Back in the 1950s, my first real job was working after school and on weekends in the neighborhood five-and-dime store. I already had been distributing the store's sales flyers for a couple of years, but now I actually was on the payroll–85 cents an hour! I began my career right after my 13th birthday in August, and things went well at first.

I initially swept floors and stocked shelves, but as the holiday season approached, the owner asked me if I would dress one of the two display windows in the front of the store. He wanted to feature the store's line of toys. I had taken a mail-order course offered by one of the toy manufacturers and assembled all the toys for the store's basement “Toyland,” so I was excited about this opportunity to show off what I had learned.
I spent the following Saturday morning assembling the display. As soon as it was done, I went looking for the owner. A few minutes later, we stepped onto the street to inspect my masterpiece. He was delighted! He said it was the best window display he had ever seen. I stood next to him, beaming with pride. My career in retail already was secure at age 13!
The week after Christmas, the owner asked me if I would like to try to create another window display. This time, the window would feature the January white sale–sheets, blankets, pillows, towels and other soft goods. Without much thought, I agreed to take the challenge. I worked hard the following Saturday morning, anticipating more accolades from my boss, but this was very different from working with toys. I was clueless about what to do. After several frustrating hours, I reluctantly asked the store owner to have a look. This time, he went on a rant. “This is a disaster, an embarrassment!” he yelled as we both stood on the busy street among Saturday shoppers who stopped to stare at the commotion. He ran inside the store, climbed into the show window and began tearing apart the display, throwing towels and pillows in every direction. I stood, frozen with embarrassment, eyes filled with tears.
We know most new producers want to succeed as quickly as possible and do what is right, but they become discouraged easily. Because new producers often are young, they typically have little business or life experience to amplify their insurance experience. Like asking a 13-year-old to design a store window display for the January white sale, it's often left up to the new producer to figure it out, and there may be little feedback from management. During the past 12 years, I've been sales coach to more than 500 new producers. When I ask what the boss thinks of their performance, the most frequent response is: “I don't know.” Imagine trying your best to build a career without a clue as to how you're doing. All too often, management waits until the new producer is hopelessly behind the validation schedule, then puts the producer on notice to “write business or else.” Secrets to Managing Producers
A much more effective approach to managing producers can be found in the best-selling book, “The One-Minute Manager,” by Dr. Kenneth Blanchard.Blanchard says, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions,” and describes the following Three Secrets to motivate and manage people.
The first of the secrets is goal setting. To be effective, goals should be specific, realistic, measurable and include a time frame. “Jason, you are required to obtain 50 commercial x-dates each week for the next 13 weeks by telemarketing to business owners. You will need to accumulate a total of 650 x-dates by the end of your first quarter.” This goal is clear, so there should be no misunderstanding as to what represents satisfactory performance at the end of each week. Either Jason has fewer than 50 x-dates, exactly 50 x-dates, or more than 50 x-dates. This sets the stage for the remaining two secrets.
The second secret is praising. Praising should be specific, immediate, and clearly communicate what your producer has done that is being praised and how you feel about it. It's telling the person what he did right. “Jason, I noticed you exceeded your x-date goal last week by 25 percent. That's fantastic! Keep it up.” Praising doesn't have to take a long time and sometimes can be accomplished by a nod or a thumbs up. Praising is probably the most important of the three secrets. Most of us get precious little positive reinforcement, and your producer hears plenty of negatives during his daily prospecting. No one gets tired of being praised. The salesman in my favorite men's clothing store began calling me “Mr. Insurance” from the day I started in the business–I was making $105 per week. I would stop in frequently just because he made me feel good. Do you make your producers feel good? If your producer is in training, don't wait until he's doing it exactly right to praise performance. It's OK to praise “almost right” during training.
The third secret is reprimanding. Be careful with this one. Reprimands should be specific, private and delivered as soon as possible. They should be done so that the producer understands it's the behavior being reprimanded, not the person. Tell the producer what he did wrong and how you feel about it. “Jason, I was disappointed to notice you obtained only 38 x-dates last week. You know your goal is 50. Why do you think you missed the goal by nearly 25 percent?” Then encourage him to do better. Work with him to determine if he needs to allocate more time to x-dating, or if his telephone approach needs to be changed. Follow up with him the next day, not the next week, by asking how x-dating is going since your discussion. Let him know you are interested, and be sure to praise him as soon as he gets back on track.
Reprimands are appropriate only for proven performers. You must be satisfied that the producer knows how to accomplish the required task. If poor performance is due to a skill deficiency, reprimanding the producer will only cause frustration. Never reprimand an untrained producer, or one who has not demonstrated he knows what to do and how to do it. If you are working with an experienced producer who is new to you, never assume he was trained properly in a previous job or by your predecessor. It's All About Consequences
Research tells us consequences can affect performance by 75 percent to 85 percent. Your response to your producer's performance has more impact than money, perks or promotions. We've already discussed two possible responses you can have to your producer's performance–positive or negative. Now let's consider how they affect performance.
Your positive response to a particular behavior usually will influence the producer to increase that behavior. “Jason, I notice you came into the office last Saturday morning and x-dated commercial accounts for 3 hours. Good for you.” Jason will likely continue x-dating on Saturdays. Your negative response will have the opposite effect. “Jason, the office manager told me you neglected to turn off the lights in your office last Saturday morning. You know we're trying to conserve energy here.” Jason may not be back next Saturday.
There is one other response that, unfortunately, is management's most frequent response. It is no response at all. The effect of no response is usually the same as a negative response. If you observe a positive behavior on the part of your producer, but you don't respond one way or the other to that behavior, the behavior will likely diminish or stop altogether. And while you are silent, the producer may be receiving negative responses from peers (“Who are you trying to impress by working on Saturday morning?”) or family (“Why weren't you at soccer practice Saturday morning, Dad?”). Don't be surprised if Jason stops coming into the office on Saturdays. Are You A “Feel Good” Manager?
It's been said that “People who produce good results feel good about themselves.” It's also true that “People who feel good about themselves produce good results.” One of the most valuable behaviors a manager can have is to make producers feel good about themselves by providing ongoing feedback.
Kenneth Fields is codeveloper of the nationally recognized PaceSetter new producer sales development program and has been personal coach to more than 1,000 new property-casualty producers. He also serves on the national faculty for the National Alliance's Marketing and Sales James K. Ruble Seminar. For information on The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research and their Dynamics of Selling program, call 800-633-2165 or go to www.TheNationalAlliance.com.