Back Hiring a decent producer

I am sure many of you would agree with me that finding a decent commercial lines producer is not easy by any standard. I want to take matters in my own hands and do what recruiters do by calling some producers on my own to see if they are interested. I don't , however, want to violate any rules with DOI or anyone else. Has any fellow agency principal done this ? Would I be doing anything wrong by just calling producers from some pre qualified list? I'd love to hear from you.

Nickie, I usually respond to market posts, but having been an owner of two firms I wil reply in order to help. In short there are two issues: 1) as long s you phone the agents you will not be violating (as far as I know any soliciation or spam laws - the spams laws refer to unsolicited emails - California ia a prime example). 2) talking to an agent is the easy part - the more difficult part is a) having a good agency with good market access and good support to his/her sales efforts so that the agency truly does assist proactively in the agent's success and b) offering a fair and competitive compensation package - remember these are people and should be treated with respect and dignity and they are also sales professionals (at least the ones you want) and all too often I see agency owners who simply treat outside sales agents (especially for commercial) like lead hounds and pack mules - paying them poorly and treating them worse. If you want a successful arrangement you must have a mutually beneficial attitude. I hope these comments help, they are intended in the best way. Kind Regards, Janner Holliday

Nickie:
I don't think you would have any problems with that.  I would just let them know where you received their information when talking with them. 

In the event they are not interested, they might have some candidates that may be interested to share with you.

I completely agree with item # 2 from Janner.  That is very important.  You also need the support staff in which to assist the producer to be out in the field and writing more business.

Best wishes,
Faith

Thank you both Janner and Faith. Having started as a CL producer I can't agree more with the fact that a producer needs the support and the markets to succeed and that is where an agency comes in. I do very much appreciate you confirming that calling the producers is not a problem. I wanted to hear other peoples thoughts on the appropriatness of it before I did it. After all, calling to recruit a producer is not much different that a sales call to a prospect to sell yourself and your insurance programs. I've called prospects many times but never have called a producer so I was not sure if calling he or she would be against some written or unwritten rule that I don't know about. Thanks again for the reinforcement. Nickie