Challenges for Today's Agencies

In recent months, I have been networking with insurance sales leaders in the Northeast U.S., having conversations about their experience building insurance agencies and sales teams. See also: Agency Succession Plans: Do It Now!   The following patterns surfaced as we discussed the current agency and sales team's challenges and opportunities: 1. Insurance agency and team leaders report that staffing and recruiting is their top challenge. Agency owners report staffing their offices to be most challenging, in particular regarding producer roles. Insurance sales team leaders, such as self-employed professionals with Primerica, report challenges with recruiting team members who are credible and have the qualities to succeed. 2. Lead generation was another challenging area.  One of the sales team leaders indicated that he has found referrals to be the best way to find prospects.  He reported that he routinely obtains 10 or more referrals from his customers. 3. Mindset and having the ability to stay the course was mentioned as another area of challenge. See also: Could Your Agency Pass a Risk Audit?   4. Finally, some mentioned retention. The problem of retention surfaced when we discussed new recruits experiencing difficulty in dealing with rejection. Further training on business building and on how to build relationships with prospects was mentioned as a potential solution. What do you think about these challenges? Do they reflect the challenges that you find in building your business?