It's difficult for agency owners to succeed at management. When the same person is responsible for insurance issues and management, the latter will almost always suffer. In this document, Jack Fries reviews the essential requirements of a competent manager.
Most agencies don't achieve their maximum potential because they lack the hands-on management needed. The most significant reasons for this are:
- Lack of proper training for the owner and/or manager
- Failure to recognize and apply necessary follow-up
- Mixing management with insurance responsibilities
To manage people, a manager must receive proper training. “Seat of the pants” management not only harms the agency from a production and efficiency standpoint, but can also result in lawsuits, etc. At the very minimum, managers should: (1) be tested to assure that they have the proper personality style for the job; (2) receive proper in-house or outside education in management principles; (3) be given a job description, list of objectives, completion dates, and job standards.
There are three basic divisions in an insurance agency: Sales, Service, and Administration. Management responsibilities should be divided into at least these three areas.
Sales includes inside and outside salespeople and those responsible for marketing (both to companies and to clients/prospects). Usually the most successful salesperson is given the job of Sales Manager. This is the greatest disservice that you can do for the agency and the individual, unless the person has management experience.
Management of the Service function requires significant training and follow-up. When it comes to account development and annual reviews, it's essential that CSRs be well versed in the art of precise questions and active listening. This job requires a high degree of people skills.
The Administrative department consists of accounting and auxiliary agency functions such as reception, secretarial (word processing), filing, etc. The manager of this department could be the agency's financial officer and will need to be a numbers person. This manager must be extremely well organized and able to write and enforce the agency's collections policy.
It's difficult for agency owners to succeed at management. When the same person is responsible for insurance issues and management, the latter will almost always suffer. This is because the critical nature and immediacy of insurance problems and opportunities tends to put management issues on the “back burner.”
It's also essential to remember this basic rule of management: “People don't do what's expected; they do what's inspected.” In All the Things I Didn't Learn at Harvard Business School,” Mark McCormick put this principle more succinctly when he stated, “What gets measured, gets done.” To be a successful manager requires a tremendous amount of follow-up.
Jack Fries can be reached at Fries & Fries Consulting, P.O. Box 66, Alexandria, KY 41001, phone (859) 441-4528, fax (800) 887-5874, e-mail [email protected], or Web site www.jackfries.com.