Do Your Job: Why Staying in Your Lane Is Important in an Insurance Agency

Whether you like the Patriots or not, Bill Belichick’s “Do Your Job” is also true off the football field. For many insurance agencies and small businesses, people from time to time are called in to wear many hats. However, sometimes we can linger a bit too long in areas that we shouldn’t. What we think is helpful can hurt us in the long run.

Trying to Sell Everything

While we love it when sales are a priority, we need to refer lines of business that we are not experts in to the people who are. The main reason is you will spend way more time than it’s worth trying to figure out how to quote and sell those lines. Generating a referral to the expert in your agency is a better way to handle it. That producer may also return the favor with an opportunity that you are a rockstar at.

From time to time we can all get the attitude of “it’s better served with me,” or in other words, “I don’t want anyone to screw it up.” The challenge is realizing how saying that means you have no faith in your team or your relationship with the client. Open up your perspective and realize the client will be better served by the expert in that particular line at your agency.

Servicing When You Should Be Selling

Some studies have shown that a sales person’s day is eaten up 40% by service. Let’s face it: we would all rather chat with a current client than make cold calls. But one gets us to hit goals and one just has us treading water. You have to manage your time in sales! And your focus must be on new business.

Delegate and Distribute

Many agencies may have virtual assistants or account techs, yet the team is hoarding tasks because of FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt. The old “they won’t do it like I can do it” OR “I still have to check it.” Yes, these are true, but with training and time you can work through both of these. Hoarding work and not having trust and faith in the team is detrimental. We all make mistakes, and it’s hard to give up control, however, this is very shortsighted. Think about how you can make investments into the future.

The Nosy Nelly

In some agencies there is the agency police officer. This person often takes it upon themselves to check others’ work and report when someone is not 100%. While valuable, it’s also plain old distracting. Focus on you and being the best at your role, so you can serve clients better than anyone. Management will take care of any poor performance from other team members.

The Too Busy Excuse

What we often find is that when people aren’t focused on their exact jobs, they become too busy to do the items that need attention. When you focus on other people’s work, of course you can’t find time to do your own work. Often people avoid the job duties that they don’t enjoy and focus only on the ones they like. We need to balance everything and focus on our own roles and responsibilities.

The Problem With Losing Focus

When team members lose focus, the entire recipe for the agency falls apart. Agencies are built on processes and procedures. When things get backlogged or people aren’t doing their specific duties, the workflows get crossed and we miss important details. Stay focused on your job and let leadership handle the rest!

About Kelly Donahue-Piro

As a dynamic public speaker and consultant I have spent the last decade focusing on how small business owners can capitalize on opportunities within their reach. With over 5 years experience in the local insurance agent sector I can bring training, marketing and technology to your agency that helps you effective and efficiently grow your agency. My specialties include consulting and coaching on upselling, account rounding, agency culture change, sales scripting, executive level coaching and benchmarking as well as agency retention skills. Contact me today to learn more about how I can help your agency grow!