Training insurance agents is part of your job as a sales manager, but the real rewards come when you move past training and start mentoring promising new talent.
Are you an insurance sales manager looking for ways to help your agents succeed and grow? Of course, training insurance agents is essential, but it may be time for a change in how you approach cultivating influential professionals in your organization. Mentoring might be the better path. It requires more work from management, but its benefits outweigh those costs by far. From greater insight into what drives performance to higher employee engagement, mentoring can be a powerful resource for you and your team.
Of course, you can’t entirely stop training insurance agents new to your company, but mentoring new insurance salespeople can be a rewarding experience. Be aware, though, that the best mentees aren’t always those who have a knack for selling. For agents with only a few innate sales skills, you need to take a deeper look at their personality traits. These traits are the foundation that great mentees are built.
- They’re motivated.
- They have an optimistic outlook on life.
- They know how to be a good listener.
Even if your new agent has two of these three traits, they could make a great candidate for mentoring. It’s incredibly rewarding to mentor a new agent and mold them into an insurance sales ninja.
7 Ways you can stop training insurance agents and start developing real talent
1. Plan the Whole Thing Out
When developing your mentoring program, you’ll want to plan out a curriculum covering all the areas in which a new agent should have general knowledge. Below are a few ideas about what you should include.
2. Don’t Forget The Basics
Anytime you’re training insurance agents, you must start by explaining the basics of insurance and how it works. This will help new agents understand the products they sell and how they can help protect their clients. Mentoring is a one-on-one approach where you can show them how different policies work. You can even create games and quizzes you play with them to make this initial stage more fun.
3. The Importance of Building Trust
Discuss the importance of building trust with clients. Insurance sales can be challenging, and one of the key ways to succeed is by building trust with clients and demonstrating your expertise and knowledge of the industry. Gone are the days of the pushy salesperson. It would be best if you assigned your mentee to read or listen to audiobooks about building rapport, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Think about what books were most influential to you.
4. Review Your Sales Funnel
Help new salespeople develop and understand your company’s sales funnel and what each stage represents. We have seen so many new agents that need help understanding what the different settings mean. Teaching them this skill can help identify their problems at various stages of your funnel. You can even create teaching scenarios on how to deal with these problems.
5. Handle Objections like a Pro
Mentor new salespeople on handling objections and overcoming common complaints that clients may have. This is such a critical topic. Use your years of experience to guide them.
6. Keep Things Going
Provide ongoing support and guidance. Mentoring continues once new salespeople have completed their training. Continue to provide support and guidance as they begin to work with clients and face new challenges. The key to successful mentoring is to provide new salespeople with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed and to be available to provide support and guidance as they continue to learn and grow in their careers.
7. Get Their Feet Wet Early
One of the best things a mentor or anyone training insurance agents can do is get your new agents to make calls and follow up with potential customers.
You can even ease them into phone sales by having them call on exclusive warm leads. At HBW Leads, we can provide you and your sales team with warm tips exclusive to you and your team. In addition, these leads are the perfect training ground for new agents. So sign up for HBW Leads today, and you’ll be sent out policy quotes in no time!
With our leads, you’ll be able to spend less time prospecting and more time doing what matters – like selling policies. Sign up for HBW Leads today!