NAPA Resource Center

HSAs
HRAs
FSAs
Plan Administration
Errors & Omissions
Health Insurance
Instant Life Quote!
Homeowners / Auto
NAPA Rewards 
 
New Agent Tips…. 

While NAPA does not claim to have all of the answers when it comes to getting your career as an independent insurance professional started, we can offer some advice. Remember, you are starting a new business and the data tell us that most new businesses fail within the first 18 months.

These tips won’t guarantee you success and most you have probably already heard, but there are a few common threads that make good agents successful.

Be prepared to work harder than you ever have before.

• Work Smart - spend time on activities that produce results.
• Develop a good work habit and schedule.
• Expect to fail.
• Stay positive - find ways to motivate yourself.
• Set goals, reevaluate your goals when you meet / fail to meet them.
• Seek help and advice.
• Be passionate about what you do. 

If you entered your new career thinking that you would now be your own boss and have lots of time to do what you enjoy (which is usually spending time with your family or friends, not working) then you will probably fail. Ask any successful agent, yes now they can spend time enjoying their hard work, but they didn’t get successful without a lot of hard work.

Work Smart, spend time on activities that produce results. Everyone gets side-tracked, but newer agents tend to do so more often. This is often true if they don’t understand what activities produce results. Prospecting will be the key to your success. Without prospecting, you can’t make a sales presentation. If you can’t present - you can’t sell. Lots of events will appear to be good prospecting opportunities, but only a small percentage of the time do they actually produce opportunities. Most successful agents used hard work to prospect, not gimmicks or social events. Remember how important referrals can be. For a new agent they are not typically a primary source of prospects because they rarely lead to an immediate sale. However, these relationships in the future can become an excellent source. 

Develop a good work habit and schedule.

You will find that most successful agents have a schedule that works for them and they stick to it. That doesn’t mean that every hour of every day has to be set to a schedule. There we be lots of times when your schedule gets out of whack because of a client's needs. What’s important is that if you set 3 hours a day to devote towards prospecting, you spend three hours. 

Expect to fail.

That’s right, most of the time you will fail, especially as a new agent. As a new agent, you will find prospecting, selling and servicing to be harder than an experienced agent. You don’t get to be a professional without practicing and while practicing and coaching with colleagues is a good starting point, eventually you have to do it yourself. Don’t expect to be successful every time. 

Stay positive, finds ways to motivate yourself.

Because you are going to fail most of the time, it is important that you stay positive. Surround yourself with positive people and avoid those that are not. Seek out ways to self motivate yourself. Read sales articles and books. Use the internet to find motivational quotes.

Set goals and reevaluate your goals when meeting them or failing to meet them.

Set realistic and obtainable goals. Many new agents come into this new career thinking they are going to easily make lots of money. As stated above, it rarely happens that way. Most successful agents have had to work very hard. Most will tell you that they set realistic and obtainable goals. It is important to understand obtainable and realistic. Set goals that make sense. Set a goal to have 10 appointments a week, then increase it to 10 appointments and 1 sale. 

If you are not meeting your goals try to determine first if they are realistic. If they are, then try and determine why you are not meeting them. A typically reason for newer agents not meeting their goals is that they are not doing enough of the activities that lead to sales. That usually means they are not sticking to a schedule and not prospecting enough.

Seek help and advice.

Learn what you are good at and seek help and advice from colleagues with things you need help with. Remember, the people who are in your upline are successful when you are successful. Part of their responsibility to you is to help you. This doesn’t mean do your job. But you should be able to ask for help. Remember that they have been in you shoes, and many of them have years of experience in the industry.

Be passionate about what you do.

Remember sales is a numbers game. You can’t close if you don’t present and you can’t present unless you prospect. However, most successful agents add another element to this formula and that’s passion. They do this to help their clients. They have clients who have benefited from the policies they have sold. They may even have a friend or family member that could have benefited, if they had one of the policies that they sell. They use this passion as a sales closing tool and in all cases as self motivation and it truly sets them apart from other sales agents.