In the July 2010 issue, we said that by figuring out how many advisors you need to recruit to hit your goal -- and acting on it -- you will motivate everyone in your agency, create a recruiting plan and build your business.
In that article we said, "It does not matter how many you hire. It matters how many write business each week. This is where your weekly sales meetings and training come into play."
There are three principles to succeed in this business: (1) Recruit; (2) Train; (3) Retain.
If you don't recruit any advisors, your growth may be slow and/or limited to your own production or those few advisors you have. If you don't get new advisors trained and making money in their first quarter, you won't have to worry about letting them go -- their spouse will tell them to quit, and they will leave. And unless you get advisors successful enough to make it to their second and third year, your agency's book of business will become stagnant and your agency may not grow.
So you have put your initial business plan together, and you have recruited some new advisors. Now what? First, read through the "12 principles of advisor training" below. Next, develop a plan for your weekly sales/training meetings.
12 principles of advisor training
Advisors learn best when:
-There is motivation for learning. What one concept does the new advisor want to learn that they will commit to "doing" once they go out in the field after training?
-There is active participation in learning. People learn by doing, so it is important to involve the advisor through interactive conversation and role playing. Pop quizzes or other fun tools can enhance engagement.
-Processes are taught in the order they are to be used. It is important they see and experience a connection from one step to the next; otherwise, they will end up going home and engage in "paralysis of analysis" instead of putting what they learned into practice.
-Comprehension is confirmed. People have a tendency to mask how much they don't know about a subject. Do not assume a topic is understood because there are no questions; ask questions of the advisors when they do not offer their own.
-Activity is incorporated. No one wants to sit for two days -- or even two hours -- listening to a lecture. By interacting, answering questions, writing ideas down, standing and role playing, the new advisor begins to "feel" they can do this and start to imagine success.
-Learning is based upon past experience. Everyone judges their possibility by their past experience. We have to help new advisors identify behaviors of past success and help them to project these same feelings of success into future action, while at the same time creating an environment for them to feel it is safe to make mistakes and to come to their manager for direction and guidance.
-Extreme emotional responses are employed. New advisors should feel comfortable challenging new ideas and, in a safe and accepting environment, they can also have their views and beliefs challenged to help them determine which will help them succeed and which they may need to alter or replace. This is often emotionally difficult and it is important that they receive the message, in your words and your deeds, that this is normal.
-Friendly competition stimulates learning. Don't just call on the "best" advisor, the new advisor who seems to be "getting it" or the one who has experience. Call on the quiet advisor, the one who does not speak up or volunteer; call on them for simple questions and concepts, build their confidence gradually and with verbal assurance.
-Challenging problems are presented. The good thing about problems is everyone has them. It is important to demonstrate to advisors where they can find solutions to problems they may experience with their business. Also, model to them that some problems have to be accepted and you can work through these and still succeed.
-Knowledge of the format is made known in advance. Inform everyone of the format of the class and that everyone is expected to participate. Require that everyone be able to demonstrate each of the steps prior to leaving the class. They don't have to do it perfectly, but they need to be able to "do it." If they can't or won't do it in training, they won't do it in the field.
-There is a continuous evaluation of progress. Let your advisors know what they are doing right, and about areas they can improve.
-Recognition and credit provide incentives. Share your attention and praise to everyone evenly; if you need to correct or "talk" to an advisor, do so at the break or after class, never in front of the others. Remember: Praise in public, correct in private.
It is important to remember the training is about the advisor, so we want to ensure that all advisors leave the training having felt they could ask questions and challenge concepts within the context of how they would apply that concept to their selling activity.
It does not take talent for an experienced advisor to be confident during training; it does, however, take courage for a non-experienced advisor to offer input, take a risk during role-play or to question a concept. It is these advisors that others will look at and think, "If he can do it, I know I can."
The Monday sales meeting
Have your turn-ins prior to the start of the meeting. Train advisors that they are expected to write business and that writing business every week is normal. You also want to acknowledge advisors who are producing -- those whose efforts contribute to the growth of your office.
At the same time, you want to have all business turned in so it can be "scrubbed" prior to sending to the home office. This will ensure that business sent in will get entered, advisors will get their advances, your office gets credit for your submitted business, and your office is writing financially sound business that will get issued.
Train one topic/subject at a time with the end in mind and disclose the expected result. People have short attention spans. Train on one primary subject/topic at a time. You may discuss several topics; however, there should always be one primary theme of that week's training.
This should be something related to what you expect from the advisors: prospecting, handling objections, making presentations, closing, getting referrals, writing good business or new products coming out.
Engage others in training and discuss what has worked for them. For example, you can have two advisors present a product, one can explain the "features" of the product and the other can demonstrate "how" to sell the product. Or you can do a round robin, having different advisors tell how they used one of the sales steps in their last sale or different ways to prospect and close sales.
When you hire a new advisor who worked for a competitor, have this advisor demonstrate the competitive advantage of your product against his "old" company.
Advisors who leave the Monday meeting with an idea, concept or technique that they believe will help them make money will be excited to come to the next meeting.
Purpose: train for results. There should be an expected outcome and that outcome should be based on existing sales results or expected sales results. Usually this will come from the previous week's results or the goal set for your office for the coming week.
Follow the principles of a good meeting. Preparation, handouts, active participation and optimistic conclusions are the hallmarks of an effective meeting.
No one wants to come to a meeting and spend the first few minutes watching someone "get prepared" for the meeting. Create a meeting agenda, pass out handouts, and involve everyone in the room in some way. Have a sign-in sheet so advisors get the feeling training is serious and important. It also provides a record of whom and what was trained on.
A lot of times we think that what we say at the beginning of a meeting is most important; however, the truth is the last thing that is said or done is what people remember, so always end on a high note.
Why meetings are effective
They save time. Because everyone hears the same message at the same time, repetition is eliminated. Also, advisors can't say they "didn't know" about some expectation -- they heard the information at the same time as everyone else and had the opportunity after the meeting to talk to you about any issue.
Meetings build esprit de corps. Enthusiasm transmits itself from person to person. For those who are producing, they receive the recognition they deserve. For those who are struggling, they see others who are succeeding and gain information and support to help them improve.
New concepts and themes tend to gain greater acceptance. When others are "buying" into a new concept or theme, others begin to accept those concepts. Cynics who observe others accepting the concepts, tend to accept them.
Teach advisors to self-govern
Focus on sales activities. Most problems that advisors have stem from a lack of sales activity. Often advisors will get into a cycle of evaluating things, learning about something, or trying a new method and not actually creating any sales activity. The fact is if advisors are not engaged in sales activity, they will not be writing business. Always gear any interaction you have with them back toward the thing they need to do next to have sales activity.
Set specific goals and hold advisors accountable. Encourage advisors to commit to a goal. Until they commit to a goal, they are only hoping things will work out and you won't have anything to ensure accountability. Expect them to set concrete goals such as a number of phone calls on Monday, a minimum number of appointments or presentations this week.
Caution: Make sure the goal the advisor sets is realistic and achievable. New advisors who have only been licensed one month may not have a realistic goal when they say they are going to write $20,000 for the week, given their current skill set. However, experienced advisors with several years of experience who set a goal of $3,000 for the week may not really be stretching themselves.
Be accessible for support. The more a new advisor communicates with you in the beginning, the less they will need to later on. It is better for you to help them establish good habits, and recognize what methods do not work ahead of time, instead of showing up for the Monday meeting and discovering what they were doing last week would not work.
Teach advisors to: (1) Solve their own problems; (2) Be accountable; (3) Set and achieve goals. Remember, you can't expect what you don't inspect.
Lloyd Lofton, LUTCF, CSA, is the vice president of sales for American Eagle Consultants, Inc., a National Marketing Organization. He began his life insurance career in 1977, has held various management and leadership positions with career and independent companies. He speaks at industry-related events and conducts training across the country. Mr. Lofton has hired thousands of agents and hundreds of managers over the years and can be reached at lloyd@aeci.us or through www.linkedin.com/in/lloydlofton.
