September 15, 2023 • 8 mins
Knowing your numbers and having a target for your commission income is a MUST! Listen in to a conversation from our recent Preeminent Producer Coaching Call.
...
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to stand out from the competition? Do you find it challenging to grow your book of business and create a fulfilling career?
Then welcome to The Preeminent Producer Podcast! Each week, we'll be tackling important topics, sharing proven strategies and insights from successful producers that are in the trenches and have traveled the journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
You'll discover what it really takes to become Preeminent & build your book of business, in a way that isn’t being taught anywhere else. Our hosts are experts in the field and have built thriving businesses by becoming the most trusted adviser to their clients. Welcome to your journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer.
Let’s dive in!
Ready To Grow Your Book Of Business?
For More Information go to:
https://www.thepreeminentproducer.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have vague goals, you're going to get vague
results.
And this is especially truewhen it comes to knowing your
numbers and setting financialtargets of your revenue goals,
and all of that In this episodeof today's preeminent producer
podcast.
We are going to just take asmall clip from a recent
coaching call the coaches didwith the different producers
inside of our coaching program,talking about the importance of
(00:23):
setting goals, and we'll let youlisten in and hear what they
have to say.
So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thepreeminent producer podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:53):
preeminent producer.
So discover what it reallytakes to become preeminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a preeminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I think one of the things if you're not doing you
should be doing now is havingthat goal actually have a number
of what you want to write asfar as commission income goes,
and keeping track of that.
We happen to use anothersoftware, but when I started I
(01:36):
used to spreadsheet everythingon paper.
That shows how long I've beendoing this, so I think with a
pencil too.
But the fact is that if youdon't know what your goal is
from a number standpoint, it'shard to reach that because
you're constantly you know yeah,I want to write more.
I mean, you're in this businessand doing well, or you wouldn't
(01:56):
still be here, and so everyonewants to write business.
But having that in front of you, hard numbers, and trying to
end keeping track of what you'rewriting and how far off you are
is, I think, the only way thatyou can really push yourself to
achieve that.
And then, once you achieve that, then then there's a
(02:17):
celebration and then therereally is okay, I've done it.
And now I set my goal for thenext year.
And you know, I'm sure youprobably have goals with your
agency principal probably hasgoals with their carriers.
Knowing what those are areimportant.
If you don't, you want to findthose out so that you know if we
(02:39):
have to write X amount ofbusiness with, say, travelers,
you know how much are youcontributing to.
That is that you know ifthey've given you a goal, they
probably want to write businesswith you.
So you know, focus on thatinstead of focus on, like
surplus stuff or so or businesswith another carrier.
So I think having goals writtenand followed and then
(03:03):
celebrating when you hit thosegoals is going to be very
helpful for you to realize that.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Sure, I think the other thing that we can talk
about the way to grow a book ofbusiness other than just through
working harder and doing allthose kind of things is setting
a minimum account size, andwe've talked about this in the
past and it could be differentfor Kyle than it is for Josh,
than it is for Ben.
It's different for everybody.
But you should set a minimumaccount set.
I'm not writing anything belowthis number.
(03:33):
It could be in a revenue number$5,000 of revenue, $2,000,
whatever your number is to startout, and every year you raise
that up because it'll force youto work on larger and larger
accounts.
If you can take those accountsthat are under your minimum
account size at the end of theyear, give them to someone else.
If you have the luxury of asmall commercial alliance
(03:55):
department, give it to them.
You will find that thoseaccounts take the greatest
majority of your time and youwill find pretty much that the
Pareto's principle, the 80-20rule, is pretty true.
No matter how big your book ofbusiness is, that 20% of your
clients will give you 80% ofyour revenue and those 80% that
are remaining will take a wholeheck of a lot of your time.
(04:18):
So I think that's great and Ilove the answer, josh.
I think it was you andeverybody kind of implied it,
and you kind of don't want tosay, well, I'm embarrassed by my
book of business, no, I'm proudof my book of business at this
point, which means that, yes, Iwant to grow the book of
business and I think, ben, yousort of touched on something
(04:38):
that I think is really importantfor us to talk about and that
is making a whole lot of money,and I think there can be some
bad connotations that come withthat.
Now, I want to make as muchmoney as I possibly can, as long
as I'm doing it professionallyand ethically, the two things
that really guide our agencyhere.
What does more money let me do?
(04:59):
Buy more toys.
You said ties, but I don't wearties anymore now.
Buy more toys, yeah, but no,what it allows me to do is, as
you guys have said, provide formy family and also let me be
philanthropic.
In other words, I support somenonprofits here in town.
I like the idea of making a lotof money and it feels very good
(05:21):
to give some of it away.
Now, I'm not giving billions ofdollars away, but it's a very
satisfying feeling to supportnonprofits in your community,
support your church, supportoutreach and those kind of
things as successful businessmenand women.
It gives us the opportunity togive back to the community that
we live in and make thatcommunity a better place.
(05:42):
I have an obligation outside mybusiness to try to help my
community be better.
I think that's it.
Also, the final thing I'll sayis never be too busy to get
better.
We talked about this in aprevious conversation we had.
It's really.
I know we're busy, I know we'rein a crazy insurance
(06:03):
marketplace right now, butyou're never too busy to try to
get yourself better.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I would add to that that you set your goals.
You set your minimum accountsize.
You make sure that the accountsyou're going after fit your
carrier appetites.
Hopefully by now you know whyyou're different than your
competition.
Hopefully you're using thebusiness suite of products to
(06:34):
help differentiate you, becausethey do that automatically.
Now you're armed to go afterthose accounts that meet that
minimum threshold.
You're going to spend your timeon those.
You're different, you know whyyou're different.
Then you go after them.
You spend your time on that.
You're picking your clientsbecause obviously, once you
(06:55):
write them, I don't know abouthow each of your shops work, but
the producer is still involvedwith things, hopefully not the
day-to-day stuff.
I'm saying that because ifyou're taking call-ins, you're
doing the smaller type ofbusiness.
You're going to get pulled inafter the sale.
That's another reason to makesure, because your time is
(07:18):
valuable, that you set that.
As Rick said, you set thatminimum standard of the size of
account, maybe even the type ofaccount that you're going to go
after.
If you do those things and thentarget different businesses
that meet that criteria, useyour differentiation strategies,
(07:39):
you will absolutely see yourhit ratio go through the roof.
You will absolutely have fundoing it.
I think at the end of the day,you'll meet those goals, ben.
Then again, make sure youcelebrate those goals, however
that looks like.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, I hope you enjoyed that clip from that
live coaching call.
If you'd like full access tothose coaching calls and many
more, I encourage you to checkus out at
thepreeminentproducercom andfind out more about the coaching
programs that we offer, whereyou can get personal coaching
from the coaches that you hearon these podcasts.
Until next time, guys.
We'll see you in the nextepisode of the Preeminent
(08:16):
Producer Podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of
the Preeminent Producer Podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer Podcast.
If you have vague goals, you're going to get vague
results.
And this is especially truewhen it comes to knowing your
numbers and setting financialtargets of your revenue goals,
and all of that In this episodeof today's preeminent producer
podcast.
We are going to just take asmall clip from a recent
coaching call the coaches didwith the different producers
inside of our coaching program,talking about the importance of
(00:23):
setting goals, and we'll let youlisten in and hear what they
have to say.
So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to
stand out from the competition?
Do you find it challenging togrow your book of business and
create a fulfilling career?
If so, then welcome to thepreeminent producer podcast.
Each week, we'll be tacklingimportant topics, sharing proven
strategies and insights fromsuccessful producers that are in
the trenches and have traveledthe journey to becoming a
(00:53):
preeminent producer.
So discover what it reallytakes to become preeminent and
build your book of business in away that isn't being taught
anywhere else.
Our hosts are experts in thefield and have built thriving
businesses by becoming the mosttrusted advisor to their clients
.
Welcome to your journey tobecoming a preeminent producer.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I think one of the things if you're not doing you
should be doing now is havingthat goal actually have a number
of what you want to write asfar as commission income goes,
and keeping track of that.
We happen to use anothersoftware, but when I started I
(01:36):
used to spreadsheet everythingon paper.
That shows how long I've beendoing this, so I think with a
pencil too.
But the fact is that if youdon't know what your goal is
from a number standpoint, it'shard to reach that because
you're constantly you know yeah,I want to write more.
I mean, you're in this businessand doing well, or you wouldn't
(01:56):
still be here, and so everyonewants to write business.
But having that in front of you, hard numbers, and trying to
end keeping track of what you'rewriting and how far off you are
is, I think, the only way thatyou can really push yourself to
achieve that.
And then, once you achieve that, then then there's a
(02:17):
celebration and then therereally is okay, I've done it.
And now I set my goal for thenext year.
And you know, I'm sure youprobably have goals with your
agency principal probably hasgoals with their carriers.
Knowing what those are areimportant.
If you don't, you want to findthose out so that you know if we
(02:39):
have to write X amount ofbusiness with, say, travelers,
you know how much are youcontributing to.
That is that you know ifthey've given you a goal, they
probably want to write businesswith you.
So you know, focus on thatinstead of focus on, like
surplus stuff or so or businesswith another carrier.
So I think having goals writtenand followed and then
(03:03):
celebrating when you hit thosegoals is going to be very
helpful for you to realize that.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Sure, I think the other thing that we can talk
about the way to grow a book ofbusiness other than just through
working harder and doing allthose kind of things is setting
a minimum account size, andwe've talked about this in the
past and it could be differentfor Kyle than it is for Josh,
than it is for Ben.
It's different for everybody.
But you should set a minimumaccount set.
I'm not writing anything belowthis number.
(03:33):
It could be in a revenue number$5,000 of revenue, $2,000,
whatever your number is to startout, and every year you raise
that up because it'll force youto work on larger and larger
accounts.
If you can take those accountsthat are under your minimum
account size at the end of theyear, give them to someone else.
If you have the luxury of asmall commercial alliance
(03:55):
department, give it to them.
You will find that thoseaccounts take the greatest
majority of your time and youwill find pretty much that the
Pareto's principle, the 80-20rule, is pretty true.
No matter how big your book ofbusiness is, that 20% of your
clients will give you 80% ofyour revenue and those 80% that
are remaining will take a wholeheck of a lot of your time.
(04:18):
So I think that's great and Ilove the answer, josh.
I think it was you andeverybody kind of implied it,
and you kind of don't want tosay, well, I'm embarrassed by my
book of business, no, I'm proudof my book of business at this
point, which means that, yes, Iwant to grow the book of
business and I think, ben, yousort of touched on something
(04:38):
that I think is really importantfor us to talk about and that
is making a whole lot of money,and I think there can be some
bad connotations that come withthat.
Now, I want to make as muchmoney as I possibly can, as long
as I'm doing it professionallyand ethically, the two things
that really guide our agencyhere.
What does more money let me do?
(04:59):
Buy more toys.
You said ties, but I don't wearties anymore now.
Buy more toys, yeah, but no,what it allows me to do is, as
you guys have said, provide formy family and also let me be
philanthropic.
In other words, I support somenonprofits here in town.
I like the idea of making a lotof money and it feels very good
(05:21):
to give some of it away.
Now, I'm not giving billions ofdollars away, but it's a very
satisfying feeling to supportnonprofits in your community,
support your church, supportoutreach and those kind of
things as successful businessmenand women.
It gives us the opportunity togive back to the community that
we live in and make thatcommunity a better place.
(05:42):
I have an obligation outside mybusiness to try to help my
community be better.
I think that's it.
Also, the final thing I'll sayis never be too busy to get
better.
We talked about this in aprevious conversation we had.
It's really.
I know we're busy, I know we'rein a crazy insurance
(06:03):
marketplace right now, butyou're never too busy to try to
get yourself better.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I would add to that that you set your goals.
You set your minimum accountsize.
You make sure that the accountsyou're going after fit your
carrier appetites.
Hopefully by now you know whyyou're different than your
competition.
Hopefully you're using thebusiness suite of products to
(06:34):
help differentiate you, becausethey do that automatically.
Now you're armed to go afterthose accounts that meet that
minimum threshold.
You're going to spend your timeon those.
You're different, you know whyyou're different.
Then you go after them.
You spend your time on that.
You're picking your clientsbecause obviously, once you
(06:55):
write them, I don't know abouthow each of your shops work, but
the producer is still involvedwith things, hopefully not the
day-to-day stuff.
I'm saying that because ifyou're taking call-ins, you're
doing the smaller type ofbusiness.
You're going to get pulled inafter the sale.
That's another reason to makesure, because your time is
(07:18):
valuable, that you set that.
As Rick said, you set thatminimum standard of the size of
account, maybe even the type ofaccount that you're going to go
after.
If you do those things and thentarget different businesses
that meet that criteria, useyour differentiation strategies,
(07:39):
you will absolutely see yourhit ratio go through the roof.
You will absolutely have fundoing it.
I think at the end of the day,you'll meet those goals, ben.
Then again, make sure youcelebrate those goals, however
that looks like.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, I hope you enjoyed that clip from that
live coaching call.
If you'd like full access tothose coaching calls and many
more, I encourage you to checkus out at
thepreeminentproducercom andfind out more about the coaching
programs that we offer, whereyou can get personal coaching
from the coaches that you hearon these podcasts.
Until next time, guys.
We'll see you in the nextepisode of the Preeminent
(08:16):
Producer Podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of
the Preeminent Producer Podcast.
If you're enjoying the show,please feel free to subscribe,
rate and leave a review whereveryou listen to your podcasts.
That helps others find the showand we greatly appreciate it.
Once again, thanks for joiningus and we'll catch you in the
next episode of the PreeminentProducer Podcast.
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