FORMALIZING THE PLAN
A plan is only as good as its execution. It is essential that progress be monitored and adjusted and changes made when necessary. Which means that once you prepare the plan, you must not put it in the bottom drawer of your desk and check to see how you did only at the end of the year.
Formalizing the plan means putting it in its final format.
At the very least, your plan should include the final version of the market analysis, summarized as: industry outlook, agency outlook, and key product development.
This should be followed by the agency profile, with appropriate supporting exhibits, agency mission statement, and summary of initiatives, followed by your objectives.
Finally, the plan should include the final production and financial forecasts.
Even though the plan carries the weight of your input and support, it must be the agency plan, and your staff must see it that way-that is, the staff must see it as driven by their activity and your support. You more or less have to step back and let it happen. You are like the coach of an athletic team: You get the team ready, but the players play the game. (The fashionable word for this is 'empowerment.')
Let's look at some general actions:
1. Review progress monthly. Have an agenda, and cover only the plan's (objective's) progress in that meeting.
2. The best time to review monthly progress is when you finish your monthly financial and production summary (after the month's end closing). Set a specific day and time of day for the meeting: for instance, the first Friday after closing.
3. Don't accept excuses for poor results. Find out what the person who failed needs, and if it is possible to give him or her the necessary help, provide it-along with your encouragement and support.
4. Don't solve their problems for them. Be a coach and a good listener, and offer suggestions and encouragement, but the ultimate effort must come from them.
5. Compliment favorable results, and do it in front of the entire group.
6. Never 'dress down' a staff person in front of the group if expected results fail to appear. The results will normally speak for themselves. Listen and offer to help, and get the group involved in the problem; they might be able to get it back on track.
7. Get everyone involved and be positive about it. Enthusiasm is catching. After all, planning is a team effort.
8. When the objective's activity is not what is expected, let the team find the solution.
9. Try to plan for the new year, but think three years ahead. If a three-year plan can get you where you want to be, write three one-year progressive objectives. That is, complete the first leg of the objective the first year, and then move ahead to the next leg the second year, and so on.
10. Keep close to your customers and listen. They will tell you what is good and bad about your organization. Encourage your staff to be good listeners and to solicit client opinions. Use customer-opinion surveys to learn what they want rather than guess it. Be sure you understand what they expect.
11. Ask customers for their input. If you are doing your own newsletter, ask them to write a short article about their business. It is a form of advertising for them: You will be promoting their business to your other clients.
12. Turn problems into opportunities to display just how good your agency is. Promote the agency and have your staff promote themselves as insurance problem-solvers. In planning, this sort of self-promotion can be addressed in many ways, but it boils down to attitude-and planning is the way to change that!