Today We Hired a New Producer, Fred... Whoopee!
9 Months Later....
Sally: Where's Fred?
Owner: He's gone.
Sally: Why?
Owner: He didn't sell anything.
Sally: Wow, bet that was expensive.
Owner: If you only knew.
It's like your golf game, you can suffer because you have too much pride to get help. Which means you lose a lot of golf balls, lose a few bets and most of all stay frustrated out on the course.
Hiring new producers is not much different. It's skill. In fact, it's a skill that many will blow off as "shouldn't need lessons here. I've hired a lot of people. Hiring producers is not that hard, it's just hard finding good ones."
Have you considered this?
There are 5 Critical Characteristics a person must have to be a strong, successful producer.
1. Can they deal with rejection? If not, they will hide behind paperwork. Hide, waiting for you to provide them a lead. Hide at the golf course and pretend they are prospecting when playing with a friend or client. Bottom line, they are hiding, not prospecting. And although there many be a lot of reasons they hide, the number one reason is they fear rejection. If you'd had a process, you would have known this before you hired them not after.
2. Are they smart? We're talking street smart as well as book smart. And, how would you know? You could ask them, or you could have them take the wonderlic test. But, in reality, none of those are good enough to help you determine are they smart enough to get what I want to get to be able to produce at a high level. If you'd had a process, you would have known this before you hired them not after.
3. Are they resilient? Hey, selling insurance is a tough gig. Every selling job is a tough gig. If you can't bounce back, get a hold of your emotions, pep yourself up, and get back to the business of selling, you'll die a slow and painful sales death. All that means is you the agency owner just wasted another $50,000 - $100,000, or maybe less if you're lucky. But, is being lucky your goal? If you'd had a process, you would have known if they are resilient before you hired them, not afterwards.
4. Can they build relationships? Everyone is friendly the first time the meet you. In fact, every producer that gets hired, interviews really well. They dress to impress, they keep their chin up, are friendly and seem perfect until they get the job. So there is only one solution... put them under a lot of stress and see if they still come out smelling like a rose. Do they keep their composure, remain friendly, build relationship when under fire? If so, you have a keeper. If not... why would you hire them when you know that most buyers can be jerks at least half the time.
5. Are they economically driven? Here's the biggest problem with the producers that make it, that don't get fired in the early stages.. the problem is that they make it, but that's it. When they make enough money to live on, they quit working hard. Hire this guy or gal, and you're in for a lot of years of deep frustration. Sure, you can justify it and say, "at least they aren't costing me money", but that wasn't the goal in hiring them. You wanted a producer who wouldn't stop until they got at least $750k, a million...
So, what are you to do? Well, the easy answer is, you have to get better at identifying those who can and who can't. Separate the Producers from the Pretenders.....
If you want to know how, take a look here: