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Avoid the Walk of Shame: Hiring Mistakes to Dodge in Your P&C Agency
The Insurance Dudes
March 04, 2025
Weekly Trivia 🤔 Question:
How are insurance companies incorporating technology to promote health and wellness among policyholders?
Today In 5 Minutes Or Less (TLDR):
đź”’ The Hardest Step to Free Yourselfđź”’
Dear Loyal Reader:
We get it – hiring the right agents is crucial to running a smooth-sailing insurance agency. It's not just about finding someone to fill a seat; it’s about building a team that drives consistent and profitable sales. Over the years, we've made our share of hiring blunders and have fortuitously turned them into valuable lessons. Here's a playbook we've crafted from those experiences, to help you avoid these common hiring pitfalls.
1. Rushing the Hiring Process Taking shortcuts can feel tempting, especially when you need to fill a position quickly. But haste often leads to wasted resources.
Actionable Step: Plan ahead. Begin the hiring process before the need becomes urgent. Implement a structured timeline that allows you to thoroughly evaluate each candidate.
2. Ignoring Cultural Fit The right skill set doesn’t guarantee the right fit. Cultural alignment is key to maintaining harmony and productivity within your team.
Actionable Step: Define your agency’s core values clearly. Use those as benchmarks during interviews to ensure prospective hires resonate with your company culture.
3. Overvaluing Experience Experience doesn’t always equate to excellence. Sometimes, those from outside the insurance world bring fresh perspectives.
Actionable Step: Don’t limit your candidate pool to only those with industry experience. Consider candidates with potential who demonstrate adaptability and eagerness to learn.
4. Skipping Reference Checks It’s easy to overlook reference checks when a candidate seems like a perfect fit, but this can lead to costly mistakes.
Actionable Step: Commit to making reference calls or conducting background checks. Use them to uncover insights that interviews might not reveal.
5. Neglecting Onboarding A lack of proper onboarding can lead to confusion and mismatched expectations, both for you and the new hire.
Actionable Step: Develop a comprehensive onboarding plan. Establish clear expectations and provide structured training to set your new team members up for success.
By implementing these strategies, you'll not only attract competent hires but also retain a harmonious and effective team. Remember, it’s all about investing in the right people who will drive your agency forward.
Keep crushing it!
Craig Pretzinger and Jason Feltman
The Insurance Dudes! 🚀
You know what's interesting is, is creating the core values is, is another one of these processes that is, is not the most delightful or fun or exciting things. Same as creating the process that you do for hiring. Right. And onboarding and all these different things. All are not the most sexy thing in the world to be doing. But once done, everything else will run. That's what we found.
Craig Pretzinger
How to Engage Clients Without Directly Offering Insurance Quotes
In the insurance world, asking the wrong question can steer a conversation off course and leave you floundering. We've all been there, right? That awkward moment when you blurt out, "So, you want an insurance quote?" It’s akin to offering someone a root canal right off the bat. I know it’s a well-intended question, but it’s really about finding the right entry point into a deeper conversation.
This isn't just about selling insurance; it's about engaging with people. You can learn a lot from unexpected places, like selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, an experience some of us might remember—whether fondly or not. It wasn't just about knocking on the door and straightforwardly asking if they wanted a vacuum. That’s not how the game’s played. You needed to create that sense of comfort, of connection. You had to talk your way into the house first, establish even a sliver of rapport. It's a skill and, honestly, a lesson in human interaction.
Whether you're entering a client's home literally or metaphorically, the key is to forge that initial bond. Understand this: people don't want to be directly sold to. Instead, they appreciate a conversation that feels genuine. When you demand immediate interest or try to shove products in their face, you lose them. Start by listening, by showing genuine interest in their needs or experiences first.
Remember, this is about a tiny bit of familiarity, that little moment where you bridge the gap from strangers to acquaintances. Once you open that door, metaphorically or literally, you can start exploring what they might need without the awkward directness. The same rules apply, whether selling vacuums or policies. You want them to feel they're in a place where questions and concerns are addressed, not dismissed or bypassed with sales speak.
Ultimately, it’s about making clients feel heard and valued. A simple shift in approach can transform an encounter from transactional to relational. It's about making authentic connections; that’s the real priority. So, keep it genuine, listen more than you speak, and always aim to connect before discussing your products or services. That tiny bit of rapport will make all the difference.
"The goal isn't to directly ask if someone wants to buy a vacuum cleaner when they answer the door. The first step is building even a small connection upfront."
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Answer To The Weekly Trivia Question:
Insurance companies have been increasingly incorporating technology into their operations to promote health and wellness. Some insurers now offer incentives such as discounts or rewards for policyholders who use wearable fitness trackers to monitor their physical activity and health metrics.
We put together a free book and checklist to grow your insurance agency 👉 Here
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