How To Increase Insurance Agent Productivity

Your success as an insurance agency depends on how you can build a high-performing team of agents. But How To Increase Insurance Agent Productivity, if you have been toiling hard in trying to turn your agents around, then that puts you squarely in good company.

As COVID-19 increases operations in the insurance industry, one needs to be armed with the right tools and the right strategy to maximize the time and resources needed. In this article, we will include how one may boost insurance agent productivity by bringing into an entire array of tips from goal setting to process optimization to continuous learning and development.

Set Clear Goals and Track Progress

Before trying to increase the productivity of your agents or streamline their workflows, let’s first of all determine what you want. As stated above, having clear objectives is a good point, and tracking progress toward them.

Set Measurable Objectives

The process starts by determining specific goals for your agency. Avoid ambiguous goals like selling more insurance policies, increasing the client retention rate, or reducing average call handle time. Use the SMART goal framework:

Specific: Explain exactly what you want to do and why
Measurable: Make the goal something that can be quantified so that you can ascertain whether you have actually achieved it
Achievable: Select a goal that can be realized with available resources
Relevant: Select a goal that helps to achieve a larger objective of the business
Time-constrained: Identify a timeframe within which the target must be accomplished.

For example, a high-level objective for the agency might be increasing new policy sales by 15% at the end of Q2 versus Q1 to expand the agency’s customer base and build a foundation to cross-sell in Q3.

Develop objectives for the agency and then disseminate specific objectives across agents to ensure that their efforts are focused on larger organizational initiatives, thereby ensuring that every agent is working toward furthering growth in overall business.

Implement Strong Monitoring Systems

Monitor the actions taken by agents to ensure that they are taking processes leading to reaching objectives and continuous progress. A traditional system consists of two core components:;

Monitoring performance to measure lead generation, customer engagement, or the number of new enrollments
Schedule regular check-ins with agents on a monthly basis to track their progresses against the set goals and give feedback
Reward their milestones to keep the agents motivated. If you feel that they are not meeting the sales target, reassess their action plan and adjust their goals if required.

Use Technology for Efficiency

Work towards individual and agency goals using the right technology. Use the guidelines below to develop the tech stack for your agency.

Onboard Agency Management Software

Instead of being a disorganized, disjointed agency operating everything in a multitude of unrelated tools, consider an all-encompassing platform for your agency management. Applied Epic or AMS360 proposal building and management of policy documentation, with ability to act as a CRM tracking qualified leads, potential clients, and current clients.

Also specialized platforms for insurance companies, these powerful tools help you manage accounting, manage insurance carriers, and other opportunities for revenue expansion. Virtually all types of agency data can be stored, and reports can be generated; repetitive administrative tasks are automated, freeing one’s schedule for higher-level work.

Leverage Productivity Tools

It’s common for many agency management platforms to have some form of built-in task management capabilities. Sure, those tools keep agents moving along on routine tasks, but are most productive toward goals. And yet, these are not exactly what you would consider productivity analytics tools.

You can use a platform like Teramind to track which tasks and how much time agents spend on those tasks. Through data-driven insights, Teramind reveals which tasks, software, and websites actually demand the largest percentage of your agents’ time.

Furthermore, our platform helps in determination of workforce productivity trends and also provides a good perspective on the influence of the technology on the team’s productivity. Given that Teramind can out the tracking of all custom key performance indicators (KPIs), it seeks to easily fit in with the agency’s productivity objectives.

Embrace Digital Transformation

Are your agents spending hours every day generating quotes, putting in applications, and managing policies for clients? Say goodbye to all those phone calls with online quotes and enrollment applications. Cloud-based tracking of existing and prospective client documentation and a paperless environment.

Make use of digital tools to change the workflow of agents also. End scheduling of in-person meetings. Instead, teams can check in virtually, and even asynchronously. This will help to prompt virtual client meetings so that the clients can benefit and save the time of the agent.

Hybrid approaches replace the daily need to stay in office. According to Gallup polling, 52% hybrid workers say they are more productive with their current arrangement.

Leverage your technological resources and automate your business operations as much as possible. First, pinpoint significant activities and repetitive processes that consume a substantial portion of an agent’s daily work hours. Assess the data derived from clients’ communications or agents’ work and determine which of these tasks tend to be the most extensive. What aspects of operations cause your agents the most delay? Curbing the obstacles, develop an operational strategy for enhancing the efficacy of the agents.

As a matter of fact, most of the processes of insurance are manual and also use paper record copies of clients. Automated applications for renewals of policies may result in a significant increase in productivity among employees.

Pay special attention to how you are selling. According to McKinsey Global Institute, as many as 33 percent of sales-related activities can be automated. This means replacing the average agent’s productivity is completely possible.

Improve Continuous Learning Culture

Agents may not be able to achieve more ambitious client acquisition targets by relying on their current skill sets. Many will have to upskill. To drive improvements toward becoming more productive, encourage learning and development.

Determine Training Needs

If your agency doesn’t have a standard training program, this is a good place to start. Target teaching insurance basics and even sharing information, such as your agency’s customer service and sales strategies, to build from a similar foundation among your entire team.

However, don’t expect that everybody will retain the information and continue learning. Review agents’ skills on a regular basis. Example: do quarterly assessments in key areas, say lead generation strategies, cold call frameworks, or positive client interactions. Then, offer or recommend the proper training programs depending on individual agent needs.

Suggest Professional Development

Ideally, you would want your teams to learn and advance their respective careers. Internal professional development opportunities sometimes are not possible; however, that doesn’t mean that external learning and growth opportunities cannot be facilitated.

Work with agents through standard professional development tracks. Send them off for certifications in risk management, underwriting, or data analytics. Pay for part or all of these opportunities; after all, you’re investing in your agents’ skillsets and productivity.

Move beyond online courses and certifications. Send your agents to live insurance industry conferences and seminars. Develop a networking event calendar so your team stays connected with industry leaders and informed on current trends.

Growth Mindset

Foster a desire to improve and upskill by promoting continuous learning as part of your agency’s DNA. Here are a few ideas for how to create a growth mindset:

Design a lunch and learn program and insist that agents take up turns to present; have team members suggest topics so that they can share with others what has worked for them.
Setup a mentorship program and invite senior agents to be facilitators. Create some small groups based on specific competencies to make the new agent proficient.
Identify growth efforts by your agents, and reward them accordingly. Involve human resources (HR) and leadership to integrate professional achievements with your agency’s career ladder. Promotions tied with professional development will be a reason to level up for your agents.

Invest in Agent Well-Being

Equally important is the sense of self being, if not most crucial to productivity, if not the most, all agents. Employ these thoughts to ensure agency’s emphasis on mental and physical health relief.

Encourage Balance in Life and Work
Good agents work hard and put in the hours to achieve their goals every day. However, the best insurance sales agents strive for a sound balance between professional efforts and personal lives.

Agencies play a vital role in supporting employees in achieving work-life balance. Here are a few ways your agency can do its part to support the insurance salesperson:

Allow flexible work arrangements: Studies have proven that flextime increases the productivity of employees and increases sales. Better performance, higher revenues, and happier agents translate to good flexible work.

Encourage time off: Super-driven employees may be forced to go without vacations and breaks. Since studies prove that time off increases focus and productivity, make time off mandatory.

Consider accessibility of mental health support services: There are effects on performance in the workplace due to mental health problems. Make sure agents help and do their best by providing access to employee assistance programs virtual counseling services mental health apps and so on.

Support Physical Health

Mental health is one factor, but maintaining your team in top physical health will get you to optimal performance. A good diet and regular exercise are a great place to start.

There is no need that wellness programs have to be expensive or complicated. Here are a few ways to encourage agents to make healthy choices at work:

Provide fitness services or packages: It should be easy to follow an exercise routine. Add a corporate gym membership to your benefits package, or organize lunch hour exercise programmes.
Offer healthy food choices: Not enough time can prevent your busy agents from cooking healthy food. Give your employees the best option for them to choose from when you provide healthy options in your cafeteria, break room, or vending machines.
Make the working environment ergonomic: Invest in workspaces that support good posture and allow workers to stand and sit. Inspect noise levels and air quality in the building.

Make the Company Culture Better

One of the best productivity hacks is making a workplace that agents would want to do their best work. Start by giving your workplace an inclusive environment where everyone would feel included. For example, you can offer a diversity training program or teach employees how to use inclusive language that boosts the morale of employees and makes everyone valued.

Let concerns or suggestions by agents reach HR or leadership easily; there should be open communication channels so that agents can schedule a check-in or submit asynchronous feedback.

Award teams with positive reinforcements every time they hit a goal or landmark milestone. Make use of shoutouts in all-organization communication channels and amplify their wins. The more you celebrate, the more you inspire other agents to raise their game, improve conversion rates, process more enrollment applications, and grow client retention.

How to Increase Agent Productivity using Teramind

Teramind is an extremely powerful tool that can greatly help the productivity of insurance agents by providing vast monitoring and behavioral analytics features. Here is how you can use Teramind to increase productivity in your insurance agency step-by-step:

Track Activity: With the monitoring feature of Teramind, you are able to monitor the amount of time the agents spend on different apps and web pages so you can track the behaviors or potential distractions.

Screen Recording: Using the screen recording option to play back your workflow and to identify areas where your agents may be functioning with a need for more coaching or training.

Productivity Reports: Report on how your agents spend their time. Identify trends and patterns that highlight inefficiencies along with what needs improvement.

Behavioral Analytics: Teramind analytics to examine productivity and spot high performers compared to low performers on the part of your agents.

Workflow Analysis: Analyze data to find workflow bottlenecks. For instance, if your agents spend too much time inputting information into databases, consider automated or streamlined processes.

Tailored Training: Based on findings from Teramind, develop training tailored to the particular needs of your agents. For example, in the event that agents have frequent problems using specific CRM software, there must be added training in such an area.

Conclusion

In order to build a successful agency, that agency requires agents who are high-performing. Therefore, all of these strategies-ranging from training programs and productivity tools to health resources and professional development-can be used in optimization of productivity and maximization of the agent’s potential.

Regardless of the type of insurance agency in question, it can prove challenging to achieve or build productivity when facing a volatile market and an exceedingly tough economic climate. However, by putting into practice the best practices as outlined above, one can be sure that the team will be consistently building upon its progress in a manner that moves the agency forward.