and with carriers I know, but I just don't have time to prospect for sales, follow-up on applications, or ask for referrals.'
( ) 10. 'Some of our P/C carriers are asking for Life production and offering attractive benefits, but I (or my associates) don't like their products.'
( ) 11. 'Some brokerage offices have sent Life agents to sell our cases, but we got complaints about them or their work.'
( ) 12. 'I had a deal with a broker, but I found that he was forgetting to pay commissions.'
( ) 13. 'The broker switched to another company, and we lost our renewal commissions.'
( ) 14. 'The broker affiliated with a competing P/C agency and we lost some accounts.'
( ) 15. 'My associates and I are reluctant to 'give' our insureds to any other agent, for fear of losing our special relationships.'
( ) 16. 'The broker we were using insisted on using only the Life company of her choice, and that led to problems.'
( ) 17. 'Our broker was terminated by his company, we lost renewal commission, and, despite our objections, the company sent the new agents to our insureds. And we got none of the commissions.
( ) 18. 'We used a large brokerage office and learned that it sent some inexperienced or unqualified agents on our leads, causing us damage.'
( ) 19. 'We have hired a full-time Life Producer, but we don't know how to judge her work.'
( ) 20. 'We don't know how to interview or evaluate applicants.'
( ) 21. 'We don't know what to offer agents in terms of commission splits, renewal commissions, client ownership, coverage of overhead, benefits, and other factors. We don't know what should be in our agent contracts.'
( ) 22. 'We are afraid that our Life agents will use sales pressure and cause complaints.'
( ) 23. 'We don't have office space for Life producers.'
( ) 24. 'We had a Life producer, but after a while he ran out of leads and left.'
( ) 25. 'Our Life producer left as soon as his draw (or salary) stopped.'
( ) 26. 'We've had several Life producers, but never one who succeeded.'
( ) 27. 'Our Life department is writing a lot of business, but we're not seeing any profit.'
( ) 28. 'The overhead is eating all of Life producers because they remove files.'
( ) 29. 'We never know what the Life producer is doing with our insureds. That's professionally embarrassing and unacceptable.'
( ) 30. 'The investment in our Life department is unknown, or it seems too big.'
( ) 31. 'Our CSRs resent the Life producers because they remove files.'
( ) 32. 'Our P/C producers lose too much time making calls with Life producers.'
( ) 33. 'We don't have a good lead system for Life agents.'
( ) 34. 'We haven't seen (or understood) the producers' contracts with Life companies, and we don't know if we have potential problems there.'
( ) 35. 'There are a lot of unknown risks in dealing with Life agents and Life companies, and we can't get objective help from agencies like ours which have experience. We can't find an unbiased source of good information.
The last comment wraps up a lot of the feelings. The answer is simple: It's in your hands. The bottom line is there are no immovable barriers to keep agencies from successful Life production.