How to Motivate Insurance Agents

One of the biggest challenges insurance agencies face is how to motivate their insurance agents. A motivated agent is engaged with both their peers and their clients, looks for opportunities to improve their business relationships, and is open to analyzing their own performance and opportunity for personal growth. Whether you are new to the industry or have been leading the way for years, knowing what motivates you and using it for inspiration to grow and sustain your business is the key to success.  

Despite understanding your motivation, it can be difficult to be focused and engaged every day. After all, you aren’t a robot and life has a way of shifting our focus. If you are looking for ways to keep yourself or your insurance agents motivated, here are a few things you can do. 

Creating a Motivational Work Environment

Your environment, whether as an independent agent or working as part of a larger agency, has a direct impact on your ability to do your job well. Distractions such as intrusive noises, pungent smells, and co-workers’ attitudes can impair your ability to work. So, how to motivate insurance agents at your company? While you may not be able to control some aspects of your work environment, there are things you can do as a leader or an employee to create a motivational work environment.

• Set goals – goal setting is one way to motivate people. Oftentimes business owners use it as a way to measure employee’s productivity. When achievable goals are set they can be empowering and help ensure both your employees and business are on track to meet the agency’s long-term goals. 
• Pursue training – Opportunities for training is essential for keeping agents engaged and valued as an employee. It also helps insurance agents learn new ways of accomplishing their tasks and improving their sales. 
• Work as a team – Teamwork and fostering a collaborative environment can help build trust between agents on your team and open up lines of communication. Providing opportunities for everyone to share ideas and contribute to the success of the insurance agency will help maintain long-term motivation.
• Embrace digital solutions – The world of insurance is wrought with paperwork. Many familiar processes for insurance agents include repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Researching and investing in digital solutions can automate these processes and improve the work-life of an insurance agent. It will also free up agents to focus on prospecting new clients and managing their existing clientele. 

Overall, whether you’re a manager or a subordinate, you should strive to create a positive, but constructive work environment that emphasizes recognition, ongoing education, and big picture goals.

Increasing Personal Motivation

Team and environment are not the only ways to implement motivation. Regardless of the amount of influence you have over your team or the environment you work in, you can always adjust your internal attitude and find ways to keep yourself motivated. 

• Make boring tasks fun – Routine tasks can become mundane. However, with the right attitude and perspective, everyday tasks can be fun. Consider setting up small rewards for achieving daily goals you set for yourself. A reward could be as simple as treating yourself to ice cream when you finish a task you’ve been procrastinating completing.
• Ask your peers – Reaching out to your co-workers or other commercial insurance agents who have longevity can help you avoid making the same mistakes. Learning from other successful agents what’s worked well for them can also be a significant motivator.
• Pace yourself – Looking at a project or goal can sometimes be overwhelming. By breaking down your to-do list into smaller, manageable steps can make it easier to achieve your goals. 

Self-motivation comes from having clear short-term and long-term goals. Motivated agents understand that finding ways to introduce fun, learning from others, and pacing yourself will help you continually achieve your objectives.

Be A Value-Driven Insurance Agent

As an insurance agent, you have values by which you do business. Often times it’s an internal compass you use to make decisions. However, putting your values down on paper can go a long way to helping you and the insurance agents working under you stay motivated. As Inc.com illustrates, some of the values that resonate with clients and breed loyalty are:

• Professionalism
• Integrity
• Empathy
• Knowledge
• Creativity

If you can demonstrate these traits in all aspects of your business, you will show your clients, employees, prospects, and competitors that you are a value-driven business focused on helping your clients.

Be Available to Your Clients

Sharing stories about agents who made themselves available to their clients in their time of need can be a useful tool in motivating your insurance agents and building loyalty with your clients. Not all people or businesses function during the traditional 9 – 5 hours. If an accident or disaster happens after “normal business hours,” knowing clients can reach out to you for assistance with their claim can help ease the stress and fears about the situation.

Moreover, with the assistance of smartphone apps and texting, you can be available to help your clients with claims around the clock. While it isn’t necessary for all agents to show up at any time, day, or night, find a way to be available that works best for you. Never underestimate the impact a friendly face or a reassuring smile can be for someone in their time of need. Your personal touch shows empathy and understanding, a quality your clients will appreciate. The most effective and successful agents find the time to be there for their clients.

Be Prepared to Fail

The fear of failing can be paralyzing to anyone. But if you focus on failing or on everything that could go wrong, you’ll miss out on opportunities that lead to success. To be a successful insurance agent look at your mistakes and learn from them. Things will not always go as planned. But that doesn’t mean your strategy is wrong. After making a mistake, take a step back and analyze the situation. Ask yourself what you did right and where you could improve. Use your failures as ways to grow and learn to do your job better in the future.

Stay Focused 

Prioritizing your tasks will help you stay focused and avoid distractions. For people who don’t typically make plans or write lists, figuring out how to prioritize their tasks can be overwhelming. For example, reading your email first thing in the morning may be a larger distraction than helpful. On the other hand, you may not be able to focus without having first read your emails. Every person is different. The key to prioritization is to understand how you work best, and then make a plan to accomplish those tasks. 

Here are a few ideas to help you get started. 

• Delegate smaller tasks to others – This will free you up to focus on the big-ticket items in your day.
• Block off time on your calendar to do specific tasks – This will help you keep promises to clients, not be late for client meets, and even get home at a respectable time.
• Schedule time for breaks – This will give you a chance to hit the “reset” button and clear your head so you can tackle your work with a fresh perspective.
• Use breaks to reset – Allow yourself some time to focus on other things you enjoy. This makes it easier to shift your focus back to more important tasks once you return to work.
• Do not overfill your day with meetings – This can cause you to be late to meetings, appear unorganized, and potentially miss sending important client policy change requests to the carrier in a timely fashion.

Be Hungry but Humble

A hungry insurance agent never looks back at work left incomplete or regretting goals never achieved. A humble agent looks for opportunities to learn and grow, never assuming they know everything. These two attributes will help you build confidence in your ability to do your job well and motivate you to keep moving forward. Staying passionate and driven about your career will help you give every task the attention and focus it deserves.

Persistence Leads to Success 

To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, “nothing worth doing is easy.” Success doesn’t just happen; you must be persistent, getting up every time you fall. Losing a client after years of working together or not converting a prospect to a client can be extremely frustrating, but don’t lose hope. Instead of beating yourself up, remind yourself of past wins and use that to land your next client. For inspiration, check out motivational videos for insurance agents or speak with others in the industry who have more experience than you. Reading motivational stories can also be helpful. Take the knowledge you obtain from these resources and apply them to your work and life. 

Help Your Insurance Business Grow and Prosper 

One way to stay motivated as an insurance agent is by finding new ways to help your insurance business grow. In this digital age helping your business grow can be easy but it can also be a daunting task for those who are not familiar or comfortable with today’s technology. However, learning to use digital tools will help you gain confidence and grow both your business and your skillset. Take the time to learn more about the latest advancements in technology as well as how other successful insurance agencies are using digital tools. You may find there are some useful options you can implement to help you grow and manage your business.

The insurance industry is highly competitive, and it can be easy to get discouraged when you see others succeeding, especially if you have been stagnant or seen a decline in business. If you find yourself struggling to remain motivated, remember these important tactics.

• Take a step back and look for any areas where you could improve. 
• Be mindful of your mistakes and shortcomings; this will help you grow and become the best insurance agent. 
• Take advice from others who have more experience in the field; there is always room to improve and grow. 
• Check out motivational quotes for insurance agents and other helpful videos that can give you a positive boost in the right direction. 

While it’s especially important to stay humble and understand your weaknesses, it’s equally vital for you to recognize your strengths. Focus on what you can control and think about the times when you saw good growth. What did you do that was so different? Are you able to do that again?

Remember, the key to your success as an insurance agent is to keep your clients happy. They should know they can depend on you to be there when disaster strikes. Investing in and Implementing tools and technology will help you increase efficiency and better serve your clients. Combing all of these tactics and tools together will help you motivate your insurance agents and build a successful business.