CONSISTENCY OR INTENSITY

What’s the best way to get the results we want?

[I]n the real world, especially among sales professionals,

the quest for intensity often overrides the fundamental need for consistency.

By Brent Kelly

When it comes to getting results, which is more helpful: consistency or intensity? What really wins? While each has its place and both are important, one matters more. Ultimately, consistency eclipses intensity every time.

Make no mistake, I love intensity. Intensity is powerful—it feels good and builds excitement.

Consistency also is powerful, but in a different way. Consistency produces momentum, as well as behavior change. More importantly, consistency produces lasting results, which is what most success-minded people and growth-oriented agencies want. They want results, but they want them ASAP. It doesn’t work that way. True transformation is a process, not an event. Just ask a farmer.

Have you ever watched corn grow in the summer? Growing up in the Midwest, I have witnessed its development from kernel to cob, and it seems to take forever. The process begins long before the first stalk sprouts from the ground, starting with the farmer fertilizing and tilling the soil, then planting the seeds and irrigating the field regularly.

Depending on the weather, soil quality and other variables, it typically takes an average of three to four months before the corn is ready to harvest. No amount of intensity is going to make the corn grow faster. The successful farmer knows that only time, patience and consistency will yield the desired results.

The same applies to our industry. Every success-minded person and growth-oriented agency wants results. But too often, we greatly exaggerate what we can do in a short amount of time and underestimate what we can accomplish over a longer period. We tend to be so focused on getting immediate results that we lose sight of the long-term, big picture. We also get impatient, which sabotages any efforts to achieve our goals.

So, what’s the best way to get the results we want? Are we more apt to reach our goals by approaching them with intensity or consistency? Let’s see how they compare in an agency setting.

Leadership

Intensity: We see this all the time, especially after the first of the year. Everyone is all excited about starting over with a clean slate and making this their best year yet. Usually, leadership hosts a big kick-off meeting to get agency staff all revved up about what lies ahead. Everyone agrees that this year will be their best ever!

The service people will promise to work more efficiently, while the producers vow to be more productive by writing more new business. Plans for how they’ll meet their goals are vague, but everyone leaves the meeting feeling pumped up about the possibilities. They’re ready to tackle the New Year with intensity. Sound familiar?

Fast forward a few months, and that’s all a distant memory. You’re starting to realize that one big day won’t fix all your problems. By the second quarter, there’s been no follow-up on anything that excited everyone in January. Within months, rallying cries become the sound of crickets. It’s as if the meeting never happened.

But the intensity of it felt so good that you’ll probably do the same thing next year.

Consistency: Does your agency have regular communication or are your meetings and interactions spontaneous? At agencies with leadership consistency, there’s a cadence of communication. This usually includes having a calendar of events that are scheduled throughout the year. That way, everyone knows what’s expected of them and that they’ll be held accountable. Regularly scheduled events may include:

• Quarterly state-of-the-agency reports
• Weekly sales meetings
• Monthly one-on-ones. Preferable to annual performance reviews, monthly meetings can address critical issues and implement change before it’s too late. If you only meet once a year, there’s no way to tweak poor performance or correct behaviors along the way.

For those who think that small changes can’t make a big difference, consider this: If you were flying from LAX to JFK and your flight plan deviated by just one degree, you’d end up either in Dover, Delaware, or Albany, New York! By the time the plane lands, it’s too late to adjust the course.

That’s why making slight adjustments consistently—and promptly—can significantly alter results, whether you’re an airline pilot or an agency leader. Assuming you’re the latter, it’s better to consistently make adjustments starting in March than in December. By then, it’s tempting to defer any changes until after the New Year because it seems too late to make a difference.

Sales

Intensity: Any producer who has 12 appointments in one week will tell you it’s intense (and wonderful). However, such intensity often is followed by feeling let down when they have just one appointment for each of the next 48 weeks. Or maybe you’ve experienced the intense elation that comes from writing that one big account you tirelessly worked on for weeks or months. Afterwards, you feel so confident that you take your foot off the gas and stop prospecting.

In two to three months, you realize your pipeline is empty and stomp on the gas, trying to make up for lost time.

As challenging as it is to regain intensity, it’s even more difficult to sustain. Once you lose its momentum, results tend to become inconsistent. Every good quarter seems to be followed by a bad quarter. Beyond producing poor results, this up-and-down cycle creates considerable frustration.

Consistency: The most successful producers I work with understand the importance of always having a full pipeline. They never run dry because pipeline development is a weekly, non-optional function. They’re consistent about it.

Without consistency, a full pipeline is more like a pipe dream. Consistency makes it achievable. This applies to most goals in life.

For example, if your New Year’s resolution is to lose 50 pounds in a year, you probably won’t reach your goal if you start dieting and exercising in December. Wouldn’t it be easier and more realistic to start working toward that goal in January and lose one pound a week? Or are you one to embark on projects with great enthusiasm, only to quickly lose interest?

Intensity without consistency makes it difficult to get back on track and easy to make excuses: “That wasn’t so important to me, anyway.” “I set my goals too high.” “No one else I know was able to do it.”

So how can you as a producer avoid this trap and be more consistent? Just do it (whatever “it” may be) to reach your sales goal. Then do it again and again and again until it becomes a habit. For example:

• Develop your pipeline and make sure that it is always full.
• Schedule new appointments every week.
• Commit to attend weekly networking events and activities.