Numbers are harsh. They’re a cold, heartless encapsulation of our performance as insurance professionals. They don’t care that you were on vacation or your kid got sick one week. They are not concerned with the ebb and flow of renewals and the business cycle. They are always right there staring you in the face, silently judging you.
So you had better be their best friend or they will take you down!
A typical producer looks through their management system and can rattle off all of the details for each renewed, cancelled, and sold policy. This also means, that each activity that shows up in your management system has a little story behind it. Maybe a policy was rewritten but not really rewritten. Maybe a cancellation was really a renewal but it was coded incorrectly. Perhaps what looks like three policies are simply one policy broken up into different LOBs. The policies are like Captain Kirk: brazen, bold, complicated, and offer tales of greatness.
Every policy tells a story, but when you’re working with data, you’ve got to think like Spock. Born of a race of people that can only operate on pure logic, Mr. Spock is calculating and frustrating, but usually right. Numbers do not understand emotion, typos or incorrect data entry. Everything in a Spock’s world is a one or a zero, and you have to make the most of it!
Here are a few tips to Spock your data:
1. Clean it up once a month: You’ll be amazed how many little mistakes can mask huge losses or gains. Make sure your staff is going back through to clean up your data.
2. Deputize your most Spock-ish employee: Everyone has a Spock in their office that is a real stickler for rules and regulations. Reach out to them and ask them to be your point person on data.
3. Take Your Time: We all know how exciting it is to get a new sale. The data entry is an afterthought. Well, if you want accurate representations of the fiscal health of your agency, you’re not going to be able to go through your data at warp speed.
If you’re still struggling to pull your data together, let us know. We’re always here to help.
Live Long and Prosper, Friends!
