Creating Dream Teams for the Life Insurance World

Like other managers and producers who serve America's myriad ethnic communities, Dong also has insight into rapport-building practices that are unique to these groups. This understanding, says Mendoza, may require adapting a boiler-plate sales technique to cultural norms. The result is often a longer than usual sales cycle, as producers seek to establish trusting relationships with not only the client prospect, but also family members and even extended family.

Assessing Candidates and the Career

Also taking more time than in bygone years is the courtship of agent candidates; and, for the candidates themselves, low-risk opportunities to evaluate the viability of a career in financial services. The carriers with career agencies interviewed by National Underwriter all offer programs that allow new recruits to get trained and work part-time for a fixed period before making a full-time commitment. One among them, Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Financial of Newark, now is spearheading an ambitious effort to recruit all new agents through a part-time work initiative. (See the Producer's Corner column on p. 40.)

Typical of the endeavors is a Preliminary Employment Program offered by AXA Advisors, an affiliate of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, New York. Recruits first obtain a FINRA Series 7 registration and life, accident and health insurance licenses to become authorized to sell products and investments. Thereafter they move into phase one of the "onboarding" program, which provides a training salary while new agents learn about products, operations, technology, compliance and prospecting, plus topics needed to pass the FINRA Series 63 exam.

New hires then shift into a second phase, in which they work with a dedicated manager to develop sales prospects using mentoring, role-playing and hands-on experience. They also build their practices through marketing and sales visits with clients and prospects.

Only after they complete these training and selling phases are recruits eligible to become a financial professional with AXA Advisors and elect a three-year financing program, including full-commission plus bonus opportunities or a base salary and reduced commission.

"We spend a lot of time in our pre-contract phase and that is by design," says Kelly Esposito, an AXA manager of recruiting operations. "It has given both the company and the candidates more time and information to decide whether or not we are a fit for one another."

New York Life offers a similar "pre-contract orientation" program in which the company expects to enroll some 3,500 new hires this year. The program content, which typically lasts two to three months and encompasses prospecting, fact-finding, selling, marketing, other facets of practice management, plus products—represents but a portion of the company's large investment in new producers during their first three years on the job.

Rich Simonetti, a vice president who oversees recruiting and retention at New York Life, pegs the total cost per agent at $350,000, which includes a comprehensive training program and extensive marketing and sales support. Hence, the high priority the company places on attracting and retaining top-tier candidates.

"The ideal agent candidates have a great work ethic and people skills," says Simonetti. "They also have the analytical skills necessary to simplify and communicate complex ideas. And they're comfortable being in business for themselves."

To identify individuals with the right qualities, New York Life uses a range of tools, including the Internet, to acquaint prospects with a career opportunity. But Simonetti observes that while New York Life continues to use web portals like CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com to supply candidates, the insurer is increasingly connecting with prospective new hires via social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  These portals, he says, are used to "warm up" or prepare prospects—many of them of college age, but also career-switchers—for lengthier discussions about the professional opportunities offline.

Mining the Universities

For Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, college campuses are a primary source of producer candidates for its internship program. Now four decades old, the program lets college students (mainly juniors and seniors) work as agents while pursuing their studies. After graduating, they can continue to work part-time for up to 120 days before committing (assuming there is mutual interest) to a full-time contract.

Cynthia Criss, a director of field recruitment at Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, says the program is not limited to the summer, as students work year-round. She adds that Northwestern Mutual is aiming to recruit 2,500 interns this year. Among the targeted prospects: referrals from current Northwestern Mutual reps who have recently graduated; and college athletes.

"We've established strong partnership with student athletes nationwide," says Criss. "They possess many of the same characteristics as our most successful financial reps—an aptitude for sales, discipline, resilience, a strong desire to succeed, and a team spirit."

(To aid in measuring these qualities, Northwestern Mutual—among other carriers surveyed for this article—employ Career Profile+. A software tool developed by Limra International, Windsor, Conn., the tool collects information about candidates' work and life experiences, personality, goals, attitudes, and career expectations. The product then, according to Limra, "predicts the likelihood they will be under contract with the company for a full year, with an above average production level.")

Based on past experience, says Criss, about 25% of the 2,000 open positions for full-time reps will be filled by graduating interns; the balance of positions are taken by career-switchers and recent college grads. In all, about one in three graduating seniors in the internship program convert to full-time work.

Criss, says that students who join Northwestern Mutual through the program stay longer than do other recruits: the four-year agent retention rate among graduating interns is double that of producers hired through traditional channels because the students have been given an opportunity to "test the career."

Given the disparity in retention rates and the success of the program, why not hire only interns and eliminate the other recruitment channels? Criss says the company has been tempted by the thought, but notes that it still needs to have a diverse balance of age groups who cater to different natural markets.

"We want to have a mix of demographics within our career agency system, in part to help increase sales," says Criss. "Because the prospects in interns' natural markets are young like themselves, the [policy] case sizes tend to be smaller. Also, we don't now have enough field leaders to manage an intern-only recruitment program."