“Put your money where your mouth is.” Whether principals and managers assume that employees understand what the agency expects of them or that they should explain every employee’s responsibilities in detail, your employees must believe they are being fairly compensated in exchange for meeting the agency’s expectations.
COMPENSATING CSRS FOR SALES: REALITY CHECK
Frequently, management can’t convince CSRs to sell. They tell CSRs about account rounding, scouting for new clients, and showing more enthusiasm when they receive drop-in clients. To bridge any gap between performance and compensation, managers design attractive sales incentives to motivate employees to increase production. Even when this strategy succeeds, it often sacrifices the agency’s goal of good, continuous service for the sake of nailing the sale.
When the CSR becomes a producer, the entire office hears the underlying message that sales are more important than the high-quality service that satisfies customers and builds the agency’s reputation. Furthermore, this policy seems to say that CSRs must be bribed to solicit new business actively — that without strong monetary incentives, CSRs will settle into the traditional role of waiting for customers to contact the agency with questions.
With so many female CSRs, this assumption appears sexist (it’s against the CSR’s nature to pursue prospects aggressively). On the other hand, this concept might arise from the principal’s or manager’s personal disdain for sales and the belief that employees deserve extra compensation to do something so denigrating. The company pays producers to develop business, so why not pay CSRs too? This ignores the important distinction that the CSR is on salary, while the producer isn’t.
THE CSR AS SALESPERSON
Few CSRs are hired because they enjoy selling or have a salesperson’s intuition. Incentives are often management’s way of saying, “You know, we should have hired different types of people to be CSRs in the first place, but since we have these nice people here, let’s try to convince them to be sales-oriented by offering them cash.” Arguably, many CSRs have lost any innate talent to sell from years of atrophy or a compensation scheme that allowed generous raises for minimal or no sales activity.
Rethinking this issue might lead to a different conclusion. The service role is becoming less cumbersome. Single entry and transactional filing are becoming the rule. Windows systems provide instant policy status and allow immediate response to requests. Now that the CSR’s duties require less time, they can help market products during every phone conversation with a client. The CSR has the most frequent access to the client, and also has the time and technology to market services.
A CSR who uses the latest technology and practices the most efficient procedures will not only help boost revenue, but lay the groundwork for marketing more products to clients who respect and trust the work they do on their accounts. This trust will pay dividends by giving credibility to the CSR’s friendly words of advice.
Today’s CSR must understand that servicing the account includes sales. Great service is not merely waiting for the clients to request a type of insurance when the risk has escalated, but convincing them that they need the coverage before the loss.
Sales improve retention. The competition can easily steal your account by showing your client coverages that you’ve overlooked or were too preoccupied to suggest. Some producers solicit CSRs’ ideas on normally ignored coverages and use this information to snag prospects. There’s no reason that these CSRs can’t do the same thing for themselves.
Unlike producers, who don’t get paid if they don’t produce, CSRs make a good living, and deservedly so. An agency that pays a worker a high salary purchases the right to define its expectations of the employee. A good job description should specify these expectations, which might include retention rates, claims turnaround time, and hit ratios with underwriting submissions — and account-rounding goals.
Expecting sales from a CSR — tolerating nothing less than full account rounding — is essential. If you tell your CSR, “We’ll give you extra money, but you’ll still have your regular salary and job without selling,” the CSR will understand, “I can keep my job, and even earn raises, without recommending and counseling appropriate coverages to my clients. Because account rounding is something I do over and above my job, I’ll do it if I have time and the inclination.”
Performance and salary reviews should reward workers for results. A CSR who does account rounding should receive a larger raise than one who only services accounts. However, don’t expect parity in even basic CSR duties. A CSR who cross-sells coverages well is probably better at basic CSR duties than the one who does not share those qualities of efficiency and friendliness. Understandably, the best producers also have these traits.
Because some principals doubt that CSRs will sell if it’s not required, they offer incentives to overcome this aversion. Let’s examine this more closely: If your CSRs are lazy, replace them with better-motivated individuals. More money seldom breathes life into people who are lethargic by nature. However, most CSRs are highly ambitious and energetic.
DEALING WITH OBJECTIONS:
Here’s how to deal with the objections that CSRs normally harbor in the areas of account rounding and selling:
Objections 1: Who has time?
Solutions:
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Better Technical Training-Simple problems don't correspond to time-consuming complications.
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Personal Skills Training-A small disagreement shouldn't escalate into a blowup, but rather spur delight when resolved with caring and responsiveness.
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Adopt the Technology-An initial large investment in computer systems will repay itself in enormous dividends later.
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Realignment of Roles-Having a producer and/or an agency principal solve half the problem, and then passing the remaining trouble to a CSR isn't as efficient and seamless as having the CSR handle the problem from the start.
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Sell Selling-The staff should realize that involving a second agency in the account erodes more time than keeping all underlying coverage in-house.
Objection 2: It's the producer's job!
Solutions:
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Rewrite the CSRs job description-Make selling partially the CSR's responsibility. Good job descriptions state who does what within the overall organization scheme.
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Reward Selling with Better Salary Reviews-CSRs who sell deserve the greatest salary increases (although, once again, CSRs who perform their core service duties well should not be penalized for not having the knack to sell).
Objections 3: I'm too shy to sell! It is not in my character. I'm not pushy enough. Who? Me?
Solutions:
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Restraint Is Good-With many clients, a relaxed demeanor works best.
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Assertiveness Training-Training and encouragement could build confidence.
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Be Needs Oriented-The CSR should take the approach that he or she isn't trying to push a product, but to inform customers of a product that can help them.
Objection 4: Our carriers' prices and services are lousy. I can't in good conscience recommend them to our customers.
Solutions:
Check out the Complaint: Find out if your insurance companies are truly inadequate. Maybe you will need to find new carriers, learn that some of their policies are inappropriate for your state, or discover that your customers would be better served through companies that offer differently tailored services.
Of course, you may also learn that your CSRs are not as familiar with certain insurance companies and are relying on the destructive opinions of others, or that they don't understand the policies they are representing.
CONCLUSION
Compensating CSRs for sales will work when you get your entire staff moving on course for higher sales and profits.