How to Get a Jump on the New Year

5 Ways Independent Agents Can Begin the Year Poised for Growth

Did the distractions of the holiday season take focus off of identifying ways to grow your business in the new year? If so, here are five strategies to help you focus on the future.

1. Make a Plan
Every agency wants to grow the business. However, few have a plan to reach their goal. It starts with the agency’s philosophy. Reflect on the type of agency you would like to be running; 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 your agency’s philosophy. Are you focused on servicing clients or producing new clients every day? Once that’s determined, establishing a referral and retention plan should take place.

For those focused on service, pay attention to rounding accounts and payment options. If customers have more than one policy with an agent, they will stay with the agent longer. Spending time on touch points with customers throughout the year or during life cycle changes (wedding, baby, etc.) is a proactive strategy. Also 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 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
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? Keep track of the data that could give you these answers; they can give you a clear view on what needs to change and what is being done right at the agency.

4. Focus on Sales Efficiency
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.

5. Identify the Waste of Time Factor
To identify the Waste of Time factor, you’ll need to measure 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 5 percent of Internet leads, the Waste of Time factor is 95 percent. If you are closing on 90 percent of referrals, the 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.

Listen to a podcast with King as he shares his slump-busting sales tips at www.insurance journal.tv.