Field Management Seminar (FMS)

What is the Field Management Seminar (FMS)?

• The insurance industry’s answer to the continuing needs of field managers. It’s sponsored by the Agency Management Training Council
• An opportunity for field managers to sharpen and refine their management skills through intensive, peer-oriented training consisting of discussions, workshops, and audio and video presentations
• One full day devoted to a topic of major concern to all field managers

Who should enroll?

• All field managers qualify to attend the FMS
• A special invitation is extended to agency marketing directors and marketing specialists

What are the benefits of the FMS?
	Managers who enroll in the FMS have the opportunity to:

• Develop new field management skills
• Polish and refresh unused skills
• Interact locally with peers who are interested in common goal of management skills development
• Use practical tools and techniques in the same way as they would use them in the field
• Be involved in a continuing management development program

When, where, and how is the FMS organized?

• Classes are offered either through the training department of your company or through a sponsoring organization in your country designation by LIMRA. Each local organization appoints an FMS chairperson who is responsible for such activities as enrolling students, recommending a class moderator, and arranging for classroom facilities
• Moderators are primarily responsible for class functioning once the seminar is under way

How does the FMS fit into my company’s management development program?

• The FMS is intended to augment your company’s efforts, not to replace them
• Follow-up and reinforcement by your company’s field officers and training director is part of the benefit of the seminar
• Students are exposed to standardized field management principles that work for all distribution systems
• Students are asked to critically evaluate the forms, procedures, processes, systems, etc., that they now use to manage. Based on this analysis, students may adapt the seminar materials and/or create new ones so they are better able to manage their unit/agency
• The end product of the seminar is the completion of postseminar projects encompassinng one or more of the areas of planning, recruiting, selecting, training, and performance management. These projects focus on implementation of the skills covered in the seminar.
• Your company may elect to sponsor the FMS through its management development system. Contact your home/head office for further information on this option.

FMS Topics

Recruiting Systems for Profitable Growth

• Creating and managing the recruiting system so that it produces enough names of high-quality candidates to meet recruiting objectives
• Creating an annual recruiting business plan
• Exploring effective contemporary recruiting techniques and developing skills in their use
• Defining which techniques work for each manager and creating a plan to use them more effectively

Productivity and Retention-Through Marketing Systems

• Exploring the relationship between effective marketing and enhanced productivity and retention
• Creating and managing marketing systems that improve productivity and retention
• Enhancing skills for identifying target markets and developing plans to penetrate those markets
• Creating effective processes and plans to help new and experienced agents to become market driven

Brilliant Performance from the Start-The Manager’s Role in High Agent Productivity

• Creating and managing a new agent activity system
• Creating management systems focused on enhancing high agent productivity
• Developing systems for tracking agent activity
• Determining which activity management techniques work for each manager and creating a plan to use them more effectively
• Developing and enhancing kills in helping plateaued agents get back on track

Recruiting and selection in a Demographically Changing Market

• Apply the national demographic trends affecting the industry to the individual field manager’s local marketing area and unit/agent operations
• Creating recruiting action plans focused on increasing the number of candidate names from three distinct groups-women, older/mature people seeking a second career, and ethnic and minority groups
• Expanding awareness of and appreciation for the dimensions of diversity used in the recruiting process
• Customizing a standardized selection process to the unique needs of candidates from these groups

Compliance: A Survival Kit for Field Managers

• Creating a climate for ethical activities and maintaining an ethical culture within the unit/agency
• Exploring the legal environment within which the industry is operating and the implications of this environment for field managers
• Discussing the legal and ethical implications for recruiting and selection of agents, office staff, etc.
• Discussing the parameters of errors and omissions (E and O) insurance and its necessity in today’s business environment
• Determining actions within the unit/agency to meet compliance demands
• Providing practical experience and skills necessary for ethical management

Managing Your Management Future 

• Identifying the issues currently presenting challenges to the profitable operaion of units/agencies and the types of skills that successful managers will need in the future
• Expanding awareness of the effects of changes on people and systems and developing processes and procedures for managing profitably and effectively in times of change
• Analyzing trends in resource availability in order to use current and future resources effectively and profitably
• Tracking and analyzing use of time
• Identifying and implementing ways of better controlling time using time and self-management principles
• Using goal-setting and objective-setting in time and self-management

Role Models for Management Success: Tips from the Top

• Discussing and analyzing the processes used by successful practitioners for setting and communicating realistic expectations for new agents
• Examining the elements of effective, new agent supervision systems vis a vis attendees current systems to determine ways of increasing their effectiveness
• Exploring the manager’s role in increasing the productivity of experienced agents
• Discussing the impact of goal-setting and a culture of productivity on increased agent productivity
• Examining strategies for merging field organizations with different cultures into one organization with a common sense of purpose, a common mission, and a commitment to team goals
• Discussing ways of assessing agency team/leadership team strengths and weaknesses and determining the characteristics needed by new team members
• Discussing the importance of ongoing team-building and exploring successful management techniques for ensuring continuing synergy
• Discussing effective marketing techniques and strategies that can help agency management build a positive image in the marketplace

The Power Launch: Selecting and Coaching New Peak Performers

• Selecting the coachable agent and discussing the importance of how managers recruit
• Reviewing the latest selection research and determining what changes managers must make to their current selection processes to select peak performers
• Discussing the importance of using the selection process to create and build a relationship with potential new agents
• Creating and implementing a “fast start” environment to coach new agents
• Using the new agent business plan to launch productive new agents
• Discussing ways that a manager can help new agents to develop habits for success
• Managing performance for the agents long-term productivity, including goal-setting and systems for tracking and managing activity

Tune Up Your Team: A Marketing Blueprint for the 21st Century

• Making the shift from sales to marketing
• Examining agency vision and goals, agency culture, organizational resources, an distribution issues
• Adapting strategies for current marketing approaches to meet the marketing needs of the 21st century
• Developing a personalized marketing business plan tailored to the agency, including new and established agents
• Implementing the plan
• Discussing compliance, ethics, and market conduct