Top 10 New Year's Resolutions For Agency Planning

TOP 10 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR AGENCY PLANNING

by John Jaques

Use these planning guidelines to grow sales and earnings.

In case you didn’t create a New Year’s resolution list for your agency, consider adapting these:

1. I vow to go on at least one sales appointment per month with each producer who has been with us less than three years and earns less than $500,000 gross commission. (Agency owners and managers are not providing enough teaching, coaching, and mentoring.)
2. I vow to terminate any and all staff or producers performing unacceptably by April 30, after giving due warning by the end of January. (You can’t raise the agency’s quality of service and productivity until you eliminate the weakest links.)
3. I vow to form and listen to a ‘technology task force’ in the agency, which will review automation utilization, phone systems, fax systems, photocopying systems, dead file storage and retrieval, and customer communication methods. I pledge to invest 1% of gross commissions to implement the recommended enhancements and revisions.
4. I vow to make each employee’s job easier to perform this year. (After all, this is really what a manager is supposed to do!)
5. I vow to set at least one focused or target product in the first half of this year, and to develop a specific marketing plan, materials, and activities to pursue that market.
6. I vow to make carrier relationships a part of our agency’s planning process, and to create a quarterly meeting agenda for visits to our top five carriers’ branches. (Agencies don’t focus enough on creating advantages in pricing, underwriting flexibility, and capacity.)
7. I vow to hire at least one new producer, with or without a book of business. (Without new producers under 45 being added, agencies will find it harder to grow internally and perpetuate.)
8. I vow to stop making excuses as an agency owner or manager and to produce personally at least $150,000 in new annual commissions.
9. I vow to increase my budget for staff education, training, and skill building by 25% to 50%. (How else are they going to improve their performance?)
10. I vow to seek actively at least one agency acquisition over $300,000 gross commission. (This will gain growth, volume, critical mass, profit, and leveraged value