Many agency owners start their careers as trainees to become an IMPLEMENTOR.
Tell an implementor what to do and show him/her how to do it and their work ethic will determine if they can absorb the training and the rejection that sometimes becomes a part of any sales-oriented job and become successful DOING what was projected and trained.
Producers are natural implementors. They have learned the basics of sales and of insurance and they have successfully combined these skills in their own, unique, way to build relationships with clients and prospects based either on price or on the trust of the client of the advice of the insurance agent.
Some producers stay producers forever. In their forties they are primed to use the skills they developed in their 20’s and 30’s to build relationships with prospects and convert many of them into agency and personal clients. When they are in their 60’s and 70’s they are as polished as they are going to get and, until they “run out of steam” they just keep selling and servicing their insurance clients. If they are smart enough to tell when they are running out of steam, they will retire, selling what assets they have built in ownership to the next generation and progressing with their lives after insurance.
If they haven’t built a retirement fund, they become Account Executives, servicing their customers as the numbers of customers slowly erode, earning a living as long as the book of business that compensates them allows them to do so.
Many people in agencies have never and will never be successful salespeople but are, nevertheless, very valuable as administrative IMPLEMENTORS. Without this group of Implementors the agencies would operate chaotically and growth would be very stressful. Happily, many administrative Implementors as well as some Producers have the traits to grow into MANAGERS.
MANAGERS manage others, train, coach and counsel. Hannibal Smith, the leader of the A-Team was also its able MANAGER and was known for his creed, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
A MANAGER shows people what to do, training them as necessary, then guides, coaches, counsels and monitors them to do the tasks successfully before getting out of the way and letting the competent implementors do their jobs.
While a MANAGER tells staff HOW to perform and makes sure the performance is up to standards, a LEADER explains WHAT needs to be done to both managers and implementors. Many leaders are “big picture” people, futuristic and strategic in nature but only a few are both Leaders and Managers and very few combine all three traits successfully as Leader, Manager AND Implementor.
Every agency needs leaders, managers and implementors if it is to become and stay successful. When a leader disappears from the scene (death, retirement, sale) and no leader appears to replace the former leader, the agency may continue to perform well, or may quickly erode depending on whether one or more managers are in place who can keep the agency performing in accordance to the prior leader’s BIG PICTURE. If the Leader WAS the Manager as well, only a sale to another agency that has its own leaders, managers and implementors will save the business from eroding, both in volume and in quality of customers and employees.
If the agency owner never developed into a manager or leader and is an implementor, the focus of the agency is likely on today’s problems, every day. Little or no time is spent in Strategic Planning, agency or personnel development and whatever success the agency is having will quickly erode once key implementors leave the scene.
Are you, the agency owner, an Implementor, a Manager or a Leader? If you think you are a mix of all three, calculate what percentage of time you spend in Strategic Planning, in training and monitoring the efforts of others or in actual customer contact work. Many realistic agency owners realize that they spend their time as “firefighters” solving the crisis of the day (week/hour), going home every night feeling drained but complaining that they accomplished little all day.
The time to create Leaders, Managers and Implementors is NOW. When you are planning for your agency, identify each performer’s potential as a Leader, Manager or Implementor and help develop each person to their best long-term value to themselves and to the agency.
Very few agency owners will change their motivation and styles. But the most important thing is not to change yourself, but to recognize where your greatest value is – as an implementor (producer, servicer, administrator), a manager or as a leader – and identifying the skills and talents of others in your employ who could be the counterpoint to your point, and strengthen the entire organization by shifting roles to those that are the natural strengths of each employee.
Call us at 856 779 2430 to get help identifying the Leaders, Managers and Implementors within your organization. We can help you create a Strategic and Tactical Plan that puts your agency on the road to success regardless of where in the mix your strength lies.