Excerpts from a recent article from Rough Notes magazine on Pitcher Insurance Agency highlighting Sharon's background and abilities:

"...with some 12 years’ experience at her former agency to her credit, Sharon was given the opportunity to leave the desk and attend meetings, pay visits, and make appointments with the producer 

whose accounts she handled. “I started assisting at the insured’s office what I was doing over the phone behind the desk as an account manager. Giving our insureds a more hands-on approach to 

understanding the basics of insurance and the coverages they needed,” she says.

Once she got out in the field, Sharon says, “I got a new vision of what I wanted to do. If I could help clients understand a product in my role as account manager, I could meet their needs as a producer.” 

Sharon’s father always told her: “Find out what it takes, work that backwards, and give your 110%!” Sharon has lived by that motto for many years now. 

That agency, Sharon says, already had so many producers that, as “low man on the totem pole,” she would have had to settle for a territory that was already saturated. As a highly successful account manager 

with top-flight credentials, Sharon was eager to take her skills to the next level as a producer, and in 2005 she met Ron Pitcher.

Both Sharon and Ron saw a great opportunity for her to spearhead profitable growth in Pitcher Insurance Agency’s contractor niche. For Ron, helping a talented and ambitious would-be producer master 

selling skills was just another approach to building a solid sales team. Sharon had the in-depth knowledge to communicate effectively with contractors; her challenge was to make a successful transition from 

CSR to producer. “I serve as a mentor to a new producer and give him or her a track to run on,” Ron says. “We have some in-agency training resources that focus on negotiating, leadership, and teamwork, 

as well as programs from the Sitkins Group and The Wedge. Sometimes we augment those with formal education and training.”

New producer school

For Sharon, that training involved attending the Professional Insurance Sales Associate (PISA) producer development program offered by the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State 

University (ISU). The program was created in conjunction with the Professional Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois to meet the needs of producers with less than two years’ experience. The program is 

designed to help new producers learn how to understand customers and to initiate and develop customer relationships.

The PISA program begins with a one-week sales training program. Next, the new producer undergoes eight weeks of on-the-job training with weekly follow-up by a sales manager from ISU. The producer 

then goes to ISU for four days of advanced training and on-site mentoring, after which he or she returns to the job and is monitored by ISU sales managers until the producer’s pre-set goals are met.

“I was in the first class that went through the program,” Sharon says. “The most important thing we learned was how to probe the prospect—not necessarily to sell something, but to find out what he or she needs.” 

She offers an example: “I can sell someone a pen without ink, but once that person finds out that the pen has no ink, he’ll drop me fast. But if I find out what kind of ink the prospect needs in the pen and I give him 

that, he’ll be my client forever. As our clients’ trusted insurance adviser, we are always selling them something they need, and something they can count on us to provide.”

Another key component of the PISA program is role playing. “We role played with our classmates, and the Katie School also brought in company underwriters and marketing reps so we could role play with them,” 

Sharon says. “That was really good training.”

The program also offered participants an invaluable opportunity to network. “Every year, the producers who attended the class get together,” Sharon says. “We’ve become friends, and we share what we’ve learned 

and what we’re achieving in our careers.”

With the knowledge and skills she gained through the PISA program, Sharon was ready to launch her career as a producer. Her extensive background as a CSR and account manager, she believes, serves her well in 

her new role. “I approach a client or prospect from a customer service perspective,” she says. “My goal is to explain how I can offer a service to the client, rather than trying to sell something.”

The contractor market, Sharon observes, is tough in more ways than one. “With most contractors, insurance is about price, not service,” she observes. “That is, until their mod gets too high or they take on a project 

that involves obtaining and coordinating multiple certificates. That’s when they realize that because I know how to handle those situations, I can add value to the insurance transaction.”"