Strictly Sales" is written by the faculty of the Dynamics of Selling Program. This month's column is from Edwin L. Lamont.

THE HARD market is history. If you kept your book of business intact, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed your raise. You earned every penny of it.

How much new business did you write during the hard market? What percentage of last year's commission came from new accounts? If little of your revenue growth came from new clients during the last few years, it's time to rediscover and reinforce sales basics.

What are sales basics? Think of the questions sales managers and agency owners ask producers: Why is this prospect qualified? Did you set negotiation rules? What's your production goal? What's your personal marketing plan? Do you know your closing ratio? How do you measure prospecting and selling results? Is your product knowledge an advantage? When's the last time you took sales training? Sales basics are the core strategies, measurable processes and fundamental beliefs of successful insurance professionals.

Sales basics strategy #1: Know your numbers. Without goals, you have no clear picture of what to accomplish. What's your new-business production goal? Are you on track, ahead of schedule or behind? Do you know your closing ratio? What's the average commission on the accounts you write? How much new-account "work in progress" is in your prospecting pipeline? What plans do you have for personal marketing, business networking and cold calling? How many cold calls do you make each day? How many new-business appointments do you schedule each week? How many new accounts do you write each month?

Track your selling, networking, cold calling and personal marketing goals monthly. Moderate increases in cold calls, appointments, closing ratio or average account size create big increases in new-account commissions. You'll find magic in measurement when you know your numbers.

Sales basics strategy #2: Qualify prospects ruthlessly. When you work with prospects you put your time, agency resources and insurance company relationships on the line. Do not allow these valuable assets to be wasted. Answer these questions before spending time and money on an unqualified buyer:

1. How strong is the incumbent's hold on the account?
2. How good is your rapport with the decision maker?
3. How many other agents are quoting? Why?
4. Can you pick the insurance companies you want?
5. Can the buyer afford the protection program you build?
Unqualified prospects love their current agent, won't let you meet with the decision maker, take multiple bids every year, make you pick just one insurance company to quote or can't afford you. When you qualify prospects ruthlessly, your odds of success increase and your closing ratios climb.

Sales basics strategy #3: Set rules of negotiation. When you set or agree to fair negotiation rules, you're rewarded with higher closing ratios and measurable increases in new-business commission. Too often, only a prospect knows what the rules are, and a producer simply "syncs" with whatever rules the buyer sets. Before you commit time and agency support to any prospect, be sure rules are set and understood.

1. I (the producer) must have equal or better access to the decision maker than the incumbent agent or any other competitor.
2. I must receive cooperation when gathering underwriting data, including loss runs, financial statements, insurance budgets and previous years' policies.
3. I must be allowed to present more than an "apples-to-apples" quote comparison.
4. I must find significant problems or pains to fix, besides price, for a buyer to earn my professional support.

Set your rules before you meet with a prospect. Don't wing it! Mentally rehearse what to say if denied access to the decision maker, refused important underwriting data or asked to quote "apples to apples."

Prepare questions that will uncover service, coverage or value problems. If a prospect has no problems, ask what it will take for him or her to fire the incumbent agent and hire you. Listen closely to the response. If he or she offers no clear, reasonable and believable answer, you need to reconfirm the rules of negotiation.

Sales basics strategy #4: Invest in training. Who had time for extra product, coverage or sales training during the hard market? Wasn't it enough to meet continuing education requirements and protect your book of business? Besides, why invest in additional training when things are going so well?

Competition builds, insurance coverage changes, and risk management issues evolve faster than ever. Prospects demand the best value for every additional insurance dollar they spend. Professional insurance agents who commit to advanced product and coverage training as well as consultative sales and service training are best able to provide clients with excellent value.

Are you trained to understand and provide non-insurance risk management solutions? Have you honed sales, presentation, negotiation and rapport-building skills? Does your insurance product knowledge allow you to position yourself as a coverage expert or niche industry specialist? What have you learned recently that solves a problem for a buyer?

Invest a portion of hard-market profits into product, coverage and sales training. Become a life-long learner of new selling ideas. Find new ways to solve old problems by studying coverage and risk management options. When you keep up with change through training you get back to sales basics.

Rediscover and reinforce sales basics. Ask yourself the tough questions you'd expect from your sales manager or agency owner. When you get back to sales basics, closing ratios climb and everyone's time is spent profitably as new account commissions roll in.

Ed Lamont teaches Dynamics of Selling for The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. He presents professional selling, sales management and customer service programs for insurance associations, national brokers and insurance agencies. Contact Ed at (561) 737-7388 or by e-mail at LCGspeak@aol.com. For more information about Dynamics of Selling, call (800) 633-2165 or visit www.TheNationalAlliance.com.

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Strictly Sales: As markets start to soften, review the sales basics

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