Sales Isn't Just About Selling

CEO Newsletter

Sales isn’t just about unloading your product to consumers. It’s about finding a pain point and fulfilling someone’s needs or wants – your job as a salesperson is to dissect your customers, identify what that need is for them, and find a way to fill it. And if you want to be really good at your job, it’s also about proving your product is superior – and not just at the close of sale – especially in a renewable service-oriented position. Some people think the sales industry isn’t service oriented – that you simply make the sale, and pass the customer on to a service person. But the insurance industry is different. I think we are more than sales people – we’re service providers and advisors.

Filling these many roles can quickly lead to overload and burnout for an agent who owns his or her own agency. It’s important to find likeminded and service-oriented people, who are equally knowledgeable, to help in your agency. If not, your agency growth will become self-limiting because of your inability to take on the mental and physical loads of all the roles required of you. The scale will dramatically fall to one side until you’re only servicing existing clients, and are unable to focus on bringing on new ones for growth.

We experienced this phenomenon a few years ago at Smart Choice®. Our growth slowed dramatically and it became a struggle to fill all the roles and services needed by our agency partners. To rectify the situation, we re-invested internally for a few years and reorganized how our home office staff handled the different needs of new incoming agency partners, and existing agency partners. First, we invested in our Commercial Lines division by adding additional underwriters to our Smart Start group, and bringing in two dedicated managers.

We also created an Inside Sales department of six individuals who are dedicated solely to answering questions about new and existing carrier products, who promote various incentives and changes amongst our carrier partners to active agents, and who are usually the first touch points for prospective agency partners.

Other departments throughout Smart Choice® have grown as well which illustrates the point that internal growth and support is a true catalyst that any company of any size wishes in order to encourage overall growth in the sales arena.

When we all keep in mind that we aren’t just sales people, but that we advise and assist others, I think we will see a change in how we sell and how those around us receive our message.