The problem with attracting young people into the insurance business is that so many of them want to start out at the top and will not put the long hours and effort into building their book of business. A person has to have a desire to prospect, develop the business and to put a winning program together in order to succeed. As an agency owner, I have tried three times to put producers on and despite training them and offering advice on how to be successful, giving them competitive markets to use, they all failed because they wanted a book handed to them and thought call ins would keep them solvent. It just does not work that way. Many agents have sons they bring in to perpetuate the business when the owner retires or dies. I have seen an equal number of cases where the son fails or succeeds to keep the agency going.
I agree with you. The son’s don’t develop their own clients and just rest on daddy’s clients, who are going to die along with daddy. A smart father will make them develop their own book before taking over the agency.
I am also on my third producer, you are 100% correct that most young people expect to have something handed over to them. Most of my producers failed because of the freedom one has as a salesman. If someone is going from a 9-5 job they get paid to be a warm body. In sales you have to work long and hard hours to make it. Most of my producers took advantage of the freedom and did not have the drive to succeed.
Don’t forget that it takes a certain skill set to be a producer. You have to have a people pleasing personality. You have to be self motivated. You have to keep up to date on new laws and trends. You have to be able to problem solve. And you have to be willing to answer the phone and do paperwork. I have had three young people in my family who declared that they were going to become insurance agents. None of them lasted over two months. Looking in, I guess it looks easy. But when you have to actually handle all that is involved, you began to realize this stuff takes up a lot of time and effort. You have to multitask all of the time. Not everyone can do that–they just think they can.
Most agency owners/executives usually start out as good producers. Then, as they grow larger..or advance in an established agency, they must add Management Skills. Having good sales skills is one thing. But to have good sales skills AND good management skills is very rare because they are two different activities having two entirely different sets of abilities…some which conflict with one another.
Steve you are right on target, however most agency owners with perpetuation problems won’t see your value of 40 plus years and won’t pay for the experience. Most young or old, produers and I have had many come through my agency, would simply like me to unscrew my head pour all of my 45 years experience into their head and then they will be successful. They just don’t understand it doesn’t work that way. We don’t hold people accountable from the beginning and don’t follow up to see that they are doing the things that sucessful people do. And after 6 months they have to leave because this business if to hard. Well it is not all they have to do is WORK!!!! Young people today have had it to easy and they don’t know how to WORK!!!!
From my observation over time, Steve Stonehouse has more class and integrity than many (living) insurance professionals do; we could probably each garner many pearls of wisdom from sitting down, and talking with him, me included. Based on the responses to this article, it is clear that our (independent agency) system is struggling with its own perpetuation. Nevertheless, some organizations are finding that the old-fashioned ways are still needed in order to identify the (right) people to help perpetuate our classic way of doing things, while adopting new ways to do them. Case in point, Joshua A, a 22-year-old newly licensed Allstate insurance agent in a suburb south of Seattle, WA who wishes to gain the foundation needed to “run his own agency someday”. The son of a Southern CA School Administrator mom, and a Southern CA Hospital Cath-Lab dad, after graduating from Seattle Pacific University this year, Joshua interviewed with more than ten organizations, including three Insurance Carriers, before a small 10 person independent Allstate Agency owner agreed to take him on, on a trial basis, to see if he could cut it. He did, and with less than a year of front line experience, and a nurturing boss who has chosen to invest by mentoring, Joshua has risen to the agency’s #2 position in sales and X Dating, key early accomplishments which can signal future success in the industry. As Stonehouse suggests, this younger generation is largely missing a key ingredient, seasoning. I could not agree more wholeheartedly, and (from my perspective) many agency leaders of the middle-aged generation (35-50) do not seem to get that. Stonehouse has the seasoning needed to help the (35-50 year old) agency owners to grow strong younger (20-35 year old) leaders from within, and I for one believe that he would bring huge value to any organization seeking to gain improved insight into how to make their organization better. This is not a paid advertisement, I just happen to know that the man knows what he’s talking about and I have a great deal of respect for him. Carrier leaders could do many additional things to positively affect the future of the independent agency delivery system, but many seem to be focusing on the direct delivery system instead. People within the direct delivery system are becoming the future leaders of the independent agency system, and I believe that there will continue to be both the need and the room, for both systems to co-exist.
Wow, I haven’t seen this many good comments on IJ in a long time although this is an old article from 2013. I might add that some carriers offer Producer Training although it is somewhat expensive, some will help an agency fund a young man. I think the key is the personality test. It will reveal a lot of how a young person is suited to sales and has the determination to succeed. I have seen some 35-45 age people think they can do it too, and they couldn’t because the drive was not there.
The problem with attracting young people into the insurance business is that so many of them want to start out at the top and will not put the long hours and effort into building their book of business. A person has to have a desire to prospect, develop the business and to put a winning program together in order to succeed. As an agency owner, I have tried three times to put producers on and despite training them and offering advice on how to be successful, giving them competitive markets to use, they all failed because they wanted a book handed to them and thought call ins would keep them solvent. It just does not work that way. Many agents have sons they bring in to perpetuate the business when the owner retires or dies. I have seen an equal number of cases where the son fails or succeeds to keep the agency going.
I agree with you. The son’s don’t develop their own clients and just rest on daddy’s clients, who are going to die along with daddy. A smart father will make them develop their own book before taking over the agency.
I am also on my third producer, you are 100% correct that most young people expect to have something handed over to them. Most of my producers failed because of the freedom one has as a salesman. If someone is going from a 9-5 job they get paid to be a warm body. In sales you have to work long and hard hours to make it. Most of my producers took advantage of the freedom and did not have the drive to succeed.
Don’t forget that it takes a certain skill set to be a producer. You have to have a people pleasing personality. You have to be self motivated. You have to keep up to date on new laws and trends. You have to be able to problem solve. And you have to be willing to answer the phone and do paperwork. I have had three young people in my family who declared that they were going to become insurance agents. None of them lasted over two months. Looking in, I guess it looks easy. But when you have to actually handle all that is involved, you began to realize this stuff takes up a lot of time and effort. You have to multitask all of the time. Not everyone can do that–they just think they can.
Most agency owners/executives usually start out as good producers. Then, as they grow larger..or advance in an established agency, they must add Management Skills. Having good sales skills is one thing. But to have good sales skills AND good management skills is very rare because they are two different activities having two entirely different sets of abilities…some which conflict with one another.
Steve you are right on target, however most agency owners with perpetuation problems won’t see your value of 40 plus years and won’t pay for the experience. Most young or old, produers and I have had many come through my agency, would simply like me to unscrew my head pour all of my 45 years experience into their head and then they will be successful. They just don’t understand it doesn’t work that way. We don’t hold people accountable from the beginning and don’t follow up to see that they are doing the things that sucessful people do. And after 6 months they have to leave because this business if to hard. Well it is not all they have to do is WORK!!!! Young people today have had it to easy and they don’t know how to WORK!!!!
From my observation over time, Steve Stonehouse has more class and integrity than many (living) insurance professionals do; we could probably each garner many pearls of wisdom from sitting down, and talking with him, me included. Based on the responses to this article, it is clear that our (independent agency) system is struggling with its own perpetuation. Nevertheless, some organizations are finding that the old-fashioned ways are still needed in order to identify the (right) people to help perpetuate our classic way of doing things, while adopting new ways to do them. Case in point, Joshua A, a 22-year-old newly licensed Allstate insurance agent in a suburb south of Seattle, WA who wishes to gain the foundation needed to “run his own agency someday”. The son of a Southern CA School Administrator mom, and a Southern CA Hospital Cath-Lab dad, after graduating from Seattle Pacific University this year, Joshua interviewed with more than ten organizations, including three Insurance Carriers, before a small 10 person independent Allstate Agency owner agreed to take him on, on a trial basis, to see if he could cut it. He did, and with less than a year of front line experience, and a nurturing boss who has chosen to invest by mentoring, Joshua has risen to the agency’s #2 position in sales and X Dating, key early accomplishments which can signal future success in the industry. As Stonehouse suggests, this younger generation is largely missing a key ingredient, seasoning. I could not agree more wholeheartedly, and (from my perspective) many agency leaders of the middle-aged generation (35-50) do not seem to get that. Stonehouse has the seasoning needed to help the (35-50 year old) agency owners to grow strong younger (20-35 year old) leaders from within, and I for one believe that he would bring huge value to any organization seeking to gain improved insight into how to make their organization better. This is not a paid advertisement, I just happen to know that the man knows what he’s talking about and I have a great deal of respect for him. Carrier leaders could do many additional things to positively affect the future of the independent agency delivery system, but many seem to be focusing on the direct delivery system instead. People within the direct delivery system are becoming the future leaders of the independent agency system, and I believe that there will continue to be both the need and the room, for both systems to co-exist.
Wow, I haven’t seen this many good comments on IJ in a long time although this is an old article from 2013. I might add that some carriers offer Producer Training although it is somewhat expensive, some will help an agency fund a young man. I think the key is the personality test. It will reveal a lot of how a young person is suited to sales and has the determination to succeed. I have seen some 35-45 age people think they can do it too, and they couldn’t because the drive was not there.