What’s the Training Process for new Agents?

Long ago, we poured out information too fast in the training process. Agents attended a several-day-long orientation to meet our team and learn about carrier appetites and systems. Though the experience was fun and exciting, we found that agents couldn’t retain the information. It was just too much, and they needed real-time training once they got home.

Based on our agents’ feedback, we have made the process more practical. Instead of an in-person orientation, all training is done online with screen sharing. We’ll train you by using prospects you’re actually quoting so that the instruction is specific, relevant to your situation, and helps you write policies.

Here’s how it works:

You Start by Getting Appointed with Carriers.

You’ll get appointed with your carriers over a 30-45 day period. There are a lot of carriers to learn about, so we cover 3-5 carriers per session as your appointments come through.

After you are trained on a carrier, you can write with them immediately.

Firefly’s carrier dashboard shows you each carrier and your status with them. This video shows you what you can do with this tool: 

Training topics

You’ll learn about things like:

  • Appetites and underwriting guidelines of each carrier you get appointed with
  • How to save retention documents in the management system
  • How to run MVRs while minimizing costs for them (and keep carriers happy by not over-ordering them)
  • Firefly’s internal tools
  • Navigating and using each carrier’s website
  • Using LastPass to manage all of your carrier passwords (this software is optional and with so many carriers, password management is really important!)

Whether you have one or twenty years of insurance experience, you’ll benefit from a structured onboarding process.

This video shows why:

swatch

 

Pre-bind process:

For the first 30-or-so home policies that you write, you’ll use our online pre-bind process to help you get familiar with the carrier underwriting guidelines. It will also allow us to check your work to ensure that risks are being properly placed.  

This is important because things get messy if you bind something contrary to a company’s guidelines. The carrier would cancel the policy, requiring you to move the client to another carrier that will accept the risk, but almost certainly at a higher price.

So, please trust us when we tell you the pre-bind process is worthwhile! It will save you time, aggravation, and embarrassment while you are getting the hang of what carriers want.

Once you have been trained on all of the carriers and submitted at least 30 accounts through the pre-bind system, you will have full binding authority for property policies.

At that point, you can move entirely at your own pace.

What do agents say about training? 

You can read several agent reviews here.

And here is one review recently left on our Google Business Page:

Firefly Insurance Agency training review praise

What causes frustration for new agents?

If you’re like most agents, when you sign up you’ll be raring to go! You’ll want to start selling as soon as you can. We want that for you, too! As we’ve said before, the best thing about being a Firefly agent is having so many carriers. Also, the most challenging thing about Firefly is . . . having so many carriers.

There are so many carriers to get to know, and so much to learn about EZLynx, and other systems, that the on-boarding experience can sometimes be frustrating. We want you to have a realistic understanding about the whole process, to reduce feelings of frustration.

The reality is that a couple of carriers take longer to appoint you than others. You may feel frustrated as you wait for them to complete that for you, so you can be trained and start selling.

You may feel too busy to take time to have your video meetings with our trainers. Or you feel like you know the industry well enough to start writing business by learning on your own, as you go. There are too many carriers with too many idiosyncrasies for this approach to work. You’ll need to take time to build a foundation of knowledge, so you can grow your agency.

You might not want to use the pre-bind system, because you know that you’re a good underwriter, and you know where to place business. There are too many Firefly carriers – each with unique requirements for property risks – so the pre-bind process protects the carrier, the agency and you. It is a must until you are deemed to be proficient with each carrier.

 

All of this is to say that we know being trained may seem tedious. But it is critical to your success with Firefly and each carrier. Before you know it, you’ll be  writing business on your own. It’s worth the work to get there. Looking for more guidance? Connect with other P&C agents.

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