TWO WAYS TO BOOST COMMISSIONS
by Gil Simonds
Account size and quality can adversely affect the value of an agency’s or producer’s book, due to a combination of lower revenues, declining retention, and higher support (service) costs.
Besides increasing the size of accounts, agencies can take two other steps to grow their revenues:
1. Improve Delegation
I often see producers who don’t trust CSRs or Account Managers. The producer might wonder what the client will think if he or she isn’t involved in every service transaction. Some producers have even told me, “I’ll lose accounts if they don’t think I’m taking personal care of them – they’ll never deal with anyone else!” Do you believe this? I don’t. Study after study has shown that if clients receive quality service that’s dependable, and consistent, they don’t care who’s providing it. The solution: Maximize the producer’s sales time by delegating all service functions to the support staff. There’s no reason to turn the producer into a “Super CSR.'
2. Encourage Support Staff To Make Decisions
Support people who hesitate to make decisions when they encounter something new (phone request, mail, email, producer request, etc.) cost your agency time and money. It’s all too easy for procrastination to set in – this is why I’ve have seen so many “stacks” in working with agencies over the years. Indecision leads to a costly duplication of effort, because the support staff will have to deal with the same issue sooner or later. Encourage your support staff to make prompt decisions by: (1) reinforcing the need for producers to delegate; (2) training staff members in the decision-making process; and (3) giving them the confidence to make timely decisions, without fear!
You can put a lot more “meat” on either or both of these two “bones.”
Please drop me an e-mail to let me know if these articles help or benefit you. My goal is to provide information that’s making a difference to you and your agency.
Gil Simonds, CPCU, is president of Total Management Resources (Atlanta, GA) an agency sales and management consulting firm. You can contact him at (404) 250-9007, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.totalmanagementresources.com.