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Mgmt. Perspectives
Profile
Revenues
Expenses
Profitability
Employee Overview
Producer Info
Staff Service Info
Technology
Insurance Carriers
Appendix
2010 Best
Practices Study
Agencies
with Revenues
Over $25,000,000
153
Analysis of Agencies with Revenues Over $25,000,000
Recruiting & Developing Talent
The ability to attract talented employees is the biggest
challenge that these firms are facing. Their ability to do
it successfully is going to be a critical success factor and
a competitive advantage for those that do it well.
As can be seen in their responses, there are a number of
ways that these firms are recruiting, the most
successful of which is through an active employee
referral program. This is generally the case when the
target employees are experienced producers and
support staff. For those that are focusing on college
graduates, the most effective recruiting tool is through
internships where agents get to look at talented
candidates and have the opportunity to sell them on
our industry.
Most of these agents are using a combination of
resources to develop their new and experienced
employees. The most successful have developed
structured programs that pre-establish a curriculum
and pull together the internal and external resources
needed. As for the development of producers, in
addition to formalized training, most have developed
some type of mentoring program that matches
younger producers with experienced ones. Those that
are most successful at developing producers almost
always report that they clearly define expectations
(activities and results) and establish a high level of
accountability to meet those expectations.
Achieving Organic Growth
The average organic growth for these firms was +1.5%
which was better than industry results for the same
period. It is interesting to note that the top 25% of
these firms had organic growth of +8.5% which is
outstanding in light of industry conditions.
We learned from conversations with these high
performing firms that there are a number of things that
they are doing, the most material of which was gaining
competitive advantages by focusing on niches and
practice groups. By doing so, they increase their hit
ratios and they can broaden their marketing territory
building on their expertise in that niche.
These firms are also getting more serious about
creating a sales culture. They are more aggressive, they
are more intentional and they are holding everyone to
a higher level of accountability. They are using
technology to better manage producers and their
activity and prospects.
Efforts and investments are also being made to surface
more new opportunities through seminars,
advertising, marketing and active referral generation.
The best are not sitting back and letting the market
dictate their results. Strong growth can occur in spite
of current market conditions.
Keys to Recruiting Talent
(Top 5 Listed in Order of Frequency Mentioned)
1. Incent employee referrals
2. Have an active, ongoing recruiting program
3. Use professional recruiters (outside)
4. Hire a full time recruiter (inside)
5. Create college internship program
Keys to Organic Growth
(Top 10 Listed in Order of Frequency Mentioned)
1. Focus on Practice Groups and Niches
2. More Aggressively Cross Selling
3. Use Technology to Manage Pipeline/Sales
4. Raise Expectations and Accountability
5. Be More Intentional in Getting Referrals
6. Hire and Develop New Producers
7. Train Producers to Sell on Consultative Basis
8. Use Seminars to Generate Opportunities
9. Step up Advertising and Marketing Efforts
10.Achieve High Account Retention Results
Keys to Developing Talent
(Top 5 Listed in Order of Frequency Mentioned)
1. Create internal educational program
2. Draw on carrier educational resources
3. Utilize professional sales training firms
4. Create formalized mentoring program
5. Have educational plan for every employee