New Years Goals

[midwestbroker]

Since it is the new year I am not making any resolutions, only goals, I thought I would see what everyone else is doing to track their goals.

I use a spreadsheet. I put in the number of sales I am looking to do, and then fill in where I am at so it can tell me where I am at for the month. It also calculates the $ part as I type in the MTD sales.

I am thinking of getting a dry erase board to further this. Keep it on the wall so I am seeing it all the time rather then once a day when I type in my sales / daily activities.

Any other thoughts or other ways out there that work?

 

[J.R.]

Since it is the new year I am not making any resolutions, only goals, I thought I would see what everyone else is doing to track their goals.

I use a spreadsheet. I put in the number of sales I am looking to do, and then fill in where I am at so it can tell me where I am at for the month. It also calculates the $ part as I type in the MTD sales.

I am thinking of getting a dry erase board to further this. Keep it on the wall so I am seeing it all the time rather then once a day when I type in my sales / daily activities.

Any other thoughts or other ways out there that work?

I think you have a great idea. I am going to use spreadsheets to keep track of everything (i.e., sales goals, commissions, telemarketing, marketing, etc.). The dry erase board is a great idea and I am going to purchase one myself. It is a gentle reminder about where you are and where you are going. I also plan on purchasing a mobile device so I can receive e-mails and have client information ready to go no matter where I am.

I would love to know what type of tracking software some of the pros are using to help keep track of their telemarketers. I recently looked into freecrm.com and like what I see, but I am curious to know if any of you have other suggestions.

-J.R.

 

[somarco]

Get one of the wall calendars sold at Office Depot One that you can write on with a grease pencil or dry erase marker. For each month put your monthly & YTD goal, then fill in over/under for each week.

Money goals are fine but hard to hit consistently. Rather than making a monthly commission goal, determine how many prospects you must have each day/week/month to achieve your money goals. If you fall short of your "work" goal you know what you have to do to catch up.

Activity always breeds results. Set goals for activity, not dollars.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

You nailed my method right on the head. First of all, I've always used a dry erase board. I need something I can stare at to get a snapshot of my appointments.

Also, money is never my goal since it's hard to control. Instead, I use leads as my goal. If you know you closing ratio - ei: 1 out of 8 leads, all you need to do is set daily goals to ramp up leads.

My goal this year is to work 10 leads per day.

 

[cod8825]

One goal that I do not here many people talk about is how they are going to increase their product knowledge, sales knowledge, marketing knowledge.

I have gathered that many people basically run their business in similar fashions. There are a few variances but all in all about the same.

Cold Calling, B2B walk a talk, some internet leads, referrals for lead generation.

Pre-qualification, quote generation, in-office visit, or online or over the phone application.

Last Customer Service to retain new client.

This has worked very well for most here. Because I lean to creativity I always wonder if there is more efficient less time consuming ways to run our business. I know a lot of people out there sell "systems" like Lew Nason at insuranceproshop.com.

The reason I say this is I read a book by Jay Abraham who is one the most well known marketers of our time and he wrote a book called

HOW TO GET EVERYTHING YOU CAN OUT OF EVERYTHING YOU GOT In it he stated that often time 90% of every market does the same thing and achieves in reality the results. Often time if try something new that maybe is ok in another market it would explode in your market.
I know it took a paragraph to get to the point but I think it is an thought to mull over a little bit.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I use a combination of several things. I have found that necessary to do to give me an accurate picture of not only where I am at any given time in reaching my ultimate goal but where and why I am falling down if I'm running behind.

My ultimate goal is not commission but annualized premium (AP) for the year. If I attain the premium goal I have set, the commission will be there. I break down the AP I want to achieve for each product line I sell and then add them up to give me a total for the year.

I have found that just knowing if I'm behind or not in attaining my goal isn't enough. If I'm falling short I feel that I need to know why I am behind and what changes I need to make to get back on track. The computer program I use will help me analyze my progress during the year.

Each month I print a report that shows me the total number of leads I worked and what kind of leads they were. If an appointment was generated from that lead, where the lead came from, and how many of the leads I had set appointments with were sold.

This enables me to see the kind of leads I'm selling the most of and where the best leads are coming from. It allows me to more steadily concentrate on the types of leads that I am having the most success with. Also to see the lead source that I'm having the best results with. (If I find that I'm selling very few leads from ABC Company but a lot from XYZ Company I may stop buying from ABC Company and buy more from XYZ. If I send out direct mail leads I can see which lead piece is working best.)

I also print a report that shows all of my sales for the range of dates I enter. (Several days, several months or for the year to date.) It will show me the type of policy sold, where I sold it, the date it was sold and the premium. I can look at the dates sales were made and if there is a large gap between sales it might be an indication that I wasn't concentrating as hard as I should have been in setting appointments.

It will also show me if that policy is still in force. I may be writing enough business during the month to keep current with my goal but if all of a sudden I am getting a lot of cancellations it may be because I have changed my presentation or taken short cuts and gotten lazy when in front of a prospect. (Taking "short cuts" in your presentation is very easy to do in this business, especially if you have been doing it a long time.) I catch myself doing that from time to time and have to remind myself to get back to what has proven to work regardless of how boring it may sound to me. I have to keep telling myself that the prospect is hearing it for the first time.

However, the ultimate indicator that shows if I am on track in attaining my annual goal is the amount of annualized premium I have written. The annualized premium report I can print will show me where I am at any given time during the year. I usually print it for a range of dates starting at the beginning of the year to the end of the current month.

It shows me the company I wrote the policy with, the type of policy it is, the date I sold it, if that policy is still in force (if it has been cancelled the annualized premium amount for that policy will appear as all zeros so the total annualized premium to date represents only policies currently in force) and the billing method.

I always try to stay ahead of where I think I should be at any given time to give myself a little of a cushion in case I have a slow week or two or want to take a short break.

I don't always like the stats that I see. If I'm falling behind I may be telling myself that I'm working my butt off and the leads aren't any good, people aren't spending any money now or I need to find a new company to write for, etc. I'm sure you know all of the "standard excuses". However, when I look at the reports I discover that it is most often something I'm either doing that is wrong or not doing that is the problem. (I hate it when that happens!)

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I'd like to see more people set daily goals. Far too many new reps I know set montly or annual goals. The problem with that is you can "I'll do it tomorow" yourself right out of business. When you set daily goals there is no tomorrow, just the work you need to accomplish today.

 

[somarco]

Frank. Anyone accuse you of being anal?

I mean that as a compliment.

I can crunch numbers with the best of them but had to get away from spreadsheets and the like. Found myself spending way too much time on refining & analyzing and not enough time being productive.

John's comments about small goals is something I neglected to mention and something I have used for a long time. Yearly & monthly goals are overwhelming but daily goals can be manageable.

If you need $3000/month that's $100/day (or $130 for a 5 day work week). $3000 may scare you but $130 is a piece of cake.

Using the over/under tracking, another way to stay on task is to make a note (even mentally if not literally) of how much you spend each day. If you are spending more than you earn for that day you will eventually get in trouble.

Daily goals are easy to attain. When my son was in scouts he was not particularly athletic (still isnt). We would go on hikes (full backpack) and he wanted to quit. I can vividly recall coaching him almost every step of the way of a 5 mile hike, almost all uphill. I told him to just make it to the next big rock or the tree with moss on it. If he can make it that far then we pick another target. As long as his target was in sight he could see he was making progress. We were the last ones to the top but finally made it, 100 yards at a time.

BTW, he became the second youngest Eagle (by 2 months) in the 40+ year history of the troop. He did it by taking baby steps, not giant leaps, all the way through to his goal.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

"Today" is scary to most agents I talk to. Of course, you can't start making calls until you've done all your studying and research. Then you can't start calling until you've got all your spreadsheets set up and office in order. Now it's Thursday and it's off to Office Depot to buy more crap that you really don't need but it's a great way of delaying making cold calls while fooling yourself into thinking you're actually working. Of course, you don't want to make calls at 9am - that's too early. You don't want to make calls at noon - that's lunch. And what's the point of making calls late in the afternoon when not many people answer? Oh well, another day shot to hell - but I'll DEFINITELY do it tomorrow!

My days are defined by how many new leads are generated. I know my income will suck when three days go by and I only have a few new leads to work.

 

[MIBizInsurance]

"You nailed my method right on the head. First of all, I've always used a dry erase board. I need something I can stare at to get a snapshot of my appointments. "

Same here!

Have used pretty much all contact software over the years yet still prefer to see all of my appointments/to do's wright in front of me.