There's an old saying that cautions, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Top producers start with planning their year, and continue the process until they know exactly what needs to be done today—this morning. Do plans change from time to time? Of course they do, sometimes to make mid-course corrections, sometimes to put out fires. But once the correction has been made, or the fire is out, they return to The Plan. An integral part of planning is good record keeping. Knowing your “numbers” is what makes it possible to effectively plan. Your close ratio, average premium sold, number of initial appointments required to make one presentation, number of phone calls to get an appointment, etc. will help you understand the value of your time and keep your plans realistic.

Give them what they want

Does it sometimes seem as if your companies are constantly declining to quote on your prospects—and when they do, they're not competitive? Look carefully at the companies represented by your agency to determine what they like to write. Then look at your marketing territory. Are there plenty of good prospects that fit your companies' underwriting appetite? If so, the solution is easy: target those prospects your companies like. If not, it could be there's not a good market match between the kind of business your companies like to write and the prospects available in your marketing territory. This means it may be time to look for carriers with a closer match.

Plan sales and prospecting time

Block out time for critical prospecting and sales activities, then fill in the remaining time with non-sales activities. Approach it any other way and the non-sales activities will almost always win out. If you've planned to make prospecting calls Monday morning from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., and a prospect asks to meet you at 9 a.m., your response should be: “Sorry, but I already have an appointment at that time. Can we get together that afternoon at 2 p.m., or would Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. work for you?” Not only does this help you to stick with your prospecting plan, but it also suggests to your prospect that you are a busy, successful insurance agent.

Stay out of the office

One top producer told me it was his goal to never be in the office during business hours. If he needed time in the office, he stopped in before the agency opened or after it closed. Why? Because he wanted to be in front of prospects, clients and centers of influence during business hours. Outside producers need to be “road warriors.” Cell phones and laptops are their “weapons.”

Work by appointment whenever possible. Make appointments with underwriters and agency support staff just as you do with prospects and clients. If you need to talk with an underwriter, use e-mail to first make an appointment. Your call will be expected and the underwriter will be prepared for the discussion. Or the underwriter may resolve the issue by e-mail and the meeting won't be needed at all. The same approach works with agency support staff. Rather than waiting for a CSR to get off the phone or finish up with a customer, make an appointment via e-mail. You'll be surprised how much more you can get done when you work by appointment. And try to have these conversations from the field on your cell phone, if possible. This will help you minimize office time.

Cluster prospecting activities around scheduled appointments. You probably pass a number of excellent prospects on the way to and from appointments every day. Why not leave the office early and call on those prospects and clients? This helps maximize your prospecting time. Consider purchasing Microsoft's Streets and Trips software. This product makes it possible for you to visualize all your prospects and clients on a map so you can better organize your day and be aware of opportunities in areas near your appointments. It will even plot the most effective route from one prospect to the next.

Work smarter and harder

Working smart is good, of course. But if you want to earn like top producers, 40 hours per week is probably not going to cut it. Most top producers start early, say 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. each morning, and they know when they're working and when they're not. Beginning each day drinking coffee with your buddies at Starbucks or reading the newspaper from cover to cover is not effective. Neither are agent golf outings and civic club monthly socializers at the local watering hole. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are “networking.” How much business did you write last year directly attributable to these activities?

It's important to know which activities are moving you toward your business or personal goals, so try this litmus test:

• Is this activity clearly moving me toward a business goal?
• Is this activity clearly moving me toward a personal goal?
• Is this activity fun?

Work toward eliminating activities that don't meet any of the three qualifications. You may find you can actually work fewer hours, get more of the important things done and have more time for fun if you become more aware of how you are spending your time. Once every 6 months or so, keep a record of exactly how you spend your time for one typical week. This helps identify any work habits you've fallen into that don't support your goals.

For years, I've heard producers excuse Mondays and Fridays as being bad for prospecting. Surprisingly, when we recently surveyed a group of top producers, they responded that the two best days for prospecting businesses were Mondays and Fridays. If your Mondays and Fridays are often non-productive, you could be losing as much as 20 percent to 40 percent of your work week. Can you afford this?

Get more referrals

Referrals save you time because they shorten the sales cycle. Appointments are easier to get, sales are easier to make and referrals are more likely to give you referrals when they buy. In addition, clients who give you referrals are more likely to stick with you. So why aren't you getting more referrals? Probably because you're not asking for them. Try this: Identify the competitors and neighboring businesses of one of your clients. This information is available at ReferenceUSA.com. Present the list to your client and say, “I'm going to be calling on these businesses over the next few weeks.” (Notice you are not asking permission to call on them.) “Would you mind looking over the list and letting me know which of them you would not call on if you were me?” Now listen to what your client says. When he's finished, say: “When I call on these folks, would you mind if I mention that we do business together?” A positive response means you now have a list of referrals. And who selected them? You did!

Know when to walk away

Most accounts will renew with the incumbent agent this year. So it's easy to spend a lot of time working on accounts you're not going to write. Yet some top producers have close ratios above 90 percent. How do they do it? They've learned how to identify those prospects that are likely to move their account this year and they've developed the discipline to walk away from those who are not. The tool they use is called the Diagnostic Appointment Questionnaire (DAQ). Through a structured questioning process, the DAQ sorts out those prospects worth pursuing. You can learn about this technique in

The National Alliance's Dynamics of Selling Seminar.