Cake and martinis, could there be anything more perfect? Big commission checks maybe.
One thing all awesome agencies have are sales goals that are big and documented and motivating. However, less than half the agencies have them when I start working with them as their insurance consultant. I’ll take any excuse to have cake and martinis, so I always get them to set sales goals.
However, I was speaking with an agency last week who has goals but it’s been months since the team hit them. This is always because of one of three things:
- The goals are seriously too high (FYI this is rarely the case)
- The ownership isn’t motivating and managing the team by the goals so the team doesn’t care
- There are only sales carrots and no sticks. We only have rewards, no consequences.
The problem is each and every symptom is an excuse for poor performance, either by leadership or the team.
Sales goals should be big and the team shouldn’t hit them each week or month. Without sales goals each person is only working to what they believe their capacity is. We need to motivate them beyond that and push them to the next level. Once you see you can sell 40 policies per month, you won’t ever go back.
You need to have a sales area in your office where everyone can clearly see where they stand. Public humiliation is part of sales, everyone can toughen up from it. The agency also needs to have a no-nonsense policy on how many times someone does not hit the goal before it’s addressed. We cannot allow a few to dictate how the many work.
So get your white board out and set some sales goals. Follow this plan:
- Have a team meeting about the goals
- Give everyone a copy of the goals
- Put the goals on the white board
- Publish the results weekly
- Send motivational emails
- Train the team on how to get there
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