Insurance Agent: What is the cost of hiring?

Why hire an insurance agent?

The need for new staff can affect both your existing team and your bottom line. A great insurance agent hire can help your business:

• Formulate promotion strategies to sell all kinds of insurance contracts and suggest changes to existing insurance policies
• Foster engaging customer relationships to create a pool of potential customers using many sales techniques, such as cold calling and networking
• Analyze customer needs and suggest customized insurance plans that meet their income and financial requirements and timelines

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance insurance agent

Before writing an insurance agent job description or interviewing candidates, decide whether a full-time or freelance agent is best for your company.

Full-time insurance agents are typically captive agents, which means they work for a single company and receive operational support, including office space and referrals. Some captive agents work as independent contractors, however.

A freelance insurance agent is more likely to work as an independent agent, allowing them to sell insurance products for multiple companies. They tend to earn larger commissions but bear more responsibility for marketing their business, tailoring plans to customers, providing quotes, etc.

What are the ranks of insurance agents?

When planning to hire an insurance agent, it’s important to understand the organizational structure of insurance companies. Outside of top-level management, there are typically different departments with hierarchical structures of their own that may include risk management, claims, sales and public relations.

Insurance agents primarily operate in sales, though they may be involved in financial planning and other tasks. From highest to lowest, here are common ranks of insurance agents:

• Insurance sales manager: Insurance sales managers direct teams of sales agents to meet company goals. They determine the target number of policies sold within a given time period (e.g., quarterly, annually).
• Assistant sales manager: This type of manager assists the sales manager with overseeing the sales team’s progress.
• Insurance sales representative: A sales representative contacts and meets with clients to sell insurance policies. They may also be responsible for marketing and lead generation.
• Insurance sales trainee: This is an entry-level sales position that requires trainees to shadow more experienced agents.

Where to find insurance agents

To find the right insurance agent for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies: 

• Network. Connect with potential candidates during insurance industry events such as conferences, summits and seminars.
• Use word of mouth. Ask others to spread the word about your company’s job opening. Current employees may be able to provide valuable testimonials. 
• Attend a career fair. Set up a station or presentation at a university career fair to find new talent interested in working in the insurance industry. Be sure to collect resumes or basic contact information.
• Post flyers in public spaces. Create flyers with a job description and post them on community bulletin boards in your community.
• Post your job online. Try posting your insurance agent job on Indeed to find and attract quality insurance agent candidates.

Skills to look for in a great Insurance Agent

Insurance Agents are an essential part of an insurance business. It is important to note which qualifications and skills are vital for hiring a suitable Insurance Agent.

• Bachelor’s degree in any field
• Work experience of more than 3+ years’ in insurance sales
• Valid P&C license needed
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong negotiation and persuasion skills
• Great conversion, problem-solving and follow up skills

Writing an insurance agent job description

A thoughtful description is important for finding qualified insurance agent candidates. An excellent insurance agent job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your insurance agent job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting . These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on insurance agent jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Insurance agent
• Insurance
• Remote work from home
• Sales
• Life insurance agent
• Hiring immediately
• Life insurance
• Insurance sales
• Health insurance agent

Interviewing insurance agent candidates

Hire a suitable insurance agent by taking the time to vet candidates and ask detailed interview questions to understand their knowledge and skills. A great insurance agent candidate will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Proficiency in networking and cold calling 
• Quality of sales and follow-up skills
• How they’ve contributed to a company’s sales and profit goals by acquiring customers and increasing sales

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of insurance agent interview questions for examples (with sample answers).