How Do You Motivate Your Agents

[jdeasy]

I've managed over 500 agents in 13 states, and all of them are motivated by one thing! Money! My advice to you is to consistantly have new exiting products to allow your agents to make more income. Try using MSS product with your agents in the senior market. It will get them earning commissions on every appointment regardless of close. This will motivate them to see more prospects every week thus increasing over all production. Good Luck to you!

Obviously this dude is spamming, but, he has no contact info, no profile info and talks in circles. Could it be Parker and Asses?

A rose by any other name....

 

[Frank Stastny]

If one is really interested in motivating agents offer excellent training, good contracts and most of all support. Support includes but is not limited to giving them someone to call when things suck and someone to share their successes with and bounce ideas off of.

Being independent can be a very lonely job unless you have someone to talk to occasionally who understands the business and how many ups and downs there.

Being a good listener goes a long way. Sometimes it's comforting to know that other agents are probably going through or have gone through the exact same thing from time to time.

It's all about getting a little help from your friends.

 

[pomfin]

Take a business management class, read some books on leadership. No single post will help you if your not willing to help yourself.

Your question is not so much about "motivation" which is temporary, but proper agent development and conditioning. Talk to another successful GA and replicate his model.

Also don't think there is some magic bullet to instill work ethic, belief and conviction in everyone. Recruiting is a numbers game, and somehow bigger teams always have better retention, culture and energy. Work on YOU and won't have to pretend you don't need them more then they need you. I know this isn't the easy answer but hopefully you'll get more out of my responce then someone saying "money" this or "lost cause" that.

Thanks for your good advice. Are you the successful GA? If yes, I really like to see your model so I can learn from it.
JDeasy showed me a good FE system he is using. That is really sharing. I really appreciate that.

 

[insuranceexec]

I can only speak from an agent's perspective on this ..

Good producers never want any training or leads. They find their own. They want respect, recognition (bonuses, awards, higher contracts - again it's not the money but the recognition) and help with designing more advanced cases.

Those who whine about lack of training and leads, rarely do better when they get them. Just a personal observation.

One of the most intelligent posts I have seen on here in awhile. Spot on!

 

[jmhopkins40]

In addition to the giving good contract to the agent who producing, what other ways you do to motivate agents to do more. I find many agents lost their interests very fast, not doing enough volume to be productive.

This post will for sure "be under fire" but it answers your question....motivation is not internal.....it is without a doubt external. Drill instructors don't have new soldiers/agent in our example, that apply for a job and are willing to step in front of bullets or clients without being motivated...DI's and successful managers assess the level of motivation in the beginner, provide them a clear and attainable path to success, train to this standard and accept nothing less that 110%. Managers that accept less...get less, then the agent leaves.

Managers in our arena are typically their own worst enemies...they continue to recruit to fill vacanacies, rather than determine why they are leaving...Recruit to expand...or you will continue to recruit and train and wave goodbye to over 90% of your agents.

When you have trained a solder/agent so well they are so confident they are the best at what they do, they will be become fearless...they will go out of their way to see more people because they know without a doubt that's the first step and they will follow through.

Offer them advancement upfront with an attainable goal. Show them how to make the money you make. Release them upon attaining the goals, assist them in building their agency and continue to maintain the personal and business relationship...he/she is now a GREAT agent referral!

Offer them above street level contracts..22% health, 100% life, LEADS.....but do not "give them" a single lead until they have completed the full training plan, and have produced the weekly minimum 2 consecutive weeks.

As a manager/GA, who cares if you make 5 points on an agent or 10 points if you keep twice as many agents producing weekly for you twice as long.

Have them determine the $$$ the need in hand weekly, then simply train to that standard...CPS. It's simple math from that point forward.

Money talks, but is useless without proper training and mentoring.

A rifle is useless unless you are an expert. Who cares if you can kill most of the people, most of the time....IT'S EXPERT OR NOTHING.

If you have to live on what you can shoot in the forrest....you will damn well train to be an expert. That's the world of commissions.

 

[pomfin]

It seems that sell the dream and sell the plan/future and follow up with it would be a good way to go.

 

[pro100sanya]

I am completely agree with pomfin.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

This post will for sure "be under fire" but it answers your question....motivation is not internal.....it is without a doubt external. Drill instructors don't have new soldiers/agent in our example, that apply for a job and are willing to step in front of bullets or clients without being motivated...DI's and successful managers assess the level of motivation in the beginner, provide them a clear and attainable path to success, train to this standard and accept nothing less that 110%. Managers that accept less...get less, then the agent leaves.

Managers in our arena are typically their own worst enemies...they continue to recruit to fill vacanacies, rather than determine why they are leaving...Recruit to expand...or you will continue to recruit and train and wave goodbye to over 90% of your agents.

When you have trained a solder/agent so well they are so confident they are the best at what they do, they will be become fearless...they will go out of their way to see more people because they know without a doubt that's the first step and they will follow through.

Offer them advancement upfront with an attainable goal. Show them how to make the money you make. Release them upon attaining the goals, assist them in building their agency and continue to maintain the personal and business relationship...he/she is now a GREAT agent referral!

Offer them above street level contracts..22% health, 100% life, LEADS.....but do not "give them" a single lead until they have completed the full training plan, and have produced the weekly minimum 2 consecutive weeks.

As a manager/GA, who cares if you make 5 points on an agent or 10 points if you keep twice as many agents producing weekly for you twice as long.

Have them determine the $$$ the need in hand weekly, then simply train to that standard...CPS. It's simple math from that point forward.

Money talks, but is useless without proper training and mentoring.

A rifle is useless unless you are an expert. Who cares if you can kill most of the people, most of the time....IT'S EXPERT OR NOTHING.

If you have to live on what you can shoot in the forrest....you will damn well train to be an expert. That's the world of commissions.

Being a former Marine, this is a horrible example. First of all my boot camp platoon started with 85 recruits. We graduated 42 after 43 either quit or washed out. 3 of them attempt to go AWOL...kinda tough when you're on Parris Island but they tried.

On top of that a lot of the 43 who made it were what we called "**** birds" - lazy and did the bare minimum to get by.

Who motivated the lazy recruits. The rest of the platoon....at night after the DI's turned in.

No one was motivated by a DI. You either wanted to be there and wanted to be a Marine or you listened to the DI or you'd end up in the pit. If the pit didn't motivate you they'd mark you as "refusal to train" and throw you in the brig while they processed you out.

 

[Guest]

No one was motivated by a DI. You either wanted to be there and wanted to be a Marine or you listened to the DI or you'd end up in the pit. If the pit didn't motivate you

What exactly happened "in the pit" that was a motivating factor? You couldn't have beaten the crap out of these guys because a busted up Marine would not get past the physical training part. And it's hard to shoot a rifle with a broken hand or a closed eye.

 

[stormtracker]

If there were only a motivator that appealed to all. Fact is, whether we can admit it or not, most people aren't motivated to work. You can hang the most appealing carrot in front of the horse and still get nothing. There are two kinds of people that need motivation: the ones that simply need training so you can point them in the right direction and give 'em the tools and away they go. The other kind? The ones who need training because they have never acted upon the training they have already had.