By Susan Toussaint, partner, OceanusPartners

Perhaps one of the greatest frustrations shared by agency ownersis when a new producer fails or existing producers underperform.The cost to an agency can be devastating, particularly when youconsider the financial investment, the lost opportunities andpotential damage to the brand.

So what do agency owners need to consider when pursuing andcultivating new producers? Let's look at three considerations thatcan make the difference between success and failure.

1. Demand a demonstration.

Hiring practices within many agencies are pretty similar. Afriend of a friend, a son or daughter of a colleague or a relative,an athlete with a competitive nature–along with recent graduateswho are polished and eager–comprise the typical hires for mostagencies. Unfortunately, these characteristics don't alwaystranslate into a successful hire.

Early in my sales career I had the good fortune to go through arigorous hiring process. I was pursuing a career in outside salesfor a national interior landscaping company in Massachusetts. Theprocess they used to hire me has formed my perception of how salesprofessionals should be hired.

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I went through the typical first steps of completing apersonality assessment and meeting with human resources, followedby a brief meeting with the vice president of sales. This took twomeetings, both of which were fairly informal. I was later invitedback to meet again with the vice president. In that third meetinghe shut his office door and gave me a sales scenario to role play.My assignment was to sell him baseball bats. He played the part ofa business owner with an unspecified culture problem in hisorganization.

So with no preparation and already nervous, I went aboutcreating an imaginary issue that I had discovered through imaginaryresearch, linked it to his company's poor performance and explainedhow starting a company softball team would create a sense ofcamaraderie that was sorely missing, provide an avenue for friendlycompetition, improve morale company wide and ultimately resurrecthis business.

I must have impressed him, because I was rewarded with a fourthmeeting. I was interviewed by the sales team: all 12 of them,and all women. We went into the conference room and I was seated atthe head of the table, flanked right and left by the sales team.They fired away, asking me questions about my background andprofessional history and had me role play some additionalscenarios. At the time it felt like an inquisition, but I guess inthe end they felt I could hold my own in a difficult situation andcomfortably navigate a group of “buyers.”

There were two more meetings before I was finally hired.

I later learned that they adopted this process for threereasons:

• They wanted to know if I could sell. Sales requires the abilityto navigate some uncomfortable situations, keep your head whenconfronted with a curve ball and manage multiple stakeholders inthe process.
• They wanted to know if I would fit into their culture. Hiring aqualified individual is important; making sure that the person is agood fit for the organization is essential. One bad apple or lonewolf can disrupt years of work in creating a positive culture.
• They wanted to reduce the likelihood of high turnover. Bringingon and training the right-fit person is an expensive proposition.Often an agency won't see the fruits of its labor for 18 to 24months. If the hire fails or doesn't work out, tens of thousands ofdollars have been wasted.

I'm happy to report that I had a wonderful 10-year career withthis company before relocating to Florida. I've used role-playingwhen hiring sales people and find that those who can demonstratetheir abilities on the spot are successful in adapting to thedemands of a complex marketplace.

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2. Provide a process and a path.

So what happens after you've selected the right candidate?Typically they are given some accounts, spend time shadowing asenior member of the team and are given time to learn the ways ofthe agency and begin the process of creating their list and centersof influence. Perhaps they receive some training from an insurancecompany school or participate in some organizational training.Eventually they are on their own to win or lose at this game ofsales.

The fatal flaws in this scenario are that it lacks a repeatable,coachable and measurable sales process and no path for achievingvalidation has been developed. And guess what: things don't workout.

One of the best investments an agency can make is to adopt arepeatable and consistent sales process linked to an effectiveimplementation strategy. Along with providing structure for newtalent, it ensures that prospects and clients enjoy a consistentexperience when engaging with the agency. This approach not onlystrengthens the agency brand in the marketplace, but also serves asa compelling value proposition when recruiting new producers.

Sales professionals want two things: to be successful and todifferentiate. When an agency can demonstrate an approach thathelps them do both, everyone wins.

3. Cast off complacency.

One of our clients recently shared an outline of a compensationplan for new producers he was toying with using. It was differentthan most I've seen and I believe it will be effective inseparating those that say they can from those who actually do.

Typically agencies tie salaries to a lagging indicator ofsuccess: future revenue. Instead, he tied salary to leadingindicators of success: activities that generate firstappointments.

Read related: AgentsMust Develop Sales Teams to Grow, but Who to Hire?

He broke the salary up into three performance buckets, with eachbucket accounting for a third of a new producer's salary during thefirst 6 months.

• Bucket 1: Identify “X” number of prospects that are the rightfit for the agency based on geography, industry and annualsales.
• Bucket 2: Demonstrate and document consistent lead-nurturingactivities such as phone calls, emails and leveraging centers ofinfluence to generate “X” number of first appointments in the firstsix months.
• Bucket 3: Contribute thought leadership such as articles, blogposts and white papers that can be used over and over again inlead-nurturing activities.

Essentially, this agency owner has specified what he is willingto pay for: activity that leads to first appointments and newbusiness. The program is for a specific period of time, ismeasurable and is what a good salesperson needs to do in order tosucceed. Incentives are aligned.

This approach will weed out complacency. Too often, a salaryisn't tied to performance and is perceived as an expectation.Producers produce; they write new business and grow existingaccounts. If they can't demonstrate the drive to do that early intheir careers, more time and more money isn't likely going to solvethe problem.

Although other things contribute to helping producers achievesuccess, these three fundamental considerations need to be inplace. If you'd like to share your thoughts or the strategiesyour agency uses to help producers succeed, please share them at[email protected].