"Strictly Sales" is written by the faculty of the Dynamics of Selling program. This month's column is from Tom Barrett, CIC, AAI.

IF YOU have been thinks of selling your agency, an old saying might apply: You've missed the boat! At last the market is turning toward "spongy," which means premiums and commissions are coming down.

In the past few weeks, I've met with three separate parties who are seeking acquisitions. One, a national broker, is looking for bargains and focusing on well-managed agencies with perpetuation issues. This broker sees the changing market as a perfect time to pay less for agencies. Another potential buyer sees the chance to purchase agencies for less as a great opportunity to build a national broker. A third investor thinks this is the right time to begin purchasing agencies to build several large regional brokers. The last two investors are already in the financial services business and see insurance as a natural service to add.

With the new market upon us, the only way for publicly owned entities such as national brokers or financial institutions to reach their investment-return targets is through agency acquisitions. What does this mean for the rest of us? Each of these entities has a different vision of success, but they have one thing in common: They realize how poor the sales training, structure and systems are in many agencies. They are playing on our weakness. Each publicly owned entity is creating its own "Academy" or "University" to increase the value of its acquisitions by developing systems, procedures, sales training, sales management and accountability.

Independent agents who want to maintain their independence can prepare themselves to battle the "big guys" in the following ways:

1. Define the agency sales culture. Define your sales culture and compare your agency with the top-performing agency benchmarks. Many benchmark statistics are available from www. TheNationalAlliance.com. (Click on "The Academy," and "Publications.") Determine if your agency is a "survival agency," "maintenance agency" or "growth agency." There is no incorrect answer. You must identify the agency culture before you can build a strategy; otherwise, you become fish food for the acquisition shark.

2. Manage producers' time efficiently. Once you have defined your agen- cy's culture, begin managing your time and prioritizing activities. Discuss the fundamentals of time and activity management with producers. Get your producers out of the service mode and out of the office two or three days a week to call on prospects. The prospects you visit should fit the risk appetite of your carriers. If they don't, you are wasting your time.

3. Follow the eight steps of agency marketing. Each of the eight steps for successful marketing should be discussed. The steps are: (1) developing a target program or prospect, (2) securing suspect leads, (3) refining suspects into prospects, (4) selecting a sales campaign, (5) determining the campaign focus, (6) creating sales tools, (7) beginning the sales campaign, and (8) preparing for the pre-approach. Most successful agencies follow a marketing and sales process. Develop the process for a marketing campaign and then have the courage to follow it. Stop trying to find carriers to write your prospects-find prospects your carrier wants to write.

4. Compile producer "game books." The agency needs to review the key components of two "game books." The first is the producer game book. It contains the tools a producer needs in the field, including brochures, testimonial letters, references, broker-of-record letters, business cards, a telemarketing script and a target prospect list. The second is the competitor's game book. It contains the information an agency should have on its competitors: copies of other agencies' marketing letters, proposals, brochures and business cards, as well as information about their Web sites. Each producer should use the information from the game books to develop his or her own customized version.

5. Super-qualify prospects. How can you be sure your agency isn't wasting time on a prospect? Establish what it costs a producer to work on a risk in time, effort and overhead. Review the questions a producer should ask a prospect before working on a quote. Talk about price, product and politics. Discuss which is the most powerful, and determine which one you must have to move forward with a sale. Insurance is a relationship-driven business. Until you have the appropriate relationship (politics), why spend the time and effort to show the prospect you are willing to work for free, just to show them "what you can do?" Have the courage to walk away when prospects don't fit your rules.

6. Cultivate effective company/agency relations. Review the essentials of maintaining healthy relationships with your carriers: a business plan between the agency and company, planning with your carriers for the coming year, making company commitments and managing the entire process. With great loss ratios and great production, you can negotiate with carriers for higher commissions and bonuses. Finally, send carriers only business that fits their appetites. Don't waste your time or theirs.

7. Conduct effective agency sales meetings. Follow up your agency sales meetings with individual meetings with producers and sales managers, stressing their accountability. Talk about recent successes, failures and discus how to improve outcomes. Review new-business activity and the number of new prospects. Conduct sales meetings with producers, marketing meetings with agency personnel and placement meetings with agency staff and insurance carrier personnel. Have a formal agenda and designated time for each meeting.

8. Set goals. The last step of the review involves setting goals for the year ahead. Review the goal items and create a "to-do list" for producers. Demonstrate how to set goals using a formal process. Look at every account and the probability of renewing it. Review target lists from carriers and match them to your prospect lists.

Prioritize prospects and clients based on relationships and your chance of success. Segregate accounts by class or SIC code so you can manage quick changes within the marketplace. Each agency owner and producer will have to create his or her own plans. These plans should be compiled into an agency goal and shared with each carrier to provide accountability for your performance.

This eight-step checkup should help you improve your agency and its performance. It also will enhance the value of your equity and, should you decide to sell, increase the sales price to the acquisition shark. In any event, you will be better after this process than you were before. It's an exercise in which we all need to take part annually. Good luck and good selling!

Tom Barrett, CIC, AAI, is president of the Midwest and Southeast regions of SIAA Inc., a partnering of 1,400 agencies. Tom also serves on the national faculty for Dynamics of Selling, the Marketing and Sales Ruble Seminar, and MEGA Seminars for The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. For more information on Dynamics of Selling or The National Alliance, visit www.TheNationalAlliance.com. Mr. Barrett can be reached at tomb@siaa.net

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