Of course you want more sales. Everyone does.

But hiring a new producer who can produce on par with your most successful salespeople is one of the most difficult hires to make, and the truth is, you might not even need to.

Shift in thinking

Before you invest a ton of time and energy into launching a search, why not review your current sales team and re-hire the high performers you already have? It may sound counterintuitive, but with a slight shift in thinking and strategy, you can easily increase the productivity and ROI for your top salespeople.

Think of your most successful salesperson. When she first came on board, all she had was time. Time to prospect, time to make sales presentations, time to close deals. How awesome was that?

Over time, that success has put other demands on her time. Now she's spending more and more time taking care of the business she has built and less time on prospecting, presentations and closing. In reality, she might be spending only 10 percent to 20 percent of her time on sales-related activities.

You need to keep growing, so you decide to go looking for someone else just like her. Someone who can prospect, present and close on par with what she was doing a few years ago. The problem is, those people are hard to find, and success at that level is hard to replicate.

What's the solution? Instead of hiring someone to replace her sales revenue, hire someone to take on her non-sales related work. Hire someone to take those responsibilities, and you’ll get your old salesperson (and her numbers) back in no time.

How to make it happen

Take inventory of all of the demands on your top salesperson's time. Wherever you find tasks and activities that don't have to do with prospecting, presenting, and closing, package them together to create a job description for the new person you want to hire.

Based on how prolific your salesperson is, this may still be a very high level position. Perhaps even a relatively expensive one. However, it should be easier to fill and execute with predictable success.

But the main advantage is that it will free up your proven talent to get back out there and start prospecting, presenting, and closing deals again.

Imagine what your best salesperson could bring in if you were able to give her back the 80 percent to 90 percent of her time that is being taken up with non-sales related issues. Even if you only recapture 50 percent of that time, it will be a huge return on your “re-hiring” investment.

The next time you find yourself wishing for another top salesperson, take a moment to stop and think about it. Do you really want to launch a search for your company's next great sales talent, or should you be thinking about your current star performers instead?

Rehire your best salespeople by giving them the support they need to live up to their full potential, and soon you’ll have all the sales you need!

Game on.

Kevin Trokey is founding partner and coach at St. Louis-based Q4intelligence, a business, sales and marketing consulting firm working with insurance agencies. Contact him at (314) 436-7171 and check out his LinkedIn profile and follow him on Twitter @kevintrokey.

Special Reports /

Hiring a new insurance producer can be a difficult task

Related Stories

Recommended For You