P R A D

chapter 6 Elevating the Ability to Select Winners

“These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for closers. I'd wish you good luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it.” Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross For a salesperson, there is likely no more agonizing seven minutes of film in existence than the brutal sales meeting led by Blake (Alec Baldwin) in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. In it, Blake terrorizes the hapless sales team over, among other things, their collective inability to close deals, even with the quality sales leads they’re provided.

The lesson is a valuable one: a good lead is much too precious to squander.

This is true in sales, but when it comes to a good lead on an insurance producer, who may generate hundreds of sales over the course of his or her career, the stakes are even higher. A good lead on a potential producer candidate cannot be wasted as a result of an ineffective or underwhelming selection process. For a high-potential producer candidate, few things can sabotage a recruiting effort faster than a sloppy selection process on the part of the agency.

“We will run an ‘all hands on deck’ drill at the drop of a hat to sell a good piece of business. Getting my partners to show that same sense of urgency in courting a single producer candidate is next to impossible. That’s ridiculous, because that one producer might sell twenty good accounts this year!”

A Large California-based Broker

On the other hand, given the time, money and energy that will be expended by the agency on each producer hired, the producer selection process must ensure, to the greatest degree possible, that the wrong producers are not hired in the first place. Based on the interviews conducted as a part of this study, a firm’s ability to select winners will be strengthened by strong performance in several areas.

Establish a Consistent Selection Process

The phrase “selection process” assumes, of course, that an actual process is in place. Although this may seem obvious, many agencies struggle even with the development and implementation of a consistent screening process for producer candidates. Many tend to use an ad hoc approach – figuring it out as they go.

Without a somewhat systematic producer selection process, it is much more likely that critical hiring information will fall through the cracks, opening the door to very costly and time-consuming

33 Producer Recruiting & Development Study