9 Key Traits Independent Agents Look For in an Upline

Recruit More Agents to Your GA, IMO, or FMO by Incorporating These Benefits Into Your Organization

As small business owners, independent agents are being pulled in all directions. They have to follow up with prospects, communicate with clients, stay compliant, grow their agency, manage renewals and Open Enrollment, and much more. They have limited time and resources to do it all, which is why many independent agents and agencies turn to uplines like GAs, IMOs, and FMOs for support.

But with so many options, how can your upline organization stand out and recruit and retain more agents? Independent agents and agencies want to ensure that whichever organization they partner with has the resources they need to succeed and that they are the right fit for their agency.

Here are nine key traits independent agencies look for in a GA, IMO, or FMO and why they are essential to offer to your downline agents.

1. Access to Carriers

One common benefit to independent agencies when partnering with an upline organization is the relationships uplines have with insurance carriers. By obtaining better contracts with carriers and maintaining those partnerships, you can provide your downline agents with more options that they can sell to their prospects and clients. Plus, if you partner with carriers that will only let agents contract with them via an IMO or FMO, this can be even more lucrative.

By emphasizing these valuable carrier partnerships, you can offer agents a wider variety of carrier and plan options to sell that they might not have had access to previously.

2. Training & Education Opportunities

Regardless of where your downlines practice in the United States, every health insurance agent needs continuing education (CE) credits to stay licensed. But finding truly valuable educational opportunities can be difficult.

Informing your agents of unique opportunities or providing them in-house can be a valuable benefit. If you can cover the cost of continuing education credits your downline agents earn, that can be even more enticing to agents.

Some examples of educational opportunities you could offer include:

• CE opportunities
• Training materials
• Webinars about relevant topics or with carriers

Showing potential agents that you value educational opportunities and that you want to help them become the best agents they can be is something many will take into consideration when choosing who to partner with.

3. Compliance Assistance

It’s no secret that compliance can often be a pain point for insurance agencies of all sizes. Laws, rules, and regulations change constantly, and especially for smaller independent insurance agencies, it can be challenging to keep up with it all and ensure that they’re remaining compliant.

Making compliance management a priority can be a significant value-add for agents during the recruitment process. This is especially true if your organization manages and runs compliance campaigns for your downline agencies or even has an entire team dedicated to ensuring your agents remain compliant.

It can also be helpful to agents if their upline offers presentation reviews, especially for Medicare agents during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). If your organization can help your agents spot compliance mistakes before they happen, this is one less thing they have to worry about.

Besides offering compliance help, you may also consider providing guidance on the technology needed to record and save calls to comply with CMS guidelines. This can be a huge weight lifted off an independent agent’s shoulders.

4. Emphasis on Technology

Ultimately, an independent agent wants to partner with an upline because they have the resources and capabilities to support their agency and foster growth.

Your upline organization should prioritize technology and find ways to make your agency partners' lives easier.

One example of this could be partnering with a CRM or an agency management system (AMS), like AgencyBloc’s AMS+ solution. This type of partnership can show potential downline agents that your organization is tech-forward and values the efficiencies and benefits that a CRM or AMS can bring your agents.

If your upline forms a partnership with a CRM or an AMS vendor, you may receive a discount that you can then pass on to your downline agents and agencies as a bonus.

Besides promoting access to technology tools like CRMs and AMSs, upline organizations that provide access to quoting and enrollment tools can also be crucial. While some uplines have the capability to offer proprietary tools, another option is offering access to third-party quoting and enrollment tools.

AgencyBloc’s all-in-one quoting and enrollment tool, Quote+, is one option you can offer to your downline agents. Besides having everything a small group broker needs to streamline their quoting and enrollment processes, Quote+ also allows GAs to assist their downlines and provide the support they need during the enrollment process.

Offering an upline-provided quoting and enrollment platform comes with many benefits for your agents and agencies, such as:

• Streamlined processes
• Quoting and comparing plans in one place
• More efficient enrollment processes

Plus, if your quoting and enrollment platform of choice integrates with your preferred AMS or CRM, you can help streamline your downline’s processes even further.

5. Access to Experts

Do you have experts or a support team that agents can reach out to with questions about carriers, plans, marketing, technology, and more? This can be a big selling point for many independent agents.

A dedicated team supporting your downline independent agents can be a huge to answer their questions around carriers, plans and products, regulation changes, and even sales and marketing tips.

6. Extensive Resource Library

Independent agencies are focused on growing their business and often dedicate their time to providing the best possible service to their prospects and clients. Therefore, it is essential to have an upline who provides them with resources and tools that make their job easier and save them significant time.

Some resources that uplines can offer, include:

• Email templates
• Client needs assessments
• Checklists
• Webinars
• Cheat sheets
• Spreadsheet templates
• Podcasts

Having an extensive library of resources your downlines can use to become more efficient and prosperous shows that you value your downline agents’ time and want them to become as successful as possible.

7. Good Culture Fit

It's common knowledge that when someone is looking for a job, culture fit is crucial to the new hire's success in a role. The same can be said for an agent joining an upline.

Potential agents want to know that joining your upline organization will suit them well. Displaying your values and mission on your website, sharing company culture photos, videos, and posts on social media, and more are great ways to show independent agencies what the culture is like at your organization.

8. Promoting Data Ownership

Independent agents are entrepreneurs coming to you for assistance in growing their business. In today’s ever-changing landscape, agents are becoming increasingly focused on ensuring they own their book of business.

One way to provide reassurance here is to provide guidance on technology solutions they can use to manage their book of business independently and which questions to ask to ensure the technology vendor they choose to work with has that same mindset.

9. Commissions Management

A common pain point and headache for many agencies is managing their commissions. Although it can often be confusing and time-consuming, it is necessary.

An upline with the technology and resources to help their downline independent agencies manage their commissions and sometimes even find missing commissions can be a considerable draw for potential agents due to the possibility of significant time and money savings.

How AgencyBloc's Solutions Can Help

With AgencyBloc’s Plus Suite of industry-specific solutions, your upline organization has the tools to be as successful as possible, all while providing top-tier support to your downline agents and agencies.

• AMS+ can promote downline management with features like activity tracking, agent license/certification management, email marketing and mass communication tools, integrated workflow automation, and more
• Quote+ can help you support your downlines as best as possible during enrollment season with an integrated medical health questionnaire, customizable employer-ready benefit proposals, and automated, HIPAA-compliant multi-carrier submission technology
• Commissions+ can streamline commission imports, uncover missed or inaccurate commission payments, automate agent commission statements, and much more

These nine key traits are a great starting point for your GA, IMO, or FMO when thinking about how to recruit more agents or retain the agents you already have. Use this list to ensure all your bases are covered.

Posted by Sarah Rosonke on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 in Agent Management

1. commissions
2. compliance management