The Three Pillars of a Great Training Team for Insurance Agencies
The Three Pillars of a Great Training Team
Continuing the discussion from last week, today, I want to break down what effective training really looks like inside insurance agencies and why it plays such a critical role in performance, compliance, and long-term growth.
This conversation is especially relevant for agency leaders who don’t have a formal training department, rely on managers to train agents on the fly, see inconsistent results from existing training, or are preparing to scale.
💡The Experiences That Shaped How I Think About Training
Early in my Medicare insurance career, I had two very different training experiences that shaped how I think about training today.
After leaving one organization, I joined a company with a structured four-week training program designed to ensure new agents felt supported and knowledgeable before becoming full producers. Expectations were clear, and training was intentional.
What stood out most was the trainer. He wasn’t just knowledgeable, he also knew how to teach. The way he explained complex topics and engaged the class left a lasting impression and played a major role in sparking my interest in becoming a Medicare trainer myself.
When training ended, success wasn’t measured by sales alone. Retention and compliance mattered just as much. That balance reinforced what it meant to be a good agent, not just a high-producing one.
Later, I joined a much larger organization with significantly more resources. Training there was taken to an entirely different level.
In addition to facilitators, the organization had instructional designers building e-learning and reinforcement training, along with subject-matter experts ensuring accuracy and compliance. Training content went through multiple checkpoints to reduce risk and ensure consistency.
Training wasn’t just delivered. It was designed, reviewed, and refined.
Experiencing both environments showed me the difference between good training and truly structured training, and why delivery alone isn’t enough.
🧑🏫 Training in Insurance Requires Structure
Insurance, and Medicare in particular, is complex and highly regulated. Yet many agencies still treat training as a one-time onboarding event or an added responsibility for sales managers.
The most successful agencies take a different approach. They treat training as a department, not a task.
Strong training departments are built on three core components. Each serves a distinct purpose, and together they create a system that supports agent success.
1️⃣ Pillar One: Facilitators
Facilitators lead onboarding sessions, product training, and compliance education through live instruction.
They help agents turn information into confidence by answering real-world questions, reinforcing expectations, and validating understanding before agents engage with beneficiaries.
Without strong facilitation, agents may complete training requirements but still struggle to apply what they’ve learned.
2️⃣ Pillar Two: Content Creators and Subject-Matter Experts
Most learning happens in the moment, during calls, while navigating systems, or when handling complex situations.
Content creators and subject-matter experts support agents by building job aids, system guides, product comparisons, and compliance-safe scripts that agents can rely on when they need them most.
Strong content reduces dependency on managers, shortens ramp-up time, creates consistency, and lowers compliance risk.
3️⃣ Pillar Three: Instructional Designers and Learning & Development Professionals
Instructional designers bring structure to training.
They design onboarding journeys, apply adult learning principles, align training with business goals, and balance self-paced learning with live facilitation.
Without instructional design, training often becomes reactive and inconsistent.
🎯 Why All Three Pillars Matter
Most agencies understand these three components individually. What’s rare is finding them aligned.
Facilitation, instructional design, and Medicare expertise often live in separate roles or teams. When they aren’t aligned, training becomes fragmented and confusing for agents.
When they are aligned, training becomes cohesive. Performance improves faster, and compliance risk decreases.
Training isn’t about checking a box. It is about building a foundation that supports both individual performance and organizational success.
🤔Where does Insurance Training HQ Fits In
Insurance Training HQ exists to help agency and sales leaders access structured training without having to build or staff an entire training department internally.
By aligning facilitation, instructional design, and Medicare expertise into a single approach, training becomes consistent, practical, and scalable.
💪 Ready to Strengthen Your Training Strategy?
If you are evaluating how your agency trains, supports, and develops agents heading into 2026, now is the right time to take a closer look.
An Agent Success Strategy Call is designed to review your current training structure, identify gaps across facilitation, content, and instructional design, and build a customized roadmap aligned with your business goals.