An agency’s greatest struggle, per many surveys, is finding staff and producers. What if they were as available as different loaves of bread and you could go to a supermarket to purchase producers and staff?
Let’s say you wanted the cheap and unhealthy white bread equivalent of a producer. You would know you’re not going to get much production and if you use the producer too much, your agency would suffer, just like eating too much cheap white bread is bad for your body. But, white bread is available everywhere, you know what you’re getting, and it does not cost much. For peddlers of insurance, versus professionals, the white bread equivalent of a producer may be perfect. Easy come, easy go.
Or maybe you are looking for something healthier, say a multigrain commercial customer service representative (CSR). You don’t always know what you’re going to get. Sometimes they taste good and sometimes they’re not that palatable. In theory, multigrain breads are always healthier, but if they cost more and you don’t like it, you have incurred an expensive lesson.
Maybe you go to a specialty market because you are looking for a high-priced producer. Each one is custom built and expensive. You have plenty of choices, but choose carefully because just like food, there are no returns. Each producer is high quality and capable. Whether they succeed in your shop depends entirely on whether your culture supports high-quality producers, whether you have the tools and carriers to write larger, more sophisticated accounts, and whether you have the leadership to manage these producers, some of whom can be divas. Some will be more like cheese than bread — better with age and best aged within a particular agency.
Opportunity to Shop
You have your choice of hundreds of quality staff and producers in this fantasy supermarket. Of course, all your competitors have the same opportunity to shop at the same market. Now that you know where to find these people, what changes in your agency? Not much in many agencies.
Many agency owners simply use the lack of quality people as an excuse to not grow, develop or even prosper. They know no one will challenge their reasoning (excuse). This is especially true if the other person in the conversation is a company person.
It reminds me of a scene where a middle-aged man, not handsome or evidently wealthy by any visible means, kept looking and staring at a beautiful young woman at a hotel restaurant. Eventually she came to his table, began a conversation and then made a suggestion. He had been wishing for her all evening, and now that he had an opportunity, he hadn’t a clue what to do, say, think, feel or act.
Some agency owners have been staring so long into space wishing for quality people, they would not know what to do if one landed on their door (and yes, I have seen quality producers land at an agency door, as if dropped by a spaceship, and not once did the agency owner know what to do).
What Has to Change
Before you go shopping for a quality person, what has to change in your agency?
In some cases, existing people, especially lousy producers, need to be fired. In some agencies, better staff needs to be hired prior to hiring a high-quality producer, or a high-quality producer needs to be hired to keep quality staff from leaving. Sometimes the owner needs to go through roll play of what it will be like a month after employing much better people — because having high-quality people on board requires a change in the way owners walk in the agency door every morning. Having higher quality people requires elevating leadership and management.
If every agency can shop at the same store, what is the competitive advantage of you, the potential employer? An agency is best served thinking through the competitive advantages required, other than just hiring a quality key employee.
Obviously humans can’t be bought like bread and cheese. They get to choose their employer. Failing to realize producers choose their employers is a fundamental mistake agency owners make when they complain about not being able to find quality people.
If you’re looking for quality producers and not finding, then your strategy is wrong. The strategy should be to become attractive to potential, quality employees.
What kind of bread do the highest quality staff and producers enjoy? That is the most important question to ask when searching for quality people. What makes you, the employer a place for quality people?
I’ve challenged agency owners for years to name three, hard, tangible reasons anyone would ever want to work for them. Almost no one can give a plausible answer immediately, or even in a week or month.
Even if they have three reasons, how would potential employees know those three reasons? What are you doing to get the message to the job-seeking public?
The solution for finding high -quality employees is to quit looking. The solution is to build an agency that gives potential high-quality employees the environment, culture, and means they will need to succeed. This means something different for everyone, but the only way to execute a strategy to achieve this goal is through a methodical, step-by-step plan.
If you have the time, fortitude, knowledge, and self-discipline to do this yourself, wait not another minute, because you will be so far ahead of your peers. Otherwise, hire a third-party to assist with finding a quality person now rather than waiting another five or 20 years. It’ll be a great return on your investment.
Remember, you are the loaf of bread on the store shelf hoping to be purchased, not the other way around. What makes you attractive, especially at a premium price?
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Topics Agencies
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