Follow the Directions
Mentoring isn’t something you put in place and assume it will work. We learned that the hard way.
We’ve been using the MDRT/GAMA International Joint Mentoring Program for six years now. We’ve had successes and failures. We learned some important lessons from our failures.
First, and probably most important, we discovered that if we were going to use the program, we had to use the whole thing — follow it exactly.
At first, we used the model, but didn’t have written agreements between mentor and aspirant. That was a big mistake. Without those written agreements, when the mentoring relationship ends there can be acrimonious arguments about which client “belongs” to which advisor. Now we use the program exclusively and we make sure everything is in writing.
Second, we’ve had more success with green peas — college graduates and career changers. Experienced advisors, as expected, reached MDRT in one year. Then their egos got so big they thought they could do everything themselves. That doesn’t fit with a joint-work culture. They don’t last long here.
Third, we learned that we had to pay close attention to who was going to mentor whom. We match strength with weaknesses, not like with like. If one advisor is an aggressive salesperson who’s a good closer, we might match her with an advisor who is more analytical and detail oriented. Experience and production levels themselves aren’t good predictors of mentoring ability; it’s a matter of personality. In fact, we have one new mentor, a career changer, who has been in the business for less than two years.
The Wayne Cotton sales system complements our mentoring very well. We approach businesses about holding financial-planning workshops for their employees. We essentially become part of their human resources department. Both mentor and aspirant conduct the workshops. It’s an educational process; we don’t sell products. The workshops are low-stress for everyone.
There are usually 20 people in a workshop and we’ll get ten to 12 good leads from each one. The system begins with a questionnaire that helps us identify likely clients. The mentor and aspirant evaluate each potential customer and the mentor assigns responsibility for follow-up case work to the aspirant. All their sales calls are joint.
We’ve been very successful with this process. It keeps both mentor and aspirant productive. It gets people over the “two people in a room is a crowd” attitude. We don’t have to make cold calls. The employers we work with love it because we’re providing valuable education for their employees, and that leads to quality referrals to other businesses. The clients we acquire from this process love it, too, because they know up-front that if one advisor isn’t available, they can talk to someone they’ve seen before.
Bryan Behrens, CSA IAR
President
Behrens Agency
Kansas City Life Insurance Company
Omaha, NE
=================================================================================
In some of our Markets, most MDRT are leaders and they will make excellent mentors. Select leaders that have willingness and capability, and educate them on the rules of engagement in Mentoring.
Give focused attention in targeting “seminar sell” – college graduates and career changers
“Leadership by the Compass not the Clock” – Dr. Covey
Sincere Appreciation,
Richaard Wong, Assistant Vice President
Best Practices, Training & Development
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Mentoring Relationship
Mentoring Relationships
Norman G. Levine, CLU, ChFC
Our industry is rapidly changing, and I think mentoring will become one of the most important future functions of the career agents system. For your information, recruiting as an industry effort is way down- training departments, almost across the board, are way down.
- A lot of companies no longer have management development and management training programs.
- Agencies have fewer second line leaders, and often no one has the capacity or the time to train new agents.
- There are a lot of alternative distribution systems currently being tested by the companies as they try to figure out some way to distribute the product cheaper than the agency force.
Product dependency
The thing that concerns me the most is that in the pat 10 years I have seen agents develop a product dependency so fierce they believe that if they can’t run a ledger sheet that beats the competition, they can’t sell.
What happened to conceptual selling?
- Love and emotional selling?
- High touch selling?
It has faded out of our system because we’re spending more time figuring out how to do a ledger sheets and proposals than we are talking to people about Love, empathy, compassion, and little red wagons. MDRT members still know how to do that, but I think it’s a very serious and real problem for the rest of the industry.
Role Models
Most of us are products of those who came before, but there aren’t enough of us volunteering to become tomorrow’s role models. Many of the most successful people are lone rangers and form their own producers groups.
Working together
We’re trying to get agents to work with other agents and get them to the MDRT. We have put together a plan flexible enough so that almost any relationship should improve the aspirant’s productivity. It is flexible enough so if they just want to meet over coffee every two weeks, that’s Okay. If they want to meet every day and have a lots of joint work, that’s okay too. Our research discovered that an aspirant in a mentoring relationship is much more likely to survive in the business and to prosper. As a matter of fact, most agents we interviewed told us that they wouldn’t have made it to MDRT if they hadn’t had a mentor themselves.
More success and retention
We’re looking at this program as a way to grow better, more successful, more profitable, and happier agents with interrelationships that will benefit just about everybody. The advantages of this program are universal, and there are no disadvantages.
-The client’s advantage is also clear.
Through the mentoring process the clients will benefit by getting a better sales recommendation, better post-sale service and a quality successor agents if the aspirants fails.
-This program is based on volunteerism by MDRT agents. We’re trying to get vertical production growth from the industry and start seeing significant increase in agent productivity.
-Comments from the pilot program we ran are interesting- there isn’t a bad one. “It’s made the business better “
“I’m seeing more people”
“I’m excited”
“I’m getting into markets I never thought I could get into”
“They love the mentoring relationship” are just a few examples
The mentoring program may well be the first step in reversing the trend of agent and agency system erosion and the start of a new field- motivated expansion of agent qualification and peer capita productivity.
This program is very flexible, adaptable system. I strongly endorse your personal involvement
==========================================================================================================
In these times, we need to position AIA has a company who provides mentoring program that ensure success. Brand the AIA mentoring image
Build this into your career presentation and look towards the BPO to structure this mentoring program in your local operation.
It’s a double edge sword that sharpens the MDRT (mostly leaders) to perform better as Mentor and position them to better attract high flyers.
The aspirant / potential new candidate will be attracted to this cutting edge approach to success.
This call for a above the line thinking and working towards win-win.
For things to change I must first change!
Look out for my next article on the application of this ………
Richaard Wong
Assistant Vice President
Norman G. Levine, CLU, ChFC
Our industry is rapidly changing, and I think mentoring will become one of the most important future functions of the career agents system. For your information, recruiting as an industry effort is way down- training departments, almost across the board, are way down.
- A lot of companies no longer have management development and management training programs.
- Agencies have fewer second line leaders, and often no one has the capacity or the time to train new agents.
- There are a lot of alternative distribution systems currently being tested by the companies as they try to figure out some way to distribute the product cheaper than the agency force.
Product dependency
The thing that concerns me the most is that in the pat 10 years I have seen agents develop a product dependency so fierce they believe that if they can’t run a ledger sheet that beats the competition, they can’t sell.
What happened to conceptual selling?
- Love and emotional selling?
- High touch selling?
It has faded out of our system because we’re spending more time figuring out how to do a ledger sheets and proposals than we are talking to people about Love, empathy, compassion, and little red wagons. MDRT members still know how to do that, but I think it’s a very serious and real problem for the rest of the industry.
Role Models
Most of us are products of those who came before, but there aren’t enough of us volunteering to become tomorrow’s role models. Many of the most successful people are lone rangers and form their own producers groups.
Working together
We’re trying to get agents to work with other agents and get them to the MDRT. We have put together a plan flexible enough so that almost any relationship should improve the aspirant’s productivity. It is flexible enough so if they just want to meet over coffee every two weeks, that’s Okay. If they want to meet every day and have a lots of joint work, that’s okay too. Our research discovered that an aspirant in a mentoring relationship is much more likely to survive in the business and to prosper. As a matter of fact, most agents we interviewed told us that they wouldn’t have made it to MDRT if they hadn’t had a mentor themselves.
More success and retention
We’re looking at this program as a way to grow better, more successful, more profitable, and happier agents with interrelationships that will benefit just about everybody. The advantages of this program are universal, and there are no disadvantages.
-The client’s advantage is also clear.
Through the mentoring process the clients will benefit by getting a better sales recommendation, better post-sale service and a quality successor agents if the aspirants fails.
-This program is based on volunteerism by MDRT agents. We’re trying to get vertical production growth from the industry and start seeing significant increase in agent productivity.
-Comments from the pilot program we ran are interesting- there isn’t a bad one. “It’s made the business better “
“I’m seeing more people”
“I’m excited”
“I’m getting into markets I never thought I could get into”
“They love the mentoring relationship” are just a few examples
The mentoring program may well be the first step in reversing the trend of agent and agency system erosion and the start of a new field- motivated expansion of agent qualification and peer capita productivity.
This program is very flexible, adaptable system. I strongly endorse your personal involvement
==========================================================================================================
In these times, we need to position AIA has a company who provides mentoring program that ensure success. Brand the AIA mentoring image
Build this into your career presentation and look towards the BPO to structure this mentoring program in your local operation.
It’s a double edge sword that sharpens the MDRT (mostly leaders) to perform better as Mentor and position them to better attract high flyers.
The aspirant / potential new candidate will be attracted to this cutting edge approach to success.
This call for a above the line thinking and working towards win-win.
For things to change I must first change!
Look out for my next article on the application of this ………
Richaard Wong
Assistant Vice President
Mentoring : the future of the Industry
Mentoring: The Future of the Industry
I started a mentoring program 25 or 30 years ago out of necessity. I was a general agent and producer — Master Agency Award and Top of the Table qualifier — which kept me busy. Too busy, in fact. I had no time to do my own personal production and run an agency as well.
So I involved junior agents. I trained them. They did the paperwork while I found prospects and made sales. Eventually they’d start selling themselves.
In those days, agents didn’t like to split commissions, so if they needed help with a prospect, they’d turn to a sales manager, who’d work with them for free. That didn’t seem right to me, so I said that even managers couldn’t go with the newer agents unless they had an agreement to split the commission.
My goal was to free up the sales managers to do their jobs and to get agents to do more joint work with other agents — to turn to the best advisor for the client, usually a senior advisor. However, the agents couldn’t work together until they agreed to a commission split and who was going to do what. They could split the commission any way they liked; for example, one-third to the finder, one-third to the seller and one-third to the policyholder service provider. It wasn’t a rigid rule, just a guideline.
About 80 percent of new agents’ sales were solo work, but 60 percent of their commissions came from joint work. Even with split commissions, they were making much more money because they could work bigger cases together than they could alone.
At about that time, MDRT was trying to put together a mentoring program to bring more new agents up to MDRT levels. There were some models out there, but there was a lot of resistance to them because they were rigid. Neither agents nor managers liked them.
MDRT came to me because of my involvement with GAMA and the model I was using. The agents would accept me because I was a producer and managers would accept me because I was a manager.
We formed a committee to iron out the details. Half the committee members were agents and half were managers. We concluded that any mentoring system had to be totally flexible. The mentor and aspirant would decide what’s acceptable — commission splits, the amount of time and energy put into the relationship, who would do the training (e.g., the mentor, agency, company or LUTC) and the like. Whatever they decided, they needed to decide in advance. They signed a contract. It wasn’t legally binding, but set out the ground rules. It was a blueprint, so to speak.
We also set up a monitoring system to track the aspirant’s progress. The aspirant was to fill out the report forms but the mentor and manager agent had to sign off on them.
It looked like a good plan, so we approached the boards of MDRT and GAMA and set up the MDRT/GAMA International Mentoring Council to run the program. The president of the council serves for two years and alternates between an MDRT member and a GAMA member.
After a pilot program in 1995, we were in full swing in 1996. In 2007, there were more than 40 companies and 10,131 mentoring teams (mentor, aspirant, manager) in 12 countries participating.
There’s no question that the number of new people entering the industry is down and retention is a problem. Training isn’t as extensive or intensive as it was. The most effective recruiters and teachers are experienced advisors. Managers are so involved with compliance and administration nowadays that they just don’t have time. Mentoring attracts recruits, keeps them and gives experienced advisors the help they need to boost their production.
I believe that the future of the industry depends on producers passing on their knowledge and skills to struggling and new advisors. It depends on mentoring.
Norman G. Levine, CLU ChFC
Past President, GAMA International
President
Levine Enterprises
Palm Springs, CA
=================================================================================================================================================================================================
Richaard Wong RFP, ChLP, FChFP Best Practices, Training & Development
I started a mentoring program 25 or 30 years ago out of necessity. I was a general agent and producer — Master Agency Award and Top of the Table qualifier — which kept me busy. Too busy, in fact. I had no time to do my own personal production and run an agency as well.
So I involved junior agents. I trained them. They did the paperwork while I found prospects and made sales. Eventually they’d start selling themselves.
In those days, agents didn’t like to split commissions, so if they needed help with a prospect, they’d turn to a sales manager, who’d work with them for free. That didn’t seem right to me, so I said that even managers couldn’t go with the newer agents unless they had an agreement to split the commission.
My goal was to free up the sales managers to do their jobs and to get agents to do more joint work with other agents — to turn to the best advisor for the client, usually a senior advisor. However, the agents couldn’t work together until they agreed to a commission split and who was going to do what. They could split the commission any way they liked; for example, one-third to the finder, one-third to the seller and one-third to the policyholder service provider. It wasn’t a rigid rule, just a guideline.
About 80 percent of new agents’ sales were solo work, but 60 percent of their commissions came from joint work. Even with split commissions, they were making much more money because they could work bigger cases together than they could alone.
At about that time, MDRT was trying to put together a mentoring program to bring more new agents up to MDRT levels. There were some models out there, but there was a lot of resistance to them because they were rigid. Neither agents nor managers liked them.
MDRT came to me because of my involvement with GAMA and the model I was using. The agents would accept me because I was a producer and managers would accept me because I was a manager.
We formed a committee to iron out the details. Half the committee members were agents and half were managers. We concluded that any mentoring system had to be totally flexible. The mentor and aspirant would decide what’s acceptable — commission splits, the amount of time and energy put into the relationship, who would do the training (e.g., the mentor, agency, company or LUTC) and the like. Whatever they decided, they needed to decide in advance. They signed a contract. It wasn’t legally binding, but set out the ground rules. It was a blueprint, so to speak.
We also set up a monitoring system to track the aspirant’s progress. The aspirant was to fill out the report forms but the mentor and manager agent had to sign off on them.
It looked like a good plan, so we approached the boards of MDRT and GAMA and set up the MDRT/GAMA International Mentoring Council to run the program. The president of the council serves for two years and alternates between an MDRT member and a GAMA member.
After a pilot program in 1995, we were in full swing in 1996. In 2007, there were more than 40 companies and 10,131 mentoring teams (mentor, aspirant, manager) in 12 countries participating.
There’s no question that the number of new people entering the industry is down and retention is a problem. Training isn’t as extensive or intensive as it was. The most effective recruiters and teachers are experienced advisors. Managers are so involved with compliance and administration nowadays that they just don’t have time. Mentoring attracts recruits, keeps them and gives experienced advisors the help they need to boost their production.
I believe that the future of the industry depends on producers passing on their knowledge and skills to struggling and new advisors. It depends on mentoring.
Norman G. Levine, CLU ChFC
Past President, GAMA International
President
Levine Enterprises
Palm Springs, CA
=================================================================================================================================================================================================
Richaard Wong RFP, ChLP, FChFP Best Practices, Training & Development
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