Agents who want to start or improve their insurance sales internship program always ask me the same two questions: How do you pay your interns, and what do they do? This has been going on for years. But their line of questioning has taken on a sense of urgency in a tight labor market that’s been turned upside down by the Great Resignation.
I’ve always believed that hiring a part-timer in commission insurance sales was never a bad thing. Let’s face it: Starting a new career in sales, let alone commission-based insurance, is a tough pill to swallow for many. Statistically, I find that a large percentage of my top producers began part-time before devoting full-time hours and effort. Some insurance agencies will disagree with this assessment. But to those naysayers, I ask them if they’re solely interested in immediate results, or in recruiting and developing their future insurance rockstars.
Let’s remember why students need an internship. The sharpest ones are looking to garner professional experience in a real-world environment to beef up their resume and embark on a potential career. Steer clear of anyone who’s hoping for an easy internship to simply fulfill their college requirements — they’ll just end up wasting your time.
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And don’t overlook or fail to consider stay-at-home parents. What do they have in common with Gen Z-aged college students? Each needs a part-time and flexible schedule.
Let’s say that your new part-time parent needs time off on Fridays, but can devote five hours a day, Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., while their kids are in school. And let’s say that your new part-time intern wants off on Fridays, but can devote the same five hours scattered throughout the week around their classes and partying schedule. That’s 20 hours a week, 86.67 hours a month, 1,040 hours a year of sales potential and productivity, per person. Does it really matter if their title is part-time as a working parent or intern as a college student who just happens to be wrapping up their last few credits at the local university? Not at all.
So, to answer the first of those two burning questions: How do you pay your sales interns?
I always answer with a question of my own: How would you pay a part-time agent who wants to give the insurance industry a fair shot but can’t commit to full-time hours? Commissions! You get out of life what you put into it, and since we’re looking for hungry and aggressive sales professionals, to me, there’s no better or other way to pay them than to reward them heavily with the effort that they put forth.
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This typically garners a twofold response: So you don’t pay your sales interns hourly, salary or even a semester-long stipend? And what about licensing and training? Again, I turn around their question and ask if they pay in that fashion for a part- or full-time career agent. Part-timers just need a more flexible schedule and an intern, in short, is simply a part-timer. As far as licensing and training is concerned, dare I say it’s the same thing?
And the second query: What do your sales interns do?
I promise I’m not trying to be a smart aleck, but here we go again. What would you do with your full-time or part-time career sales agents? Would you have them sit in the office all day long doing mundane clerical duties like making coffee, filing, answering phones and working blindly on the computer? I most certainly hope not. Thus, what you should do with your interns is mentor them to success by giving them your most valuable and precious asset: Your time.
Teach interns how to prospect for appointments, show them how to close and enroll new clients, instill into them the value of after-the-sale service, and last, but most certainly not least, ensure that they see you ask for introductions and referrals from all of your newly delighted clients.
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We know insurance isn’t very sexy, so we must passionately sell Gen Z on why it is the accidental opportunity of their lifetime. Hire, train and treat your sales interns — and any part-timers — exactly the same as you would when hiring full-time career agents, just allow for greater flexibility when it comes to schedules.
Remember that students are already searching and applying for ways to professionally fill their school breaks and summer of 2022 with an incredible new internship — so get moving before all of the top interns in your area have been scooped up. Hopefully by then, the labor market will stabilize and insurance agencies — like many other employers — will find it easier to win the talent war.
