Successful insurance sales training gives your sales team the ability to connect with clients and inspire action. Give your agents the skills they need to succeed with an excellent insurance agency training manual that covers everything they should know, as well as supporting materials that help them learn the ropes and make sales. In this article, we’ll explain what you should know about the best insurance sales training materials.
Why You Should Create An Insurance Agency Training Manual
Insurance sales is a complex process that requires clear communications, adherence to industry standards, and deep knowledge of processes and procedures. All of these factors make insurance sales training a critical field that determines your company’s success. After all, your employees can only perform their jobs well if they’ve been well trained, and your company can only survive if your employees are experts in their fields.
Holding all employees to the same high standard, and providing them with the tools to successfully uphold that standard, increases your company’s professionalism, sales, and profits. Whether you’re providing life insurance sales training or auto insurance sales training, your manuals are key materials that impart wisdom to your new employees.
No matter if your insurance company is a small organization or a national institution, you must ensure standardized operations and uniform best practices across your agency. Your company’s custom training manual explains your company’s sales procedures to ensure company-wide compliance. This manual ensures that all employees use the same processes and perform at the same high standards, providing all clients with the same top-quality experience, no matter which agent is helping them.
Comprehensive manuals are vital resources for both new hires and current employees. New faces in the agency need to learn the ropes, and your training manual helps them get on board. Current employees can always use a refresher, as well as a resource to consult when they have questions. All in all, your training manual is a uniquely helpful resource that benefits everyone.
Tips for Creating Insurance Agency Training Manuals
Excellent training manuals make insurance sales training easy and effective. Here are some of our top recommendations that will help you construct training materials that elevate your entire agency.
Start Your Manual By Providing Key Background Information
In your insurance agency training manual, give your employees as many tools as possible for success. This means including more than just sales instructions. It requires providing a wider context that gives them well-rounded knowledge.
Give employees all necessary background information before jumping into sales protocol. This includes information about your company, such as your mission and philosophy, as well as an explanation of your organization’s history. These items will help employees contextualize their new knowledge of company policy and ethos.
In addition, provide background on the art of sales. Explain the principles of effective sales, the habits of highly successful people, and the soft skills needed to be a top-tier salesperson. This base information will set a solid foundation and prepare employees to tackle the information in the rest of your manual.
Ask for Reviews
All written materials need multiple reviews, both by editors and experts in the field. Insurance sales training materials and manuals, in particular, need to be closely reviewed and edited, as insurance is an important field where decisions have significant consequences. One typo in your manual or one incorrect procedure can be costly, both for your company and for your clients, so it is paramount to have multiple pairs of eyes on all of your training materials. Ask colleagues, both at your agency and at other agencies, to look over your manuals to ensure that everything is in tip-top shape.
Allow for Flexibility With Print On Demand
Regulations, technologies, and insurance plans change rapidly, so print your insurance sales training manuals on demand. Print on demand means printing a smaller number of materials as you need them and then ordering more when necessary. On-demand printing gives you the flexibility to easily update your training manuals as needed, thereby always keeping your sales practices current.
Supplement Training Manuals With Useful Sales Tools
Provide handouts, including brochures and flyers, both for sales team members’ knowledge and for distribution to clients. Package your promotional items in customized agency pocket folders that promote an image of professionalism, and be sure to include your company branding on all materials that you distribute to clients.
Make Your Manuals Memorable With a Custom Design
Let’s face it: employees rarely find training manuals exciting. You can change this by spicing up your manual with custom design elements. Consider the effect of plain text versus engaging graphics and images that draw your employees’ eyes. Your printing company’s design team can work with you to include design elements that increase both form and function.
Stand Out With Color Printing
Make your images and diagrams glow with color printing. The increased detail added to your images will make your insurance agency training manual more informative and memorable, thereby increasing its efficacy.
Color printing also illustrates your dedication to your company. This seemingly-small addition adds a layer of interest to your materials that show that you care about your employees and are willing to go the extra mile to welcome them to the agency.
Choose a Binding That Works for You
Binding is a key aspect of the printing process that influences how easily and comfortably readers can use your materials. Three of the most common binding methods for insurance sales training manuals are coil binding, comb binding, and perfect binding.
- Coil binding allows the manual to lie flat when open, so it is therefore very easy to read.
- Comb binding allows for easy removal or addition of pages, which is particularly helpful if you need to update your manuals when policies or procedures change.
- Perfect binding is the type of binding used for softcover books. This binding style is durable but less expensive than hardcover binding.
If you have questions about which binding is best for your manual and your situation, don’t hesitate to ask your printing company. They can advise you about which binding techniques fit your uses and your budget.
Work With a Dependable, Experienced Printing Company
Choosing a printing company is one of the most important choices you’ll make throughout the entire process of creating your insurance agency training manual.
As you’re researching printing companies, consider the following questions:
- Does the printing company have a reliable history of excellent service?
- What are the company’s typical clients? Do they typically work with insurance companies?
- How much experience does the company have printing insurance sales training manuals? Do they have a specialty, such as health, home, or life insurance sales training materials?
- Does the company provide design services?
- What are the shipping costs?
- What is the process to order additional copies? Does the printing company offer a custom web to print portal?
Feel free to ask your printing company these questions. A high-quality company will gladly answer these questions, along with any other questions you have.
Partner With The Print Authority for Your Insurance Sales Training
Here at The Print Authority, we understand your need for excellent insurance sales training materials, and we can help you make those materials a reality. Our team has over thirty years of experience designing, printing, and distributing all kinds of insurance training materials, including manuals, brochures, and more. We love helping clients succeed.
When you’re ready to get started with your insurance sales training materials, we’re ready to help. Contact us today!
