SELL MORE BY SELLING MORE

How to play to win

It’s not about being busy; it’s about creating results.

By Roger Sitkins

According to the latest Growth and Profitability Study from Reagan Consulting, agency organic growth dropped to just 8.5% in both the first and second quarters of this year. As a result of lower organic growth and a 15% drop in contingent income, EBITDA margins also fell in the second quarter. While this may indicate that the economy is slowing, it’s still possible to accelerate organic growth.

The best strategy to accelerate true organic growth is simple and straightforward: Sell more by selling more! See how simple that is? You’ll notice I used the word, “simple.” Simple doesn’t mean something is easy; it just means it’s uncomplicated. While it may be easily understood, executing it requires pig-headed discipline.

A recent study showed the impact of pig-headed discipline. Look at the percentage of sales that are made after the 4th contact with a prospect. All too often we see producers breaking one of the Sitkins strategies: Never say no for the prospect, make them say no. Just because they haven’t responded to your voice mails, emails, or text messages doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t interested. Like all of us, they simply may be covered up.

• 2% of all sales are made on the 1st contact.
• 3% of all sales are made on the 2nd contact.
• 5% of all sales are made on the 3rd contact.
• 10% of all sales are made on the 4th contact.
• 80% of all sales are made on the 5th-12th contact.

Enhancing organic growth also quickly requires an agency culture and cadence of accountability. Imagine what your agency’s results might be if all your team members actually did everything that they said they were going to do. What if your producers committed to the Ultimate Growth Strategy of round out, retain, and replicate the top 20% of your clients and everyone executed at 100%?

That would be fantastic, wouldn’t it? Even at 80%, your results would be industry leading.

We often use sports-related analogies during our Best Version Possible (BVP) training and development programs. One of the real eye-openers is when we remind participants, “You only score points when you’re in the game!” Basketball superstar Michael Jordan didn’t attain GOAT status by avoiding the hardwood. The reality is that most producers are not in the selling game often enough. You can’t score points when you’re sitting on the sidelines.

Core BVP strategies

As the job title suggests, a producer is one who produces. Accordingly, a primary strategy of our BVP programs is to help them retain and obtain ideal clients. If the producers did nothing more than that, they’d be scoring a lot of points. However, there are additional key strategies producers and owners should implement if their goal is controlled, quality, profitable growth.

• Distinguish activities from results. It’s not about being busy; it’s about creating results. Activity-based agencies and producers remind me of the movie Groundhog Day. Every day and subsequently every week, month, quarter and year looks the same. Nothing ever changes.
  Like a hamster on a wheel, doing the same thing over and over may feel productive, but if it doesn’t yield the desired results, it’s nothing more than repetitious activity.
      If you listen to what people talk about, you learn the culture of the agency. Their language reveals whether the agency is activity-based or results-based. You may be hearing this: “Wow, I’m too busy to seek out another prospect or sell new business,” or “I’m buried in work; we’re totally backlogged!”
      What you want to hear is this: “Wow, I just added a major client!” or “We renewed our two largest clients,” or “I just had lunch with a center of influence and received three outstanding referrals.” Is your agency language based on activities or results?
• Hold high-performance team meetings. The producer and their service partner(s) should be holding High Performance Team (HPT) meetings every Monday. These meetings are driven by an agenda that debriefs last week and prebriefs several weeks to come. The key is to be consistent. Otherwise, it’s easy to overlook your obligations and fall behind on what needs to be done.
  The goal of HTP meetings is to let nothing drop through the cracks. As a result, you’ll stop playing catch-up and get ahead of the game.
• Create a team directory. A team directory to give your A and B clients is an invaluable tool from both a service and sales standpoint. It contains the names and photos of all the employees responsible for retaining the client. Starting with the account manager, the directory includes claims, loss control, and accounting contacts and, finally, the producer.
  You’ll note that the producer is last on the list, not first, and for good reason. Most producers have a habit of telling their clients, “Call me if you need anything at all—I provide great personal service!” When you do that, you set yourself up to be stuck in the Red Zone, the service trap.
      To avoid that, explain that for all day-to-day service items, here are the people to contact. It’s a matter of educating customers about how to receive the best service. Otherwise, they’ll always be calling the producer they worked with when they have a service question.
• Change your voicemail message. When you can’t take a phone call, your callers probably hear a message like this: “Hi, this is Roger Sitkins. I’m unavailable now, so please leave your name, number, and a brief message and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.”
  But what percent of your voice mails do you end up handing off to a service team member? A more efficient message would be, “Hi, this is Roger Sitkins. I’m out of the office visiting clients today. For immediate service, dial extension 114 for Janey Cahill. If you still need to talk to me, leave your name, number and a brief message, and I’ll call you back within 24 hours.”
      Typically, I don’t need to make the return call because Janey has already directed them to someone on the service team. I believe most incoming calls can be handled this way.
• Activate an automatic email reply. Your email inbox should have an out-of-office notice that automatically responds to all incoming messages. It’s one of the best ways to circumvent the endless email disruptions that kill productivity.
  Much like your voicemail message, it should read, “I’m not available right now. For immediate service, please contact Janey Cahill at Janey@Sitkins.com.” Several of the top producers we work with also include something like this in their automated reply: “I respond to emails twice a day, at 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.”
      What percent of emails do you ultimately forward to an account manager, service team member or someone else?
• Set appointments with yourself. It’s critical to schedule appointments for all important functions, especially Green Zone activities (sales, relationship management, continuations, and pipeline building). Make these appointments non-optional.
  On our Producer’s Peak Performance Calendar, Monday is a prep day, Tuesday and Thursday are Reach-Out and PUMP (Pick Up My Phone) days, and Friday is a cleanup and debrief day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are Game Days, with three appointments scheduled for each day.
      Remember, Game Days are when you score your points!

• Allot time to network. Schedule at least two networking events per week. These can be service club meetings, community functions, trade association meetings, or some other organized professional gathering.
  As part of their planning, one of the most successful agencies I’ve ever worked with always made sure they were represented at a minimum of two events per week. Their producers were always out in the community. As a result of being a constant presence in area newspapers, magazines and trade journals, the agency grew exponentially and became a $40 million commission income firm.