Who are the young brokers coming in to replace the departing Baby Boomers? Filip Ambroziak is one of the up and comers in the industry, and he shares his thoughts on what you can expect – and what is expected – from millennials.
As you already know, there is a fairly large gap in the insurance industry. There is not enough youth to fill the current positions. Sorry to break it to you, but you're also getting older, and your energy levels are draining as quickly as the gas in a Bugatti Veyron cruising at full speed. You’re going to need to find people who are energized, willing to grow, driven and dedicated. But where can I find such perfect candidates? Try schools.
My name is Filip Ambroziak, I am a broker and I want to give you my personal experience with youth. Why you want us, how we work and function, how to motivate us and ways to keep us at your brokerage for a long time.
Have you heard of Suits? It’s a television show that’s very popular among the young crowd. It’s about a hot-shot lawyer and his much younger mentor. Yeah, it’s literally about work. Why is it so great? All the side stories aside, it’s popular because we watch their success, it motivates us to be better. It’s a life we want to live.
How to motivate us
Our generation is extremely ambitious. Everyone I met in college, through work and in my circle of influence all want to be successful in their way. Whether it's status, affluence, extreme knowledge or popularity, we all have some form of success that we want to achieve. Your job as the lead broker is to find which of these makes them tick and use your sales skills to sell them that future.
If you can show these young brokers that this path will lead them to where they want to be, they will buy a truck and plow through that path with everything they got. We have been bombarded with expectations from the age of 5. Many of us, myself included, come from immigrant families whose parents were constantly telling us how they moved so that we can have a better life. We already want to be successful, we go through many years of school to get there and we don’t plan to give up.
We want mentors. We want a Harvey Spector (main character from Suits) to guide us and if you could do this, the young brokers will stay and look up to you.
How we work and function
We are the internet generation. Other generations used hammers to build homes, and pens to write letters. Our generation uses Google for everything. It’s not bad, it doesn’t mean we are lazy, it’s simply a super tool in our toolbox.
When hiring a young broker and after motivating them properly, you will notice they may not work as the traditional sales person does. Do not get frustrated. These brokers are working after hours and much harder than you’d think. They use Google, email, blogs and forums to market themselves. We know the science of SEO (search engine optimization), which is basically how to get to the top of Google, we have friends who are master computer scientists, and we have connections to about anything you need that is internet-related. I am in office from 10am-5pm, I then go to the gym, come back around 8 and begin my back linking and blog writing (for SEO).
My lead brokers are wonderful bosses: they guide me, give me tips and leave me alone. They know I want success, and they know I will push myself harder than they ever can.
Why you want us
In order for a man and woman to live in harmony, one must understand how the other thinks. Similarly, one generation must understand the other to grow together. Generation X and Y, however, may have a little more trouble.
Our world has evolved exponentially in the last few decades. This means that the differences are tremendous. We all need to put more effort into each other and ultimately use the strengths of each generation to balance out the weaknesses of the other.
As I stated before, we want success. We are loyal to those who are loyal in return. We know what the other generation does not and we can make 1000 connections in a day if we wanted to. You need us, our knowledge and expertise just as much as we need your experience, wisdom and courage.
Tips
As you already know, not everyone is made for sales. You will still need to do your due diligence and figure out who would make a good candidate. From my experience, the most ambitious people I’ve dealt with are young car salespeople, graduates from higher business degrees (commerce) and young college graduates that specialized. An example of this would be Seneca College Business Insurance diploma, which is where I graduated.The students there already have a large amount of knowledge on the product, and those planning to go into sales are highly motivated and driven. Large companies know this. They set up job fairs at schools and snatch this young talent away.
Find these young future brokers, motivate them, guide them and do not be scared that they lack experience. They are very knowledgeable, ambitious, driven and loyal. The right ones are also quite hilarious (like me) and will lighten up the office. Go set up some booths, take some resumes and conduct some interviews. Find the ones who match your workspace and watch as they grow.
Enjoy the hunt and I wish you all enjoy the relationships between generations as I have. Happy Holidays!
Filip Ambroziak, of Ambroziak & Rao Insurance Brokers Inc.
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