However, HubSpot does a great job of defining sales culture.
“Sales culture is effectively the sum of the attitudes, values, and habits that characterize your team.”
We’ve broken down how our best agencies build and promote the sales cultures that have made them successful. Ultimately, we found three universal factors that create great internal sales cultures.
1. Recognizing and Rewarding Hard Work and Achievements
Michelle Gibbings, author and global keynote speaker, said, “One of the most powerful human needs is that of being seen and heard. We all want to feel valued, important and that we matter at various times.”
It doesn’t matter what aspect of your life you’re thinking about — everyone needs validation in all aspects of their lives. Work is the same. By recognizing and rewarding your team members’ hard work and dedication, you begin to build a sales culture.
Leavitt Group practices recognition and rewards in a few different ways.
- Circles of Excellence: Once a year, we have a 5-star foreign getaway for producers who’ve excelled above and beyond in the past year. We’ve been all over the globe, from Puerto Rico to Italy.
- Year-Round Sales Competitions: Throughout the year, we run different types of competitions to help keep employee morale up and provide incentives to go the extra mile.
- Producer School: Once a year, we bring promising producers to Leavitt Group’s headquarters in Cedar City, a small town in beautiful Southern Utah. We use this time to give our producers a better idea of who we are, our culture, our history, and our core beliefs and concepts.
2. Locating, Recruiting, and Developing Talent
In the end, it’s your producers who are going to drive most of your agency’s organic growth. Because of this, it’s vital that you have top-tier talent backing your agency.
Finding that top-tier talent isn’t easy.
Here at Leavitt Group, we’ve found a way to source unfound talent — these diamonds in the rough. In our experience, the best producers have three basic traits.
- Personal skills – Allow them to easily relate with others.
- Sales ability – They can get in front of a decision maker and effectively show them what they offer.
- Technical aptitude – Intelligent enough to quickly learn about a complex product in a complex industry.
These three traits are far more important than prior experience in the insurance field. New producers with these skills often thrive in their positions once they’ve settled in.
You can also encourage the success of new producers by having a determined model for recruitment, hiring, and development of new talent. Supporting new producers or employees in the very beginning fosters a sense of belonging and genuine care.
3. Providing and Implementing Cutting Edge Tools
Finally, a key part of keeping your focus in building a strong sales culture is using cutting edge tools that allow you to keep up.
Your life is incredibly busy, and your producers’ lives are the same way. By using software and tools that automate parts of your existing process, you can create time for the important things.
Leavitt Group also uses cutting edge tools as leverage for sales. For example, the Leavitt Group Risk Management Center is an easily-accessible web-based tool for small business owners. They have access to thousands of OSHA trainings, HR resources, and information briefs right at their fingertips.
The best way for any insurance agency to grow is to cultivate a strong sales culture. Doing that on your own can be difficult though. That’s why, here at Leavitt Group, we do the heavy lifting and background work for our agencies. When they succeed, we succeed.
