Making Time for Face Time.

Agents must have more face-to-face meetings and make more personal calls to sell policies today. Some use technology and new strategies to improve their sales efficiency.

Insurance agents must plow through an ever-increasing mountain of paperwork, phone calls and face-to-face meetings to make a single sale.

A Limra International study, "Opportunity to Buy Life Insurance in the U.S. Market" found that the number of calls and interviews that producers are required to make for potential sales has risen over the years. Producers agree that they are being stretched more than ever to meet growing consumer demands.

While the Limra study was designed to look at consumers life insurance purchasing trends, the findings also explain why producers' workloads have increased.

For years, many life insurance producers felt that the key to successful selling was a concept of life insurance sales developed by Purdue University in September 1948. According to the Purdue Formula, producers generally followed the 10:5:1 closing ratio--shorthand for the assumption that 10 face-to-face visits and five closing interviews a week would result in a single sale.

After analyzing producer contacts with consumers, Limra found that their closing ratio is now closer to 15:6:1; that is, it takes an average of 15 sales calls and six closing interviews each week to make a single sale. "Individuals aren't letting agents in the door as easily as they did in the past, and agents are having to work a bit harder to make sales," said James Mitchel, vice president and director of markets for Limra.

Today, the average consumer is more knowledgeable and, therefore, more sophisticated about making important decisions, and producers need to spend more time with people to close sales, said Rick Fortune, a financial-services representative for Piscataway, Nj.-based CBG Financial Group, an agency of MetLife Financial Services. "However, more time isn't necessarily better...better is better," Fortune said. It is key to make "qualified" appointments to get to know clients better, which in the long run may reduce the workload, he said.

"On a microeconomic standpoint, agents' workloads have increased--not necessarily from the sales process being much longer but in terms of the type of service and relationships you need to make a sale and maintain long-term relationships with relatively sophisticated clients," said Mark Murphy, a financial representative for Guardian Life Insurance Co., New York. Many clients that previously required only one phone call a year from their producers now want quarterly conference calls and meetings, he said.

Some producers have escaped increased closing ratios by adopting a referral-based selling approach. Cade Sibley, a registered investment adviser for Sagemark Consulting, a division of Lincoln Financial Advisors, recently moved to doing business on a strictly referral basis after the number of required return calls and initial contacts for potential interviews became the most time-consuming part of her daily duties. "The workload got so much larger, because the service component became a growing piece of that workload," she said. Sibley wanted to focus more on building and strengthening customer relationships, and referrals allow her to devote a greater portion of time to her clients.

Technology's Role

While gathering information about available insurance products and services is now as easy as a click of the mouse, producers find that consumers have more questions and want more information after they've done research on the Internet. And that takes time.

There is another Internet-related consideration. "While it is an excellent tool for enhancing client relationships, the Internet as a standalone tool can paralyze a consumer by inundating them with information and creating the feeling that they have nowhere to turn for clear-cut answers," said John Putnam, a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Charlotte, N.C. This puts more pressure on producers to spend additional time correcting any misconceptions or misinformation that clients may have.

But many producers are turning to the Internet and other technologies, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants, to simplify administrative tasks and communicate with clients faster. "Six years ago, you may have had eight to nine tapes of 70 client letters behind your desk waiting to be dictated. However, the Internet has changed that, and [producers] are now able to communicate on their own with clients from virtually anywhere--the office, their home or on the road," said Michael Rosenzweig, president of Rosenzweig Financial Services, who also works with Penn Mutual Insurance.

Handling the Workload

While many producers are adjusting to increased workloads, others are falling by the wayside under the pressure. "An increased workload is a challenge for many producers, and many are not handling it effectively," Rosenzweig said.

In addition, because producers are historically not trained to act as business people, some are struggling with how to deal with increased workloads, said Derek Ferriera, financial planner for Sagemark Consulting. "When you're dealing with activities and skills other than actual direct client interface, it results in learning by our own mistakes, rather than formal training or having any real formal background to do it right."

While many producers are adjusting their time to accommodate their many responsibilities, Rosenzweig believes producers can better manage their increased workloads if they follow the "four D's" under which his company operates: do it, delegate it, delay it or destroy it.

Many producers are already following the "delegate it" portion of Rosenzweig's approach by adding support staff. "If you still hold service as the waving flag, then you've got to get people into the organization to supply that. ..it just can't be a one-person shop anymore," Sibley said.

MetLife Financial Services recently agreed to let its producers hire support staff to handle the growing service needs of clients, said Fortune, whose personal assistant handles many of his clients' service tasks, including address and beneficiary changes. "This allows MetLife producers to concentrate on what we do best--helping people reach their financial goals."

"Our workloads boil down to communicating clearly with individuals, talking about their needs and discussing what they are going to try to take care of," said Benjamin Hanback, market manager/large employer consultant for UnumProvident.

Despite increased responsibilities, producers agree that it is imperative to maintain the traditional face-to-face interaction with clients that agents have been doing throughout the years. "You can't replace the face-to-face visit with printed materials or laptop presentations," said Hanback. "It may increase workloads a bit, but in the long run, success will be gained with these personal interactions."

Specialization and Partnerships

Some producers are specializing and partnering with other financial-services professionals to respond to client demand for a broad array of financial products and services, said MetLife's Fortune. Much like physicians and other

industries that are relying upon specialization to allow for greater, more emphasized service to clients, financial-services professionals are seeing more specialization. "Specializing, and at the same time partnering with other financial-services professionals, enables producers to meet the needs of all our clients to help them build financial freedom...and that's our job," Fortune said.

Sagemark's Sibley, who is involved in partnerships such as for the handling of medical plans, also partners with other specialists in some areas of financial planning so clients are better served and the workload remains manageable. She believes that by transferring duties to other sources, producers can concentrate more of their efforts on other projects and client interactions.

Agents can expect the workload to continue to grow. "I don't think the U.S. financial environment is going to get less complicated as time goes on, and more people will continue to be interested in various issues of the personal nature," said Northwestern Mutual's Putnam. "It just creates more support as to why people need to review their situations with financial professionals and are turning more of their needs over to us...which is a good thing."