Sales are essential to the success of your insurance agency. Whether you have a small startup or a well-established agency, having realistic sales goals helps your agents stay focused, motivated, and on track to meet their objectives.
The following step-by-step process to set achievable sales goals in your agency will drive growth and maximize your team’s performance.
Look Back Before Moving Forward
Start the goal-setting process by analyzing past sales performance. Examine existing revenue streams, conversion rates, and other acquisition costs used to streamline your sales service. When you have the analysis before you, you have direct insight into your current performance trends and can make informed decisions when setting future goals.
Make Objectives Clear
After analyzing your agents’ performance over the last few months, define your insurance agency’s objectives for the year ahead. Do you want to increase your bottom-line sales? Is there a gap in the market that you have a perfect product for? Is your customer retention rate lagging?
Once you’ve established your main objectives, break them down into measurable targets. For example, to improve customer retention, determine how much time your sales agents should spend on customer service tasks and when they should upsell or cross-sell. If you want to increase your overall revenue by 10% in the next quarter, determine how much extra money will come from sales and set relevant targets.
Consider the Current Market
The insurance market is an ever-changing entity, so when you set sales targets, you must consider current market conditions, trends, and competitors. Market research is essential to determine customer behavior, needs, and preferences because this will help you align your goals with industry realities.
Incorporate the SMART Strategy
Your goal-setting process will benefit from the SMART strategy. This strategy, which centers around the concept of goals being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely, is used in many business sectors.
SMART goals must be specific to have a better chance of being achieved. Setting these goals for your sales agents relies on the following:
- Which agents are tasked with which goals?
- What will the agency accomplish overall?
- Where must the goals be achieved?
- When must the goals be achieved?
- Why do you want your agents to accomplish the goals?
Specific goals indicate what you want to achieve in your agency. Achievable and realistic goals make the sales process easier for your agents, while timely goals set a clear deadline.
Get Your Sales Team’s Opinion
Since your sales agents are the ones who have to achieve the goals set, you should involve them in the process. Their input and expertise are invaluable because they have first-hand experience with what insurance customers require from agencies. Discuss your planned goals with them, and listen to what they say. Incorporate their feedback in a meaningful way when you finalize the sales targets for the upcoming year. Doing this will foster a sense of ownership in your team and motivate them to work towards the sales goals.
Don’t Forget About Marketing
Your agents must have a strong marketing strategy backing up their sales efforts. Ensure your sales targets align with your marketing goals. The alignment process should allow for collaboration between agents and marketing staff to generate leads, nurture prospects, and drive conversions. When the objectives of these two departments are synchronized, the chances of achieving sales targets increase.
Stay On Top Of Sales Progress
Setting realistic goals is the first part of improving your agency’s closing rate. As your agents work towards achieving these goals, you should regularly track and monitor their progress. You can do this by manually checking their reports or implementing a tracking system that gives real-time insight into sales performance. These systems usually form part of an insurance agency management system, which allows you to automate parts of your agency’s daily functions.
Use key performance indicators to identify gaps in your sales strategy and constantly review and adjust your sales goals based on the data provided by the system.
Invest In Resources
In addition to an agency management system, you should provide your team with the necessary tools to meet their targets. Aside from insurance agency management platforms like Jenesis, these tools may include CRM systems and training platforms to enhance sales skills and team productivity. Work alongside your agents to give them ongoing support and help them overcome obstacles they may face.
Take Time To Celebrate
As your agents work toward their targets, they will reach several milestones. Always acknowledge this by celebrating the results of their hard work. When sales agents feel appreciated, it will boost the entire team’s morale and encourage them to strive for further success.
Conclusion
Realistic goals form a critical part of an insurance agency’s sales strategy. By combining historical data, defining objectives, and involving your sales team in the decision-making process, you can set SMART goals to drive growth. Regular monitoring, ongoing support, and recognizing excellent results will spur your team toward success. Use this process to create a roadmap toward your agency’s ultimate goals, and you will continuously improve your organization.