Newton's First Law of Motion states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.
WINNING STRATEGIES
To grow, agencies must keep moving and learning
By Roger Sitkins
If you want to get the ball rolling and keep the ball rolling, you absolutely must have a proactive sales management program in place in your agency.
Newton's First Law of Motion states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.
How does this apply to your agency and its sales results? An agency that is in "motion," moving forward, tends to keep moving forward. An agency at rest, one that has gone into what I call flat growth (working hard to stay the same size) tends to stay at rest.
Understanding this, one of the keys then to successful and profitable agency growth is to get the agency in "motion." Once it is in motion, then make sure that no outside force causes it to stop the motion. Let us define "motion" as positive and profitable results in your agency's Critical Indicators. The main Critical Indicators I look at are Closing Ratio, Revenue per Relationship, Revenue per Producer, Revenue per Employee, and of course, Operating Profits.
Because you are reading this article, I am going to assume that you and your agency are already in motion. This being the case, let's review what needs to happen in your agency to "Keep the Ball Rolling" in the proper direction.
"You never graduate"
First, and foremost, agency management must have the attitude, and create a culture, that says: "You never graduate." The reality is that way too many people in our industry "graduate." They obtain their degree and insurance licenses and think they have arrived.
The attitude of "you never graduate" creates a culture in your agency that keeps the ball rolling. It stresses the expectation that everyone will continually look for improvements in themselves and their agencies.
One of the attitudes I stress to the members of The Sitkins 100(TM) is that there is always one more level and one more question. No matter how well you are doing, there is always another level to achieve. No matter how great a job you believe you have done in uncovering the "pain issues" of a prospect, there is always another question that can be asked.
So if you want to keep the ball rolling, have an agency attitude that says, you never graduate.
Celebrating successes
There is an old saying that says, "Nothing breeds success like success." I'm often amazed that most agencies do not "keep the ball rolling" by celebrating their successes. I believe that every agency should have a "Victory Bell." This bell should ring one time for every $1,000 of new commission income generated on a new relationship opened.
In fact, with the current market conditions, you should also ring it on every "A" and "B" account that renews.
In addition to sales-related celebrations, you should celebrate any and all accomplishments by your staff. When someone completes an AAI course, a part of CPCU, or simply becomes licensed, celebrate! Look for reasons to celebrate!
Sales management
We have discussed the need for strong sales management many times before. If you want to get the ball rolling and keep the ball rolling, you absolutely must have a proactive sales management program in place in your agency. Somewhat surprisingly, only about 10% of agencies admit to having formal sales management in their firms. I believe the role of the "Head Coach of Sales" is to force people to do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.
The vast majority of producers will tell you they want to earn more money. Yet most of them won't "pay the price" necessary to earn more money. They won't rehearse their presentations (new and renewal). They won't ask for referrals. They won't super qualify their prospects. They won't cross-sell. They won't trade down accounts and focus on their vital few relationships, vs. their trivial many.
Sales management needs to keep the ball rolling by identifying and enforcing the "Non-Optional Behaviors." These are the strategies that absolutely guarantee increased sales and retention. These Non-Optional Behaviors should be placed in an annual Producer Performance Agreement that documents the goals and behaviors for the year. The producers and the agency should have their "feet held to the fire" concerning the mutual agreements in this document.
Prospect pipelines
It's pretty darn hard to keep the ball rolling when producers don't have prospect pipelines that are overflowing with filtered referred leads. Yes, I've talked about this many times before. However, are all of your producers in a situation where they have more opportunities than time?
If not, you need to implement the Top Twenty Prospect program ASAP. Every producer should have a list of the top 20 prospects they are going to pursue this year. Once identified, they will start an MVP campaign--mail, visit, phone. Each month the top 20 prospects have a positive contact from the agency. On a rotating basis, the prospect receives a piece of mail, then a visit, then a phone call. Your goal here is simple; the prospect receives more positive contacts from you than from his or her current agency.
De-briefing
If you really want to keep the ball rolling, make the de-briefing of every sales opportunity a "norm" in your agency. To me, the real purpose of de-briefing your sales opportunities is to learn from your losses and replicate your victories.
When you lose a new account, invest the time to find out exactly what happened. Learn from any mistakes and cultivate an attitude that says, "We never allow negative history to repeat itself." Also, you have to ask yourself if the lost account should go back into the prospect pipeline.
When you write a new account, de-brief it to find out exactly what you did correctly. Once identified, replicate the strategies.
Again, learn from your losses and replicate your victories!
Monthly State of the Agency meetings
Clearly, the agency CEO should run a Monthly State of the Agency meeting to keep everyone on the same page and to keep the ball rolling. Every member of the agency team should participate in this monthly gathering.
During this meeting, agency results in your Critical Indicators are shared. The agency's Mission/Vision Statement is reviewed. The Critical Success Factors (the few basic things the agency will do exceedingly well all the time) are reviewed.
Training and education
If you are going to keep the ball rolling, you'd better have a staff that is involved in on-going training and education--not only insurance-related training, but also skills-based training. These can be sales skills, customer retention skills, automation skills, communication skills, etc.
Remember my statement--You never graduate! Always force increased skills development on your staff.
Get on the edge
I read a great quote recently from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: "I want to stay as close to the edge as possible without going over. Out on the edge you can see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
Is your agency out on the edge or in the center? If you want to keep the ball rolling, you'd better be out on the edge! You need to be out there looking for new and exciting strategies to help you and your agency team grow. You need to be looking for some of the exciting opportunities happening in the marketplace. You need to get your employees to think out on the edge, not in the middle.
You are either leading edge or folding edge when it comes to keeping the ball rolling.
As always, it's your choice. *
The author
Roger Sitkins is the president of Sitkins Group, Inc., of Fort Myers, Florida. Sitkins Group has provided services to more than 2,000 independent insurance agencies, helping them to "force vertical growth" in their sales and marketing arenas, while quantum leaping profitability. Sitkins offers a Producer Training Camp where graduates have increased their closing ratio by 69% and their revenue per sale by 71% in one year. Sitkins also offers a CEO Training Camp, aimed at helping owners to manage their agency to a 25% plus profit by implementing business, management and financial planning for controlled, profitable growth.