A new year is an opportunity to set and achieve your insurance sales goals. The following six steps will help you make this year your most successful yet.
1. Conduct an Honest Self-Assessment.
Before you can decide where you want to go next, you need to figure out where you are now. Conduct an honest self-assessment of your performance over the last year.
- How much premium did you write? This is a key metric that every insurance professional should track.
- How much did you grow? This will tell you whether you’re improving or coasting.
- What was your close ratio? Even if you’re writing a lot of premium, a low close ratio indicates that you’re wasting time on weak leads or inefficient strategies. If you are losing a higher-than-expected number of sales, try to pinpoint why.
- Where did your sales come from? For example, what percentage came from referrals, online searches, purchased leads, or other sources?
- What are your strengths? Lean into these abilities. For example, if you excel at in-person interactions, schedule more events where you can shine.
- What are your weaknesses? Work on these areas. For example, if you always forget to post on social media, subscribe to a social scheduling tool so you can schedule posts in batches.
2. Select Actionable, Attainable Goals.
When insurance sales professionals talk about their goals for the new year, they often say they want to grow their premium. However, a vague goal like this might not give you the direction you need to improve. Instead, think about how much you want to grow – for example, by gaining two new clients a month.
Since some aspects of sales are outside of your control, it’s important to consider goals that involve actions that are 100% within your control.
- Create a stronger online presence.
- Network with centers of influence in your community.
- Expand into disability insurance sales.
- Carve out a new niche, such as disability insurance for accounting firms or small business owners.
3. Break Your Goal Down into Smaller Milestones.
You want to push yourself to achieve big goals; however, big goals can be overwhelming. If you don’t know where to start, you may end up procrastinating. Before you know if, the year will be over, and you won’t have come close to achieving your goal.
Avoid this scenario by breaking down your big goal into several smaller milestones. For example, if your goal is to create a stronger online presence, you might set the following targets for yourself:
- Open a new social media account and add a bio and professional photo.
- Update your website with links to your social media profiles and an online quote engine.
- Post to social media at least three times a week.
- Publish a blog post on your website at least once a week.
Likewise, if one of your goals is to sell more policies, break down exactly what it will take for you to achieve that. For example, if you want to add two more customers each month and your average closing ratio is 25%, you’ll need to meet with eight customers every month. If 20% of the prospects you contact agree to a meeting, you’ll need to reach out to 40 prospects a month.
4. Create a Timeline.
A year is a long time. In fact, it’s so long you might think there’s no need to hurry – you have plenty of time to achieve your goals. However, that type of thinking can sabotage your progress. To avoid stagnating, create a timeline for yourself.
Decide what you want to accomplish each month. Then, dedicate time to achieving that goal. For example, you could spend an hour each morning or every Monday afternoon working on your goal. If you don’t carve out time, you may find that other tasks eat up your hours and you never get around to working on your business goals.
5. Adjust as Needed.
Things don’t always go as planned – everyone has bad days and weeks. Don’t give up. If you fall behind, figure out what you need to do to get back on track. You might need to adjust your goal or change your tactics. You may even discover that your goal was too modest and you need to challenge yourself even more.
6. Set Yourself Up for Success.
You can achieve more with the right strategies and tools. Rather than trying to create everything yourself, use ready-to-go social media posts, sales kits and drip campaigns. If you need more support, consider the DIS Co-Selling Program.
