Best Practices for Bulk Licensing

Five-Year Certification Program
Treat this as a five-year training certification program, or like you would the CLU certifications. Rule the Room Financial provides a built-in ongoing process to ensure success among the reps during their five years in the program.

Weekly Training Session

Hold a weekly training session where all reps must attend to watch that week’s video. Monday mornings work best to help reps build a habit and allows for learning build. They should be scheduled for at least 90 minutes to ensure enough time to do the activities associated with each lesson. If the the video finishes early, the facilitator should recommend that everyone stay for the entire 90 minutes and practice the activities and the your turns. It’s not enough to just sit and watch the video because that only gets them to stage two of learning where they can see what we are doing.  To really have this double their production in half the time, they need to get to level four and five of learning where they can do this on their own and teach this to others.  Doing the activities and the homework right then and there that week, and using the full 90 minutes if they have it will maximize that.

The facilitator needs to ensure reps are doing the activities during the allotted time in the videos. They should be watching for the timer as well to make sure the reps are ready to proceed with the session when the activity time is over.

If someone misses a study hall or has to leave early, they need to watch the video, or listen to it, on their own time. If you notice reps aren’t attending the weekly sessions, have your Managing Parter personally reach out to them to see why they aren’t showing up. Agencies that have done this have increased their attendance greatly.

Weekly Assignments

Reps should be held accountable for their homework, or the Your Turns. One way to do that is for the facilitator to randomly select three reps after every weekly numbers reporting meeting to share their answers for the Your Turns in front of everyone. This will help ensure reps are doing their homework.

Rotating Schedule

Since reps start at different times of the year, you will need to have a rotating schedule for when they begin our program. This schedule accommodates all of the reps because now reps can start the first program right after fast track and then take them consecutively to build based on the year they’re in the business.

If less than three new reps are ready to begin, have them catch up to another pod if that pod is less than seven sessions into the program. If they are more than seven sessions in, wait to start the program with more new reps.

Pod System

Implement a pod system, so every rep has at least one other person to hold them accountable. The pods should be a group of reps no smaller than two. These pods will stay together for the entirety of the programs by watching each video together in one room. Together, they will go through certification for the five years and work on role-play exercises.

Video Playing

The video the reps will be watching is played via a program called Vimeo.  Vimeo does not support Internet Explorer Version 7. There is actually no video service that does. If you are using ie7, you will need to disable the popup blockers on your computer each and every time you play the video.  You also may experience a few stop and starts.  If you would like to avoid this experience, it is highly recommended that you download a new browser like Chrome or Firefox.

If you would like to play the video in HD quality, then you will want to load the video ahead of time to avoid pauses in the video during playback.  To do this, when you have the video on the screen, clicks “HD” in the lower right corner to get it to play in HD. Next, click the play button followed immediately by the pause button to pause the video. Once you do this, the video will begin to download and it will show the progress at the bottom of the screen. If this is done a few minutes before starting, the entire video will load and play without pausing.  You can repeat this process for subsequent videos. You can also load a new video using this process during an activity so there will never be any stoppage when the group will be doing multiple videos during a session.

Facilitator, not Trainer

Assign a facilitator, not a trainer, to ensure the reps are on track. The facilitator will make sure the homework is done, the videos are watched, and the assessments are taken. They should be at the weekly training sessions to answer any questions and keep the reps on track.

Pods Test Jointly

Have the pods test jointly three times a year. Group testing is key to success because it adds peer pressure to the mix and ensures the reps study. They will also learn best by giving each other feedback and teaching. Each rep is responsible for getting certified.

Schedule at least two hours for the assessments. You should split the reps into groups of 2 for the assessments. We suggest splitting up the reps that know each other really well to make sure the assessments are being done fairly. If it’s not possible to split them up, make sure reps know the importance of scoring fairly. It is more important in the long run for a rep to fail if they are not ready, than to pass without being good, which could have drastic negative consequences. A rep can retake the assessment up to three times if they fail before they need to re=watch the entire program.

Mentors for the reps need to be present at the assessment to help score. There could be up to 4-5 people in the room then if each rep has a different mentor.

Something to keep in mind, is a bronze means the rep is still very good and will be at $100k plus in premium after year one, silver means the rep is elite and will be at $150-180K plus in premium after year one, and gold means the rep walks on water and will be at $250K plus in premium after year 1.

Have the reps print their certificates on nicer paper. Once they are completed, reps should frame them and display them.

Facilitator Pledge Book

Have the facilitators use pledge books (document provided by Rule the Room Financial) to track the reps’ progress for five years. The pledge books help hold each rep accountable because attendance and certification scores are tracked by the facilitator.

Mentor Meeting

Have the reps’ mentor check accountability during their weekly meetings. Reps should only get their weekly mentor meeting if they showed up to the weekly training session and did the homework. Mentors can ask the reps what they learned to prove the rep did it.

Deliverables

Groups in our bulk licensing program will receive a number of deliverables, including access to all videos with a username and password, electronic PDF’s of the workbooks, Facilitator’s Guides, and the pledge books, and a live event coupon code for reps to attend the events at cost.

MPs can get their reps to pay for their workbooks so they are more personally invested in the program. It’s a minimal fee of around $50, (or less if they do it in house), but it gives the reps some skin in the game.

Quarterly Implementation Calls

The facilitators will have four calls a year with our Director of Operations to share any thoughts or concerns about the program. The calls should be scheduled at the beginning of the signing year. This gives the agencies a chance to give any feedback and holds them accountable for getting their reps through the programs. The facilitators need to feel comfortable reaching out to us if they have questions.

User Group Forums

Facilitators and/or any reps from a signed agency can join us on our bi-monthly User group Forums. They’re webinars designed to allow different signed agencies the chance to collaborate and give each other feedback. Each webinar will also have a new topic of learning to enhance everyone’s implementation process.

What We Provide vs. What You Provide.

Make sure you get the following from Rule the Room Financial: Five-year certification program, rotating schedule, pod testing, deliverables, user group forums, and quarterly implementation calls.

Make sure you provide the following: a pod system, weekly training session, a facilitator, mentor meetings to check accountability, your implementation schedule, and quarterly implementation calls.

Mentor Video
Show this video to your mentors to help explain the process of implementing Rule the Room Financial.