Most agencies have a growth rate of 1 to 3 percent. It can be hard to determine where to make changes to give more growth to your agency. You have probably hired new producers, tried a pipeline manager, hired a sales trainer, but none of these tactics gave you more growth. Your agency can be making money, but not growing at a rate you would like. Where do you go from here? Your only real option is to make a commitment to grow.
You will need to set priorities for your agency. And you will need to stick with them. You need to be able to stick to a plan and be disciplined enough to follow through. You need to have your producers become a sales team that is so powerful that the revenue will start to just come rolling in. The stronger, more powerful sales team that you have the more your business will grow. Building this epic sales team isn’t as hard as you might think, but it will take discipline, structure and coaching. You need to be able to hold your team accountable. These are some of the biggest struggles that every agency faces. Everyone is always looking for an easier way out. We want something that doesn’t require that much work, or discipline, structure or commitment. We want to be lazy but be very profitable. But that isn’t how real life works. You need to be willing to put in the time and effort in order to see the results. Try designing a new website. Change the title on your producer’s business cards to read risk advisor or risk partner. Implement a digital marketing program that will help develop new leads. If you want your producers to be confident and successful, then you have to train them, coach them and teach them the skills they need to become better sales people.
Find a mentor that can help give you guidance. Study producer development, it is the most crucial skill you can ever develop. You want winners on your team; you need to develop your sales people. You need to train them, you need to coach them. It is up to you to make your team better. When your team is in sync and confident in their work, they will be able to dominate the industry and produce revenue for your agency. The producers will also grow their income. When people start seeing the result of their hard work and efforts, they will be more likely to continue the hard work. As long as the agency compensates their producers, the producers will work hard for their agency and want to grow it into something bigger and better.
Growing an agency requires team work. The responsibility can’t be put on one person’s head. It has to be a joint effort and everyone has to want the same end goal. It won’t be easy to see the substantial differences that are made on a day to day basis, but if you are able to step back and look at the big picture, hopefully there will be signs showing you that you are on the right track to success.
