Most agency owners will agree that although attracting,recruiting and hiring new employees is challenging enough, the realwork begins once those new producers are onboard and it's time totrain them, especially if they're industry newcomers with little orno experience.

In the past, agencies could turn to their carriers for salestraining that sometimes came without a cost. But changing timesmeant many insurers cut back on these programs because of theinternal cost. Moreover, most agencies can no longer afford to senda new producer offsite for training, so more often than not, theburden falls on seasoned employees to serve as mentors–along withtrying to do their own jobs.

Related:Read “Carpe CEem.”

Although most producer training programs will end up costing anagency a couple of thousand dollars, most agency principals whohave been through the process would probably agree that “leaving itto the pros” is well worth the investment.

Over the years, two names have become synonymous with producertraining: The Hartford School of Insurance and The National Alliance.And while neither program is free, both continue to attractenrollment, even in tough times, because of the value theyprovide.

Hartford

Before the 1980s, many insurers, including The Hartford, Aetnaand others, offered their agents “ground- up” training. Butgradually, due to mounting expense pressures, they scaled back, andagent education by carriers fell by the wayside. In the late 1990s,The Hartford decided to make producer training a priority oncemore, said director Marie Alvarado.

The school was relaunched in 1998 with a core program for newcommercial lines producers. In its first year, the school offeredonly two classes; today that's up to 23 classes in varyinglocations for the commercial lines program alone.

Since then, the school has trained more than 2,800 producers,including 240 last year alone. Alvarado, who has been with TheHartford for 25 years, spent most of her career working with agentsin marketing, sales and on the technical insurance side. In 2000,she moved to start up a personal lines program in addition toheading up sales and marketing for the school. “It ended up beinglarger than I anticipated and gave me the opportunity to work withagents on the growth side,” she said. “I love to work with thesesmall and large business owners and share ways in which they cangrow their businesses.”

The school added programs for commercial lines account managersin 2000, and in 2001 added both selling and servicing programs forpersonal lines agents.

Classes are taught by a staff of dedicated Hartford Schoolinstructors who work directly with the producers attending classes.For example, in the 3-week new producer program, the sameinstructor teaches for the entire course, providing continuity anda trainer who is invested in the student's success. All instructorshave extensive technical insurance and sales experience.

Although the school's flagship program is still the class fornew commercial lines producers, there has been a definite shift inthe type of people enrolling in programs that suggests a change inthe way agencies are hiring producers, Alvarado said. “In the past,brand-new producers were almost from a cookie-cutter mold: young,male, hired right out of college. Today that's changeddramatically. We have people in second and third careers,individuals who may have held sales roles in other industries, andthey are more aggressive about their education needs. We're alsoseeing more women, 10 to 20 percent in an average class,” she said.“This has done great things for our industry.”

This isn't to say that a fresh college grad can't come into thebusiness and be successful; typically what separates the good fromthe great is a “fire in the belly, someone who is passionate aboutbeing successful,” Alvarado said.

New in the school this year is a producer coaching model, inwhich a virtual coach works with the producer when the agencydoesn't have the resources to coach and mentor internally. Thiscoach first works with the agency's sales manager to develop a planbased on targeted lines of business and industries to understandthe agency's goals and objectives; then the sales coach works withthe producer over 6 months on building sales and prospectingdiscipline. The virtual coach then follows up with the salesmanager. All of this is conducted over the phone.

Hartford also added several one-day workshops for seasonedproducers and account managers on topics such as business income,EPLI and nuances of the workers' compensation policy, as well as aone-day consultative selling workshop. Last year the HartfordSchool conducted almost 40 of these workshops across thecountry.

The cost per producer for the core program is $3,795, the sameas it was in 1998. “Since then, we've really worked to add value tothe program. For example, successful graduates are now able to earntheir Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist (CLCS) designation fromNational Underwriter and receive continuing education credit aswell,” Alvarado said. “The instructor stays with them throughvalidation, so they can always go back months later with questions.We've had students well into their career who have called us withquestions on various topics.”

Although the number of enrollments dropped early in therecession, participation is starting to trend upward again, shesaid. “2009 was a tough year; instead of growing, agencies weredownsizing. Now we're seeing a renewed energy, cautious optimismthat the market is changing and agencies want to be well positionedwhen it does,” she said. Classes are typically comprised of 16 to18 students and filled last year.

Alvarado is confident that agency principals will continue torecognize that comprehensive training is essential for producersuccess. “I believe strongly that we can fulfill this training needmore effectively and at a lower cost than agencies can doin-house,” she said.

She also emphasizes that training and mentoring go hand in hand.“Hiring a new producer is an investment in the agency's future.Principals need to match education with mentoring to make thatinvestment worthwhile. For those who don't have coaching andmentoring resources in house, we are able to help them address thisneed.”

National Alliance

In its 41-year history, the National Alliance has continued tohear and respond to the educational needs of agents, agencies andcompanies, said Jim Cuprisin, research director. With fourdesignation programs (CIC, CRM, CISR and CSRM), the NationalAlliance has become an educational staple in most agencies. Amongthe nation's top-ranked brokers, 98 of 100 were active participantsin one or more programs of The National Alliance. “The primaryreason for the adoption of these programs by so many is the raremix of technical training and sales expertise,” Cuprisin said.“Knowledge without know how is simply theory; know how withoutknowledge can be a loose cannon on deck.”

Due to the needs of many companies for an apolitical andobjective producer school, The National Alliance provides its ownin an intensive 2-week format. Far more than a mere indoctrination,the producer school is a full introduction to the business andgenerates an actual individual “game book” for performanceimprovement that begins even before participants return to theoffice, Cuprisin said. “It is a quick start for the best producersand one that provides the direct benefits and return on investmentthat managers must expect,” he said. There is even a period duringthe 2 weeks when managers may attend at no cost to be sure they areon the same page as their producers.

With a fee of $2,500, the producer school fee includes 2 weeksof school, 2 online courses, 12 follow-up webcasts, and a salesmanager training program.

High registrations for the Dynamics Sales Programs are a strongindication that practical training aimed at everydayproducer/company needs are just as important as education leadingto a professional designation. One bank-owned insurance companyreported a 25:1 return on equity on a series of Dynamics of Sellingprograms provided to their agents. The Dynamics of Agency/CompanyRelationships specifically highlights the vital communicationprocess between companies and the agencies they serve. In responseto strong requests from the industry, the William T. Hold Seminarsare now available to all insurance professionals. These one-dayprograms (4 hours online) are advanced and focused on important andoften-overlooked niche markets.

The CIC Agency Management Institutes continue to be a source forprocess improvement and cost savings at the organizational level.They offer a broad understanding of the complex relationshipbetween producers, service personnel and companies. For those whohave already earned their CIC designation, the advanced James K.Ruble Seminars concerned with Managing People continue to bepopular among CICs.

Finally, The National Alliance offers regular one-hour webinars,many free, that allow participants and prospective participants to“sample” instructors and curricula. These webinars are recorded forthe convenience of those who cannot listen during the livescheduled times.

With a downturn in the economy, many agencies have also slowedwith hiring new producers. Nevertheless, there was still enough ofa demand to hold four National Alliance producer schools in 2010;four more are scheduled for 2011. “While the number of attendees inthe school may be down slightly from some prior years, there arestill many successful agencies that are growing, hiring producers,and looking for a proven method to train and educate them,”Cuprisin said.