You don’t have enough to worry about!

You are having lunch with Joe, your top salesperson. You have just completed a year — his 20th with the company — during which he made a ton of money. His gross compensation was well over $400,000.

He definitely earned every penny. He is handling the firm’s largest account, by far. He has built the account so that they are buying six of your best lines. Joe is a very solid salesperson and citizen. He is not a prima donna although at times he definitely trades on his great success.

Over lunch Joe announces to you, “I plan to retire in five years. I’ll be 60 and want to get out when I’m young and Amy (his wife) and I are young enough to really enjoy the world. Our kids will be out of college and we will have enough money to enjoy life.”

**?#!* your thoughts are unprintable. What a total pain. This guy is carrying the load for about 28-33 percent of your total commission income. He has basically one account. He does a great job. Now what?

“Now what?” is a big question for every agency when it comes to retirements, even if the salesperson talking about retiring is not your top salesperson, The “now what?” question has to pop up loud and clear.

No Bench Strength

Very few, if any agencies have surplus people working for the company who can step right in and take over a major territory. This kind of “bench strength” is not usually affordable in the agency business. But, where are the next generation of effective salespeople going to come from?

Customer Service as the “Bench”

In most agency environments the inside sales/customer service people know the product lines. They also know many of the customers, and they know the principal’s personnel. The big question is can they sell?

Buying Sales Force Insurance

My recent article with Ron Holm of Max Sacks International provides one possible option. Sales force education can be the beginning of developing a “bench.” Good customer service/inside salespeople are great candidates for sales training and education.

• Can you develop a career development program for one or more of your inside people?
• Will an inside person want to be outside?
• Can you afford to incentivize your inside people to stimulate them to increase their knowledge and take on more responsibility?
• Can you figure out a way to have your inside people travel with one or more of your agents and learn from him or her?
• Can a clear path to outside selling be charted over a period of time for your inside people?

The Process Starts With Hiring

In order to build a bench, you and your company need to build the bench into the long-range planning for the company. When a new inside person is hired, it is important to determine whether he or she has the potential to be an outside salesperson for your company.

When you bring a person on board it should be clearly stated that if he or she does a good job at the inside positions, you are going to be looking to move them outside.

Creating a clear career path is the surest way for an agency to build the bench strength necessary to handle retirements whether it is Joe at 60 or Charlie who hangs on too long at 75 and you have to push him out.

Always Conflicts

Building a bench will always create conflicts because the new, up-and-comers are very anxious to get into the field and to start making larger incomes by being salespeople.

Younger people are naturally more aggressive, more anxious, more pushy. This is a challenge you and the company have to face. The downside is that a good person leaves because you could not or would not promote them as quickly as they felt they were entitled to be promoted.

This is not a reason to become discouraged. The investment in younger, more inexperienced, less knowledgeable people will pay off.

Don’t Say “No” to Pros

I’m not suggesting that you only look for younger, inexperienced people to train. Of course it makes sense to hire good people with lots of experience, customer knowledge and instant respect from the principals. But, as you know, they aren’t beating a path to your door.

Meeting the Challenge of Success

The bottom line is that you have to have hiring, training and re-aligning the sales force on the front burner at all times. When you meet a bright young salesperson working for one of your principals or some other factory, get to know them, keep track of them and pounce if you are ready to put someone on as an inside person or junior salesperson.

The Bench Costs, but It Saves Too

This approach adds overhead. Making the bench pay off requires some smart thinking and clever planning. It is a challenge. At the same time when that retirement hits you, your firm is ready and organized. There is nothing worse than having your principals hounding you to get someone into the territory after Joe retires and six months have gone by. You know they are not happy and could consider a change. It is not paranoia. It is just common sense.

Constant forward vision is critical to success. Good luck and good selling.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].