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You’re a Newly Licensed Property and Casualty Insurance Agent – What Do You Do Now?

Passing your property and casualty (P&C) licensing test was one challenge, but now that you’re duly licensed, you face new challenges. What steps should you take to build a successful career and thrive in a competitive industry? Here are some key steps you can take to begin to carve out your path in the insurance industry.

Your Role in the Industry

If you read social media posts for those looking for a new insurance agent, you’ll often see words like, “professional,” “advice,” “options” and “responsive.” Your role as a P&C agent is to become your insured’s trusted advisor. Just as your insured will turn to an accountant or a lawyer, they should understand that life changes, even something as simple as a kitchen remodel or buying a new dog, can have a significant impact on their existing insurance coverage or their need for new coverage.

How do you become that trusted advisor? By frequent communication, whether through a phone call occasionally, social media posts, emails and newsletters. Those agents who communicate the most with their insureds build relationships. Your insureds don’t want to hear from you only when it’s renewal time; they want to know you value their business and are just an email or a phone call away should they have questions or decide they may need to add or improve their coverage.

Your clients should feel they can turn to you for advice and help when their rates go up or when they’re considering some life change that impacts coverage.

It’s critical that you know this: You not only sell a product, you also sell peace of mind. Whether you’re insuring someone’s new car or their small business, your insureds want to feel secure that they have the proper coverage in place if, and when, a loss occurs.

Building Your Industry Knowledge

While some of your lessons will come through trial and error, you want to begin quickly to expand your knowledge. This can come through mentorship, if you’re lucky, but any agency owner wants self-starters, and that means those who believe they are responsible for their own education.

There are many routes to industry education. If your agency is a Big “I” member, check with your state association or visit their class schedule to see what types of training they offer. Membership in the Big “I” brings many benefits, including hundreds of articles on insurance coverage and agency management, many helpful tools such as checklists, agency best practices tools and coverage declination letters, to list just a few tools. Even if you’re not a Big “I” member at this time, you can always subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Insurance Illustrated at this link.

Also review The Institutes’ classes and IRMI’s six certification classes, which are great starting points in your career. Early on, you may be a generalist, specializing in personal lines or small commercial accounts often best suited for a businessowners policy. However, the trend today is toward specialization, and this is where your former employment may play a large part.

There are two other ways to boost your learning, free of charge. First, subscribe to free trade journals (most can arrive in your email) and read them. Even if you’re a bit lost with some of the terminology early on, you’ll quickly pick up tips and learn more about the insurance industry. Next, listen to podcasts. There are a variety of podcasts and YouTube videos, such as videos that explain how to fill out ACORD forms or how adjusters handle claims.

Your carriers may offer free training. Take advantage of any training they offer if you can and always try to meet frequently with your carriers’ marketing personnel to learn what programs they’re writing and to avoid you sending an application to a carrier that doesn’t write that type of risk.

Building your knowledge base is a life-long process, so don’t become overwhelmed.

Discover How Your Previous Life Experience Can Help You Win Customers

Whether you are just out of school or have years of experience in another industry, your background can help you gain clients. Of course, our first instinct is to sell to friends and family, but that isn’t the route to a sustainable career. Instead, consider where you have worked in your career, what clubs you joined in school, or what your college major was. Then, mine those experiences.

You may have worked in retail or worked as a dispatcher for a trucking company. You know the vocabulary of that industry, which often puts you a step ahead of your competitors. When you’re meeting with business owners, they want to know that you understand their headaches, and insurance is a big one. As in any relationship, it helps when they feel that you “get them.”

Let’s take this a step further. If you worked for a construction company, consider joining the local trade association of subcontractors or contractors. If you plan to be a generalist, your first stop should be your local chamber of commerce. Also consider philanthropic organizations like the Lions or Rotary Clubs. These organizations support their members and while they also undertake community charitable activities, they were founded based on businesses supporting businesses.

Also consider demographics. If you speak another language, you can network with those who speak that language. If you support diversity, consider joining your local gay chamber of commerce. If you’re interested in parenting issues, consider supporting your local schools’ events with ads in their marketing collateral.

Here's one tip, however. Don’t join an organization and think that your name on their website or Facebook page will bring business. It rarely does. You must attend regularly and support other members of that organization.

Build Your Sales and Communication Skills

Here are a few problems salespeople often make in their early years. 1) They fail to listen as much or more than they talk, and 2) They don’t ask for the sale.

Taking sales courses or reading books written by insurance sales experts can help you hone your sales skills. One book that other insurance professionals rave about is Shock the Topline, but other seasoned professionals can also recommend books or courses they’ve taken that have helped them improve their sales skills.

Groups like Toastmasters can improve your public speaking, because soon in your career, if you network correctly, you’ll be asked to speak at your local Chamber or other organization.

When presenting proposals, always focus on the benefits to the insured. Avoid any industry jargon that you’ll quickly learn, like abbreviations such as “comp” or “RTW program” instead of a “return to work program.” Explain things to your clients using the language they relate to.

Avoiding Errors and Omissions (E&O) Claims

One key issue facing today’s agents is the possibility that they will offer the wrong coverage, or fail to offer coverage, or provide coverage advice that the insured believes is faulty. Whether you are brand new to insurance or a seasoned agent, every agent runs the risk of an E&O claim.

Here are a few tips that can help you avoid making mistakes when discussing or placing coverage.

If you are asked a question that you do not have the answer for, do not hesitate to use this phrase, “I’m not sure about that, but I will check and get back to you by ….”
Always, always document in your agency management system every conversation, text message, or your coverage talks with any underwriter.
Never promise, “We’ll find you the coverage you need.” In today’s hard market, finding elusive coverage is not always possible. Instead, use phrases like, “We’ll sure check the markets to see if this is possible.”
Avoid words like “expert,” “full coverage,” “specializing,” “most comprehensive,” or other words or phrases that imply you offer a higher duty of care than required in your state.
If you think you made a mistake, immediately talk to your supervisor to see how to rectify it. Do not bury the mistake, hoping it won’t blow up.
Never, never assist a customer in misleading the insurer. For example, in one instance, an inexperienced agent recommended the applicant omit the family’s 16-year-old from the auto policy application to save money. If you have not yet taken an ethics course, take one immediately. One question I ask before I take any action that makes me uncomfortable is, “How will this look to others?” If your action does not pass the “gut check” test, then it may not be ethical. Always seek advice before you recommend any action that may be unprincipled.

Remember that if you take a shortcut and it proves wrong, it may affect the reputation of every producer and agency principal in your agency. It is not just the producer who made the error that gets the bad rap; your wrong action can negatively impact the entire agency.

Bear this advice in mind—do not “get out over your skis” as a new producer. Because you are still inexperienced, consider yourself a snowboarder, not a skier. The skiers are your mentors and supervisors, who have faced difficult circumstances and can help guide you as you go forward in your career.

Overcoming Challenges

There will always be challenges in the insurance industry. We are in one of the hardest markets our industry has ever experienced. Here is an article that explains the hard insurance market if you would like some tips to survive it.

There will be other challenges, as well. Lack of market access, difficult customers, losing accounts to other agents—all of these will occur, often early in your career. Do not give up. Selling insurance is a long game, not a short game.

To succeed in this industry, you must increase your knowledge, expand your professional network and adapt to the professional challenges you will face.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have gotten into discussions with complete strangers and when I told them I was an insurance agent, they said, “I was licensed once, too.” They gave up because they found the industry too challenging.

You can succeed, but you must plan your future and not let the challenges you will inevitably encounter determine your failure or success.

Originally Published: January 3, 2025

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