Youth Movement

November 22, 2011

If you’re a manager, what are you doing to recruit new agents? Are you going after seasoned veterans with sales history, or are you looking to attract young talent that will be a part of the industry for years, even decades to come?

InsuranceNewsNet recently ran an article featuring a study on Generation Y in the life insurance industry that I think is also quite applicable to the health insurance (or any insurance) industry as well. To summarize, Gen Y agents don’t see themselves as agents, rather as entrepreneurs. They are just as interested in developing their careers through networking and making business-savvy decisions as they are concerned with hard sales numbers and traditional industry-centric methods.

Admittedly, the health insurance industry is slow on the uptake when it comes to innovation in the way agents market and grow their business. As the article discusses, there is a gap between the way Gen Y’ers want to do business and the way baby boomer agents want to do business. That includes, not surprisingly enough (especially for the purposes of this blog), embracing internet marketing and networking strategies to fill their sales pipeline and close more deals.

This brings us back to our original question: How do you plan to draw in younger agents if you don’t show them that you are willing to not only embrace, but facilitate these new 21st-century business tactics. Doing so will not only help you build your downline, but bringing in new talent with new ideas will help you plug into (pun intended) internet marketing and networking strategies.

Filed under: Marketing,Online Insurance

Tags: new agents, recruiting