I recently read a thoughtful and insightful article about the powerful role of an insurance company’s Marketing Representatives. These are the “faces” of the companies. An agency sees these people much more frequently than their underwriters or other company employees, and thus Marketing Representatives can make or break key profitable agency relationships with carriers. They form the most important link between the future growth and profitability of the company and its agencies.
With all of this money and growth riding on the Marketing Representatives, I’ve found that all too few companies invest in giving them the best training to be able to deliver superbly managed profitable agency relationships, day in and day out
Their jobs are manifold and require highly talented and motivated independent self-starters. Marketing Representatives need to have in-depth skills in communication, sales, conflict resolution, business development, time management, listening, performance reviews, giving and receiving feedback, motivation, leadership, coaching, managing change, team building, empowerment, mentoring – and even a few more. Few people have these skills innately, and most companies don’t recognize the broad scope of skills needed to be a successful Marketing Representative.
I believe that this stems primarily from the days when the executives of most insurance companies knew most of the owners of their top agencies. Because senior management believed that they had good communication channels with these agencies, the role of the Marketing Managers was an additional, rather than primary, channel of communication.
Today, with companies growing larger and increasingly splintered into different roles and departments, Marketing Representatives emerge as the key players for the company’s growth, stability, and profit. They are the only people who physically walk into the agencies, shake hands with the CSRs, producers, and owners and have many discussions in every visit. Marketing Representatives have a wealth of information about the agencies: sales, communication, management, new initiatives, turnover, client retention, training of staff, hiring practices, geographic benefits, challenges, etc.
Companies need to do a better job of valuing these people as their eyes and ears in the marketplace. They have accumulated priceless knowledge from numerous visits and in-depth conversations about their agencies. I hope that many companies will capitalize on this vast wealth of knowledge to learn how they can help their agencies to grow and become even more successful.
Marketing Representatives form the vital link between the insurance company and its revenue sources. Given the powerful role of the Internet in reducing the share of insurance written through the Independent Agency System, companies need to do as good a job of valuing, rewarding, and training their Marketing Representatives as as they do with their agencies.