Over the past several years, insurance agents and financial planners have started seeing the value of teaming up with other industry professionals. More and more, independent agents are coming together to form groups designed to more efficiently meet the needs of their clients — and this trend is bound to continue.
When looking for professionals who may serve as members of your own producer group, keep in mind the seven key factors that are essential to building successful teams.
1. Communication
Because there are so many issues and activities that may affect your team, open and consistent communication is a must. Regular meetings can ensure that your teammates communicate with one another. Teams should meet regularly at their convenience — you may start out meeting weekly, but, as the team matures, you can begin meeting less frequently.
At these meetings, your team can communicate more clearly and help fellow professionals share important details about the industry and individual appointments, closed cases, problem cases, marketing opportunities, and administrative issues. Each meeting should have an agenda in order to keep everyone on track, and every team member should have the opportunity to present any pressing issues for discussion. Someone in the group should also take notes that document the action items that come out of your meetings.
Al Papa, CEO of Cambridge Financial Services, a Michigan-based firm, says that when he first started his own producer groups more than a decade ago, one of the first practices he and his partner initiated was a crack avoidance meeting, or CAM.
“I wanted to make sure that nothing ever falls through the cracks,” says Papa. “Communication between all team members, including the staff, is critical. Even as a team grows over the years, these weekly meetings still play an important role in our success. The communication is probably more important now that we are a much larger firm and enables members to deal with many more issues on a daily basis.”
2. Marketing
As individuals form teams, marketing can help position an organization to serve both existing and potential clients. Brand identity can be a significant tool. Your team will usually have a couple of choices: Use the identity or brand of your parent company, or do business as your own brand.
A newly formed producer group should, at the beginning, start by holding a client event and announcing the partnership. This is a great way to reach out to clients and prospects in person and without any sales pressure.
To this end, many teams have hosted dinner events, wine tastings, local sporting events, and art exhibits to introduce their groups. These events should be simple, with a brief overview of the team’s goal. Introduce the team members, mention any additional services and expertise that are now available, and communicate your vision of how the team will go forward. This should take less than 30 minutes, and focus on how your new organization will give clients better service and access to additional value-added benefits.
3. Team business plan
Any business venture needs a good business plan; this is true for forming a new producer group, as well. But creating a good business plan doesn’t have to be a chore, and it doesn’t have to consist of a 4-inch-thick volume of paper. A solid business plan should contain just a few essential sections: mission and vision statements, strategic goals (short and long term), planned tactics, a marketing plan of action, and a budget. Anything else that is specific to your particular team should also be added.
Your business plan will eventually become the group’s road map. It sets the course for how the team members will interact, operate, and grow. This should be a unifying document that brings individual producers together with one overall objective: to build a successful organization. The business plan should then be reviewed several times throughout the year.
Bill Green, president and founder of The Practice Development Group, says, “In my practice, I have found that successful teams have physical business plans that look like they are worn out. That’s because they carry it around with them, refer to it often, make changes along the way, handwritten notes in the margins, etc. I love to see a plan that is dog-eared and marked up. That means it’s being used.”
4. Complementary skill sets
Producer groups should comprise team members with a variety of specializations so clients benefit from a well-rounded set of services. Each team member’s area of expertise should complement the others so they can meaningfully grow their collective client base. The application of each skill set can help open new markets, unveil new product lines, or result in a new sales approach or concept that you might try with clients.
Whether you’re starting a team or seeking out a new member, look at what other potential group members can offer clients that you cannot and seek out specialists rather than generalists. This will become the basis of the value that your new organization brings to clients and the reason for exploring new sales opportunities with your better clients.
5. Define roles
Effective teams will have specific roles and responsibilities for each member. It is important for each professional to get a clear picture of what is expected of them and what they will need to do within the group. This can sometimes be a big issue for staff members. Think about a team of two or three producers who are coming together to form a group. Two of them have personal assistants who will now serve the team’s needs as a whole. How will these staff members operate differently within the new format? What is expected of each? These are questions that should be discussed and answered in order for them to work effectively and for the team to operate at a higher level.
For financial professionals, roles and responsibilities that are beyond their production requirements should be discussed and assigned. Who will take on the role of the technology point person? Who will be the go-to person for the team’s compliance issues? Who will handle the logistics for marketing events? Carefully assess each member’s experience and background when assigning these tasks to team members.
6. Coaching
Producer groups should seriously consider using an outside coach to help them develop their organization. Coaches can provide an objective perspective that can help improve upon what the team is trying to accomplish. A good coach who is experienced in working with producer groups should have the tools, processes, and systems that can add tremendous value to financial professionals.
Many teams use coaches, employing different approaches to coaching as their needs and makeup evolve. When you use a coach, they can become an investment in the team’s growth, and most teams will find that that they have made back the cost of the coach many times over by implementing the advice they receive.
7. Re-invest in your business
To form successful teams, you should try thinking more like a business owner. Part of this business owner mentality is understanding that you will need to invest in your business and then re-invest in it. Spending wisely on things such as key marketing activities, staffing, and technology can be investments that reap a nice return if done wisely.
Re-investing in the firm is necessary to fuel future growth. “Every producer on the team needs to contribute back to the firm,” explains Al Papa. “We require our team members to re-invest a portion of their individual revenue back in the firm, and as they do so, they are investing in themselves. Feeding the growth opportunities will help build the team and make it better and certainly more successful.”
As individual producers begin forming teams, they are likely to be faced with these issues. The important thing to remember is that teaming up with other producers is a terrific way to grow your business in a meaningful way.
Ronald Lombardi is assistant vice president of sales support for AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company. He can be reached at ronald.lombardi@axa-equitable.com or 212-314-4749.