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Motivation: Module Iii-E
INTRODUCTION Motivation is tied closely to compensation, but the two are very different. Compensation is simply one form of motivation. There are many forms, all of which should accomplish one thing: encourage producers to sell and make them feel good about what they're doing and where they're doing it. A good motivational environment will help both Life and P/C producers. You should have a motivational atmosphere for your CSRs, as well. You should maintain a high recognition level in which all agency members can participate. Every producer wants to succeed. Your job, then, is to make sure each does succeed, through motivation and recognition. By providing continuous recognition programs that inspire and motivate agency employees, you will create a more successful agency environment. Your own attitude is the most important part of motivating staff. You must promote enthusiasm and belief for others to be enthusiastic and believe. ELEMENTS OF MOTIVATION To begin your motivational campaign, you need several basic elements: 1. You must be available to producers. Both new and experienced producers should be able to come to you for any reason-business and personal. All producers should feel that you are genuinely interested in them as individuals. Whenever one has a complaint, misunderstanding, or any problem, he or she should feel comfortable coming to you and talking about it. By maintaining an open-door policy, producers will feel that you are approachable, and you can build and maintain close relationships with your producers. You should also schedule regular personal conferences with your producers. Use the time to go over their goals, concerns, progress, and the things they want to accomplish. You can combine this with your weekly sales review, but it would be better to make this a separate, more informal meeting. This is the single most important part of good agency motivation. Your personal interest in each producer provides inspiration, motivation, and a morale boost-and all it takes is time and caring. 2. Regular sales meetings give you the opportunity to recognize producers. By gathering all the producers together, you are providing a forum for personal feedback and recognition of the high achievers from the past week or month. The recognized producers get both immediate feedback from you and the recognition of their peers. MOTIVATIONAL EVENTS In addition to the above, there are a number of events and activities that can motivate your people. The following suggestions will help you build and maintain team spirit in your agency. Annual Meeting-At the beginning of each year, hold an all-agency meeting. Use this to review the agency's performance of the past year and recognize past top performers. Include other agency staff, as well as producers, in this recognition. For example, your receptionist may have helped other staff in addition to regular duties. Or a CSR may have been exceptionally motivational to other staff members. You can use charts and graphs to show how the agency performed over the past year. Build agency pride and team spirit. You may invite an outside guest with experience in key agency areas who can reinforce your agency's results and plans. The objective of this meeting is to inform, instruct, and inspire. Inform: Explain to staff the outlook for your agency in the new year, along with any new programs you may have in mind. Share your one-year and five-year plans here, as well as any upcoming seminars, meetings, or conventions you may wish staff to attend. Explain to staff the outlook for your agency in the new year, along with any new programs you may have in mind. Share your one-year and five-year plans here, as well as any upcoming seminars, meetings, or conventions you may wish staff to attend. Instruct: Share with them a sales procedure that will benefit them, or invite an outside speaker. Share something with them that will make their job easier or more effective. Share with them a sales procedure that will benefit them, or invite an outside speaker. Share something with them that will make their job easier or more effective. Inspire: Paint a picture of what the agency can become. Outline its potential and the benefits to producers and staff. Explain the ways you are going to recognize and reward top performers throughout the year. Then, recognize each staff member for a particular accomplishment. Paint a picture of what the agency can become. Outline its potential and the benefits to producers and staff. Explain the ways you are going to recognize and reward top performers throughout the year. Then, recognize each staff member for a particular accomplishment. Everyone must be positively recognized. Consider concluding the meeting with a lunch or dinner, and have the top agent of the year and top agency staff member of the year speak. Make sure you end the meeting on a high note. Annual Black-Tie Dinner-Another motivational event is a formal dinner held every year, either at year-end or in January. You can invite all agency members and their spouses and present awards to all your production leaders for the year, including special recognition for your top associates. You may include the spouses by presenting them with special mementos of the evening. Make sure the memento is nongender-specific. This should be a big event, so plan it carefully to reflect the occasion. Also, you may invite area and industry leaders to provide added recognition to your agency members. Sports Outing-Why not organize a softball team and compete with other local businesses? Or, have a combination family picnic and games. Educational Conference-A yearly educational conference, held at a prestigious location, is another great motivating event. You can require producers and other agency members to meet certain qualifications in order to attend-remember to include spouses. Holiday Party-You can hold a holiday party for the entire staff and make it an "Open House." Again, make sure top producers are recognized. Have important clients, professionals with whom you work, centers of influence, and other community leaders attend and use this occasion to display your agency and staff. -Another motivational event is a formal dinner held every year, either at year-end or in January. You can invite all agency members and their spouses and present awards to all your production leaders for the year, including special recognition for your top associates. You may include the spouses by presenting them with special mementos of the evening. Make sure the memento is nongender-specific. This should be a big event, so plan it carefully to reflect the occasion. Also, you may invite area and industry leaders to provide added recognition to your agency members. -Why not organize a softball team and compete with other local businesses? Or, have a combination family picnic and games. -A yearly educational conference, held at a prestigious location, is another great motivating event. You can require producers and other agency members to meet certain qualifications in order to attend-remember to include spouses. -You can hold a holiday party for the entire staff and make it an "Open House." Again, make sure top producers are recognized. Have important clients, professionals with whom you work, centers of influence, and other community leaders attend and use this occasion to display your agency and staff. MOTIVATIONAL GROUPS In addition to events, membership in certain groups should be created as motivational tools. While some groups can have other purposes, membership should be primarily motivational. The following special groups can be established in your agency: Senior Sales Consultants-Select a few experienced producers from your agency and form a group of senior sales consultants. These producers should have specialties in certain markets, such as Group insurance, P/C Lines, pension plans, and so on. You can encourage their specialization by arranging for them to write articles for national publications. Help them organize a presentation that can be given to industry and community groups, as well as in your agency meetings. Also, have other agency members work with these consultants whenever they have prospects in one of their key areas. This group fulfills a two-fold purpose: It recognizes the individuals and it provides them an opportunity to continue their involvement in the area. Agency Advisory Board-An advisory board of producers who have been in your agency for a specific period can be created. You can hold lunches for all board members, and honor each new member upon joining this group on his or her specific qualifying anniversary. You may want to honor producers on each subsequent fifth year on the board, as well. Quarterly Round Table-Inspire and motivate agency members by forming a quarterly round table of leaders. You can set a standard of production that must be met in order to qualify for the round table. In addition to providing recognition, these special groups help upgrade your sales staff and improve the quality of business produced in your agency. -Select a few experienced producers from your agency and form a group of senior sales consultants. These producers should have specialties in certain markets, such as Group insurance, P/C Lines, pension plans, and so on. You can encourage their specialization by arranging for them to write articles for national publications. Help them organize a presentation that can be given to industry and community groups, as well as in your agency meetings. Also, have other agency members work with these consultants whenever they have prospects in one of their key areas. This group fulfills a two-fold purpose: It recognizes the individuals and it provides them an opportunity to continue their involvement in the area. -An advisory board of producers who have been in your agency for a specific period can be created. You can hold lunches for all board members, and honor each new member upon joining this group on his or her specific qualifying anniversary. You may want to honor producers on each subsequent fifth year on the board, as well. -Inspire and motivate agency members by forming a quarterly round table of leaders. You can set a standard of production that must be met in order to qualify for the round table. In addition to providing recognition, these special groups help upgrade your sales staff and improve the quality of business produced in your agency. OTHER FORMS OF RECOGNITION In addition to meetings and groups, there are a number of other ways to provide recognition to agency members: Wall of Fame-Those producers who have met and passed set production goals should have their framed portraits displayed on an agency wall. The producer could be presented with a plaque with his or her name and the agency insignia. Announcement letters can be mailed to 100 of the producer's select clients informing them of the selection and honor. To make it on the "Wall of Fame," a producer should have: met specific production goals, completed specific educational courses, met a specific percentage increase over previous year's production, and been recognized as a top performer an established period of times consecutively. Agent-of-the-Month Award-You can assign points based on production or base the award on the producer's premium volume as a qualification for the Agent-of-the-Month award. See the "Life Production" graph at the end of this section. In order to qualify, the producer must meet a minimum of, for example, $5,000 of annualized first-year commissions during the particular month. Send a press release and a photograph of the agent to local newspapers. Make copies of the newspaper article and send them to the producer's top 50 or 100 clients. Agency Dedicator Program-This program provides recognition each month to those producers who, during the month, produce $5,000 in annualized first-year commissions. You can present an engraved trophy to each agent who qualified as a "dedicator"eight times or more in one year. New Producer Club-Organize a special club for trainee producers. If the trainee pays for 12 cases or more in a month, the producer and spouse will be your guests for a gourmet dinner. This also helps the new producer's spouse get better acquainted and feel a part of the agency. Lead-Day Participants-You can choose to assign qualified producers a "lead day." This means you give the recognized agent all of the phone and paper leads received on that specific day. This provides both recognition and the opportunity to develop more business. To qualify, the producer should be a member of the National Association of Life Under-writers and a Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) performer or be on track for MDRT qualification, as well as be a top recognized agency producer. Monthly Publication-An in-house publication can be put together and distributed at the beginning of each month. In it, recognize the top agency performers from the past month. Depending on the size of your agency, you can include photographs of agency members. Also, you may include sales ideas, general information items, and other articles contributing to self-improvement and education. Bulletins-On an as-needed basis, you can distribute single-page bulletins that are colorcoded as to purpose. For example, white could mean general information; yellow, recognition; green, production; and blue, motivational. Give these to your sales force throughout each month. Personal Letters and Cards-Mail anniversary and birthday cards to all agency employees and their families. For the personal touch, include a hand written note. Special Announcements-When appropriate, send out "flash" notices announcing special personal or business happenings in your agency employees' lives. Births, marriages, promotions, educational achievements, and honors should all be recognized. Contest Winners-Hold sales contests throughout the year. In addition to other recognition, reward each winner with some unusual keepsake. -Those producers who have met and passed set production goals should have their framed portraits displayed on an agency wall. The producer could be presented with a plaque with his or her name and the agency insignia. Announcement letters can be mailed to 100 of the producer's select clients informing them of the selection and honor. To make it on the "Wall of Fame," a producer should have: met specific production goals, completed specific educational courses, met a specific percentage increase over previous year's production, and been recognized as a top performer an established period of times consecutively. -You can assign points based on production or base the award on the producer's premium volume as a qualification for the Agent-of-the-Month award. See the "Life Production" graph at the end of this section. In order to qualify, the producer must meet a minimum of, for example, $5,000 of annualized first-year commissions during the particular month. Send a press release and a photograph of the agent to local newspapers. Make copies of the newspaper article and send them to the producer's top 50 or 100 clients. -This program provides recognition each month to those producers who, during the month, produce $5,000 in annualized first-year commissions. You can present an engraved trophy to each agent who qualified as a "dedicator" eight times or more in one year. -Organize a special club for trainee producers. If the trainee pays for 12 cases or more in a month, the producer and spouse will be your guests for a gourmet dinner. This also helps the new producer's spouse get better acquainted and feel a part of the agency. -You can choose to assign qualified producers a "lead day." This means you give the recognized agent all of the phone and paper leads received on that specific day. This provides both recognition and the opportunity to develop more business. To qualify, the producer should be a member of the National Association of Life Under-writers and a Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) performer or be on track for MDRT qualification, as well as be a top recognized agency producer. -An in-house publication can be put together and distributed at the beginning of each month. In it, recognize the top agency performers from the past month. Depending on the size of your agency, you can include photographs of agency members. Also, you may include sales ideas, general information items, and other articles contributing to self-improvement and education. -On an as-needed basis, you can distribute single-page bulletins that are colorcoded as to purpose. For example, white could mean general information; yellow, recognition; green, production; and blue, motivational. Give these to your sales force throughout each month. -Mail anniversary and birthday cards to all agency employees and their families. For the personal touch, include a hand written note. -When appropriate, send out "flash" notices announcing special personal or business happenings in your agency employees' lives. Births, marriages, promotions, educational achievements, and honors should all be recognized. -Hold sales contests throughout the year. In addition to other recognition, reward each winner with some unusual keepsake. CONCLUSION Motivation is inspiration, recognition, pride, morale, team spirit-all the intangibles that help make people want to keep doing the best job they can. The presence of an established motivational program in your agency can make the difference between low production, high staff turnover, and failure and record volume, high agency loyalty, and success.

Solidifying The Bond With Your Customer
Very few people will recognize the name Hikari, unless they're in the beauty salon industry. Hikari is a scissors manufacturer and distributor. Not just any type of scissors, but very expensive scissors used by hair stylists. A small, five-inch pair of scissors might sell for $400, and more expensive models approach $1,000. Considering that the average hair stylist grosses about $30,000 to 35,000, this is a market in which the buyers spend 1% to 2% of their gross earnings for two pieces of metal connected with a screw and washer. You might think that it's a pretty tough market, but the U.S. distributor sells about a thousand pairs per month with a total employee of five. The intriguing thing is that Hikari has never purchased any advertising! They have built their business with seminars and other informational tools that (1) help stylists to perform their jobs better and (2) help their distributors to be more professional within the salon industry (which benefits all the manufacturers they may represent). In both cases, the middle-man distributors and the actual hair stylists, Hikari utilizes audiocassette programming and live seminars to carry their message. So although insurance and scissors may be miles apart in product, they're remarkably close when it comes to innovative marketing. Let's first look at the programs for the end user: the hair stylist. Continual research has identified several problems affecting this group. One had to do with the scissors: the distributors weren't taking time to cover all the bases when delivering them to the buyer. Another problem was a high rate of carpal tunnel syndrome among stylists due to repetitive motion. A third problem area concerned new laws regulating the disinfecting of salon tools to eliminate HIV contamination. Other areas were also addressed, but those are currently the top three concerns. Firmly believing that people buy from people who help them, Hikari devotes a lot of attention to helping the hair stylists. Let's look at the solutions to the problems just mentioned: Delivery. Rather than relying on the sales rep to deliver the scissors properly, Hikari developed a 'delivery tape.' This 15-minute audiocassette thanks customers for their purchase, explains the proper care and maintenance of the scissors, details the warranty procedure in case of a problem, and concludes with an 800 number for any questions. The cassette packaging also includes a warranty registration card that, when filled out and returned, offers a free leather holster for the scissors. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Addressing this issue required visual media, and the cost of a video was prohibitive. Assimilating all the available research, including some commissioned by Hikari itself, the company developed a 30-minute, seminar-style presentation on proper cutting techniques to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. Corporate personnel who travel in the field were trained to present this seminar, which invites questions and answers. As they travel, they arrange for local distributors to set up multi-salon seminars to view the presentation. They also offer it as an adjunct to any convention or show they attend. Disinfectant. The solution to this problem combined introducing a new product for the disinfectant of tools with an educational audiotape covering health issues and proper disinfectant techniques. To this, Hikari added an award program: Distributors fill out checklists about the cleanliness and disinfectant process in their various salons, and salons that made the grade are presented an impressive award for display in their salons. How does all this apply to the insurance industry? Let's look again by category. Delivery. When was the last time you reviewed your agency or brokerage procedure for the policy delivery? Are there any rough edges that need to be smoothed? Is the client educated about the coverage itself, as well as in the benefits you provide and to which they are entitled? Do you review all the other coverages you can write? Have they been introduced to their service representative? Most important, does every client receive this same information-including those whose policies may be delivered by mail? Would a 'delivery tape' smooth out some of the rough edges and insure that all clients receive all the information they should? Seminars. Granted, a lot of agencies present seminars, but are they addressing the right topics? For instance, Workers' Comp is a hot topic, and many agencies have put together seminars to cover it-and have been disappointed in the turnout. True, the topic is hot, but the agency has also entered the competitive field of seminar-giving. Everyone and her brother have been putting on seminars, and one would do well before looking at the competition before plunging in. Moreover, I heartily recommend avoiding seminar topics that smack of sales commercials. Ask your clients what their current concerns are. It might help to have a topic checklist for them to prioritize for you. Think of subjects such as repetitive stress syndrome, independent contractor regulations, hiring undocumented workers, automated communications, safety in the workplace, etc. Each of these topics can be tied into insurance coverages or operational procedures that can be of financial benefit to your agency-but they don't appear to be flagrant commercials at first blush. Other ideas might be to tie catastrophe preparedness (a timely topic) to business interruption insurance, or protecting leased equipment with property coverages (a lot of companies are being 'double dipped' by equipment-leasing payments that also include insurance coverage on the equipment). When doing a seminar, test it out on some of your current clients first. If it works, invite prospects to join with clients for subsequent seminars. Don't forget to invite the local media; you might get some excellent press coverage! Awards. When was the last time, if ever, that you presented a client with an award for being an outstanding client? Several years ago, one of our suppliers sent a typical holiday gift to us, but there was a difference: On opening the package, we found a plaque engraved with the words, 'Sound Marketing, Inc., Outstanding Customer. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. He is not an outsider in our business, he is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.' Needless to say, the plaque went up on our wall, and we are still doing business with that supplier. In fact, since their service matches the philosophy of the plaque, 'it is almost an impossibility to consider changing vendors. As an IMMS Member, you have a wealth of information that expands far beyond insurance to correspond to many of the issues faced daily by your clients. Spend a little time researching the library and you'll come up with a lot of material that can help you develop your client relationships and secure their business for the future. Just remember, it's up to you to carry the message-before your clients need to ask!

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Connect with a market specialist.