In this tight economy, many are exploring sophisticated ideasabout what will increase productivity and accelerate growth foragents and brokers. While the options may have merit, the real keyto success lies in the basic notion that teamwork and collaborationlead to better outcomes in our businesses.

Assuming that is true, one might wonder why we don't see morecollaboration to boost sales and lift productivity for agents andbrokers. One reason may be that while a team beats the “LoneRanger” any day, it's sometimes hard to know what everyone on theteam is doing at any particular time–a necessary situation forteamwork to be successful. If we want teamwork to drive organicgrowth, we need to know how we can get the team communicating andhow we can get them to work together.

A useful model is provided by professional sports teams. Inpreparation for competition, the team's managers and coachesvideotape and study their own past games. They look closely at whathas worked and what hasn't, and they invent ways to improve andduplicate winning strategies. Next, they take that information anddisseminate it to the whole team to make everyone better andincrease the team's chances of winning.

Of course, sports teams tend to have clearly defined goals(winning games and championships), but in a sales organization thegoals will often be more individual than collective. Thus, teammembers are focused on winning personal recognition and rewardsrather than being focused on a common objective. As a result,attempting to get them all on the same page as a team is a bit liketrying to herd cats.

Multiply this challenge and confusion by 100 and you have thereal world of commercial insurance.

A client depends on their broker to help them navigate thecomplexity of the risk management process and secure the rightinsurance coverage at the best value. It is critical for the brokerto deliver optimum performance since any one mistake could causethe client to potentially lose its business.

With so many lines of coverage, critical industry-specificinformation and so many people geographically dispersed, it is hardenough for a broker to do the job they are tasked with, let alonebe in a position to help other team members.

Fortunately, social media and sales collaboration technology areproviding some answers to this dilemma by solving the disconnectbetween team members and allowing everyone to capture criticalinformation and collaborate at the initial point of anopportunity–where it matters most. How can this beaccomplished?

o Overcome the “Lone Ranger” syndrome:

Because of our norms in commercial insurance of rewardingindividual accomplishment instead of encouraging teamwork, the“Lone Ranger” syndrome is a hard one to overcome. We all know thatteamwork wins, but how do you get people to operate as a team whensales people are generally rewarded for hitting their numbersrather than helping each other? They are conditioned to ask,“What's in it for me?”

It's certainly true that in most sales organizations there is noaccountability in terms of helping the team. If a competing salesassociate asks you to share your knowledge or a presentation thatyou have worked on for 50 hours, there really is no motivation todo so.

On the other hand, if we use technology to make collaborationsimple and transparent while also tracking it, team members feelmore accountable and can be recognized and rewarded for theircontributions. As a result, team members are more inclined tocollaborate and cooperate. Once the message gets out thatcontribution and cooperation will be rewarded, the players willstart to resemble a team.

Collaboration combined with recognition and reward also enablesinsurance sales organizations to unlock their collective brainpower and experiences, ultimately enhancing the team.

Additionally, bringing corporate resources, intelligence andsales experiences together at the point of opportunity ensuresconsistent and accurate tracking of the contributions individualsmake for the benefit of the team, such as sharing their knowledgeor key relationships.

o Leverage relationships to short-circuit the salescycle:

Relationships are a company's greatest asset. Taking advantageof important personal and business relationships that team membershave developed outside the agency or brokerage is another key tosuccess. The ability to find and leverage the right relationshipscan mean rapidly establishing credibility with decision-makersinstead of cold calling (sometimes for years) in hopes of anappointment.

By connecting and communicating through collaborationtechnology, brokers have instant access to the wealth ofrelationships of the entire broker network, offering theopportunity to dramatically shorten every sales cycle.

Much like agents and brokers connecting and collaborating,achieving that level of streamlined communication with carrierpartners is just as important. With the carrier's dependence on theagent and broker sales channel for new or renewal business, theyare highly motivated to be easy to do business with and provide thebest information when and where needed.

The current method of ad-hoc information dissemination isinconsistent and ineffective, frustrating both the insurancecarrier and broker. Collaborative technology allows brokers tofind, connect to, and collaborate with targeted underwriters whobest match an opportunity.

Through effective collaboration, brokers no longer have to cullthrough each carrier's Web site hoping to find the latestinformation. Now carriers can push the most current and relevant,just-in-time information directly to the sales channel, improvingoverall success ratios.

o Debrief to learn from wins and losses:

The best teams debrief after each important event to discusswhat worked and what didn't. With technology that enablescollaboration, agents, brokers and carriers can strengthen theirpartnerships and learn, just as sports teams do by reviewing “gametapes.” The broker or agent can “rate” resources and strategies asa basis for feedback, prioritization for future use, and salesprocess and strategy refinement.

With this kind of open collaboration, enabled by technology, anagency or brokerage executive can see “there is something in it forme. Just a few clicks can help me access a lot of brainpower andexperience.” Collaboration and teamwork lead to success for theindividual, the team and, most importantly, the client, enablingevery team member to bring their A-game every time.

Todd L. Young is the president, CEO andco-founder of ProspX in Austin, Texas, a provider of collaborativesoftware platforms for the insurance industry. He may be reached at[email protected].