The Independent Insurance Agency Talent Gap

On today's Agent Leader Podcast, I'm going to address one of the biggest frustrations that insurance agency leaders are experiencing today. How do I find, how do I train, and how do I retain the best talent? The Agent Leader Podcast is brought to you by the Sitkins Network. Become a category of 1 in your marketplace. Learn more at sitkins.com TSN that's S I T K-I N S.com T S. Hey there, friends and agency leaders. Brent Kelly here with another episode of the Agent Leader Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today. And I'm really excited about today's episode number one, because it's a huge passion of mine. I love, I love, as you know, talking leadership with insurance agencies and how to develop your team, maximize potential. But secondly, we had done a survey as part of the Sitkins Group to a number of insurance agencies and got responses back on, you know, what is really frustrating you? You know, what are the things that are bothering you that are restricting you to grow your agency like you'd want to? And not surprisingly, we heard response after response talking about the talent gap. You know, how do we find good talent? How do we keep and train best talent? How do we maximize the best talent? I think, you know, the responses we got back, if it wasn't every response, I mean, at least every other response had something to do with the talent gap or again, maximizing the talent on the team or just finding good people to be part of your agency. It's a real concern. And so I want to address that in today's podcast about, you know, why do insurance agencies fail to find and keep the best talent and then hopefully give you some solutions here that you can use and start to think about within your agency to be more successful. You know, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about finding and keeping the best talent is that it's just, it's amazing to me the opportunity that the insurance agency system provides talent. Yet how poor of a job that we typically do in attracting the town that comes from both a macro and a micro perspective. Because think about it, I mean, imagine being in a business where every single person needs your product. Imagine being in a business where 90%, that's a low number, by the way, of your clients will buy from you again every single year, even if you're just average. Imagine being in a business with unlimited opportunity for growth and financial freedom. See, every one of those statements is true for independent insurance agencies today. Yet even with the unlimited potential afforded in this industry, when I speak to Agency owners, One of the top frustrations is the ability to attract, to train and retain the best talent. So if this industry is so good and so lucrative, why the talent gap? Why is this happening? Well, you know, first of all, obviously every independent agency is unique, right? They all have different, not just different sizes and demographic, but different goals and how they want to run and operate their agency. All that being said, I do think there are about three common areas in which many insurance agencies struggle to bridge the the talent gap. So I want to go through all three of these on today's podcast. The first one is simply a lack of purpose. They don't know who they are. You know, as an insurance agency leader, how would you answer this question when I ask you, why does your agency exist and why should anyone else care? Why does your agency exist and why should anyone else care? You know, for the typical independent insurance agency, the question results typically when I ask this question in some form of long pause followed by a maybe a mission statement if they have one that no one can remember. You've got to do much more than sell insurance policies today. Because here's the deal. If you want to attract the best talent and keep the best talent, understand this. Every agency sells insurance. They all sell insurance. You're no different by saying, well, we sell insurance to people. We've got great people and great service and we do a really good job. See, the great agencies know why they do it, right? Understanding the why behind your agency is not only important to your clients and your future clients. Talk about telling a story to the public, but it's also critically important to every member of your team. See, great talent today wants to be part of something great. Every insurance agency knows what they do. We sell insurance. And most insurance agents agencies can clearly explain how they do it. Well, here's our process. You know, we go to the underwriters and we get quotes and whatever it is. But very few insurance agencies know why, why they really do it. And understand this why has nothing to do with revenues or profit. That's the result of the why, right? When you understand your why, your revenues and profit generally grow. But why is about your purpose, your mission, your cause or your belief. Ask yourself these questions. Why is your agency in business? As leadership author and speaker Simon Sinek states, get that out. Why do you wake up every morning and why should anyone else care? See, answering this basic but all important question is a key aspect in finding and keeping the best talent. So that's number one, this lack of purpose. You've got to Find a purpose, a soul to your agency. That's critically important. Step one, to find and keep and retain the best talent. What about number two? Well, I think it's a, it's a lack of vision. It kind of goes to the next level of that. Agencies don't know what they want. See, the most successful insurance agencies are always on the lookout for good people. They're always prospecting, just like you should always be prospecting for future clients. Right? Now if I ask you, what are the top three qualities that you're looking for in your agency for a future leader, a future sales producer, a future service rep, what would you say? Give me the top three qualities. In fact, I would tell you to pause the podcast right now and, and make a list of one of those. What are the top three qualities you're looking for for someone on your team? What are the top three qualities you're looking for? Now here's the important part. After you write down these qualities, take a minute to see which of these characteristics you possess. For example, let's say that you're looking for a high energy person, right? Are you a high energy person? Let's say maybe you're looking for. I want a detailed, oriented person. Well, are you a detailed, oriented person? We're looking for an up and coming, a great communicator. Are you a dynamic leader or a great communicator? Leadership expert John Maxwell states this. I love this. He says, who you attract is not determined by what you want. It's determined by who you are. This is, this principle is called the law of magnetism. See, people tend to be attracted and follow people like themselves. Just think about, think about people that you naturally attract. Oftentimes you're very similar, maybe in age or demographic or, or what you like, how you, you know, your, your, your characteristics that I just mentioned. As an agency leader, you've got to be self aware of who you are and the qualities you possess because likely these are the people you will attract. Now here's the important part. If you don't possess the qualities that you desire in future talent, you must begin to work on your own leadership ability immediately in whatever area that is. See, leadership, as I've stated in previous podcasts, is a skill that you can and I would suggest must improve upon to be successful. Now if your personal qualities are those that you seek in others, great. Now you must begin to then seek those who complement your skills and fill in the gaps. You can't have a entire team of, you know, high octane, you know, Quick, quick acting sales producers and no one who is actually going to do the detailed work. Right. It's like what does Dave Ramsey says, like trying to, to nail jello to a tree. It doesn't work. Right. You also don't want a full team of just analytical thinkers and no one's actually doing anything. There's no entrepreneurs or salespeople. Makes common sense. Right. You've got to fill in those gaps. But the key overall is this, because every agency is different is you just got to raise your awareness of what you really want. And you got to raise your awareness of who you're currently attracting. And you've got to be intentional about filling those gaps and where you're deficient. So I think the first step when I say lack of vision is that most agencies, I say, well, who do you want? Well, I don't know. We just take someone who's good. We'll just figure it out. Out. It doesn't work that way. It's the same thing we teach in sales. Know your ideal member of your team. Just like you need to know your ideal client. It's really simple, yet it's, it's often overlooked. The quality of the talent depends on you. You're the leader. Who you are is who you attract. Now be the kind of person that you want to attract and be intentional on seeking those who, who round out your weaknesses. All right, so number one was lack of purpose. Number two is lack of vision. The last part is lack of training. You know, they don't know. Most agencies don't know what to do with talent when they get there. And I truly believe that one of the main reasons insurance agency leaders fail to find the best talent is because they realize they have no real tangible way to train them. Now, even if it's subconscious, it's hard to attract the best talent when you doubt your agency's training program or lack thereof. Instead of focusing on finding the best upcoming talent that's based on attitude and future potential, all those important things, I see agencies that often settle for someone who is average, but guess what, they've got some level of prior training so they're good enough. And this focuses, this causes agencies to focus on the safe choice instead of really being conscientious of finding the best choice. See, the best talent is looking for leadership to take them to higher levels. The best talent wants to be developed. They want to be encouraged. And guess what? They want to be challenged. Without a training process that helps your team grow personally and professionally, the best talent will find another Place to grow. A training process, by the way, doesn't have to be complicated. How can you place your most valuable asset, your people, in the best position to win? What do they need to know? What do they need to do? How can you help them be successful? And by the way, little quick plug. At the Sitkins Network, we have full training programs in leadership and sales and sales management service. But here again is the underlying principle. High achievers, those people that you really want to attract, those people that you really want to have on your team and maximize, they desire to be encouraged and challenged in an environment where they can grow to their full potential. There's something called the law of respect. It says at some point when high achievers, when those people that are constantly in growth mode and improving, whether it's communication skills and sales skills and leadership skills, when they begin to outgrow leadership, they leave. That's a big part of retaining talent. So let me ask a question. Does your agency maximize the development of your people because of your training or lack of training? Do you hesitate to go out and find the best person because you're not really sure what you're going to do with them? If so, understand this is a key problem, right? A key area of improvement you've got to address. If you ignore it, you will continue to struggle to find and keep the best people. All right, so here's the takeaway. And again, my top three points of why do most insurance agents do I see lack to find and keep and retain and maximize the best talent? Again, I think it's a lack of purpose, understanding your true why, what it is you're really all about, why you do business in the first place outside of just money and just selling insurance. Number two, lack of a vision. You have to understand what it is that you actually want, understand who you are and the type of people you attract and the type of people you need to bring on the team to be successful? Number three is simply a lack of training. You don't have a real process or program to help your people be at their best. Here's the takeaway again, as I said at the outset, this is an amazing industry filled with such great opportunity. However, it desperately needs an influx of new talent. We hear this all the time from all the reports. But to find and keep the best agency talent, you've got to have that clear vision. You've got to have a plan and you've got to execute. Because great talent won't just show up, train itself and produce great results. It doesn't work that way nothing happens on accident. Finding and keeping the best talent is no different than finding and keeping the best clients for your agency. You gotta know your agency's why. What is your agency's value proposition? What do you bring to the table? Why should anyone want to be part of your team? Next, you've gotta know what it is you want. Who are your ideal team members and how are you attracting them? And then lastly, you've got to create an ongoing training program that allows for your team members to grow and thrive. What is your training process? I believe that every challenge, I always say this, every challenge is an amazing opportunity for those agencies that are willing to invest in their growth. You know, my mentor and CEO of the Sitkins Group, Roger Sitkins, always talks about it. Those 2 percenters, what are those 2% of agencies? What do they do differently? Well, these are the things they do. They invest in their growth. They don't settle. Finding and keeping the best talent is a process, but it's a process that you can begin today. You just got to be intentional, you've got to be consistent, and you got to be open to new ideas. Thank you for listening to today's Agent Leader podcast again. My name is Brent Kelly. Thanks for joining me. And if your agency would like to transcend commoditization and defy comparison to become that category of one in your marketplace, check out the Sitkins Network. We help agencies. We deliver proven agency results. Simplified Roger Sitkins has 35 plus years of proven experience and we want to help your agency stand out in today's noisy world. Visit sitkins.comtsn.