16 Jun Hiring Top Insurance Producers: 3 Essential Skills To Seek Out
When hiring for insurance sales positions, don’t let the decision lie solely on the candidate’s resume. No matter how skilled a sales candidate looks on paper, it is essential to look for qualities through direct interaction. Whether meeting a candidate in person or through a video call, certain personality traits and soft skills can set apart top insurance producers. As you move forward with the hiring process, here are three skills to look for in prospective top insurance producers.
Excellent Communication Skills Are Essential For Selling Insurance
Having strong written and verbal communication skills is crucial to success in an insurance producer role. The modern insurance sales process involves many touchpoints before conversion. A salesperson will likely have interacted with a prospective client via a combination of channels including telephone, email and even social media or text message prior to closing a deal. Because of the multiple touchpoints, it is vital that insurance sales professionals are excellent communicators and strong presenters. These skills are essential for showcasing insurance solutions to potential clients. Considering the consistent tasks of cold calling prospects, leaving follow-up voicemails or crafting email messages with a clear call to action, finding candidates with strong communications skills should be a priority. During the interview process, consider asking the candidate to submit a sample email to a client in addition to a recording of them leaving a voicemail for a customer.
A Strong Teamwork Mentality Is Common For Top Insurance Producers
The ability to work well with others is equally as important as strong work ethic. Sales candidates who display an indication of strong teamwork skills are often sought after by hiring managers. Because many individuals are often involved in completing a transaction, successful insurance sales should be considered a team sport. The ability to work well, coordinate and collaborate with others can set apart top insurance producers. To seek insurance sales candidates with effective and positive teamwork skills, ask the prospective agent to provide examples on past professional scenarios. These should relate to problem-resolution or the importance of reliability and respectfulness. As the business world becomes more virtual, teamwork skills will likely be even more important for productivity.
Relatability & Sense Of Humor Are Key For Driving Sales
Top insurance producers are often able to create a feeling of relatability and connectedness with their clients. This requires going beyond just a friendly persona and approachable personality. Relatability empowers agents selling insurance to establish strong relationships with their prospective customers. Consider adding recorded mock-calls to your hiring process. This may help you get a better understanding of how a prospective hire will handle sales conversations.
In addition to relatability, having a sense of humor can be a useful trait for sales professionals. According to B2B research company, Clutch, more than half of all consumers are likely to remember a person or advertisement that is funny. Since the insurance marketplace is highly competitive, standing out from the competition could help a top producer drive their conversions. When executed well (with thoughtfulness, consideration and sensitivity), humor can be a powerful sales technique. Additionally, finding a sales agent with a sense of humor could align your team with professionals who know how to bounce back quickly from rejection or customer objections.
Need help with your insurance sales process? Check out this article!
Even Top Insurance Producers Need High-Quality Leads To Be Successful
Once you’ve hired your next top producer, you need to provide them with tools they need to be effective. Even with the best skill set, top producers cannot convert sales if they do not have enough qualified prospects in their funnel. While you focus on building a team of qualified insurance agents, ZipQuote is focused on providing you with high-quality insurance leads. ZipQuote can help you increase your funnel and connect you with high-intent leads and calls. With the right pipeline of quality inquiries and prospects, your team of insurance sales agents will have the resources they need to become top producers. Contact us!
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