Building the right infrastructure
Now that Aflac had tremendous brand recognition, it was growing so quickly that its sales infrastructure could not support all of its new customers and employees. The company’s infrastructure had to change, and new agents were needed to sell Aflac products to continue the growth.
In the past, one sales coordinator was in charge of an entire state. That person managed regional and district coordinators, who were responsible for certain subsets of the state’s population. Cloninger says that the optimal number of regional and district coordinators is five to seven, but after the introduction of the Aflac Duck, that grew to as many as 14 in some states — too many for one state sales coordinator to handle.
The company couldn’t react to new clients as quickly as it wanted to and wasn’t able to expand into new markets. The solution was to divide a state into two or three organizations, with a state sales coordinator in charge of each organization. That change helped Aflac cope with its fast growth and allowed it to expand into untapped markets. In 2000, there were about 56 state organizations. Today, there are 97.
Aflac has 4,800 employees at its Columbus headquarters and more than 60,000 people in the United States who are licensed to sell insurance for Aflac, but it always needs more qualified salespeople. To find them, Cloninger relies on what he calls circles of influence.
“We encourage our sales management team to look at new people they meet and think about whether or not those people would fit an Aflac sales position well,” says Cloninger. “Personal recruiting is the most effective way of assessing whether or not someone has the energy, drive and personality to succeed in representing us as an independent agent.”
Employees are encouraged to talk to people, even while waiting for a table at a restaurant. Sales experience isn’t necessary; in fact, Cloninger says that people without experience often make the best agents.
“People like school teachers, nurses and firefighters, people who service the public and understand the day-to-day issues that people have financially, can relate to our products,” says Cloninger. “Another category of people that are very effective with us are the people that have experienced the benefits of owning Aflac products, either through personal illness or accident.”
Agents have incentives to recruit new agents — they can advance their own careers by building a sales organization underneath them. If agents recruit new agents, they receive additional compensation based on the business produced by those agents.
Although it is up to the district sales coordinators to train new agents, Cloninger wants training to be uniform across the organization. In the past year, experienced agents were brought into headquarters with the goal of creating a uniform training curriculum — essential because it helps ensure that a uniform message is communicated to customers.
Those agents came up with an academically based program in which new agents must study and learn about Aflac products and their benefits, then go into the marketplace and apply what they’ve learned. New agents are taught how to identify the most likely consumers of Aflac and how to approach them and explain how Aflac would benefit their organizations.
Once Aflac has attracted and trained new employees, it must then work on retaining them by creating a good work environment.
“We have stayed committed to Columbus, Ga.,” says Cloninger. “We are well-known in the community. We have another well-known company or two in the community who also treat their employees well. … It’s kind of like we’re competing for the same body of employees. We need to make sure our employees are happy so they’ll stay with us instead of going across the street and working for someone else.”
In fact, Aflac honors its employees with a whole week of appreciation, featuring food, a concert, a baseball game, drawings and employee recognition. Last year, Aflac celebrated its 50th anniversary, and all employees with at least 25 years of service were surprised with a weeklong Caribbean cruise for them and a guest.
Aflac also recognizes that employees have a life outside of work, so it developed a program called Lunch and Learn to address personal development topics such as financial planning and tips for first-time home buyers. A speaker comes in during the lunch hour, and everyone is invited.
Aflac was named by Fortune as one of 2006’s 100 Best Companies To Work For for the eighth consecutive year and one of Fortune’s 2006 America’s Most Admired Companies for the fifth consecutive year.
Although Cloninger and the rest of management continue to look at Aflac with a critical eye, it has become a company that many wish to emulate. Its revenue increased 8.1 percent from 2004 to 2005, it insures more than 40 million people worldwide and Cloninger says it is on track to increase new sales between 8 percent and 12 percent in 2006.
“I’ve never seen a company that’s done as well year in and year out as Aflac,” says Cloninger. “I’m proud to have spent the bulk of my career being associated with it.”
HOW TO REACH: Aflac Inc., www.aflac.com
