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... x No Thanks Loading.. Mentoring For Agency Growth 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Mona Carpenter This content has not been rated yet. According to Webster's, a mentor is a loyal advisor entrusted with the care and education of a student .. a wise and trusted counselor. In my experience, a mentor without these qualities can't successfully lead a rookie. Whether an agency's mentoring program succeeds and produces financial rewards depends on how it's structured and managed. I'll address methods for setting up a successful mentoring program for agency growth, including: Mentor-rookie matching Training schedule Compensation options Program monitoring and management MENTOR-ROOKIE MATCHING It's key to put together two people who are compatible. Most mentor relationships last 18 to 24 months. If mentor and rookie don't work effectively together or don't like each other, the relationship most likely will fail. An important tool in forming this team to give both participants a personality test. The test should cover communication styles, preferred working styles, motivational needs, and work ethic. The test I like is called Personalysis. The Mentor Let's examine the qualities of a successful mentor. I recommend setting a minimum book size to qualify a producer to become a mentor. The mentor should be one of the top producers in the agency, not whoever has free time to work with a new salesperson. Only the best should be teaching! A mentor must make a long-term commitment, usually two or more years, to working with the rookie. This individual should have a real vested interest, not just in his or her personal financial gains, but in the agency's ...

... : 1. Would you recommend this company? 2. What about this company do you like/dislike? 3. Why did you choose this rating? Submit This Anonymously Submit Cancel Contact Us contact_phone Click to call Unfollow First name: Last name: Email: Are you sure you want to deactivate your CompleteMarkets Company Profile Deactivate Cancel Loading.. About Us Services Jobs PR Newsletters Employees Articles Blog Photos Group Connections Reviews IMMS Library Immerse yourself in our stacks. Take some time and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back The Concept Of Sharing In Mentoring And Marketing 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM by Jack Burke This content has not been rated yet. When writing an article for IMMS subscribers, I often feel like I'm preaching to the choir. That's because, I believe that these agents and brokers represent the top 10% in the independent agency business. Recently I convinced a good friend and client (not an insurance agent, he's in the garment industry) that he needed some sort of incentive to increase sales from the 5,200 retail outlets that purchase his clothing. He's too small to try to impact the retail customer, so we concentrated on the wholesale buyers. After tossing around numerous ideas, we settled on a goal for each outlet that exceeded their prior year sales. Anyone hitting the goal ...

...le 'deal'. Think back to your mentors. Think how you treasure the gifts of...

... Required) Please consider the following: 1. Would you recommend this company? 2. What about this company do you like/dislike? 3. Why did you choose this rating? Submit This Anonymously Submit Cancel Contact Us contact_phone Click to call Unfollow First name: Last name: Email: Are you sure you want to deactivate your CompleteMarkets Company Profile Deactivate Cancel Loading.. About Us Services Jobs PR Newsletters Employees Articles Blog Photos Group Connections Reviews IMMS Library Immerse yourself in our stacks. Take some time and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All mentoring Articles tagged with mentoring Back Six Ways To Create A Great Working Environment This content has not been rated yet. CompleteMarkets Editor , Pamela Millard 4/30/2013 10:43:12 PM SIX WAYS TO CREATE A GREAT WORKING ENVIRONMENT by Diane Herbert and Pamela Millard How do companies create the environment necessary to attract and retain the best employees? Here are six w.. All Articles by CompleteMarkets Editor Comments (0 ) The Concept Of Sharing In Mentoring And Marketing This content has not been rated yet. Jack Burke 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM THE CONCEPT OF SHARING IN MENTORING AND MARKETING by Jack Burke When writing an article for IMMS subscribers, I often feel like I'm preaching to the choir. .. All Articles by Jack Burke Comments (0 ) ...

... knowledge learning, a sense of ownership of the job they do, a sense of achievement, and recognition. It's the leaders of the organization-owners, managers, and supervisors-who create the motivating environment. Here are some ideas for creating a workplace that motivates employees to take your business to the next level: Create a learning environment. Your staff must learn more than your insurance products and coverage-related issues. Ask yourself what you're doing to help them manage the changes that technology and increased customer expectations have brought upon us. Many shelf-product programs are available to help build this skill, from Stephen Covey courses to Nightingale-Conant audio programs. Although these are excellent tools, nothing is more effective than bringing the learning directly into your organization. You probably already have the resources to do that. Set up coaches and mentors to help people learn and grow. A mentor differs from a coach in that the range of the relationship includes career guidance, personal development, and coaching. It's designed to expose the less experienced individual to the mentor's business situations for the sake of learning. Here's an example of mentoring for a company: A manager may be assigned to observe a field underwriter on an agency call. The manager observes and gives feedback to the underwriter in the following areas: call preparation (including preparing an agenda with a clear objective and collecting pertinent information on the relationship, specific accounts, and service issues); communication skills (including listening, asking questions, and handling the agents questions and attitudes professionally); and knowledge of the company and its programs, the competition, and the general business ...

... prospect call to get a quote from most often? The CSR. Who's in the best position to sell peripheral coverages to existing clients? The CSR. Who is the least trained salesperson on staff? The CSR. So who's missing great account development opportunities by getting CSRs to sell? You, the agency owner! We pack our producers off to mega-sales seminars for days or weeks at a time. They learn the fine art of needs selling, spin selling, pain selling, opening statements, probing, overcoming obstacles, and surefire closing techniques. We also hold producers accountable for appointment setting, X-dates, quote ratios, hit ratios, and profitability. Good producers observe a situation or hear an objection and immediately select the proper technique from the bag of skills that they learned from seminars, mentoring personal sales experience, and by monitoring results. Why not teach CSRs the same skills? THE THREE T's We become impatient when we see obvious opportunities turn into lost business because the right sales technique was not used. It's time to step back and look at the CSR in a new light — as a professional who can balance technical expertise with organizational skills while servicing the customer's needs. Your CSRs are resolving dozens of serious customer issues every day. As an agency owner or producer, you might not see this because most CSRs consider it part of their day's work. CSRs who do a super job placating a customer with a claim or accounting problem might well have the potential to sell. You just have to give them the three T's: Training, tools, and time. What ...

...s to do that. Set up coaches and mentors to help people learn and grow. A men...

... Seitlin, ' comments Stephen Jackman, president of the Seitlin Agency (Miami and Fort Lauderdale) . Our people are our strength, and we look for the most talented individuals. said Jackman. Rather than hiring retreads, we go outside the industry and then train them in P/C insurance. Seitlin is on its third generation of hiring P/C producers from outside the industry. The agency has hired five producers with banking and accounting backgrounds who are achieving exceptional results. Says Jackman, We look inside and outside the industry for high energy, creative individuals who can solve problems and thrive in an entrepreneurial environment. KEYS TO PRODUCER DEVELOPMENT All three presidents agree that before recruiting and developing producers from outside the industry, an agency must provide the new salespeople with exceptional levels of support, training, and mentoring. Kirk points out, we have above average service and support staff in account executive and customer service representative positions who work closely with the new producer to train them in our business. We've also developed a training program that's structured to meet the individual's needs and we assign each new producer a mentor. One of the unique aspects of our mentoring program, ' comments Jackman, is that we reward the mentor for their efforts and results by paying them 10% of new business revenue produced during this three-year period. During the last five years, Seitlin has enjoyed annual growth of 16%, and grew 26% during the last year. Stephen commented, We establish high goals and hire producers with the expectation that the individual will produce four times their draw in new revenues during the three-year validation period. ...

...tlin's program is that it rewards mentors by paying them 10% of new business ...

... prospect call to get a quote from most often? The CSR. Who's in the best position to sell peripheral coverages to existing clients? The CSR. Who is the least trained salesperson on staff? The CSR. So who's missing great account development opportunities by getting CSRs to sell? You, the agency owner! We pack our producers off to mega-sales seminars for days or weeks at a time. They learn the fine art of needs selling, spin selling, pain selling, opening statements, probing, overcoming obstacles, and surefire closing techniques. We also hold producers accountable for appointment setting, X-dates, quote ratios, hit ratios, and profitability. Good producers observe a situation or hear an objection and immediately select the proper technique from the bag of skills that they learned from seminars, mentoring personal sales experience, and by monitoring results. Why not teach CSRs the same skills? THE THREE T's We become impatient when we see obvious opportunities turn into lost business because the right sales technique was not used. It's time to step back and look at the CSR in a new light — as a professional who can balance technical expertise with organizational skills while servicing the customer's needs. Your CSRs are resolving dozens of serious customer issues every day. As an agency owner or producer, you might not see this because most CSRs consider it part of their day's work. CSRs who do a super job placating a customer with a claim or accounting problem might well have the potential to sell. You just have to give them the three T's: Training, tools, and time. What ...