The first quarter of 2006 is nearly over, but it's not too late to formulate a sales strategy for the rest of the year. The five exercises below can help you set and reach new goals.

Exercise one
All successful salespeople know their key numbers, so ask yourself the following questions:o What is your hit ratio?
o What is your average commission per account on new business?
o What is your current commission per account on renewal business?
o Has the above figure gradually increased over the last five years?
o How many days are available for you to make sales?
o How much do you spend to acquire a new account?
o What can you do to improve the numbers?

Your answers indicate how well you are doing and what, if anything, you need to do differently. For example, if you want to increase your average commission and achieve a closing ratio of at least 75%, you can resolve to do better at pre-qualifying prospects (rather than simply qualifying them).

Exercise two
To determine if you are on the right track to accomplish your goals for 2006, calculate the following: A. Your total commission income goal for 2006.B. Less expected renewal commission income.C. New business income goal (A-B).D. Average commission per account.E. Number of new accounts needed (C/D).F. Closing ratio.G. Number of presentations you need to make (E/F).

Exercise three
List the top 10 or 20 accounts you currently write and estimate your odds (from 1% to 100%) of renewing each one. If you assign a score less than 85% to any of them, immediately begin working to enhance your relationships with those accounts. You must retain your top accounts to hit your goals.

Now that you have identified the 20% of your clients that contribute to 80% of your revenue, list at least 10 prospects that you hope to meet through each of these accounts. If you have 10 “A-list” accounts, and for each one you create 10 referrals based on similar businesses, vendors or suppliers, geographic location etc., then you'll have 100 prospects. Leverage your relationship inventory and work these referrals diligently!

Exercise four
For each of the 100 prospects you just chose to target, create an action plan by listing and tracking the following:
oName of the account.
oNumber of employees.
oPotential commission.
oRelationship to current client.
oGoals in meeting with prospect.
oDeadline for client to make referral introduction.

Exercise five
Assess how well you are managing your current accounts (relationships) and what you need to change to improve or maintain them.
–Client relationships. You need a service-call program for the top 20% (“A-list”) accounts you identified in Exercise Three. Resolve to visit these “A” accounts three times during the year in addition to your renewal visit and to “touch” them once a month. Visit the next tier, or “B” accounts, two times in addition to the renewal visit. Call on your “C” accounts at mid-year and again at renewal time. Your remaining accounts undoubtedly are those with service or claims problems–the ones that ultimately cost you more than they're worth–so get rid of them. Review the results of your service-call program on a monthly basis.
–Top five centers of influence. Select the top five centers of influence in your community to recruit as your mentors and arrange to meet each one at least once a quarter during the year. Doing so will allow you to build strong relationships with key people, help you obtain useful information and open doors of opportunity for your career.
–Commercial-lines renewal review process. For all of your “A” and “B” accounts, develop a specific commercial-lines renewal review process. Include renewal review meetings to see how well you are performing and identify any problems that you need to address.
–Professional development. Your plan to reach your monetary goals should include some type of self-improvement initiative. Consider attending a sales training course and pursuing a professional designation such as CIC, AAI, ARM, CRM or CPCU.

If you would like more advice on your 2006 success planning, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Your future is important, and you control it. Good selling!

Tom Barrett, CIC, AAI, is president of the Midwest and Southeast regions of SIAA Inc., a partnership of more than 1,800 agencies writing $3.75 billion annually in property-casualty premium. Tom also serves on the National Faculty for Dynamics of Selling and Ruble Seminars for The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. For more information on Dynamics of Selling, call (800) 633-2165 or go to www.TheNationalAlliance.com.