Case Studies

Case #1 Second career for insurance agent. A client was transitioning from management to a career in the financial industry.

Case #2 Established agency wanted to recruit more agents. A senior agent who had a history of high production was interested in recruiting and building an agency.

Case #3 Tension between partners in firm. The partners were a mix of original founders, descendants of original partners and new partners. They had different energy levels, different goals and lack of discipline was causing the firm a lot of chaos.

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Second Career for Insurance Agent

Situation: Retiring from a high paying management job, this new agent was uncomfortable in beginning his insurance career. Lacking marketing experience and not quite sure of himself on sales calls, his sales were low. He began to question whether he should try another sales position or a new career altogether.

Solution: We outlined a marketing approach that fit a niche target market that he was passionate about. We helped him develop a marketing action plan complete with accountability steps so that he could stay on track to reach his goals. The action steps were accomplished because he found the right marketing plan.

Results: Within three months, his sales were a respectable $15,000 per month and he was very glad to be in the financial services business. Most recently, he has production in the high six figures.

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Established agency wanted to recruit more agents

Situation: The agent was a high performer, but he did all the work himself. As he grew older, he wanted to recruit other agents and teach them how to be successful in business. His problem was that he didn’t know how to effectively recruit and didn’t take the time to develop agents once they were on board. Consequently, only six percent of his agents were producing. The senior agent grew disappointed in recruiting others and thought it might be better to keep producing at high levels himself.

Solution: We began by identifying the characteristics he wanted to see in an ideal agent and then began to conduct personality assessments when he hired new agents. The assessment gave us clues as to the candidate’s likely success in this environment. From there, we began to conduct weekly management training sessions with the general agent so that he could learn how to manage people better. His major obstacle was dealing with agents who were not as ambitious as he was.

Results: Within one year, the agency recruited more than 30 new agents. After three years, they had recruited more than 125 new agents with the majority writing new business each month.

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Tension Between Partners in Firm

Situation: The firm did not have a strategic plan and a profit sharing agreement between the partners was unfavorable to the new agents. The new agents brought in a large portion of new business and did not believe the formula for profit sharing was fair.

Solution: We interviewed each partner to better understand his or her individual perspective on the issues. There were quite a few large issues. A communications session was held to get all of the partner more attuned to using good communication. Second, development of a strategic plan was necessary so that all partners were able to focus on the firm as whole instead of individual pieces of the business. Finally, the partners agreed to review the formula for profit sharing based on seniority, future business goals, partner contributions and individual results delivered.

Results: Today, all partners are satisfied with the new direction and the better communication that is apparent at the firm. Each partner feels their contributions are recognized and that they are fairly compensated for their efforts.