As the owner of an insurance agency or the leader of a sales team within an agency, it is important to understand the value of providing the right training for your staff.   General education courses may serve a purpose for a while when agents are first beginning their careers and getting acclimated to the business, but the value of those types of courses will diminish over time.   Once agents have learned the basics, it will be important to find the right commercial insurance producer training that will help them to truly develop in their sales role.  

Where should insurance agency owners and leaders start for producer training?

As you know, the options available for insurance education are numerous in the marketplace.  The list may narrow slightly when focusing on commercial insurance producer training solutions, but there are still plenty to choose from including:

• Commercial Lines producer schools offered by carriers
• Sales courses provided by The National Alliance
• Commercial Insurance Producer Training from The Institutes Risk & Insurance Knowledge Group

What should agency owners and leaders consider when evaluating education for producers?

When reviewing these courses, it’s important to understand what objectives each option focuses on and how it adds value to the overall growth of the agent.  Spending time and money on training that the agent cannot apply to the job is an unfortunate waste for all involved.  

Other things you will want to make sure both you and the agent understand include:

• Time commitment involved:
• 1. If classes are part of a series, what is the expected timeline for completion?  
  2. How much time do you expect/permit for continuing education?
• Associated Costs:
  1. What is the cost of the course?
  2. Are there other costs involved such as travel and meals?  
  3. Is there an established budget for commercial insurance producer training?
• What are the success factors?
  1. Will the producer be required to take a test as part of the course?
  2. Do you have follow-up measures to ensure the producer obtained usable information and is applying it to their role?

Why should agencies invest in commercial insurance producer training?

As stated above, the right training for producers can present a significant investment in both time and money.  So how do you rationalize this expense?

Making an investment in training for your producers provides a lot value, not only for the employee, but for you as the employer as well.  When evaluating the cost, you should keep the following in mind:

• Producers that are provided the right training will have better industry knowledge.   This is a huge benefit as they work to establish credibility with prospects, analyze risk and advise prospects and clients on their insurance needs.
• When producers have the right training, they produce more.  This is great for the production goals of the agency and helps the agent continue building a profitable book of business.
• Allocating resources towards the betterment of your producers demonstrates that you are invested in their growth and success.
• Employees that feel invested in and cared for are more likely to be long-term employees.   Withholding opportunities for continued development, on the other hand, may cause employees to look outside the agency to another organization that will help them move forward with their goals.

Making a commitment to invest time and money into the development of producers will benefit both the producer themselves and the agency overall.  When producers have the right training, they are better able to achieve their personal and professional goals.  The combination of all of these things will allow the agency to continue moving forward with organization wide initiatives and find ongoing success.

Check out this article Total CSR  for more articles and insight on insurance education and training

About the Author

Justin Goodman has spent the past 20 years in insurance. He is the co-founder and CEO of Total CSR and co-founder and Managing Director of Project 55. By the age of 29, he was recognized as one of the top five construction insurance experts nationwide by Risk and Insurance Magazine. He also was named to Insurance Business Magazine’s Hot 100 and most recently the 2024 Insurance Journal Agent of the Year. Justin has trained over 50,000 CSR’s, account managers and producers through his work at Total CSR. He has a passion for developing the next generation of insurance professionals. When not with his family, he devotes his free time to speaking engagements and advising agency owners across the country.