If you’ve seen our recent blogs than you may know that AgentLink partners with The Marketing Squad and together we’ve presented a series of six webinars on Insurance Marketing. Today we are providing an overview of the fifth topic, “Check Your Gauges: Setting Goals, Tracking Leads, & Closing Sales.”
Our goal of this series is to provide you with valuable knowledge and resources about effective marketing tactics and applying them to the world of Insurance. This webinar’s agenda covered sales goals, tracking your progress, applying world-of-mouth, closing sales, sales training resources, and how AgentLink can extend support to agents. Let’s dive in! And if you’d like to watch the full presentation of the webinar, you can get it for free below.
Understanding Sales Goals and How they Propel Your Business Forward
When thinking about where your business wants to grow and flourish, setting sales goals is the first step. It is common for people to set sale goals that are far too small or unclear, and therefore, it sets them up to not successfully grow.
The idea is to choose sales goals–and the steps toward them– that keep you consistently motivated, therefore, likely leading to accomplishing those goals. The BANT formula is a good tool to gauge the goals you’re thinking about before you set them. This is also a good yard stick for knowing if you’re going after the right prospects to offer your services.
Always consider the following:
- Budget
- Authority
- Need
- Timetable
Set Your Goals, Then Track Your Progress
Here are some of the best pieces of advice to see your sales increase.
- Take time in Q4 to set goals for the next year before the holidays hit.
- Set goals for total sales volume
- Set goals for # of transactions
- Set goals for applications in each line of business- Life, Group, health, plus normal lines you sell like P&C.
- Always break down your goals into milestones you can reach to accomplish them:
- Set goals for # referrals.
- Set goals for # leads.
- Set goals for # appointments.
After you set your goals that we discussed above, you have to track those goals to see how much progress you’ve made. Without tracking your goals, you have no way to gauge if you are being successful in your efforts. Here are some tips for tracking:
- Organize a tracking document that you review regularly. You could categorize in the following way:
- Certain # of quotes sent.
- How much potential is in the works.
- Running total YTD lined up against your goals by time frame.
- Track your goals on at least a Monthly and Quarterly basis.
- Maintain consistent effort and weekly accountability check points that are more focused on the steps or milestones.
Because operational teams often want to see reports of this nature, you can reference your tracking document. Or if you use a CRM, you can track within that database and pull automatic or customized reports.
Ideas for Sales Growth
The goal of all your sales and marketing is to close a sale to increase your revenue. What business doesn’t want to close as many sales as possible? Sometimes good selling means asking. Have a refined–but not routine–message that connects with people. When you close a sale, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral. This will only aid in future business. The worst they can say is No. But if they just chose to invest in you, their likely willing to work with you in other ways. Just create a system for follow-up with your customers that’s natural for asking for referrals.
We wouldn’t be forward-thinking if we didn’t offer a few non-traditional sales resources other than traditional sales calls, emails, and network referrals. Here are a few ideas:
- Social Media Crowdsourcing and Referrals
- Sharing video and written testimonials to prospects and leads. Go ahead a make a few into official case studies or portfolio examples.
- Sneezers and Influencers (watch our presentation to see more about this!)
- Growing reviews on Google and Facebook.
Sales CRM and Sales Resources
There are many CRM (customer relationship management) tools available on the market that provide assistance to businesses at different levels. There are also a variety of training resources available for every industry and cross-industry. Here are some of our top choices that your business can utilize to maximize your sales and meet your goals:null
How AgentLink Can Help with Sales
One major way that we can assist in your sales is through Agent Support which includes:
- Commission Auditing
- Easy Certification
- Free Quoting Tools
- Individual Enrollment platforms
- one stop shop for commissions
- large variety of carrier options
Another way is through AgentLink’s Concierge Services, where we help you provide for insurance needs you don’t specialize in or don’t have time for. This includes:
- Easy hand off-process
- Passive revenue options
- Comprehensive back office support
We’d love to talk to you about your specific sales goals. We encourage you to check out the full presentation on this topic here.
