Here are 12 industries (outside of insurance) where we have found successful producer candidates for our clients, the country’s top commercial insurance and risk management agent/brokers. The common theme: find Business-to-Business (B2B) outside sales reps in great foundation “starter” B2B sales JOBS (but crappy careers) ready for a transition to a great “lifetime” B2B sales CAREER.
- Payroll sales (company examples: ADP, Paychex, Paycom). They are consultative sellers, well trained, and transition well to commercial insurance broking. Candidate pain points: they don’t get to keep a relationship with the customer and earn little or no residuals. Plus, these companies tend to micro-manage activity and wear out their top sales people.
- Document management solutions sales (company examples: Shred-it, Cintas, Iron Mountain). These are often solid consultative sales people and transition well to selling commercial insurance. They tend to have a good starter prospect pipeline. Candidate pain points: same as payroll sales.
- HR consulting or professional employer organization (PEO) or recruiting service sales (company examples: Insperity, Tri-Net, ADP Total Source). They are highly consultative and transition well to selling commercial insurance (some already sell some insurance products like workers compensation that are bundled with HR service). Candidate pain points: same as payroll sales.
- Car rental sales (company examples: Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Hertz Local Edition). Not a pure outside B2B sales job but a great starter job for college scholar athlete graduates. They give new young professionals a ton of responsibility early — including making prospect calls to develop new rental car business with local businesses. Candidate pain points: notorious for low pay, long hours (including weekends and nights) and you either climb the ladder (which often requires relocating) or quit (most do) for a better career opportunity, more money, and to stop working nights and weekends.
- Professional sports corporate sales (e.g. minor/independent league baseball teams). These are hustle sales jobs for people with a competitive sports background who want a sports management career. They tend to know every business in the community and thus have a great starter prospect pipeline. Candidate pain points: low pay, long hours (particularly when the team is in season) and the luster of a professional sports career wears off quickly.
- Non-profit organization fundraisers and private school/college/university advancement officers. These folks are persuasive sales people and need to be involved in the community and know a lot of important people and business owners. Candidate pain points: low pay, no commission upside (it’s considered unethical) and this is a tough job in almost any economy.
- Office technology product sales (company examples: IKON/Ricoh, Toshiba, Canon, Xerox, Pitney Bowes). These are hustle, heavy prospecting starter jobs. They tend to be aggressive prospectors and bring a decent starter pipeline of local prospects. Candidate pain points: no residuals, caps on compensation and these jobs get boring quickly (commodity service and short sales cycle) so the good sales rep wants to move up to bigger ticket, more consultative sales.
- Office/industrial supply sales (company examples: Cintas, UniFirst, W.B. Mason). These are hustle, heavy prospecting starter jobs. They tend to be aggressive prospectors and bring a decent starter pipeline of local prospects. Candidate pain points: no residuals, caps on compensation, the Amazon Effect on demand, and these jobs get boring quickly (commodity service and short sales cycle) so the good sales rep wants to move up to bigger ticket, more consultative sales.
- Software sales and IT sales (company examples: Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, IBM and various resellers). Except for the myriad of Software-As-A-Service (SAAS) inside sales reps, these are consultative sales people and transition well to selling commercial insurance. Used to a complex concept sale with a long cycle, big ticket, and multiple decision makers. Candidate pain points: no residuals, caps on compensation and sometimes heavy overnight travel. The good ones want to find a better opportunity where they can build a clientele with residuals.
- Commercial real estate leasing/sales (company examples: CBRE, Jones Lang LaSalle, Cushman & Wakefield). These are consultative sales people and usually bring a great network and a strong starter prospect pipeline. Candidate pain points: caps on compensation, infrequent renewals with multi-year leases, and the virtual economy and the Amazon Effect hurts customer demand and limits opportunities.
- Commercial lending/financing sales and/or commercial bank loan officer (company examples: GE Capital and various commercial banks, e.g. National banks like Wells Fargo, Comerica and Bank of America and also smaller regional banks). This is a pretty wide category. People who sell various types of financial services to business owners are great candidates. Steer clear of mortgage brokers and other quick-buck, transaction-driven, turn-and-burn financial services sales people. Candidate pain points: low pay and limited incentive compensation. Working for a bank can be joyless and soul-sucking; the great people want to get in a more entrepreneurial environment.
Advertising sales (company examples: Yellowbook, Time Warner Media). These are hustle, heavy prospecting starter jobs. They tend to be aggressive prospectors and bring a decent starter pipeline of local prospects. Candidate pain points: no residuals, caps on and weak compensation and these jobs get boring quickly (commodity service and short sales cycle) so the good sales rep wants to move up to bigger ticket, more consultative sales.
