HOW TO: SET GOALS FOR

YOUR INSURANCE AGENCY

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TABLE OF CONTENTSIn this ebook, you’ll learn why it’s important to be careful in your goal setting, and ways you can ensure that you set prosperous, positive, and reasonable goals for your insurance agency.

SECTION 1: GOALS............................................... 5SECTION 2: MAKING A GAME PLAN................. 8SECTION 3: MAKING YOUR GOALS A

REALITY............................................. 17SECTION 4: NEEDS & WANTS............................ 20SECTION 5: HOW CAN AGENCYBLOC

HELP?.................................................22

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“The point of goals, of course, isn’t to successfully complete tasks we blindly set ourselves to years

ago. Nor is it to maximize our accomplishment of small bore trivialities. Instead, what counts is our ability to master the right kind of big goals — the

ones that can change your life, like positioning yourself for a promotion to the C-suite or writing a book or launching an entrepreneurial venture.

You can only accomplish those kinds of goals when you’re willing to question assumptions regularly and re-evaluate as necessary, and

when you give up the temporary dopamine hit of crossing easy tasks off your to-do list, in favor of making a dent in the handful of major projects

that really matter.”

Dorie ClarkProfessor, Author & Professional Speaker

Section 1

GOALS

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You all have goals for your business whether it’s to grow, maintain, or get to the level where you can work less and achieve more. Goals help you determine where you should go next with your business.

However, how you set and track your goals is crucial. Setting reasonable goals is necessary for the health and welfare of your office and your staff. Tracking your goals lets you use your historical data so that you can quantify and measure your expectations to see where you are, how far you’ve come, and where you can reasonably go next. This allows you to make more informed decisions about the goals you do set.

Goals give you and your team something to strive for and the incentive to push yourselves forward; but, you need to be cautious with your goal setting to ensure the goals you do set are right for your agency.

Be Conscientious with GoalsGoals let you see where you want to go, how you want to improve, and in what ways it will benefit both you and your clients. They are the roadmap for your insurance agency.

The benfits of goals:

• Push you and your team to achieve them• Determine where you want to go and what you want

to accomplish• Help keep you on track• Increase productivity• Track your expectations• Allow you to make educated decisions on resource

investment

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The downfalls of improper goal setting:

• Give you goal-based tunnel-vision• Depletes morale and performance if the goal is too lofty• Promotes unethical behavior and cheating• Changes goals to demotivators

Now, this shouldn’t make you shy away from setting goals; nor does it imply that goal setting is bad—quite the opposite, actually. You should set goals. Goals are especially important in sales-centered careers like insurance because they are great motivators and help keep you on track when you’re an independent agent. Plus, when you do achieve your goals, you feel better since your brain is wired to seek rewards.

In this next section, we’ll discuss some of the ways you can set goals that will help lessen the threat of negative goal side effects. So, if you are a little wary, continue reading and keep these tips in mind for a positive experience while determining and pursuing your goals.

Section 2

MAKING A GAME PLAN

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Goal setting is an activity that should be done with patience and plenty of time. Making hurried and rash decisions when setting goals for your agency could lead to one (or both) of these problems:

• They’re unattainable• They don’t really “fit” your agency

When setting your goals, you need to take some time and seriously consider—and be honest with yourself—where you’re at currently and where you could reasonably go next. In this next section, we’ll discuss some tips from Psychology Today for you to keep in mind when setting your agency’s goals.

Tips for Setting GoalsWrite it outIf you’re struggling with what your goals should be, then writing them out is where you should start. Jotting down your ideas or partial thoughts can help to boost your thinking juices. Just keep in mind, this stage does not require detailed or fully-formulated ideas; the point of this exercise is just to get you thinking. You can use the ideas you write down to help you ultimately decide what you specifically want to achieve.

If you’re pulling a blank every time you sit down, here are a couple of ways you can get your thoughts rolling:

• Outline goal sheet• Mind-map

PRO TIP:People who write out their goals are 50% more likely to achieve them than those that don’t.

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Use whichever option works best for you, or use a combination of the two; just as long as you get writing. The point of both exercises is to help you get your ideas flowing so you can move on to the next step in the development of your goals.

Make them meaningful Your goals should be a direct reflection of who you are as a company. While using other company’s goals as inspiration is okay, don’t copy and paste their goals as your own. Someone else’s goals won’t represent you correctly and won’t accomplish what you want to achieve.

Think about your overall purpose; define what is meaningful to you and what your definition of success is. Making sure that your goals are an extension of your individuality and purpose increases the likelihood that you will meet them.

Be realisticOverly aggressive goals are great to have, but if they’re too out of reach, they will dampen spirits around the office. You want to push your team to pursue higher goals, but you need to make sure that they are attainable. They should be challenging enough so that when you do achieve them, your team feels empowered and driven, but not so difficult that you fall short every time. Use the historical data of your agency to analyze and decide what goals are right for you and what your reasonable expectations could be.

NOTE:This should not be your final draft. Writing out your ideas is an exercise for your mind to figure out all that you want to achieve, determine where you want to go, and put all of your thoughts into one place.

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You also need to be honest with yourself about what it’ll take to achieve those goals. For example, if you want to cut your hours from 50+ hours a week to 30 while maintaining the same amount of income, then you need to be aware of the steps that will take. You won’t be able to just do that. You’ll either need to hire an assistant to help you manage your book-of-business or subscribe to an industry-specific whole-office Agency Management System (AMS) like AgencyBloc to help you manage your business, organize your book, and gain time back in your week.

The same would apply if you wanted to grow your agency. Say you want to grow your client-base by 15% within the next year. In order to achieve such growth and still provide your clients and prospects with the level of service they deserve will require you to do one of the following:

• working significantly more,• hiring an assistant, or• subscribing to an an industry-specific AMS that can support

your growth while maintaining your customer service.

PRO TIP:You can set reasonable goals by analyzing the historical data of your agency so that you can make more informed decisions for what is achievable. And if you find that the goals you set aren’t reasonable for you, then take some time, regroup, and reconsider. Your goals should always be flexible

WARNING:Overly aggressive goals can cause the following:

• Team becomes demotivated • Cheating or “pulling strings” just to make goal

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Take your timeWhen setting your goals, it’s crucial that you block off a sufficient amount of time and really give your entire attention to goal creation. Goals are a representation of who you are and where you want to go; so take the extra minutes to ensure that your goals are where they need to be.

Keep it positiveGoals are an extension of your agency and represent your future, so you want to make sure that they are positive. It’s even important to make sure their wording is positive. Here are some ways you could rephrase your goals in a positive tone:

• Instead of “spend less time on processing commissions,” say “process my commissions more efficiently” or “upgrade my technology to simplify my commissions processing.”

• Instead of “work less,” say “spend more time with my family” or “make more time for golfing.”

Goals are things you want to achieve for the better; keeping them positive will make a big difference. They’ll excite you more if they’re because you’ll know that they’re a positive influence. Remember, you’re striving for this, so make sure you’re always aspiring to grow in a positive direction.

PRO TIP:Goals should be made over the course of a couple of weeks or months, not one afternoon. Write down your goals, then revisit them after a couple of days and modify as needed. Keep doing this until you feel that your goals completely represent the persona of your company and where you want to go.

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Don’t be too genericDon’t just say “I want to make more money” or “I want to work less,” because of course you do—we all do! Be specific in how you word your goals. Here are some examples:

• I want to generate 30% more leads.• I want to grow my client-base by 15%.• I want to process my commissions in 2 days rather than 5.• I want to work 40 hours or less every week.• I want to spend 10 hours during the week with my kids

(not including weekends).

Generic goals are too gray and won’t provide you with any satisfaction when met, and they are much harder to track. In order to make informed business decisions for the future, you need to have historical data to go based off—generic goals cannot provide you with suitable data to use.

One way you can avoid generic goals is by adding numbers. It may sound simple, but there is a huge difference between “I want to grow my client-base” and “I want to grow my client-base by 15%.” With the latter, you can track your progress. Plus you’ll feel better because you’ll know for certain that you’ve achieved your goals.

WARNING:Generic goals make it hard to stay honest. You’ll never be entirely sure if you achieved your goal or not because it’s too gray. This can lead to depressed morale and productivity since the goal can seem unreachable simply because it’s not defined enough.

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Break them downSetting big-picture, long-term goals is important because it’ll give your team direction for the future, but they can be overbearing. You don’t want a large goal constantly hanging over your head. Not only is it tedious, but it can adversely affect your team and be negative for your momentum.

You can combat this by breaking the goal down into segmented parts. Smaller goals can help to keep you and your team honest, keep you all motivated, and keep morale high throughout the entire process. This helps to make the goal more manageable and possible.

If you can, assign different segments of the goal to different people. Assigning the goal to a variety of people can help ensure that the goal is completed and can boost camaraderie throughout the office because everyone is working together. Plus, it can help reduce goal related stress because no one person will feel overwhelmed by the duties of the goal.

Be inclusiveMaking your goals a team effort is key; the more you let your team participate in goal setting, the more likely they will be to achieve them.

NOTE:By breaking the goals into smaller chunks with separate deadlines, your team will stay motivated because with each small achievement, they’ll aspire to meet the larger goal as a whole and you’ll stay on track. Smaller parts of the goal will also lessen the likelihood of negative side effects because your team won’t be pulling strings or forcing ends to meet.

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Use your team members to help you set your agency’s goals. You know where you want to go, but your team members might have additional insights about the realistic nature of your goals or may have other ideas you could add. Plus, having everyone on board and invested in the goal can help keep morale up during the harder months and push everyone to want to achieve the goals more.

Don’t be lazyOnce you’ve set your goals, make sure you pursue them. There’s no point in taking the time to craft the goals if they’re just going to sit on your shelf gathering dust with the books you never read. If you want to progress, then you will have to put in the time and effort. Set up timelines and deadlines for each goal so that you are always working towards them. If you’ve split up your goals, then make sure there are timelines and deadlines on each segment, too.

PRO TIP:Including others helps you increase productivity and adoption of the goal because it becomes a group effort. By doing this, you’ll also be able to fight off lagging morale and goal-based tunnel-vision because you’ll have your team to help keep you in check, keep you on track, and keep you motivated.

WARNING:Continuously putting off your goals will result in the lack of desire to achieve the goal in the long run. This can lead to never achieving your goals which is the exact opposite of what you want.

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Put your plan into actionFigure out a time frame you’d like to see these goals accomplished. Do you want this done by the end of this month? This year? Next year? Even five-year goals are beneficial; they’ll help your agency have direction for the future.

Regardless of the timeline you choose, just make sure it’s flexible. You may need to adjust a couple of months down the road for your more long-term goals; you may need to adjust more than once. Both are okay, just make sure you always have a deadline so you’re always working towards the goal. Also, if you do choose to change the timeline of your goal, make sure you are effectively communicating the reasons why to your team. This will help everyone stay on-top of the goal, keep them motivated and invested, and ultimately it can help you achieve the goal in the end.

Section 3

MAKING YOUR GOALS A REALITY

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Once you’ve determined your goals, you need to take time and decide what you need to make your goals a reality. If your goals include growing your book-of-business, using your time more efficiently so you can work less, or organize your insurance agency, then you might consider upgrading your technology to an industry-specific whole-office AMS.

Although spreadsheets and paper files can help you manage your book-of-business, they aren’t as efficient, organized, or secure as modern day technology like an AMS. Nor do they allow you to monitor and track your agency’s overall health to make more informed fiscal decisions for the future. Here are some of the other problems you could encounter when you manage your agency via Excel spreadsheets or paper files:

• Due to human error, they can be filled with inaccurateinformation.

• Your E&O preparedness could be lacking.

• Productivity and growth could be close to stagnant.

• Organization can be difficult because options are minimal.

• You will spend a lot of time manually updating, copying,and correcting information.

Did you know? Gartner, Inc. found that when companies move from Excel to a commision-based software (like an AMS), they reduce errors by over 90%.

Did you know? Market Watch found that 88% of spreadsheets have errors, which could make it difficult if you ever have a lawsuit present itself.

Did you know? Independent Agent found that 44% of insurance agencies felt a “significant’ productivity increase after implementing an AMS.

Did you know? Reliable Plant found that people waste an average of 4.3 hours every single week searching for paper files.

Did you know? InsightSquared found that some sales managers spend up to 90% of the their time creating and/or editing spreadsheets with new numbers.

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• Your customer support will be mediocre, incomplete, and not done in a timely manner.

• Destruction is high risk because they aren’t secured and backed-up.

• Commission processing can be a headache because they don’t process, track, or project commissions very well.

For more understanding on why Excel spreadsheets or paper files don’t adequately help you monitor and manage your book-of-business, check out these blogs:

• [Blog] 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Excel to Manage Your Book-of-Business

• [Blog] 4 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Excel Spreadsheets to Process Commissions

• [Infographic] Preparing Your Data for Disaster Recovery

If you think your insurance agency could benefit from a software change/upgrade, check out these free resources to help you get started:

• [Brief Guide] AMS vs. CRM: What You Need to Know• [eBook] 5 Steps to Choosing an Agency Management

System• [Webinar] 5 Steps to Choosing an Agency Management

System• [Infographic] Insurance Agency Technology in 2017• [Webinar] Insurance Agency Technology in 2017

Did you know? SuperOffice found a 74% increase in customer satisfaction with faster, more thorough responses.

Did you know? A 2016 LinkedIn study found that 43% of companies who suffered catastrophic data loss in 2015 never reopened, and 51% closed within 2 years.

Did you know? Gartner, Inc. found that commission processing time was cut by over 40% and reduced staffing time by 50% when the company moved from Excel spreadsheets to a commission-based software like an AMS.

Section 4

NEEDS & WANTS

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If you are considering upgrading your technology to an industry-specific AMS, then you need to decide what exactly it is that you need and what you want. The software you choose needs to be aligned with your goals. These terms are very similar, so here is how we distinguish the two:

Make a list beforehand of all the features you need and the features you’d like to have (want). Then, while you’re demoing, trying out, discussing, and ultimately selecting your new system, keep that checklist nearby to see what is being met and what is being left out. Use this list we made to help you decide what important features you should have on your wants and needs lists.

Need

Needs are the basic capabilities and core functions that are necessary for you to continue running your business at the level you do today or greater. Losing any of these needs would adversely affect your bottom line and be negative for production, growth, and efficiency. Needs are requirements for you to reach your goals, and they help dictate where to take your agency and when.

Want

Wants are the additional features, services, or products you think would be beneficial in addition to your basic needs in furthering your agency and achieving your goals. Wants are supplementary materials that help you reach your goals and help you grow your agency.

Section 5

HOW CANAGENCYBLOC

HELP?

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AgencyBloc is an industry-specific whole-office agency management system built specifically for life and health insurance agencies to help you organize your agency, communicate with clients and prospects, and grow your business.

Learn more about how AgencyBloc can help in our overview video

Many AMS programs are strong in the sales and prospecting portion but lack in the management of new and renewal business. AgencyBloc is the only option that I have found that is powerful on both sides. The added benefits of managing our product portfolio and agents in the same program has worked out great.

“Crystal

Century Health Solutions, Inc.

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