In my previous article, I discussed threefears that insurance agencies must overcome in order to avoid goingout of business. Here are two more that will be key to ourindustry's success going forward.

Be honest, do you experience any of these fears? If so how areyou responding?

PRODUCER FEAR

We see agencies that are actually afraid of their producers; orat least that’s how it appears. Why else would they not establishmeaningful production goals, make the producers accountable forhitting those goals, and get rid of those producers who are unableor unwilling to do the job they were hired to do? Why else wouldthey not tie their compensation to the new business results theyhire people to produce, rather than rewarding them to sit on a bookof business?

High cost of this fear – When agencyowners don’t hold producers as accountable to their job (alwaysproducing new business) as they do others on the team, the cost isdevastating. The agency has no predictable growth, there is a lossof team confidence, the agency’sreputation suffers, and profit margins disappear (cost to servicecontinues to go up even if revenue isn’t growing).

Overcome the fear – Reward thebehaviors that drive the results you need. For a producer, thismeans paying them generously for new business (even more than whatthe industry typically pays), reasonably for renewal business (wayless than what the industry typically pays), and over-the-top forover-the-top levels of new production. In the end, this is a modelthat is way more rewarding for your top producers.

FEAR OF DELIVERING RESULTS

We see agencies that are so afraid of their ability to deliverresults that instead of charging clients for newservices/resources, they continue to pile on new services “forfree.” If the agency knew they could use that new service/resourceto bring more value to their clients,they wouldn’t be afraid of asking to be paid more for doing so.

High cost of this fear – Obviously,giving stuff away for free results in a reduced profit margin.However, worse than that is the opportunity cost of notstrengthening the relationship by bringing, through effectivesolution implementation, increasingly more value and results to therelationship. Your clients will find improved results somewhere; ifit isn’t with you, it will be with your competition.

Overcome the fear – Every newsolution/resource is meant to address a specific need.

1. Start by clearly identifying what that need looks like when itis present in the business of a prospect or client.
2. Establish the questions you will ask to help theprospect/client see that they are struggling as a result of thatneed.
3. Establish a plan of implementation for your newsolution/resource to ensure the need is addressed successfully andimproved results are delivered.

I get the fears

I totally get how truly terrifying these fears are. I understandhow difficult it is to bring this kind of change to your agency.But, you have no choice. If you don’t face the fears, if you don’tbring the change, you are on adead-end path.

Change is beyond difficult and we typically don’t change untilour current reality becomes scarier and more difficult than thechange itself. If you haven’t been honest with yourself yet, I willtell you that you have likely reached that tipping point.

Now is the time to face your fears and bring healthy change toyour agency.