Top Traits of Successful Insurance Agents

By Joseph Peters

Successful insurance agents don’t generate high sales volume by accident. They do so because they channel their personality traits and behaviors in productive ways.

What distinguishes successful insurance agents from those who lag behind? There are many answers to this question. But one of the best ones is that superior agents possess KASH. KASH stands for:

• Knowledge—The things you know about insurance needs, products, sales methods, business building and the like.
• Attitudes—A positive and collaborative approach to your client’s needs.
• Skills—Observable behaviors that accomplish goals.
• Habits—One’s ability to combine knowledge, attitude and skills in productive and long-lasting ways. This is likely the essential element of the KASH formula.

If any one of these items is missing, success will be elusive. But agents who can combine them into habits will experience high levels of success. So what determines whether they can attain KASH or not? Personality traits.

Personality Is Destiny

According to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “character is destiny.” Replacing the word “character” with “personality” is also a true statement. Personality is what defines how we view the world and our role in it. It pushes us to act when we think the time is right and encourages caution when it isn’t. It defines our “style” of completing tasks and of reacting to crises. In short, personality traits are what distinguish agents who attain KASH from those who don’t.

One can use personality at both the macro and micro levels to describe a successful producer. For example, you might say someone is a hard-charging agent or a relentless closer. But it’s also helpful to break down personality into the individual micro traits that make KASH possible.

So the question becomes, what combination of personality traits produces success for insurance agents? Here are twelve that are often observed in superior agents and tend not to be seen in less successful ones (or seen to a lesser degree).

• Independence: Although successful agents can flourish in a team setting, they usually prefer working independently. That’s where they really shine.
• Goal-orientation: Successful agents tend to be adept at developing goals for themselves and then using those goals to execute their behavior. Once they’re on the path to meeting their goals, they’re highly focused on achieving them.
• Self-motivation: Successful agents usually don’t need someone else to motivate them. They usually are quite capable of—and happy to—motivate themselves.
• Entrepreneurial: Successful agents take great pleasure in structuring their own business. Moving ahead in a corporate bureaucracy motivates them much less than does creating a company with their own hands.
• Dedication to the insurance mission: Successful agents appreciate the industry’s mission of helping prospects mitigate financial loss through insurance. Many view that as the main reason they remain as agents.
• People orientation: Successful agents enjoy working with people. They also like working with numbers and with product concepts. But first and foremost, they enjoy helping people mitigate their insurance risks.
• High energy level: Successful agents usually are excited about going to work. Once they get there, they’re able to sustain high levels of productivity for long periods of time.
• Empathy: Successful agents are able to put themselves in their prospects’ and clients’ shoes. This allows them to tailor their recommendations, so they resonate with prospects.
• Discipline: Successful agents are capable of doing highly structured and complex work. Not only do they plan their work, but they also work their plan until they complete it.
• Resilience: Successful agents don’t discourage easily. They’re not put off by rejection and bounce back quickly when it occurs.
• Persistence: Successful agents are highly capable of maneuvering around sales obstacles. If they hit a dead end, they are good at charting an alternate path around the barrier.
• Emotional intelligence: Successful agents know how to perceive, control and evaluate emotions of their own as well as those of their clients and prospects. Put another way, successful producers are adept at reading the emotions of others and then producing an effective response to those emotions. This may well be their most important personality trait.

How to Develop Your Success Traits

Some people are naturals at insurance sales. They seem to have been born to sell insurance. They have all the right personality traits, and the job comes easily to them. But what if you lack many of the traits we just listed. Does that mean you should quit your insurance sales job or not pursue it in the first place? No, because human personality is not fixed. It can be channeled in new directions, and new traits can be acquired through diligence.

If you feel you lack the personality traits of a successful agent, here are some steps you can take.

• Assess yourself: Think about the traits mentioned so far. Have you ever displayed them at work? Write down the situations in which you exhibited them. Have you ever had occasions where you didn’t exhibit success traits but wish you had? Document those, as well. Now, think about your past performance and assess how well you leveraged your personality traits to meet your sales targets. If you already have done this to some degree, how can you take your performance to the next level? If you lack one or more key personality traits, how can you begin to develop them?
• Get feedback: For each of the traits you're hoping to enhance, ask your colleagues for feedback. Ask them to suggest other ways you might refine your behavior to become more productive in the future.
• Implement your improvement strategies: Draft a summary of all the ways you’d like to improve your personality. These should be phrased as: “I’d like to improve my X trait in Y setting.” Then start trying to modify your behaviors in those settings.
• Set a deadline: Don’t leave the improvement process to chance. Commit to a deadline by which you’ll hope to see tangible results. It could be a month, three months or a year. During the period, pay attention to how you thought and felt about the trait while improving it. Write down what worked well and what didn’t; what felt comfortable and what didn’t. Then keep practicing.
• Reward yourself: When you succeed at behaving differently, give yourself a reward. Do something fun. Buy something you’ve wanted for a while. Have an ice cream cone. Whatever the prize, be sure to savor it. Reinforcing behavior change in a positive fashion will increase the likelihood you’ll keep acting that way in the future.

Here’s the bottom line: You can develop the personality traits that produce a winning KASH formula and high productivity in terms of booked sales. These traits may not be true to your character. And adopting them won’t be easy. But you can do it with enough commitment and practice. And remember, the fact that you’re working as an insurance agent today meant someone thought you had what it takes to succeed. This provides you with a base from which to leverage your personality traits to generate more KASH—and more cash—in the future. Good luck!

Having E&O insurance is an essential element of an insurance agent’s or broker’s long-term success. Learn more about the 360 Coverage Pros Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance program.