07 Dec Cut Through the Crap When Hiring New Producers
My dad was born in the depression era. He often told us when we complained, that to stay warm in the winter, they'd have to go gather up cow patties and burn them in the fireplace. “No dad, no way… you've got to be kidding!” But he wasn't. Out in West Texas, during the depression and the dust bowl era, there weren't any trees to burn, only cow patties.
You might look at cow patties differently, just a pile of crap. The ability to identify a pile of crap is a useful skill when it comes to hiring new producers.
You might wonder why all the cynicism, skepticism, negative attitude towards new producers? To the contrary, I thrive around new producers…they are exciting, bring energy, a can do attitude, a desire to learn and conquer. The one's I have a hard time stomaching are those newbies that once they get hired go into ‘power save' mode.
My feeling is this, if you could determine up front the difference between the Producers and Pretenders, the will do vs. can't do, the bold vs. the afraid, the confident vs. the meek, you'd thrive too.
The statistics in the commercial insurance industry is that the best are hitting on 6 out of 10. The average on 4 out of 10. And, the unfortunate ones, 2 out of 10.
I worked with a client that hit on 29 out of 34. It was during that experience that I learned how to identify a pile of crap. If hiring for you is more about luck that skill…then your agency will never achieve it's potential to grow and make profit.
I'm working on a new book; Winning Strategies to Locate, Recruit, Hire, Train and Develop New Producers. Keep an eye out for it if hiring new producers is a part of your growth strategy.
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