As I travel across the country speaking with independent insurance agencies, they all agree on the importance of developing a "World Class" sales culture.  In theory, it makes sense. The problem is, what does that look like in the real world?

First, agents must be realistic about the potential of their existing staff to make the transition from a service centric culture to a sales centric culture.  In other words: do you have the right people on the bus?

If not, difficult decisions MUST BE MADE.  This is where most agents struggle.  They can't imagine letting go of long-term loyal employees, despite the fact that these people undermine EVERY effort to transition the organization.

This dynamic is so pervasive, many agents have actually experimented with the idea of segregating new hires from existing employees to avoid the "negative impact" on new team members.

While this idea is appealing, what does it say about the performance of the existing employees?

Next, agency principals must ask themselves: who within our organization is actually gifted enough and willing to take on the task of motivating and educating staff members?  In other words, it's one thing to say "I need you to sell more products," and it's another thing to educate and motivate them to do it.

The million dollar question:

Who within your organization is tasked with the responsibility of improving the overall performance of your existing employees?  Who, what, where, when, and why does this person spend time mentoring customer-facing personnel?

Most independent agents lack the understanding and resources to DRIVE effective training programs, so they choose the alternative of "it is what it is."  Many agents have actually conceded the fact that they never will be - never can be - "world class" anything.

This is NOT true.  For those agents, I beg them to consider the following story:

Imagine the conversation that existed between the first two people who discussed the possibility of capturing and training killer whales:

"Hey Mike, see that black and white whale with the huge teeth?  I say we catch a few of them, drag them back to California, breed them in captivity, and train them to jump through hoops.  Come to think of it, I bet we can sell tickets for people to watch them and we can build a theme park around the whales."

Do you think the response was:

A:  "Of course we should do that! We can do anything, as long as we're willing to work hard and we actually believe."

B:  "That will never work. We don't have a big enough net, we don't know what to feed them, and we could get killed trying to catch them."

If you answered A, please call Astonish Results immediately to learn how independent agencies across the country are getting the results that most agencies dream of.

If you answered B...