What Is Making—Or Taking—Your Agency’s Momentum?

Are your team members propelling

the agency forward or pushing it back?

[P]ositive momentum puts you in a better position to succeed. Getting

there may not be easy, but the opportunities it brings promise to make it well worth the effort.

By Brent Kelly

People often struggle to define momentum because it seems intangible and, yet we’re all familiar with it. Physics defines it as “the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.” In practical terms, momentum simply refers to movement. 

You know it when you see it or, more typically, when you feel it.

For example, if you’re a fan watching a football game and your team is having trouble scoring or gaining yardage, you probably feel frustrated and discouraged. But then there’s a big play and the entire momentum of the game changes, along with your mood. Suddenly, you feel energized.

With momentum on your side, you entertain the idea that your team could win the game. As they score a touchdown, you feel euphoric—until you see the yellow flag on the field. Just like that, you’re deflated. The momentum has shifted again.

Whether seismic or subtle, for better or for worse, shifts in momentum also can occur in an insurance agency. These shifts are either positive or negative. Depending on what you do, you’re either gaining momentum or losing it. For example, one day things at your agency seem great. You’re getting lots of referrals and writing new business. You’re gaining momentum.

Then, inexplicably you’re struggling to make your numbers. No matter how hard you work, your performance falters and nothing seems to go your way. You’re losing momentum. You wonder what went wrong and how you will recoup your forward movement.

Like other organizations, your agency comprises Momentum Makers and Momentum Takers. Momentum Makers propel your agency forward, while Momentum Takers push it back. Although it’s possible to regain lost momentum, the most successful agencies keep from losing it in the first place by continually adding Momentum Makers and avoiding Momentum Takers.

Momentum Makers move their agency ahead by improving its culture (language and behaviors), productivity, relationships and results. Momentum Takers have the opposite effect, hindering an agency’s overall productivity and growth. In your agency, can you distinguish the Makers from the Takers?

Whether your agency experiences positive or negative momentum often depends on the following key areas.

Communication

Momentum Takers have no clarity. They’re confused about what they need to do, and so they hope that nothing bad happens. What’s more, they communicate reactively, both internally (with their teams) and externally (with clients). Typically, they take the easy way out. Takers would rather fix a problem than prevent it. They wait for clients to contact them about an issue or problem, which by then may be too late to resolve.

By not communicating with clients until the clients contact them, Takers cost the agency valuable time as well as money. Beyond losing accounts, they also lose credibility and, ultimately, momentum.

Momentum Makers have clarity about their mission, their roles and their responsibilities. They communicate proactively through intentional and consistent weekly High-Performance Team meetings. These meetings enable sales and service staff to discuss key clients, red flags, commitments to clients, schedules and more.

Because they anticipate and address issues before they become a problem, their agency gains momentum, which in turn creates abundance.

Productivity

Momentum Takers do the things they perceive as most urgent, which is usually whatever is right in front of them. They’ re always busy but never productive. Their first order of business is to take care of the minor, mindless tasks that require the least effort. After all, it’s much easier to scroll through endless emails than to tackle what’s truly important.

Takers figure it’s better than doing nothing at all, plus it gives them a sense of accomplishment. Sadly, activity does not equal accomplishment, as I’ve discussed many times.

While I’m not suggesting you ignore things like email, it’s important to recognize that you lose momentum when you prioritize answering text messages and email over the things you should be doing to generate income. Do you really need to scour your inbox during the time you work at your highest-level or can it wait until later? Remember, emails are someone else’s priority—not yours.

Momentum Takers also perceive that every issue is an emergency and, therefore, are constantly interrupting their service team. This is counterproductive. If everything is an emergency, nothing is an emergency. Until your agency spells out what constitutes an emergency that warrants help from another department, disruptions will continue to erode your momentum.

Momentum Makers know how to prioritize. Business and self-help author Steven Covey writes about this in his best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Good performers prioritize their schedule and great performers schedule their priorities.” That’s so true. You create momentum when you identify, prioritize and execute the non-negotiables. These are the thing(s) that absolutely, positively must get done ASAP.

Makers are very intentional with their calendar. In addition to a list of impact items for the week, their calendar specifies what needs to be done first. A producer’s calendar should contain a “to-do” list of their primary revenue-generating items, in order of importance. The list might include:

Sales and sales conversations

Proactive relationship management

Pipeline development

Although it depends on your role and responsibilities, your weekly calendar should be set the Friday before the week begins. That way, if you see holes in your schedule, you can plan how to use the time most effectively. When Monday rolls around, you’ll be focused and ready for the week.

Preparation

Would you rather invest an hour to change the oil in your car or spend the time and money to get it fixed when it breaks down? That’s the difference between preparing and repairing. Certainly, preparing requires forethought and effort, but repairing typically takes much longer, costs a lot more and requires more energy and patience.

Momentum Takers don’t like to practice and rehearse; they like to wing it. In lieu of preparation, they simply show up, throw up and blow up. They’re known to “techno-barf” on prospects before realizing—after the fact—what happened. By then it’s too late to do anything about it.

Is it possible to show up unprepared and still get some wins? Certainly. But how many times has your lack of preparation caused you to lose momentum? How many times have you left an appointment and kicked yourself for not asking a couple of specific questions you’d thought about but forgotten because you weren’t well rehearsed?

As a participant in one of our producer training programs lamented, “I’ve got to stop rehearsing my presentation during the actual presentation!”

Relying on on-the-job practice is extremely risky because the penalties for failing are significant. And it’s not just money and momentum that you stand to lose. You also lose credibility by looking unprofessional. This can have a ripple effect on future referrals and income-generating opportunities. You only have one chance to make a first impression. Make it a good one.