What Makes a Good We Insure Agency Owner?

https://weinsuregroup.com/ A big part of what makes We Insure so successful is their franchise agencies, owned and ran by experienced insurance professionals. These owners are picked and hired by We Insure corporate, and their decisions are based off much more than the ability to fund the franchise. We spoke with two We Insure employees to get a better idea of what they look for in a good insurance agency owner.

The Right License

We Insure focuses on property and casualty.  Property and casualty is everything under the umbrella of just that, so liability insurance and property insurance.  That could be home, auto, boat, business, or any kind of personal or commercial policy. Because of this, we focus on people who are licensed in property and casualty insurance. This is similar for other companies who focus on other types of insurance such as health.

Tenacity

While licenses and experience are important, We Insure also puts a big emphasis on soft skills and personal characteristics. One of the most important skills they look for is tenacity and the ability to stay on top of the often-demanding work. “They have to be tenacious because it’s genuinely a sales role,” says Megan Murphy, Franchise Territory Manager at We Insure.  “Persistence and consistency, for me, are big things that I really look for.”

Ability to Network

There are a few key elements that make up a successful agency, one being the ability to network with the right people. “As a former insurance agent, I’ve seen that the only way agencies remain successful is the way they connect with key influencers,” says Murphy. “For instance, in our industry, the main people would be mortgage lenders, mortgage processors, real estate agents, title agents, and auto dealerships, and the ability to obtain and maintain those relationships is vital.”

Able to Find Good Talent

The second key to being a successful agent is your ability to identify, hire and train good sales talent. If you’re able to recognize sales talent, the ability to hire and the ability to keep that person is going to determine whether you are successful as an agency owner. Identifying the producers and quality people and being able to keep those people is extremely important. In insurance, turnover is high because it’s very demanding—it’s a very quick sale and you have to really be able to recover quickly and sell to the next person right away.  Because the sales cycle is so short, it is very exhausting because it’s never ending.  You have to maintain and incentivize producers effectively in order to keep them with you.

A Big Thinker

The thing that differentiates producers from owners is their ability to think big. “Many producers from other agencies will come over to us in hopes of becoming an owner,” says Ron Kuruvilla, Agency Owner at We Insure. “They have this mindset that they will just become a producer in their own office, but an ideal agency owner thinks bigger than that, and rather than being a producer, they become a developer of their agency, they bring in people, and they develop them into true sales people.”