How to Change the Holiday Slump to the New Year Jump

Is the holiday season the slowest time for your agency? Do the distractions of the season take focus off of identifying ways to grow the business for next year? If you have answered yes to either of these questions, maybe it is time to reconsider how your agency approaches the last few weeks of the year. Instead of seeing this downtime as a holiday slump, turn it into a time to get a jump-start on the New Year. These five strategies will help you focus on the future, while your competitors are busy looking back at the past:

1. Make a Plan

Every agency has the same goal in mind – grow the business. However, of the thousands of agents I have met in my 35 years in the industry, few of them actually have a plan for how they are going to reach their goal. It all starts with the agency’s philosophy. Now that business is quieter, reflect on the type of agency you would like to be running. For example, is it sales-driven, or service-focused?

Once that vision is determined, review the business tactics and understand your strengths and weaknesses. Consider what is being measured, how your people are being managed and motivated, how are day-to-day tasks being completed. In the end, what takes place in your agency each day should clearly align with the agency philosophy and what you want to accomplish.

2. Use the Three “R’s” to Get a “W”

How can referrals, retention and rounding accounts equal a winning agency? The answer can be determined by going back to your agency’s philosophy. Are you primarily focused on servicing clients or producing new clients each and every day? Once that’s determined, establishing a referral and retention plan should take place.

For those focused on service, pay close attention to rounding accounts and payment options for clients. In my experience, if a customer has more than one policy with an agent, they will stay with them longer. Spending time on touch points with customers throughout the year or during life cycle changes (wedding, baby, etc.) is a proactive strategy. In addition, think about payment options. Offering EFT and recurring credit card as options will likely lead to fewer billing questions and greater customer retention.

For those with a sales-driven philosophy, identify where business is coming from. If it’s mainly referrals, make sure your staff is asking for them and understand how and where you are getting them. You might be surprised at how many new prospects you can get by simply asking. Also, tapping into your current personal insurance customer base to increase your number of policies per client or cross selling personal lines to your commercial clients is a way to boost sales.

3. Measure Important Growth Factors

At any point during the year, can you specify where your customers are coming from, how many of them have fully rounded accounts and the number of clients that have left in the past 12 months? If you’re not keeping track of the data that could give you these answers, now is a good time to start. Measuring these items can give you a clear view on what needs to change as well as what everyone is doing right at the agency.

4. Focus on Sales Efficiency

Stop to consider how efficient your agency is throughout the year. Are you maximizing the time spent in the office, or are there ways to improve? Consider improving sales efficiency within your agency by using dual monitors, scanning documents and taking advantage of carrier service centers for billing questions or issuing ID cards. Committing to efficiency enhancements could have a significant impact.

5. Identify the Waste of Time Factor

To identify the Waste of Time factor, you’ll need to be measuring your close rate, number of policies at point of sale, and total number of sold policies for each way you acquire a new client – Internet ad, referral, walk-in, yellow pages, etc. If you are only closing on five percent of Internet leads, the Waste of Time factor is 95 percent. If you are closing on 90 percent of referrals, the Waste of Time factor is 10 percent. By knowing your close rates on the ways you acquire customers, you can see where to spend more time and money.

If you have thought about these ideas and didn’t have time to execute them during the year, take advantage of the slow weeks ahead.

King is a director of Agency Development for Travelers Personal Insurance. Reach him at dking@travelers.com.