If you ask yourself, “What am I doing wrong?” and nothing comes to mind – You’re not trying hard enough!
Everyday I call into insurance companies and try to figure out how they motivate their sales employees. For the purposes of my calling efforts, I can generally ignore anyone within an organization that is not compensated by some form of incentive compensation, aka variable pay plan (bonuses, MBOs, commissions, and so on.)
If you’ve ever worked in insurance, you know this is not a straight forward, single line of an email answer. Typically, in large (often nationally operating) insurance giants, there are several tiers of motivation at play within a single organization. And then within that organization, you’ve got subsidiaries, associations, agencies, and the like keeping you on your toes.
In order to find the person, or more likely the committee, who is responsible for making decisions and calling the shots, you have to start at ground zero. Who do they employ? Most insurance sales begin with agents, who can also be called brokers in Canada, or producers if we’re talking P&C (Property & Casualty). But let us not get side tracked. Within agents you have captive agents, aka sales employees on salaried plans with benefits, and independent agents, who are self employed sales people, sometimes compensated by several different companies depending in which products they sell. Next are the private business owners, known commonly as agencies, which employ both and insurance organizations hire to basically outsource their sales efforts and diversify their distribution channels. Cover every base possible, right?
Now that I’ve finally gotten my grasp on this ground level, I find myself struggling to comprehend the multifaceted tiers that function above – brokers, producers, wholesalers, dealers, underwriters, etc…. All of this before you even begin to break out levels of sales payees, such as reps, managers, directors, analysts, and consultants. It’s honestly exhausting just to list out.
The point I’m beating into the ground here is that insurance as an industry is extremely complex. Calling into giants like Aflac, AAA, and Fidelity, and asking, “Who does this?” is unrealistic at best. So how do we overcome this in business development efforts?
The truth is, insurance is a very good example of rules that apply across most industries and in all business development efforts the same 3 words should apply: Diligence, persistence, and reverence.
Diligence is the effort you put in. It’s the consciousness of paying proper attention to your task. Find the right person, catch their eye, and find out what grinds their gears. Diligence is determination.
Persistence isn’t the same as stalking; it’s nurturing those prospects that need time, or education, and reminding those that need motivation to make time. Persistence is staying connected, the continuity of efforts and again, determination.
In the ever changing world of business development, possibly the most important and influential factor is reverence. Reverence is that R -E-S-P-E-C-T that means the same to you and me. It is knowing your limits and the limits of the people you’re reaching out to.
Insure yourself, never try hard enough.
