P R A D

% of Producers Assigned Accounts

Success Rate for All Producers (Not Assigned vs. Assigned Accounts)

75%

73%

62%

56%

30%

23%

21%

20%

Commercial Lines

Employee Benefits

Commercial Lines

Employee Benefits

Hired By Average Firm

Not Assigned Accounts Assigned Accounts

Hired By Most Successful Firm

Source: Supplemental survey

The firms in the study with the highest success rates assign accounts more frequently than the average firm, but assignment of accounts is a relatively rare practice. It is most common among those hired from within the industry without a production background.

Mentoring

Mentoring has become one of the industry’s most frequently used producer-development terms. Today it is used to describe so many different things that it runs the risk of losing its meaning. For our purposes, we define it as follows: a mentor is someone who provides teaching and guidance to a less experienced producer and takes a stake (not necessarily financial) in the producer’s success.

Over half (55%) of all producers in the supplemental survey were mentored. Mentoring was more prevalent in commercial lines (57% of producers mentored) than in employee benefits (46%).

In all cases, success rates are higher for mentored producers, but the gap is not as material as team selling or specialization. Mentoring appears especially effective in boosting success rates among producers hired from outside of the industry or from within the industry but with no sales experience. Further, mentoring drove a greater level of success among younger producers.

40 Producer Recruiting & Development Study