Hiring a new commercial insurance producer is an important decision. One important requirement is to find someone with the cognitive ability, i.e. the smarts, for this career. Here are three interview questions that can help you to assess the cognitive abilities of a new producer candidate: Describe a situation where you had to learn a… Continue Reading
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Hiring New Producers Without a Recruiter
The basic options for your firm are to hire a recruiting firm or do-it-yourself. I encourage prospective client hiring managers to find out if they can do it themselves. You read that correctly: a recruiting firm owner suggesting to potential clients that they may NOT need a recruiting firm! Here are 6 checkpoints that indicate… Continue Reading
5 Prime Industries to Find Your Next Producer
Here are 5 prime industries – outside of insurance – where we’ve found successful producer candidates for our clients, the country’s top commercial insurance and risk management agent/brokers. The common theme: go find Business-to-Business (B2B) outside sales reps in great foundation “starter” B2B sales JOBS (but crappy careers) ready for a transition to a superior… Continue Reading
3 Big Questions to Answer When Hiring a New Producer
When hiring a new producer, I look for these 8 Key Success Criteria: Sales skills Drive to achieve Relationship skills Cognitive abilities Work ethic Verbal skills Career desires fit Compensation fit Randy Schwantz, the legendary Wedge innovator, published a list in his fine book “GRIT – Find, Hire and Develop Real Producers“: Able to deal… Continue Reading
Failed Producer Chronicles
WHY do new producers fail? We dug into our autopsy archives (2 decades of new commercial producer recruiting). We found the distinct attributes of the new producers that quit or got fired are: We identified these 10 common failure personas. The weak prospector. Could not create 2-4 qualified new business discovery appointments per week. Weak… Continue Reading
