Agency Managers
Seen As The Key To
Retaining Agents
BY
New Orleans
The life insurance industry can dominate the financial services business if it can improve agent retention and productivity, according to panelists at GAMA Internationals LAMP meeting here last month.
Ronald S. Rosbruch, president of New York-based Strategies for Wealth, said that over the course of some 20 years, the life insurance industry has been unable to increase agent retention.
The reason for this, he said, is that "there is a general unwillingness to look at the core causes of low productivity."
William Grimes, president of Weatherford, Okla.-based Bill Grimes & Associates, said agents face tremendous stress and anxiety, which does not ease when they reach high levels of productivity.
It takes an enormous toll, Grimes said, for an agent to remain at the Million Dollar Round Table level.
A key to developing and retaining productive agents, Rosbruch said, is the quality of the relationship between the agent and the manager. "Your availability is important," he told the agency managers in the audience.
Agents, Rosbruch said, need to have someone to talk to about their concerns and fears. "People need to know how important they are, not just as producers but as people."
