As you can imagine, we speak to a lot of agents every week, discussing their strengths and improvement areas that will create growth and profit for their businesses. A surprising number have had the same problems and issues in their agencies for years but the pain is not yet sufficient to overcome the pain of solving the problems.
Keeping a problem — or a problem employee — is much like living with constant migraines or with that congenital back pain. It sometimes lessens and sometimes becomes worse but there is always that “throbbing” to remind you that you are not well.
We encourage you to address your agency issues, not live with them.
Some of the things we hear every week are:
“I have people working here who are supposed to be producers and are paid that way – but they spend all of their time in the office handling service and administrative work and very little time actually selling insurance. When they do, they are taking orders from current customers for additional lines or getting referred to their friends. That is a wonderful source of business, but not enough to sustain us or to grow the agency. We are “treading water”.
“I have a problem employee. (S)he has been here for a long time (or is a relative) and is causing more problems than solving them. But I’m too nice of a guy and can’t bring myself to terminate. Anyway, I can’t just terminate an employee without a replacement and I don’t have the time/money to find and train one.”
I’m having trouble with my finances. I’m not growing as much as my expenses primarily payroll as my employees want/expect raises every year. They’ve been here a long time and are making more than I’d normally pay for that position and it’s taking more money out of my personal income every year. What do I do?
“We’re sitting here waiting for the phone to ring. We should be out in the field writing new business but, frankly we don’t know how anymore. How do I encourage my staff to go out and sell insurance?”
We can help with these and many other common agency issues IF you come to us while you’re having the problem or issue. But, just like a medical procedure, self-prescribing often leads to further complications to the point of demise. You would never self-medicate so that you are feeling much better by the time you go to the doctor, would you? You are not trying to impress the doctor with how well you treated yourself to avoid his analysis and prescription. Neither should you try to ‘dress up’ your business to impress a consultant that you have faced and solved your issues. If they were easily resolved you would have done so long ago.
Both your consultant and your doctor appreciate your using their expertise built over decades to help you attain your goals, in health and in business. Neither wants to officiate over a post-mortem to determine the real cause and solution to physical or business issues that may plague you.
We can be reached at 800-779-2430 or via email at al@agencyconsulting.com