At IdealTraits, we help agencies with all aspects of recruiting, whether that means guiding your hiring process or managing it for you. One of the most common requests we hear? “We only want to speak with experienced, licensed candidates.”
On the surface, it makes sense. Those candidates know the industry and can hit the ground running. But in reality, hiring only licensed reps often leads to wasted time, money, and missed opportunities.
The Hidden Costs of Hiring Only Licensed Candidates
Money
Restricting your search to licensed individuals drastically reduces your candidate pool, driving up advertising costs and time to hire. And when you do find someone, they’ll likely expect a higher salary. If they’re not the right fit, you risk losing up to $50,000 in salary, lost productivity, and turnover costs.
Time
Even licensed reps often come with bad habits. You may spend months untraining and retraining them… only to end up back at square one.
Sales Eligible ≠ Sales Drive
Having a license only means they’re legally allowed to sell, it doesn’t mean they’re good at it or motivated to do it. Many licensed candidates are more customer service oriented than sales-driven.
A Better Approach
We recommend expanding your search to include non-licensed, high-motivation sales professionals. There’s a larger, more eager pool of candidates, and with the right process, they can be onboarded quickly and effectively.
Tips for Success:
Advertise training and licensing support.
Use job titles like “Entry Level [Position]” to attract motivated talent. Tell them in the job description if you’ll pay for any licensing or training costs.
Set expectations early.
Let candidates know they’ll need to obtain their license in the job ad (you must offer to pay licensing costs to meet job board guidelines.)
Stay engaged during licensing.
Stay in touch to show continued interest. Candidates are more likely to choose the employer who maintains communication.
Have a structured training plan.
Provide a clear roadmap: licensing, talk paths, role-play, etc. to get them productive within 90 days.
Build loyalty.
When you invest in their growth and success, new hires are more likely to be loyal, proactive, and driven to produce.
For those of you reading this and thinking, “I can’t hire a non-licensed candidate. Their activities will be restricted in the office, and training will take months”, take a look at Kevin Mlynarek.
Kevin Mlynarek, an Allstate agent and the co-founder of ASA (Agency Sales Academy), does not limit himself to licensed candidates. He hires talent. He hires candidates with the right traits. He hires strong sales professionals that he can mold and train into the type of sales representative he wants in his company.
Recap
Don’t limit yourself to licensed candidates. The cost and time of advertising, interviewing, and loss of production due to breaking the candidates out of old habits to learn newer and better habits can be astronomical. Plus you may find yourself hiring sooner than later because they weren’t the right fit. The cost of a wrong hire is upwards of $50,000 and 4-6 months of training wasted.
Non-licensed candidates are more eager to listen and learn the right way to do things in your agency. Although they have to go and get the license, binding authority, plus training, you are probably looking at 3 months for an individual to be trained and on the floor, if you are both motivated.
If you have any additional questions regarding this article please feel free to reach out, we are here to help.
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