Organizational models for the development of agent networks. Formation and development of an agent network in an insurance company Analysis of the effectiveness of the agent network

06.03.2024

Agent networks represent one of the most effective sales channels for insurance products.

Agent network- this is an organizationally formalized set of insurance agents working on behalf and in the interests of the insurance company.

The network is multifunctional, which makes it productive. Agents select potential clients, establish contacts with the consumer, explain to him the essence of insurance and the content of the insurance service, work with the client’s value system, and identify his insurance needs. Their assistance is very effective when working with passive consumers (thus representing active sales of the insurance company), as well as with complex or complex insurance products, the meaning of which must be explained.

There are several models for building agent networks.

1. Centralized model. This structure involves the creation of a specific division that is directly involved in agency sales. Thus, in the organizational sales structure of the insurance company, an independent sales channel is allocated and a separate agency sales department is formed. This model assumes centralized management of the development of the agent network: recruitment, training, control of the sales plan, budgeting of income and expenses. This makes it possible to concentrate all functions in one structural unit, the responsibility for the performance and results of which rests with the head of the department. This ensures the efficiency of managing the staff of the agent network. Difficulty can arise only if there are other divisions in the organizational structure that sell insurance services. Then there is a possibility of conflict between them. However, a strict delineation of powers for each of the selling departments will minimize possible inconveniences.
2. Decentralized model. It provides for the presence of different divisions. So, one of them is developing an agent network, i.e. selection, training and development of agents. Another - sales of insurance products. In this model, sales planning and responsibility for the performance of the agent network is borne by the head of the selling unit to which one or another agent is attached. This division of functions allows us to demonstrate the strengths of this model, which are the high quality of selection and training systems for agents, as well as the high competence of employees in developing the agent network. The weak point is the division of responsibility for the effectiveness of the agent network between several divisions of the company.

The choice of agent network model depends on the segment in which the insurance company operates: corporate or retail. The organization of an agency sales system for insurance services has its own characteristics depending on the provision of services to individuals and legal entities, because they are characterized by different risk parameters, the amount of potential damage, insurance coverage, consumer preferences, and access channels. Let's consider the specifics of sales systems for insurance products to individuals and legal entities.

A feature of the sale of insurance services in the corporate sector is the key role of personal contacts between the management of the insurance company and the business entity. It is the quality of these contacts, as opposed to advertising, that is the key to effective sales. The better the insurance product takes into account the interests of the company's chief executive, the more likely the conclusion of a transaction may be.

In addition, if the client is connected with the insurer through a whole system of various connections, he is more willing to purchase an insurance product. Often sales are carried out through friendly and partnership channels as a direct continuation of interpersonal communications, where the offer of insurance is not the main goal. One of the most successful American insurance agents, F. Bettger, argues in his book that the basis for concluding an insurance contract is a conversation with the client about his business and his problems, and not about insurance. Thus, a representative of an insurance company should not sell insurance, but provide the corporate client with a reliable insurance tool for risk management. In this sense, the functions of departments working to attract new clients boil down to the following: establishing and maintaining contacts with potential clients; establishing interpersonal communications; establishing friendships or partnerships; provision of a range of various services; identifying needs and generating client demand for an insurance product; convincing of the need to purchase insurance and dealing with objections; providing advice on risk management issues, etc.

Insurance product sales system large enterprises It is recommended to build according to the industry principle. This is facilitated by the presence of common industry institutions (unions, associations), as well as similar infrastructure. Industry orientation of sales will facilitate the transition of the insurer from one insurer to another within a given industry. The insurer has a database of enterprises in the relevant industry, an understanding of industry risks and has statistics on accidents and losses in the chosen field of activity of the insured. In this way, he can more easily predict the likelihood of potential damage in similar activities of a potential corporate client. Therefore, it is recommended that enterprises recruit agents for active sales of insurance products from the relevant industries who understand their specifics.

In turn, for the sale of insurance products small and medium enterprises It is more expedient to organize a sales system on a territorial basis, since geographic reference is more important than industry or professional, especially if we are talking about a large state. Focusing on departments working with different geographical units makes it possible to increase the efficiency of providing insurance services and the speed of action of the insurer in the event of an insured event.

When selling insurance policies individuals The need for proper market segmentation comes first. On the one hand, more precise segmentation of consumers will ensure maximum satisfaction of their needs. On the other hand, this requires significant costs. They can be reduced by creating universal insurance products that take into account the wishes of different categories of clients and offering a wide range of insurance products in their line. It is advisable to use territorial segmentation as the basis for constructing the structure of sales of insurance products to individuals. Each region has its own level of demand, consumer value system, behavioral characteristics, standard of living, nature and frequency of risks, concentration of policyholders. To ensure a high level of sales for individuals, the insurer must have a large number of agency offices located in areas of population concentration. The insurer needs to ensure wide publicity through advertising), publications in the press, etc.

In general, in corporate insurance, insurers rarely create stationary sales offices. It makes sense to create agent network centers in those regions where there are potential clients who need to be converted to the rank of policyholders.

In retail companies, on the contrary, agency work is in great demand. When building an agent network, the insurer must clearly understand who the client is and what his needs are. For example, a point of sale can be located in supermarkets, large shopping centers, where an active consumer who wants to save his time will come to buy the goods and services he needs. Or the insurer may resort to on-the-job sales. Under sales at workplaces (work-site marketing) refers to the sale of insurance products to employees of an enterprise or organization in whose territory a sales point is organized. Recently, insurance companies, along with banks and mutual funds, have been paying increased attention to this sales channel.

Regardless of the type of model, the insurance company spends a lot of money on training agents. The insurer organizes training, sales training, work with objections, negotiations, team and motivational events. Therefore, he needs to ensure that these costs are recovered through effective sales through agents.

Agent networks are able to achieve the best results where there is a stable population open to contact, for example, with traditions of collectivism and a high degree of social integration. Information transmitted by word of mouth in such social communities is the best advertising for promoting insurance services. This is usually typical for small and medium-sized cities and rural areas. There is no need for agents to provide a client base, since the close community of the population ensures transparency of financial opportunities and insurance needs. But databases of potential clients are very relevant for agent networks operating in large cities. Here it is extremely important to segment consumers, study their preferences, and focus on different levels of needs.

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DOME method

When planning, you can use a simple and convenient model known as the DOME method<1>, adapted by us for the purposes of planning work on the recruitment, training and development of agents. This abbreviation stands for the first letters:

diagnosis - diagnosis and analysis of the current situation in your company regarding recruitment, training, motivation of agents, organization of agent sales and development of an agent network;
objectives - your goals, as well as tasks that contribute to achieving your goals;
methods - ways to achieve goals and objectives. These are your specific steps (events) that need to be taken to achieve your goals;
evaluation - evaluation of the results of work and the effectiveness of the activities you planned and carried out.

<1>Penetration into your markets / Transl. from English 2nd edition. Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA), Hartford, CT, 1988, p. 7.

The first stage of planning is diagnosis and analysis of the situation. Diagnosis of the current situation will allow you to find the “zero” mark, see what can provide real help in working to achieve your goals, and pay attention to the difficulties that you will have to face. The results of an analysis of available and missing resources, as well as a previously conducted assessment of the quality of the agent network, will help you with this.

The second stage is the formulation of goals and objectives. Practice shows that, as a rule, company management formulates a common goal. For example: “Increase agency sales this year by 30%.” Or: “By the end of the year, increase the sales volume of policies for property insurance of individuals (except for vehicle insurance) to 10 million rubles.”

Having strategic guidelines for the current year in the form of goals set for you, you need to reformulate them into specific tasks. For example, you analyzed the situation and decided that in order to “increase agency sales by 30% by the end of the year”, you will need:

“increase the productivity (monthly output) of agents by an average of 10% by the end of the year”;
“increase the monthly number of working agents by at least 15%”;
“based on the results of the current year, reduce the “screening” of agents from 80 to 60%.” In practice, this means that if last year out of every 10 recruited, trained and trained agents, two people remained in the company at the end of the year, now you undertake to plan the work so that four people will remain and work during the year etc.

In order to increase the sales volume of personal property insurance policies (except for vehicle insurance) to 10 million rubles by the end of the year, you will need:

“to increase the volume of sales by agents of insurance policies for dachas and buildings of individuals by the end of the year to at least 6 million rubles”;
“to bring the sales volume of policies for insurance of apartments and apartment property to 4 million rubles by the end of the year.”

Such simple and understandable formulations allow you, firstly, to see how you can achieve your goal. Secondly, the criteria for assessing expected results (in the form of specific quantitative indicators) become clear. Finally, the tasks you reformulate in this way will require creating conditions under which it will be possible to achieve your goals. These conditions will be the specific events you have planned.

The third stage is event planning. All stages of planning are important in their own way. However, in the first two stages you are doing very important but preparatory work. The third stage can rightly be called the main stage of your planning work. And if at the second stage you determine the strategy of your movement towards achieving the goal, then at the third - tactics.

These are your specific events. And what is also very important is that it is here, at the third stage of planning, that you use the results of a previously conducted analysis of the quality of the agent network, the available and missing resources. When planning events, you make the most of the resource that you have and try to reduce the significance and impact of the missing resource on the final result of your work. In the same case, if a resource that previously did not exist depends on your efforts, you need to plan this resource.

For example, if at the second stage you formulated for yourself the task of “increasing the productivity (monthly output) of agents by an average of 10% by the end of the year,” then its implementation will certainly require:

conduct additional training on the product;
organize trainings with agents on sales technology;
develop the terms of the “Best Agent” competition, etc.

Fulfilling the task of “increasing the volume of sales by agents of insurance policies for dachas and buildings of individuals by the end of the year to at least 6 million rubles.” will most likely require:

analyze the database of existing clients;
conduct classes with agents on repeat sales technology (to existing clients);
plan on-site sales points (to summer cottages) for groups of agents on weekends, etc.

In addition to the activities at this stage, the resources necessary for their implementation (labor costs, technical support, finances, etc.) are also planned.

The fourth stage is assessing the results of your work and the effectiveness of the planned activities. Important here are the criteria for assessing the results of work, as well as a detailed schedule for the implementation of all activities, including the resource necessary for this. If you have both, you have the opportunity to regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly) monitor your efforts to recruit and train agents, tracking results against those objective indicators that you defined earlier, in the second stage of planning.

All of the above can be presented in the form of a table, which lists the main issues for analysis at each stage of planning using the DOME method.

Planning using the DOME method

Stages planning	What is analyzed, what issues are considered
Diagnosis (diagnostics current situations)	Analysis of the quality of the agent network and agents (by objective criteria). Analysis of existing and missing resource (by 10 factors): image companies; target markets in which agents operate; range of services; Commission remuneration agent; sales channels; service; sales organization; agent network management; availability and quality sales advertising; sales points. Analysis of the current situations regarding recruitment, training (including post-training and internship), psychological support, evaluation of work results
Objectives (wording goals and tasks)	Goals and objectives that management sets for you companies. Reframing strategic goals company's goals for your division: long-term (for a year) and intermediate (for a quarter, a month) for each stage of work: recruitment of agents; Preparation (including post-training and internship), psychological support, evaluation of work results. Determining the criteria (indicators) by which you you will evaluate the results obtained
Methods (planning events)	Planning activities for each formulated you goal (task). Determining the Required Resource (information, labor costs, technical support, finance, etc.) to carry out all activities. What organizational (management decisions; attracting specialists from other departments) you will need the resource to solve the problems tasks
Evaluation (grade results)	Drawing up a schedule of events, responsible, required resources and deadlines. Defining a monitoring plan (evaluating results), by what indicators: weekly; monthly; quarterly. Reporting forms and presentations results

One of the important elements of planning the development of an agent network is calculations that will allow you to answer the following questions:

how many agents need to be selected and trained to achieve the planned results, and how much time is needed for this;
what should be the productivity of agents;
when will the investments made by the company in the development of the agent network be “returned” in the form of agent payments for concluded contracts, etc.

Example These and other calculations are presented below.

At our seminars we often play the business game “Calculating the number of agents required to achieve the planned results.” The game always arouses great interest among insurance company specialists. Below are several fragments of the business game. This will help you make all the necessary calculations yourself in the future. I would like to immediately note that there are assumptions and conventions that are presented here. This is done solely to make it easier for the participants in their task in a gaming situation. It is important that the algorithm and calculation methodology be clear. According to the feedback from those participants who, at the end of the seminar, did this work again, this seemingly game situation allowed them, taking into account real data, to make real calculations and use them as guidelines in their practical work on the development of an agent network.

Business game "Calculating the number of agents required to achieve planned results"

The goal is to calculate the costs of organizing the recruitment and training of agents, to calculate the number of working agents required to achieve the planned results.

Calculate the costs (investments) for the development of an agent network.
Estimate the volume of agency sales required to return the investment (in the form of agency fees for policies sold).

Additional condition: the agency portfolio must be balanced (at least three insurance products must be present).

Justify the number of working agents required to achieve the planned results.
Search for “strategies” to improve the results obtained.

Data required for calculations (set at the beginning of the game):

Range of services (to simplify calculations, we limit ourselves to three insurance products):

accident insurance;
insurance of property of individuals (except for insurance of vehicles);
vehicle insurance (CASCO only).

The portfolio must be balanced (all three insurance products must be present). The percentage of the volume of insurance payments for “products” in the portfolio of the agency (branch) is also set by the leader. Motor transport - 60%, property insurance of citizens (except transport insurance) - 25%, accident insurance - 15%.
Empirical coefficients for calculations by type of insurance:

accident insurance - Kns = 2.2;
property insurance for individuals (except for transport insurance) - Kifl = 4.0;
vehicle insurance (CASCO only) - Ktr = 10.0.

The “productivity” of one novice agent (on average) is 10 thousand rubles. per month.
The “screening out” of agents is 80%. This means that out of 10 trained agents, two agents work with a given productivity (the “screening” is taken slightly higher than the market average).
Costs incurred by the branch (agency) for the development of the agent network and mass types of insurance (per year) for the main expense items (see paragraph 7 below) - 220 thousand rubles. (for example).
Main expense items (calculated for one year): salaries of specialists (payroll); rental of premises for full-time specialists and for training with agents; technical support for the agency's work; advertising in the media (announcements for recruiting agents) and office expenses (for educational purposes); training of full-time specialists (seminars and trainings to improve professional growth)<2>.

<2>In order to simplify the game situation, only part of the costs is taken into account here.

The calculation of “empirical coefficients” always arouses keen interest among participants. The calculations are based on two indicators:

loss ratio for a specific insurance product (group of products, on average);
business expenses.

Since both indicators depend on many circumstances and can vary greatly in different companies, we took the following loss ratio (don’t be too strict about this) (market average):

vehicle insurance (CASCO) - 60%;
insurance of property of individuals (except for motor vehicles) - on average for the entire range (dachas, apartments, etc.) - 45%;
accident insurance - 25%.

The costs of conducting the case (CBC) were taken as 30%. The RVD also includes the agent's commission.

Example The calculation of “empirical coefficients” taking into account both indicators is given below.

Calculation of empirical coefficients:

car insurance: K = 10.0.

Unprofitability = 60%, RVD (including CF to the agent) = 30%, thus, from 1 rub. agent fees for this type of insurance, minus payments, the company has 10 kopecks left:

100 kopecks - (60 kopecks + 30 kopecks) = 10 kopecks.

So, to get 1 rub. (in the form of income)<3>, the agents need to bring 10 rubles. insurance premium: 1 rub. : 10 kop. = 100 kopecks : 10 kop. = 10.0. K = 10.0;

property insurance for individuals (except CASCO): K = 4.0.

<3>Of course, until the contract ends, it’s too early to talk about income. This is another assumption in the game - the calculation is made, as they say, “at the cash register”.

Loss ratio = 45%, RVD (including CV) = 30%, thus, from 1 rub. The insurance premium for this type of insurance, minus payments, leaves the company with 25 kopecks:

100 kopecks - (45 kopecks + 30 kopecks) = 25 kopecks.

So, to get 1 rub. (in the form of income), agents need to bring 4 rubles of insurance premium: 1 rub. : 25 kop. = 100 kopecks : 25 kop. = 4.0. K = 4.0;

accident insurance for citizens: K = 2.2.

Loss ratio = 25%, RVD (including CV) = 30%, thus, from 1 rub. The insurance premium for this type of insurance, minus payments, leaves 45 kopecks in the company:

100 kopecks - (25 kopecks + 30 kopecks) = 45 kopecks.

So, to get 1 rub. (in the form of income), agents need to bring 2.2 rubles. insurance premium: 1 rub. : 45 kop. = 100 kopecks : 45 kop. = 2.2. K = 2.2.

Problem 1

Situation: the company decided to open a new agency (new agency office). Work is planned to organize an agent network (from scratch). For these purposes, a group of two specialists has been organized - “agency manager” and “agent manager” (position titles are conditional).

Calculation of costs (investments) required to organize the recruitment and training of agents for the main cost items (calculated for one year).

Salaries of specialists (payroll).
Rent of premises for full-time specialists and training with agents.
Technical support for the agency's work.
Media advertising (agent recruitment advertisements) and office expenses (for training purposes).
Training of full-time specialists at the expense of the company (external seminars and trainings to improve professional growth).

Example calculating costs of 220 thousand rubles.

Payroll of two specialists:

"agency head" - salary 2 thousand rubles. per month. Per year - 24 thousand rubles.
“agent relations manager” - 1 thousand rubles. per month (in addition, he works under an agency agreement and receives part of the commission). For a year - 12 thousand.

Total - 36 thousand rubles, including taxes (+ 39%) - 50 thousand rubles. in a year.

Rental of premises. Based on the cost of 100 rubles. for 1 sq. m per month. Two rooms. One on a permanent basis. Other - for the duration of classes with agents - 10 days a month.

First room (15 sq. m.): 15 sq. m. m x 100 rub. x 12 months = 18 thousand rubles.

Second (30 sq. m.): 30 sq. m. m x 100 rub. x 12 months : 3 = 12 thousand rubles.

Total - 30 thousand rubles. in year.

Technical support for employees and educational process:
personal computer (system unit and screen) - 18 thousand rubles;
printer - 4 thousand rubles;
copier (large) - 20 thousand rubles;
projector with screen - 8 thousand rubles;
TV and video camera - 20 thousand rubles;
educational board (flipchart) - 6 thousand rubles;
consumables - 10 thousand rubles.

Total - 86 thousand rubles.

Advertising and office expenses. Advertisements in the media about the recruitment of agents. The first six months twice a week in two publications. The second six months - twice a week in one publication.

Total - 34 thousand rubles.

Training of full-time specialists this year - 20 thousand rubles.

Total - 220 thousand rubles.

Perform a task:

Calculate the costs (investments) necessary to organize the recruitment and training of agents, according to the main expense items (calculated for one year).

Calculations are made based on the actual cost of renting premises, the ability to pay employees, etc.

Note: costs should not amount to 220 thousand rubles. (as in the example).

As a rule, when making calculations, seminar participants have a range of costs from 250 thousand to 1 million rubles. (depending on the region and company capabilities).

In order for you to better understand how the calculations are carried out, we will repeat them with new data (like participants in a business game).

So, let’s assume that, having calculated the real costs of developing agency sales (as participants in the game), you received a figure of 800 thousand rubles.

If you do the math, your costs will be approximately within the same limits (maybe with the exception of the city of Moscow, where both wages and rent for rented premises are high).

Problem 2

What should be the volume of agency sales in order to reach the “recoupment point” of the costs incurred by the agency (branch) for recruiting and training agents of 220 thousand rubles? At the same time, the portfolio by type of insurance must be balanced (there must be at least three insurance products).

Example calculating the volume of agency sales required for return on investment at a cost of 220 thousand rubles. and for a given “portfolio balance”.

Suppose we plan that, in percentage terms, the portfolio by type of insurance will look like this: motor vehicle insurance - 60%, accident insurance - 15%, personal property insurance - 25%.
Then, in order to cover 1 rub. costs (investments for the development of an agent network), it is necessary that agents, in the form of client payments for concluded contracts, bring:

0.6 x 10.0 + 0.15 x 2.2 + 0.25 x 4.0 = 6.0 + 0.33 + 1.0 = 7.33 rub. Where:

To cover costs of 220 thousand rubles. The volume of the collected premium must be:

220,000 x 7.33 = 1,612,600 rubles.

Answer: to cover expenses of 220 thousand rubles. it is necessary that the volume of agency sales amount to 1,612,600 rubles.

Perform a task:

Calculate what the volume of agency sales should be in order to reach the “recoupment point” of the costs incurred by the branch (agency) for recruiting and training agents of 800 thousand rubles. (we got this figure as a participant in the game when completing task 1). In this case, the portfolio by type of insurance should be balanced in the same way as in the example: transport insurance - 60%, accident insurance - 15%, personal property insurance - 25%. The portfolio must contain at least three insurance products.

Let's do the calculations.

In order to cover 1 rub. costs (investments for the development of an agent network), it is necessary that agents, in the form of client payments for concluded contracts, bring:

(0.6 x 10.0 + 0.15 x 2.2 + 0.25 x 4.0) x 100 = 6.0 + 0.33 + 1.0 = 7.33 rub. Where:

10.0, 2.2 and 4.0 are empirical coefficients;
0.6, 0.15 and 0.25 - planned balance (% of insurance products) in the portfolio.

To cover costs of 800 thousand rubles. The volume of the collected premium must be:

800,000 x 7.33 = 5,864,000 rubles.

Answer: to cover expenses of 800 thousand rubles. it is necessary that the volume of agency sales amount to 5864 thousand rubles.

Problem 3

Situation: the company decided to develop its agent network (that is, recruit new agents and train them) without attracting (temporarily) experienced agents from the market. How many working agents are needed in order to achieve an agency sales volume of RUB 1,612,600? How long will this take (months)?

Initial data for calculation (set by the leader):

Every month you recruit a group for training - no more than 10 people;
out of 10 people, only two remain during the year (“dropout” - 80%);

Example calculating the number of agents required to achieve a sales volume of 1,612,600 rubles. with monthly training of 10 people:

after 1 month - 2 x 10,000 = 20,000 premium;
after 2 months - 4 x 10,000 = 40,000 (60,000);
after 3 months - 6 x 10,000 = 60,000 (120,000);
after 4 months - 8 x 10,000 = 80,000 (200,000);
after 5 months - 10 x 10,000 = 100,000 (300,000);
after 6 months - 12 x 10,000 = 120,000 (420,000);
after 7 months - 14 x 10,000 = 140,000 (560,000);
after 8 months - 16 x 10,000 = 160,000 (720,000);
after 9 months - 18 x 10,000 = 180,000 (900,000);
after 10 months - 20 x 10,000 = 200,000 (1,100,000);
after 11 months - 22 x 10,000 = 220,000 (1,320,000);
after 12 months - 24 x 10,000 = 240,000 (1,560,000);
after 13 months - 26 x 10,000 = 260,000 (1,820,000).

Answer: Given the given “parameters” of calculation, in order to achieve agency sales in the amount of 1,612,600 rubles, you need to prepare 26 working agents.

This will take 13 months.

Initial data for calculation (same):

Every month you recruit a group of no more than 10 people for training;
out of 10 people, only 2 people remain during the year (“dropout” - 80%);
The productivity of working agents is no more than 10 thousand rubles. per month (on average throughout the year).

Since the parameters are the same as in the above example, we will continue our calculations from the 13th month (see Table 1).

Table 1

Month	Number of agents and volume, rub.	Accumulation, rub.	Month	Number of agents and volume, rub.	Accumulation, rub.
13th	26 x 10,000 = 260 000	1 820 000	19th	38 x 10,000 = 380 000	3 820 000
14th	28 x 10,000 = 280 000	2 100 000	20th	40 x 10,000 = 400 000	4 220 000
15th	30 x 10,000 = 300 000	2 400 000	21st	42 x 10,000 = 420 000	4 640 000
16th	32 x 10,000 = 320 000	2 740 000	22nd	44 x 10,000 = 440 000	5 080 000
17th	34 x 10,000 = 340 000	3 080 000	23rd	46 x 10,000 = 460 000	5 560 000
18th	36 x 10,000 = 360 000	3 440 000	24th	48 x 10,000 = 480 000	6 040 000

Answer: Given the given calculation “parameters,” in order to achieve agency sales in the amount of RUB 5,864,000, 48 working agents need to be trained.

This will take 24 months (or two years).

The fact is that two years is too much time for a return on investment by one agency in such a matter as the development of an agent network. I would like the money spent to be returned faster.

Problem 4

What strategies can you use in your work, how to “change” the parameters (including in calculations) in order to achieve an agency sales volume of 5,864,000 rubles. earlier than two years, for example, during the first year?

Of course, the first thing participants talk about is reducing costs. But this is too easy a path. We don't take it into account. Thus, we leave the costs the same.

As a rule, participants in a business game offer the following strategies.

Increase productivity, monthly “production” of agents. So that it is not 10 thousand rubles. per month (on average per year), or more.
Reduce the “dropout” of agents so that out of 10 trained agents, not two agents remain in the company (as per assignment), but more.
Increase the monthly number of trained agents. Recruit a training group of not 10 people, but more.

As a rule, these three strategies are quite enough to improve the “result”.

For example, let's change the initial data for the calculation as follows:

Every month we will recruit a training group of 20 people (not 10, as before);
Let’s assume that out of 10 people, four people remain (the “dropout” is 60%, not 80% as last time);
Let the average productivity of working agents per year be 20 thousand rubles. per month (and not 10, as in previous calculations).

Execute the task with the new calculation parameters:

Calculate how many working agents are needed in order to achieve an agency sales volume of RUB 5,864,000. How long will this take (months)? What will be the sales results of the entire agent network for the year (with these parameters), what number of working agents will be in the agency at the end of the year.

Since the initial data is new, we carry out the calculation from the 1st month (see Table 2).

table 2

Month	Number of agents and volume, rub.	Accumulation, rub.	Month	Number of agents and volume, rub.	Accumulation, rub.
1st	8 x 20,000 = 160 000	160 000	7th	56 x 20,000 = 1 120 000	4 480 000
2nd	16 x 20,000 = 320 000	480 000	8th	64 x 20,000 = 1 280 000	5 760 000
3rd	24 x 20,000 = 480 000	960 000	9th	72 x 20,000 = 1 440 000	7 200 000
4th	32 x 20,000 = 640 000	1 600 000	10th	80 x 20,000 = 1 600 000	8 800 000
5th	40 x 20,000 = 800 000	2 400 000	11th	88 x 20,000 = 1 760 000	10 560 000
6th	48 x 20,000 = 960 000	3 360 000	12th	96 x 20,000 = 1 920 000	12 480 000

Answer: Given the given calculation “parameters”:

To achieve agency sales of RUB 5,864,000, 64 working agents need to be trained. This will take 8 months (next month the agents will bring 7,000,200 rubles in insurance premium).
With such “parameters” of the agency and network’s work for the year, the volume of agency sales will be 12,480,000 rubles, while the agent network at the end of the year will consist of 96 working agents.

There are two more interesting strategies that will allow you to significantly improve your results.

Otherwise, balance the agent portfolio. Make, for example, the share of vehicle insurance (the most unprofitable type of insurance) not 60%, but less. Accordingly, the share of less unprofitable insurance products should be increased. Then, for the same costs, the volume of agency sales for return on investment will be less. Try it, calculate it, and you will see for yourself.
Try to find at least one experienced agent per quarter online. Practice shows that an experienced agent brings in an average of 100 thousand rubles per month. and more insurance premium (depending on the region and many other conditions). An experienced agent whom you invite, for example, in the first quarter, with a productivity of 100 thousand rubles. itself will bring about 1 million rubles by the end of the year. payments.

At this point, some participants in the business game immediately exclaim: “Why bother then? They hired 6-7 experienced agents, and they will bring the same 5-6 million rubles within a year.” That's right, but there are a few problems here.

Problem one

Despite the fairly large number of agents working in the insurance market (according to various estimates, from 110 to 150 thousand people), unfortunately, there are actually not many good insurance representatives.

"Rossiyskaya Gazeta" N 240, 10.26.2005, p. 14 (author - O. Sidorov):

“Together with the auto insurance policy, a huge number of “osagists” have appeared on the insurance market. These are random people who are unkindly nicknamed “scribes” because they can’t do anything other than write out a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, although they have the status of an insurance agent. Such an agent is a threat to the market, since it undermines the reputation of not only the insurer for whom it works, but also insurance in general. Insurance companies see a solution to the problem in new approaches to training and educating agents.”

One can agree with the author of this article regarding the need for new approaches. However, it is known that relearning is always more difficult than learning right away. It is for this reason that the agency portfolio of large universal insurance companies, which have been working in the insurance market with individuals for a long time, is today more balanced than that of those insurers who, in the wake of compulsory motor liability insurance, have created their own agent network. It is known that the share of motor vehicle insurance (including compulsory motor liability insurance) in the portfolio of some companies reaches 95%.

Problem two

Unfortunately, there is a large portion of insurance representatives who are accustomed to the attention and inflated commissions that companies often offer to attract agents from the market. Such agents move from company to company in search of better conditions, first of all, for themselves, their family, and not for their clients. Needless to say, as soon as such an agent doesn’t like something about the company, he will immediately leave it, of course, along with his clients. These are the most difficult agents to retain. And is there a need for this?

It is undesirable for the reader to get the impression that we have a biased and negative attitude towards the agent. We are talking only about negative facts, which, unfortunately, do occur.

As for the agent, we are deeply convinced that it is the insurance representative who will be able to help the market become civilized and insurers to be more attentive to the needs of their clients.

Problem three

Perhaps some of the readers, executives, managers working as agents will not agree with this, but we can say with complete confidence: if a company decides to work with the mass consumer of insurance services and use insurance agents for this purpose as the main sales channel - you need to develop your agent network. Otherwise, an extremely difficult situation may arise when at one point the company will lose most of its good agents and, accordingly, clients. For example, when a group of full-time employees leaves the company. Or when changing the company's strategy, when it is necessary to reduce the agent's commission on one or more insurance products.

But let's return to our strategies and business game. The further choice of your work strategies will depend on the capabilities of your company and regional conditions.

Objectively will help you in choosing one strategy or another:

brand, fame of the company in the local market - will make it easier for you to ensure that the group of novice agents is filled for their training;
the presence of administrative resources and the ability to enter new market segments where agents can be sent will help you provide an “insurance field”, which is very important for beginners;
presence of large enterprise clients. You can try to agree (through management) to create either additional offices on their territory or a network of subagents from among the company’s employees to sell your policies. You will have a new agent sales channel - subagents;
an attractive range of insurance “boxed” products for individuals, which sells well. Then, most likely, it will not be difficult for you to organize additional training for agents and ensure not only their high monthly output, but also otherwise balance the agency’s portfolio (reduce the share of vehicle insurance and compulsory motor liability insurance);
management decision to create a training center and recruit relevant specialists. You will be able to work more actively in the market and achieve planned results faster;
the opportunity to organize high-quality internships and post-training support for novice agents, which will certainly affect the “fixability” of agents and reduce their “dropout”, etc.

Of course, one of the important conditions for implementing your chosen strategy and achieving the planned results will be the system of your work on recruiting, training and supporting the professional activities of novice agents.

The presented fragment of the business game will help you not only justify your proposals for the further development of the agent network, but also decorate them with your own calculations.

Summary

The development of an agent network is a painstaking and time-consuming process that requires specialists working with agents not only to have extensive experience, special knowledge and time, but also to have a system in place. From the perspective of a systems approach, such work can be presented in the form of successive steps: planning; professional selection; training (including internship and post-training); psychological support for the professional activities of agents; evaluation of the result obtained; assessment of the effectiveness of ongoing activities.

The head of a structural unit tasked with developing agency sales, or a manager who was invited to the company for these purposes, begin their work by analyzing the situation and assessing the resource. Assessing available and missing resources in terms of developing an agent network and retail agent sales is an element of strategic planning for an insurance company, which has set itself the goal of promoting services to the mass consumer using agents as the main sales channel for insurance products.

To conduct such an assessment from the perspective of a systematic approach, you need a simple and accessible method, a practical and effective tool. Such a method is the “marketing approach to assessing the situation and planning the development of an agent network,” and the “10-factor resource assessment model” is just such a universal tool (see the article “How to conduct an “audit” of your own agent network,” published in the previous issue of the magazine ).

Analysis of the situation from the perspective of ten factors: company image; target market segments; range of services offered; pricing strategies; service provided to clients; sales channels; management; management systems: advertising; offers (places of sales) - allows not only to objectively assess opportunities and threats (from the market), strengths and weaknesses of the company, but also to justify the need for changes that would help create favorable conditions for the further development of the agent network.

One of the important elements of assessing the situation and the available resource is analyzing the quality of the agent network. When we talk about the quality of an agent network, in addition to the characteristics (parameters) that determine its merit, we also mean the quality of the agent “portfolio”.

When planning your agent network development efforts, you can use a simple and convenient model known as the DOME method.

An important element of planning your work are calculations that would answer the following questions:

what investments are needed to develop an agent network?
When will the money invested in development be returned in the form of agency fees?
What should be the performance indicators of the structural units responsible for recruiting, training and supporting agents?
What strategies are optimal to achieve the planned results? And so on.

One of, perhaps, the most important conditions for implementing your chosen strategy and achieving the planned results will be the system of your work in recruiting, training and supporting the professional activities of novice agents. What else does a systematic approach and the use of a marketing model give us in assessing the situation and planning the development of an agent network?

Firstly, it gives us a very important element - an element of meaning in our work.

“I must understand what I am doing in the market and what, on what factors the effectiveness of my work may depend; what I can do, how to influence the final result, what resource I have, what I lack, what needs to be done to appeared."

Secondly, since there is responsibility for the assigned area of work, it is necessary to control the situation. Control means the ability to “start - change - finish”. Is this always possible? But in order to control the situation, you need to have information (knowledge). The lack of information makes it impossible to exercise control, which means that our behavior is irresponsible.

Finally, the proposed model, in fact, is a very simple and accessible tool, a way of planning, organizing, managing and monitoring not only the agent network, but the entire retail and business as a whole.

In conclusion, I must express my gratitude to the specialists and managers of insurance companies, the participants in my seminars and trainings, and my colleagues in the workshop, with whose help I was able to not only adapt, but also implement the proposed solutions into the work practice of agency network development specialists.

Yu.F. Kushelev

business coach, consultant

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How do agency sales work and why are they needed?

When companies successfully implement direct sales technologies in their activities, this leads to an increase in their annual turnover by 3 times or more. But there are also a huge number of unsuccessful examples of using agency sales, which only led to increased costs for the enterprise. Thoughtless imitation of the scheme “we have a product → attract agents → enter the market → increase sales volumes” does not bring results, and the use of foreign experience in Russian realities is also ineffective.

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Let's consider typical options for unsuccessful use of agency sales:

First case. A fairly successful company decided to use agency services in the sales of its products. To achieve this, agents were hired on the condition that they were paid a percentage of sales. That is, the idea was this: the agent didn’t sell - there were no expenses; sold - receives part of the profit. At the same time, the selection of candidates was carried out very superficially, and no one was involved in training the agents.

When such “pros” enter the market, they are immediately sent to the largest client. When 20 agents work for a given company, and the monthly staff turnover in a good situation is about 50%, then the nearest client will face more than a hundred attacks from such salesmen in a year. Yes, perhaps he will make a purchase, but more often than not it all ends with huge irritation and a sign on the door: “Do not disturb agents.” More realistic purchases in this case are made by small clients, who are reached only by 2-3% of the most patient agents who have not yet become disillusioned with their profession.

With a systematic approach to this business, in which personnel are periodically replenished and updated, it is ultimately possible to achieve a 20-40% increase in sales volume. At the same time, the company earns a strong reputation as a “scammer” or an amateur, and is deprived of further development prospects. If merchants are only interested in an agent sales plan, then they will be happy to tell a potential client that this TV broadcasts 100 channels, toothpaste treats both caries and dandruff, and Herbalife products prolong life and youth by 300 years. There is simply no control system here: the product must be “sold” by any means, and subsequent complaints and problems will be “raked up” by others. After 3-6 months. After dealing with dissatisfied clients, agency sales are stopped, and the company's management gets used to the idea of failure of this business idea.

Second option represented by a more professional attempt to introduce agency sales technology: first, the company selected employees, then demarcated the territory for the agents to work, prepared an appeal to clients (an introductory speech, a description of the competitive advantages of the product), documentation and price lists. Thus, trained agents go to the points assigned to them and do not return back. The most responsible of them simply call the office and report that this activity is futile, because out of 10, only 1 potential buyer simply listened to them (at best).

As successful sales agents note, The secret to productivity lies in attitude towards the customer. One of those who knows how to sell a significant volume of goods at the highest price shared his secrets:

I know the client's name.
I know about his needs.
I know about his purchasing power.
I know the names of his children and the names of his pets.
We want to solve his problem together.
We trust each other.
What do you think: will this client want to change supplier?

It is worth listening to the words of this agent, because his average monthly turnover is $100 thousand, but his competitors in this area can boast of only 0.1% of this amount.

So, we can highlight two main components of agent sales success, working in combination:

attitude towards clients;
general organization of agency sales.

It is also important to consider third condition successful agency sales - uniqueness of the product. It is difficult for a merchant to sell a client a product that fills the shelves of any supermarket. At the same time, the product he sells must satisfy the needs of as wide a range of consumers as possible. In addition, the sales agent must be able to answer any client questions comprehensively and competently.

With an established distribution system, introducing agency sales does not make much sense. It is rare to find companies in which products are sold both in stores and through consultants. An enterprise actively developing retail agency sales does not require a chain of stores. Alternatively, you can simply open showrooms in which customers can better examine the products and, if desired, buy them.

For example, your product fully meets the criteria for agency sales. If only one batch of goods is to be sold, then it makes no sense to organize agency sales, since it is almost impossible to quickly create a network of good consultants. If you have set yourself a long-term goal for selling products, then it would be useful to ask yourself the question of your internal readiness for the constant increase in the number of partners in this business.

If you answered “yes” to yourself, then first try to involve only a few traders in your activities. The following test will be very informative for you: ask your friends to try to sell your products to someone. Feedback from people you know will help you identify the top problems your future agents will be dealing with.

A properly developed employee incentive system is very important in this business. Sales agents should strive not only to sell as many products as possible, but also to find new consultants. Thus, the number of clients of the company will simultaneously increase with the number of its agents.

Agency agreement for the sale of goods: rules for drafting and features of work

In Russia, a sample sales agency agreement was enshrined in law about 20 years ago. But this did not prevent it from taking its rightful place among intermediary agreements and being quite often used by commercial entities.

Agency contract- this is an agreement under which one party (agent), in order to receive remuneration, undertakes to carry out legal and other actions on its own behalf, but at the expense of the second party (principal) or on behalf of the principal as well.

With this type of contract, legal relations are long-term in nature, and the agent is obliged to perform actions agreed upon with him for the principal.

Agency sales and purchase agreements are a type of civil transaction that gives the parties certain rights and obligations.

As mentioned above, the parties to the agreement are agent and principal(performer and customer, respectively). A principal is a subject who authorizes another subject to act as his agent. An agent is an entity claiming remuneration for the fulfillment of its obligations.

Agent rights:

have a power of attorney and conduct transactions on behalf of the principal (according to the agreement);
claim remuneration from the principal under the contract;
defend the payment of remuneration in the amount and manner determined by the rules of business turnover, if these issues were not addressed in the contract;
sign subagency agreements in accordance with the main agreement;
reject an open-ended contract without the possibility of demanding remuneration for unfulfilled orders.

Agent Responsibilities:

carry out orders and instructions of the principal except for the cases specified in the agreement;
provide the reporting required under the contract;
in addition to the report, provide confirmation of expenses incurred at the expense of the principal;
refrain from signing agency agreements with other principals operating in the same territory (this obligation of the agent depends on the terms of the agency agreement: it may not exist there).

Principal's rights:

ask the agent for reports reflecting the activities he has carried out on the basis of the contract;
receive objections to this report;
reject the open-ended contract, but pay the contractor the due amount of costs and remuneration;
require the agent to refuse to enter into agency agreements with other principals operating in the same territory.

Responsibilities of the Principal:

pay remuneration to the agent (according to the contract or business rules);
issue a power of attorney for the agent in the case where any actions of the latter must be carried out on behalf of the principal;
provide the agent with the necessary amount of funds to successfully complete orders or reimburse costs already incurred.

The rules defined in commission or commission agreements can be applied to the legal relationship established by an agency agreement. If he works on his own behalf, the rules of the commission agreement can be applied, if on behalf of the principal - the agency agreement.

The agency agreement has two essential conditions:

Availability of the subject of the agreement - a list of legal and actual actions.
Establishing the name under which the agent will act. In the same agreement, the agent can act on his own behalf, and when making specific transactions, on behalf of the principal.

If these conditions are not present in the contract, then it can be declared invalid (Article 168 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

When signing an agreement, you should emphasize on:

its term (sometimes urgent and indefinite);
remuneration to the contractor, which indicates the paid nature of the contract;
principles of preparation and submission of reports by the agent;
restrictions on the rights of the parties;
clause on the possibility of concluding a subagency agreement;
conditions for termination of the contract.

Permanent contract ceases to operate after either party refuses to fulfill their obligations (unilaterally).

The legislation defines the following reasons why an agency agreement for the sale of goods will be terminated unconditionally:

death of an agent;
recognition of the performer as fully/partially incompetent;
recognition of the agent as missing unknown;
declaring an individual entrepreneur working as an agent bankrupt.

Agency sales technology using the example of selling insurance products

Sales technology refers to consistent and orderly sales activities. It is intended to answer the question: “How to sell?”, and the insurance product is intended to answer the question: “What to sell?” For effective agency sales today, it is not enough to simply provide the seller with a product; first, he needs to be trained in the algorithm of actions for implementation.

Sales technologies are divided into 4 groups:

by product;
in relation to the insurance contract;
by level of automation;
through sales channels.

Depending on the product distinguish:

mono sales;
multi-sales;
cross-selling.

Mono sales technology describes the sale of a single service or one product. For example, the technology of selling accident insurance policies through post offices. However, this insurance product can be divided into standard (with tariffs) and boxed (with a fixed sum insured, premium, covered insured events).

The sales technology does not depend on the type of product in terms of the sequence of actions: the product is formalized, the sale is agreed upon under an agency agreement with the postal service, the procedure for selling the product is approved, instructions are provided to postal workers, a system for their motivation, reporting, etc. is determined. Here is a set of ordered actions and is a sales technology that is developed and documented for the purposes of replication, training of in-house personnel and third-party agents.

Multi-sales technology determines the implementation of a set of services or goods. For example, comprehensive mortgage insurance, which is often sold to the public by banking institutions when providing mortgage lending. This policy includes several insurance products: 1) title insurance; 2) mortgage insurance; 3) life insurance against accidents. An integral element of this sales technology is underwriting (standard or specialized). Multi-sales technology also works for organizations (in the form of comprehensive insurance programs: insurance of company property, non-receipt of profit from a forced stoppage of production associated with damage to the fixed and working capital of the enterprise, etc.). For banks, there is a comprehensive bancassurance program “BBB”. Such implementation of programs requires the creation of adapted sales technology.

Today the method is popular cross-selling. He assumes this algorithm of actions:

Determining the customer base.
Identification of the main product for the relevant category of customers.
Identification of related products that can be additionally offered to the client after the sale of the main product.
Sale of the main product.
Implementation of cross-selling.

For example, a company owns a database of owners of insured apartments. Why not offer owners of these policies also civil liability insurance for their neighbors? In this case, the cross-selling technology will be as follows:

Sending a database of owners of apartment insurance policies to the contact center.
Conducting training for contact center employees on selling civil liability insurance.
Telephone communication with clients from the database on the topic of purchasing an additional insurance product.
Signing an insurance contract and delivering the policy to the policyholder.

By sales channel distinguish between direct and intermediary sales technologies.

Technologies direct sales:

personal sales (office and out-of-office);
key account management;
direct e-mail (postal) mailings;
tele- and fax marketing;
Internet Marketing.

Technologies intermediary sales:

intermediary network sales;
implementation of policies in workplaces;
bank insurance;
agency sales;
sales through brokers.

Advantages and disadvantages of sales channels for insurance products

Sales channels for insurance products	Advantages	Flaws
Direct sales	control of the entire sales process application of service standards using a call center creating a loyal customer base	large initial investment weak motivation to actively attract customers loss of clients who do not want to visit the office
Agency sales	minimum initial investment strong motivation to actively attract clients mobility of meetings with clients Contact with the client is maintained on an ongoing basis by one company representative	large commission minimal control over the sales process When an agent fires, it’s easy to lose all the clients he attracted. insufficient qualification of agents focus on agency sales of simple products risk of agent fraud (can collaborate with several companies at once) weak legal protection
Sales through brokers	development of a large insurance portfolio at a time the ability to sell in places where there are no other channels cost savings due to the professionalism of the intermediary sales of both standard and complex products (sales diversification)	emphasis on commission amount imposition by a broker of a high remuneration in exchange for business volume weak control over activities instability in the long term weak legal protection

Expert opinion

Agency sales are a key growth factor in my business

Alexey Krainov,

Director for the Central region of VimpelCom, Moscow

Agency sales are widely used to promote wired Internet services: consultants conduct conversations with potential clients in their homes. Statistics from other companies show that about 60% of new client acquisitions come from agency sales. We started using the services of agents only last year, and today the results of their work are already on par with the results of the activities of office managers.

The effectiveness of agency sales directly depends on the competent structure of work with agents. After personnel selection and training, up to 5% of candidates remain to work at the company. It should be noted that there is no system for monitoring the quality of agent work. This is a feature of using agency sales. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly select and train new traders, apply the most effective incentive system, and improve control of their activities. Each branch of our company has an employee who selects, trains and adapts agents. First, they are given comprehensive information about the company and its products, and only after that they are taught the necessary agency sales skills.

Motivation of direct sales agents. Often students want to become agents. Their career is important to them. We sign a civil or fixed-term employment contract with consultants. Excellent performance over a certain period of time gives them the opportunity to join the staff of our company.

Of course, a career does not completely replace financial incentives. An agent's salary consists of a salary, commission for attracting a client (calculated from the established rate for connecting the service) and a bonus for fulfilling the sales plan. By the way, the connection fee increases as the number of signed contracts increases: if an agent has found 100-200 clients, then it is 1% of revenue, and if more than 200 - 2%.

We also use such means of motivation as corporate competitions and various competitions. Last December in the Urals we held a competition for the title of best agent. The winners were given netbooks, the second place winners were given mobile phones, and the bronze medalists were given digital photo frames. We also organized a team competition among our agents. As a result, the best team won the bowling trip at the expense of the company.

Monitoring the work of agents. When we first organized the agency sales department, our consultants worked everywhere: among friends, acquaintances, in areas convenient for them, using any agency sales channels. However, over time, we realized that this approach did not bring the expected results. To obtain the maximum effect, the work of agents must have clear regulations: each must have his own territory assigned to him, a plan of visits and a route sheet in which he describes the actions performed and the history of relationships with clients. Our company uses a multi-level control system, which is carried out by employees of the branch, regional department and main office, responsible for agency sales. The managers of this area (supervising 15-25 regular and about 7 senior agents) hold meetings every day at which they give daily assignments to senior agents (supervising 3-7 regular consultants) with a history of agency sales in a certain territory. At the end of the working day, agents provide reports on their work results.

How to motivate staff of partner companies: 3 steps to the heart of a seller

What should an agent sales network do?

The agent sales network is considered a very effective and inexpensive advertising medium.

Effective– because it addresses the advertising consumer:

directly;
visually;
spiritual and personified;
verbally and through gestures.

Inexpensive, because the:

An agent network can often perform the advertising function simultaneously with other functions;
advertising costs when using agents can be reduced to almost zero;
Agents' labor is quite cheap - illusory (attractive) commissions are quite enough.

Is it possible to improve the quality of work of an agent sales network as an advertising medium? Quite. By using:

careful selection of agents;
competent education;
supplying agents with special accessories;
a well-thought-out system for monitoring the performance of this function, a developed scale of penalties and bonuses.

Is it worth letting agents know that they are acting as an advertising medium? Most likely not, because they will ask for appropriate payment for performing additional tasks. It will be more convenient for you if the performance of all functions is perceived by agents not as an additional burden, but as a normal component of their success in their work. Perhaps someday you will want to create a network whose tasks will not include agent sales, but advertising itself. Therefore, it is very important to convince agents that they can and should sell, while also betting on their other efforts.

2. Have a courier function.

Your agent sales network can additionally perform a courier function: deliver catalogs, promotional materials, information sheets, order forms and holiday gifts to customers. What employees shouldn't know, however, is that sometimes you don't need their agency sales as much as you do the timely delivery of promotional materials to clients.

Better yet, have your agents request advertising media for their clients. You just need to pretend that there is a shortage of these materials, and not everyone can get them.

3. Have elements of marketing research.

There is another network function that is easy to implement.

Main directions marketing research:

collection of customer data;
conducting customer and consumer surveys;
testing new sales technologies and promoting products on the market;
promotion of a new brand.

To gather competitive intelligence, it is usually enough to create a game-like atmosphere in the agency sales department. If there is no desire to do this, then provocative questions at a general meeting are quite enough. Or start a rumor that the price of the company's products will depend on the information agents can collect regarding the terms of sale of competitors' products.

To implement a questionnaire (survey) of clients, it is sufficient to demonstrate how the use of the questionnaire facilitates the agent’s initial contact with the consumer. Questionnaires can be used both to pass through such “blocks” as security and secretary, and to build a dialogue with potential buyers, because people love questionnaires. But the questionnaire should trace the opportunity for a person’s self-realization. It is also important to promise the respondent to familiarize him with the general results of the survey.

4. Have elements of commercial intelligence.

It is possible that the information about competitors collected by agents will not be complete, but it is imperative to use this information. First of all, ask agents who previously worked for your competitors about everything. Your competitors' plans can become known to you even without much effort. But don't tell agents that you expect them to participate in intelligence activities. Otherwise, you will have to add additional incentives to the regular commission of such “scouts”.

5. Conduct market testing.

Agent sales networks are especially good at solving 2 problems:

entering new markets;
entering old markets with new products.

Sometimes you can create a network to test the market. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between product/market testing and sales channel testing. It happens that agency sales are very successful only because certain types of goods can only be sold through an agent network. And vice versa: agency sales may be unsuccessful, because a certain product can be sold by any means, except with the help of agents.

6. Show.

This network task is sometimes the main one for a company and its products.

It is necessary to understand how the sale of a particular product depends on the successful formation of the illusion of great demand for this product among the masses. This is a specialty kitchen, and many modern companies use it in some form.

7. Consulting.

The education function has always been considered one of the tasks of the agent sales network. Personal contact between the consultant and the client makes it easy to notify the latter about new products and capabilities of the company.

8. Human resource.

How much does it cost to find a highly qualified specialist? To begin with, you should make a series of announcements, find time and people to conduct interviews, and then also analyze the reasons why the candidate was not suitable.

In the agent sales network, ready-made specialists are being cultivated before your eyes; you don’t have to look for them anywhere. However, when transferring agents to full-time managers, you should always remember that in this way you may lose high-quality agents, but not always get successful managers in return.

Also, your network can be a “prison” for agents whom you lured away from competitors. Often, such enticement is carried out not with the goal of attracting an excellent specialist and providing them with large agency sales, but to weaken the position of a competitor in certain areas of the territory.

9. Diversity intelligence.

If you have built an excellent agent sales network, then you can try to expand or change the range of your products. An active network of agents will help you find new markets where you can earn extra money.

How to create an agent network: step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Decide on the type of employment relationship with agents

When creating an agent network, first of all, specify the form of labor relations with employees:

Enroll in the staff and sign an employment contract.
Conclude a civil contract.
Conclude an agency agreement.

You have the right to use a long-term civil contract, but keep in mind that this may be of interest to either the tax or labor inspectorate. They may consider that workers' rights are being violated in this way, and will strongly recommend that you hire these workers.

A large number of companies are building relations with agents as with individual entrepreneurs(individual entrepreneurs). In fact, registering an individual entrepreneur and signing an agency agreement is the most convenient form of building labor relations for an agent. This way he can work with several companies and expand his product range. This also gives him the opportunity to receive official income and be on a simplified taxation system (6% of income).

The main document regulating the relationship between a remote worker and an organization is agency contract. It contains an indication of the form of interaction: “organization - agent - customer”. The agent is engaged in information exchange, that is, receiving information and terms of sale from the organization, he makes an offer to the customer. If the latter accepts these conditions, then an agreement is concluded with the organization and commodity-money relations arise between the company and the customer.

Mandatory clause of the contract- a description of how the implementation of agency sales technology occurs in an enterprise (regarding agency activities) . You can also specify the rules for reporting and the deadlines for its submission. Involve the agent in market research in order to study the region of his work, collect marketing information about the market, clients, and competitors. This will help not only to develop new territory for development, but also provide some security for the business. These studies can be paid for separately or considered as an integral element of cooperation, and this must be recorded in the document. Only some of the sections of the agreement were given here - the full version is compiled by lawyers.

Step 2: Create a database

Relying entirely on sales agents to find clients is not entirely practical, especially in the mass sector. To carry out systematic activities, hand-drawn maps and notebooks with fragmentary data are not enough. A common database should be created that would make it possible to systematize and analyze all collected information, correct and supplement it, record customer stories and plan sales. Today this can be done using an electronic system customized for specific tasks. It is advisable to develop your own automated control system. One of the enterprises even decided to connect standard databases: WA-2, “Business Card” and others, and customer lists were replenished with information from advertisements. This can be done manually, and the large labor costs will most likely still pay off.

The formed client base will be supplemented on the basis of current agent information (results of personal meetings), data from marketers (from advertising publications and industry brochures of the target segment), information from other divisions of the company (data related to payment, shipment, delivery and claims). All this helps to simplify order processing and ensure continuity of the customer base.

Step 3. Divide territories for agents

To prevent haphazard and unproductive market coverage, it is important to clearly delineate your agents' coverage areas.

Exist 2 separation methods:

by geographical area;
by industry.

The first method is used for “conveyor” processing of the target niche, and the second - for a narrower and more individual one. Methods can be combined if the company uses two promotion strategies simultaneously. Then specific industries are removed from the agent list of territories.

Technically, with the existence of a generated database, the territory is divided by postal codes (economical linking to electronic lists). There is also a division in terms of streets (high labor costs, but can be implemented) or regions (in the regional market).

It should be taken into account 2 principles:

identity of territories in terms of forecast sales volumes;
minimum of their fragmentation.

The first principle makes it easier to manage agency sales at the start (differentiation will take place later, but at that time the company will already have experience interacting with agents, which will allow it to easily resolve emerging issues). The second principle reduces the risk of “border conflicts” and minimizes travel costs.

The number of division units is predicted according to the agent's service standards. When the norm is not established by research, it is considered to be 200 contacts per month. Considering a 10% market coverage efficiency, we get 2000 clients per agent; Then we compare the norm with the size of the client database.

As for “exclusive” agents, here the division of spheres of influence is individual in nature and cannot be algorithmized.

How to attract partners who will increase sales by 40%

Step 4. Find agents and implement agency sales

Recruitment and training

It is very difficult to find a professional agent, also registered as an individual entrepreneur. When expanding your geographic presence using an agent network, you will most likely encounter people with little skill and knowledge. You have to teach them everything first. Finding agents in general is not easy, because candidates will doubt whether they should take the risk and start cooperation with a company that does not have a standard salary, they will be inclined to register as an individual entrepreneur and offer to work “in the fields.” When drawing up a budget for the selection and training of agents, keep in mind that a lot of work will be added, and to effectively “recruit” agents you will need to use all your professionalism.

You can, of course, task your HR department with finding high-performing agents with experience. But in order for such agents to agree to work for you and then carry out large agency sales, it is important compliance with two conditions:

Significant financial benefits for the agent. His income should increase by 20–35% or more.
The quality of business processes and service in the company should not be inferior to the agent’s previous places of work, since he will not work with the company’s shortcomings and waste his money and time on it.

If a company already has sales managers on staff, but additionally wants to work with remote agents, then two scenarios are possible. In the first, employees on staff continue to work as before, and remote employees additionally join the team. In the second, full-time managers become agents.

The most productive work scheme will be when the agent network develops in parallel with the activities of the full-time sales department.

Looking for new agents, pay attention to specialists aged 40 and above, feeling like a fish in water in the market. These are, as a rule, the most motivated employees who ensure a high level of agency sales. Such employees are most suitable for developing organizations that do not yet have the opportunity to “entice” high-quality specialists and do not have the time to train novice young agents.

Nevertheless, any category of employees will have to be trained. Of course, the training profile will be different, but in the end all agents must have the necessary set of knowledge and skills . Today, there are many ways to inexpensively but effectively train employees: through webinars, Skype and video conferencing.

Development of an agency sales management system

Typically, employers require agents to have their own client base. The agent autonomously sells goods to the company, and the latter must take care of the sales plan, KPIs, implementation of internal labor regulations, document management, and an effective remuneration system. Of course, agents will have to comply with important norms and rules established by the company, otherwise you risk getting not an army of controlled “universal soldiers”, but a “wild division”. Your agents may not like this, and the first conflicts may be related to discipline, because they will feel that they have the right to work as much as they want and when they want. If you allow such anarchy, you will definitely face a lot of problems in the future . This becomes possible when the enterprise either does not have or has an ineffective system for managing agency sales. Do not think that selecting the best agents will lead to such a team working perfectly on its own. This won't happen. That is why one of the most important and primary tasks of the enterprise is the creation and implementation of an agency sales management system.

To effectively manage remote workers, you will need curators, or full-time regional managers. Their number will depend on the number and grouping of agents. They will be required to call or contact agents daily by email, advise them on communication with clients, analyze reports, help place orders in the office, resolve conflict situations, etc. With agents who independently manage large projects, the interaction pattern will be completely different. different. In this case, more of a partnership relationship is built when the agent simply conveys information to you about his projects,, if necessary, asks for help and additional information, and organizes negotiations between the customer and representatives of the company.

For remote workers It is extremely important to communicate with office employees, so the head of the department is obliged to constantly keep this under control and, if necessary, optimize it. The technology for establishing company-agent relationships must be transparent and meet market requirements. Otherwise, the loss of the order may result in the loss of the agent. Convenience of cooperation with a company is one of the main factors of agent loyalty.

Expert opinion

Agency sales can only be carried out by qualified specialists

Yuri Shakun,

expert in sales and networking, teacher, Moscow School of New Economics, Moscow

When looking for specialists to carry out agency sales, you need to have a clear idea of who you want to see as partners. After all, a potential agent is a strategic partner who ensures market capture and protection, outperforms competitors, increases the profitability of agency sales, capital efficiency, etc. You need to determine the agent’s ability to penetrate the market, the quality and size of the client base, and its operating infrastructure ( availability of transport, warehouses, software, etc.), does it provide the opportunity to carry out agency sales at the level to which your consumers are already accustomed.

The agent must also show loyalty to your products and understand that you are full partners. The professionalism of the agent should not cause you doubts. It is advisable that employees have already encountered your products. Keep the agent's other suppliers and competitors in focus. In the process of searching for agents, bet on those who can help you in the future ensure good agency sales and promotion of a fairly wide range of products, win a certain market share and bring in excess profits.

Expert opinion

For successful work of agents, experienced staff members are needed

Konstantin Baksht,

General Director, Capital-Consulting, Moscow

Basically, an agent sales scheme can only be useful when working in conjunction with a strong full-time sales department. However, with well-established technologies, a popular product, and typical sales, the agency sales department can work independently. An example of excellent autonomous operation of an agent network: when launching compulsory motor third party liability insurance, when literally all car owners needed this service, and the right to provide such services was given to only a few leading companies. This became possible due to the simplicity of the product, which does not require special expert advice or special knowledge of the seller. Sales are carried out almost independently - the client can buy, the agent can sell. This implementation of agency sales technology provides the company with good, stable profits.

At the same time, this sales model is not suitable for complex transactions involving the sale of expensive, high-tech equipment or serious technologies for turnkey solutions. In this case, the company, most likely, does not need agents, but recommenders - people moving in business circles, who have the opportunity to “bring” you to large clients and receive a certain percentage for this. And all the actual negotiation processes are carried out by the full-time sales department. It is very rare that working with an agent network can be effective if the company does not have a strong full-time team of sales managers.

Agency sales: problems and solutions

As with any model, in the agency sales system you can encounter certain weaknesses, the so-called “built-in” weaknesses. Such difficulties are often associated with changing territories, dividing network consumers (agreement with the parent company, supplies to subsidiaries in different territories), transferring unique customers to managers, and linking them with barter operations. Often complex interaction is observed with warehouse and transport departments. Emerging problems are solved situationally, taking into account the strategy and policy of a particular company.

Along with this, there are purely agency problems that were not noticed by the company at the time of their occurrence and have negative consequences:

1. An agent can take the position of a seller.

At the initial stages of his career, an agent conscientiously builds up a client base, shows good results, and then the additional percentage of payment for new transactions ceases to stimulate him. Out of habit, clients can contact the company on their own for some time, but without receiving proper service with personal service, they gradually “cool down.” And the territory is opening up for competitors to enter.

It is possible to detect the situation that has arisen by analyzing the agent’s diary and the accounts of his telephone conversations. The initial stage of identifying the problem makes it possible to stabilize the volume of agency sales, but if they fall, we can talk about irreversible changes.

The problem can be solved by: 1) adjusting the agent’s motivation system (by introducing a progressive percentage of payment for exceeding the plan, a special percentage for agency sales to new buyers); 2) convictions (with a strong team spirit); 3) administrative measures (standardizing the share of new clients in the sales structure) up to the dismissal of the agent (as a last resort).

2. The agent may not get along well with people. or use incorrect methods of persuasion, misinforming customers about the quality of the product, delivery times, etc.

On his territory, he is the only representative of the company from whom the client can order the product. At the initial stage, losses in quality are covered by quantitative indicators of contacts, and the volume of agency sales remains at the level of similar territories. But eventually, when the client list is exhausted, the reality of market losses will emerge.

The situation is clarified using the same communication analysis, taking into account the ratio of the number of transactions to the number of customers reached and the % of repeat purchases or by interviewing some one-time customers. The significant difference in the performance of similar territories highlights the existence of a problem that can only be solved by replacing the agent.

3. An agent may start working for a competing organization, or “launder” additional commissions by involving intermediaries.

This problem can only be identified by independent research, interviewing customers who have stopped making purchases (a standard type of marketing control) and potentially large customers who do not work with the company.

When replacing an agent, an emergency notification is carried out to clients of the territory in order to avoid possible counter-propaganda from an unscrupulous employee. As a preventive measure, the company's marketing service regularly monitors agent sales and network operations.

4. Agent turnover

Every year the agent composition is renewed by more than 50%. Predicting the success or failure of a salesperson is not possible, since the success of agents is largely influenced by motivation, which can change. Due to the fact that the agent promotes only one brand (unlike store sellers), he must love the product he is selling, no matter how trivial it sounds.

How is this problem solved? Conducting various trainings and motivational meetings, discussing your company’s plans with agents, implementing effective agency sales.

Although turnover also has obvious advantages: the remaining agents are more motivated than office managers and have good experience in attracting and training new employees.

5. Difficulty in planning agency sales volumes

This is influenced by many factors. The volume of agency sales will depend on the availability of interesting new products that attract customers, on the season and quality of catalogs, on the availability of gifts for buyers and sellers and the motivation of agents, on the success of marketing campaigns and the organization of logistics.

At the same time, it is necessary to develop the ability to anticipate the greatest demand for a particular product, for example, a seasonal (tanning product) or special promotional product, in order to ensure its availability in warehouses. Customers placing orders through agents immediately feel like they own the chosen product and are more disappointed if the desired product is not in stock than customers in stores who cannot find the desired item on the shelves.