Agency Managers Seen As The Key To Retaining Agents

Money, he said, was way down on the list of reasons. Rather, Rosbruch said, a major reason for top producers leaving has to do with whether they had a strong relationship with the managers.

Grimes said managers should ask themselves some questions about how they can have an impact on their agents. “How much time, effort and energy do you invest in building strong relationships?”

Rosbruch added that what agents want from their managers may change over time, but the need for interaction does not.

Another key to high retention and productivity is recruiting, according to Grimes. Some managers, he said, have “recruiting reluctance,” meaning they refrain from recruiting highly educated and successful people.

They are reluctant to recruit someone already in a high-paying job because of the fear that person might fail, he said. These managers, Grimes said, wonder how they could look themselves in the mirror if someone left a high-paying job and then failed as an agent.

However, Grimes said, there are a lot of talented people earning big bucks who are sick of working for corporate America.

Rosbruch said it is important for agencies to adopt a culture of excellence to help these people become successful in the life insurance business.

Too often, he said, managers have expectations that are too low. He questioned whether managers have different expectations for top performers as opposed to core performers. If managers believe their core performers have the ability to produce better results, he asked, would it have an impact on their productivity?

“We think it does,” he said.

The best general agents, Grimes added, believe they can make a difference in the lives and success levels of their people.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 9, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.