ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Rough Notes,  Jun 2004  by Jans, Michael

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Get more control of your time and agency ... and make more money

Most insurance producers know that "the person who asks the questions controls the direction of the conversation." If you're always talking, the prospect stops listening. But if you let the prospects talk about themselves, they think you're the greatest conversationalist in the world. And, sooner or later, they tell the truth about their situation.

Successful business consultants also understand that principle. Their most important job is to ask questions, because questions open doors. I, too, have observed that the most successful agents have more questions than answers. The agent who already "knows everything" stopped learning as soon as he got "the answers." And he stopped growing as well. The agent with questions never loses his curiosity. And that means he's always paying attention.

During the 15 years I've advised agents, I've observed that most have some "pain" in one or more of three areas:

* They want more control of their time

* They want more control of their agency

* They want more money

I've developed a list of "44 Important Questions" to help me-a business consultant-help agents find the source of their pain and build on their strengths. You can be your own business consultant by using these questions to evaluate your business habits. You can also use them to "control the direction of conversation" with prospects or clients.

In addition, many of my clients use some of these questions in their staff or management meetings. see what kinds of ideas you get when you ask yourself these questions. They are comprised of the three areas previously mentioned: controlling your time, controlling your agency, and making more money (with a "surprise" category at the end).

Getting control of your time

1. Do you control your own time, working when and where you want to, free from interruption?

2. Do you spend it on high-leverage activities, not timewasting, day-to-day issues and crises?

3. Do you progressively work more on your business than in it?

4. Do you spend most of your time on what you're passionate about?

Getting control of your agency

Business planning

5. Do you have a clear and compelling vision for where you're taking your business?

6. Do you have a system that routinely creates realistic plans to achieve that vision?

7. Do you have a system that consistently monitors and modifies your plan to keep it "alive"?

8. Do you have a process that routinely communicates your plan to key members of your team?

Team management

9. Do you have the right people doing the right jobs?

10. Does your staff structure make sense for your agency, including division of responsibilities and compensation models?

11. Do the activities of everyone on staff clearly align with the agency's goals and objectives?

12. Is everyone progressively taking on more responsibility?

Internal operations

13. Are your primary systems, procedures and workflows as efficient as possible?

14. Are they documented?

15. Are they routinely reviewed and modified?

16. Does everyone know his or her role?

Carrier management system

17. Do you routinely monitor your carriers' performance for your agency, including underwriting, hit ratios, contingencies and commissions?

18. Do you routinely monitor and forecast your carriers' financial performance, based on reliable external data?

19. Do your carriers provide the best possible products for the marketplace of your choice?

20. Do you have a system that routinely evaluates, negotiates with and recruits or fires carriers?

Financial management

21. Do you routinely monitor agency financial performance and adjust appropriately?

22. Do you routinely monitor agency balance sheet and adjust appropriately?

23. Do you routinely analyze "deep level" departmental and individual financial performance and adjust appropriately?

24. Do you routinely monitor loss ratio/contingency performance and contracts and adjust appropriately?

Making more money

Client acquisition: Advertising and marketing

25. Have you set up multiple systems to attract and secure new clients in the most lucrative markets of your choice?

26. Do you monitor the performance of each advertising and marketing system?

27. Do you routinely test new messages, techniques and media?

28. Do your marketing systems run efficiently, reliably and predictably on "auto pilot"?

Client acquisition: Referrals

29. Do you have multiple systems for the proactive generation of referrals?

30. Do you monitor the performance of each referral-generating system?

31. Do you routinely test new messages, techniques and media to generate referrals?

32. Do your referral-generating systems run efficiently, reliably and predictably on "auto pilot"?

Maximum revenue per client

33. Do you have "auto pilot" systems for generating the maximum number of policies per customer and charging fees where possible?

34. Do you have "auto pilot" systems for generating the optimal coverage per client?

35. Do you progressively select and focus on more lucrative markets and VIP clients?

36. Do you systematically "trade down" "C" & "D" clients?