3 Things That Separate Producers From Order-takers

What’s up, everybody? My question for you today is are you a producer or are you an order-taker? Today, I’m going to give you three things that separates producers and order-takers, and in the end, the good news is if you’re not doing them, you can do them and implement them today and change the way you look at the commercial insurance game. When you’re in the sales game, you can be one of two things. You can be a producer, or you can be an order-taker. In my mind, three things separate the two.

Producers Produce

The first thing is that producers produce. Producers go out, and they happen to things. They don’t sit back and wait for something to happen to them. If you’re a producer, you’re going to be out in front of the trends. You’re going to be out in front of your competition. You’re not going to be sitting there waiting for your phone to ring, waiting for an email to come in, waiting for somebody to knock on your door, begging you to sell to them. That’s what order-takers do. There’s a place for them in the sales game, but usually, it’s in call centers or someplace where there are a lot of inbound leads, and there’s just not room for a producer and an order-taker in a commercial insurance operation.

Producers Believe They Can

The second thing is producers believe they can, and order-takers talk about why they can’t. A producer’s not going to sit back and let obstacles get in their way and keep them from being able to go out and do what they do, which is produce. An order-taker is going to give you all the reasons why they’re not able to get new business. They’re going to tell you that it’s a problem with the lead mechanisms or a problem with the sales process or a problem with some of the training and development that they’ve got. The difference is a producer goes out, and they take care of themselves. They seek the training. They find the knowledge. They seek the ability to be better today than they were yesterday, but not as good as they’re going to be tomorrow. Don’t let things happen to you, happen to things. And don’t think about why you can’t go figure out how you can.

Producers Create Victims

The most important thing is producers create victims. Order-takers are victims. Producers go out, and they crush the competition on the streets. The competition is their victim because they are happening to things and figuring out why they can. An order-taker sits back waits for things to come in. They tell you how come they can’t get business in the door, and they begin to have a victim mentality. And once that happens, that’s when the death spiral hits. They’ll tell you all the reasons why the organization has failed them as opposed to them going out, doing everything they can for the organization.

Become a Producer

In the end as well, as it turns out. The producers are the cream that rises to the top, and the order-takers just sit back and wait for that phone to ring, which may never happen. My challenge to you today is to become a producer. It’s not that hard. Be proactive, do the things you need to do to drive business, have a process, make sure you stick to that process. You buy into that process, and you never abandon your process. Do those things and follow the three tips that separate producers from order-takers, you’re going to kill it in commercial insurance.

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