The first quarter of 2006 is nearly over, butit's not too late to formulate a sales strategy for the rest of theyear. The five exercises below can help you set and reach newgoals.

Exercise one
All successful salespeopleknow their key numbers, so ask yourself the following questions:oWhat is your hit ratio?
o What is your average commission per account on newbusiness?
o What is your current commission per account on renewalbusiness?
o Has the above figure gradually increased over the last fiveyears?
o How many days are available for you to make sales?
o How much do you spend to acquire a new account?
o What can you do to improve the numbers?

Your answers indicate how well you are doing and what, ifanything, you need to do differently. For example, if you want toincrease your average commission and achieve a closing ratio of atleast 75%, you can resolve to do better at pre-qualifying prospects(rather than simply qualifying them).

Exercise two
To determine if you are on the right track to accomplish your goalsfor 2006, calculate the following: A. Your total commission incomegoal for 2006.B. Less expected renewal commission income.C. Newbusiness income goal (A-B).D. Average commission per account.E.Number of new accounts needed (C/D).F. Closing ratio.G. Number ofpresentations you need to make (E/F).

Exercise three
List the top 10 or 20accounts you currently write and estimate your odds (from 1% to100%) of renewing each one. If you assign a score less than 85% toany of them, immediately begin working to enhance yourrelationships with those accounts. You must retain your topaccounts to hit your goals.

Now that you have identified the 20% of your clients thatcontribute to 80% of your revenue, list at least 10 prospects thatyou hope to meet through each of these accounts. If you have 10“A-list” accounts, and for each one you create 10 referrals basedon similar businesses, vendors or suppliers, geographic locationetc., then you'll have 100 prospects. Leverage your relationshipinventory and work these referrals diligently!

Exercise four
For each of the 100 prospects you just chose to target, create anaction plan by listing and tracking the following:
oName of the account.
oNumber of employees.
oPotential commission.
oRelationship to current client.
oGoals in meeting with prospect.
oDeadline for client to make referral introduction.

Exercise five
Assess how well you are managing your current accounts(relationships) and what you need to change to improve or maintainthem.
–Client relationships. You need a service-call program forthe top 20% (“A-list”) accounts you identified in Exercise Three.Resolve to visit these “A” accounts three times during the year inaddition to your renewal visit and to “touch” them once a month.Visit the next tier, or “B” accounts, two times in addition to therenewal visit. Call on your “C” accounts at mid-year and again atrenewal time. Your remaining accounts undoubtedly are those withservice or claims problems–the ones that ultimately cost you morethan they're worth–so get rid of them. Review the results of yourservice-call program on a monthly basis.
–Top five centers of influence. Select the top fivecenters of influence in your community to recruit as your mentorsand arrange to meet each one at least once a quarter during theyear. Doing so will allow you to build strong relationships withkey people, help you obtain useful information and open doors ofopportunity for your career.
–Commercial-lines renewal review process. For all of your“A” and “B” accounts, develop a specific commercial-lines renewalreview process. Include renewal review meetings to see how well youare performing and identify any problems that you need toaddress.
–Professional development. Your plan to reach yourmonetary goals should include some type of self-improvementinitiative. Consider attending a sales training course and pursuinga professional designation such as CIC, AAI, ARM, CRM or CPCU.

If you would like more advice on your 2006 success planning,feel free to email me at [email protected]. Your future is important,and you control it. Good selling!

Tom Barrett, CIC, AAI, is president of the Midwest and Southeastregions of SIAA Inc., a partnership of more than 1,800 agencieswriting $3.75 billion annually in property-casualty premium. Tomalso serves on the National Faculty for Dynamics of Selling andRuble Seminars for The National Alliance for Insurance Education& Research. For more information on Dynamics of Selling, call(800) 633-2165 or go to www.TheNationalAlliance.com.