Commercial Lines Marketing Plan: Part Iii

Now that you’ve decided on the markets to pursue and your marketing approach, it’s time to initiate the plan. In this final article of a three-part series Jack Fries discusses the steps you’ll take to implement a successful marketing and sales strategy.

ASSIGN RESPONSIBILITIES

Ask who’s going to do what, when will it begin, and when will it be completed? This I call Action Planning. You’ll find a sample format for creating the Action Plan at the end of this article. Follow up by management is essential. Some items that you list will depend on the completion of another task. Once the tasks are assigned, you must check with the responsible individuals periodically to ensure that they’ve completed their part in accordance with the plan.

TRAIN STAFF

The only thing worse than training an employee who leaves is not training one who stays. In this case, I’m talking about sales training. This training should include everyone who is responsible for sales, whether they’re an outside producer or a CSR. I find far too many agency owners and managers assigning sales tasks to individuals without any sales training. You can imagine the results: Poor closing ratios and lots of time wasted quoting with very little to show for it.

ESTABLISH A REPORTING FORMAT

Once the plan is in place, responsibilities assigned, and the training is complete, you need to create a reporting format. In What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, Mark McCormick states, “What gets measured gets done.” All personnel have to be managed properly to insure the success of the plan. This means regularly reporting on their stewardship. Have they done what was supposed to be done, when and how it was to be done?

SET ACCOUNTABILITY

Make every employee accountable for their time and assignments. I’ve used the phrase many times: Non-Optional Activities. The tasks assigned are not optional. The employee must complete the assignments properly. The person either does what’s required or they don’t. There’s no middle ground. In these competitive times, it’s too difficult to make a profit if staff members can’t accomplish or refuse to do tasks assigned to them. Without accountability, there is anarchy. Remember that Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.

MONITOR RESULTS

Sometimes marketing plans will work exactly as designed; and sometimes they need some “tweaking.” You might try one marketing method and find it to be less than profitable. If that happens, don’t give up — try another method. Continue to do what’s successful and eliminate those projects that show few or no positive results.

Good luck on creating and implementing your Marketing and Sales plans! Be persistent in your pursuit of your goals and success and profits will follow.

ACTION PLAN