The Power of Setting "Impossible" Sales Goals

There's nothing worse than chasing a goal you shouldn't have in the first place. Take your sales goal next year, and I dare you to double it.

Hey, welcome back to the accelerate your insurance sales podcast. Andy Neary here, CEO and founder of Complete Game Consulting. I think this is episode 34. How are you doing? Awesome. We're going to dive into a subject that is near and dear to my heart right now, and that is how to set impossible sales goals. Now, before you turn this off, because I'm going to be preaching something that isn't even possible, I want you to hear me out. What I'm going to go through today is, quite frankly, the journey we're on right now at Complete Game Consulting and a conversation that I had at the beginning of this year that has really led to where we are as a company right now and what we're looking at as we look ahead. It's very exciting times, and I'm going to open the door a little bit on just things we're focused on and working on. And my ultimate goal here is to convince you that it is important to sell or to create lofty sales goals. Sometimes it may even seem impossible, but I'm going to tell you why that's actually a good thing. So let me just start by saying, why am I even choosing this subject in the first place? Because I'm just going to be blunt. When I look around the insurance industry right now, I see a lot of agencies and producers setting very lazy sales goals, goals that are very easily doable, and it makes the producer feel really good, right? Really confident that they can hit that goal. But at the end of the day, is the goal actually pushing the producer to be better? The answer is no. And I see agencies do this at the agency level. They. They don't have goals for their producers that are clear, that are challenging, that force that producer to stretch him or himself or herself. And it's a problem. It's why we struggle with organic growth in this industry. That's why M and A has become the number one strategy to grow, because nobody knows how to grow organically anymore, and they're not stretching themselves when it comes to sales goals. So let's talk about this. Why. Why should you set goals that may seem impossible to reach? Well, let me start here. Beginning of the year, we sat down as a team and we had our annual planning session. Now, for those who may be unfamiliar, we use a program or a process called the entrepreneurial operating system eos, which comes from the book Traction. If you haven't read that book. It is a great book. In fact, pull it right off my shelf here. If you want to learn how to scale your business right now, whether you own the agency or you're just trying to grow your book, read the book Traction. And we sat down and we set our goals for the year. Now in the EOS system, they have you set a 10 year vision, a three year plan and then a one year goal. And so they want you looking out 10 years, where do you want to be? What do you want to look like 10 years from now? They have you set a three year game plan of what you will be or look like in three years. And then you break it back down into, okay, in the next 12 months, what's your goal? What's your biggest goal for this organization? And so when we sat down and did our planning, our big goal was to grow at a 35% clip. So we looked at the revenue number, we looked at where we ended 2024, we looked at where we wanted to end as an organization in 2025. And if we hit that revenue objective, we will have grown 35%. Now in our world, just to give you a little perspective, our world is a little different than maybe selling insurance is because most revenue in the insurance world is recurring, right? So you're going to have some natural growth by retaining clients, but premium increases and things like that. In our world, we have some clients that are recurring, but we also sell a lot of programs that are one time payments, so we can't solely rely on recurring revenue. And so 35% could seem pretty lofty. And so after we, we had our planning session, I sat down with my business partner, Sampson, and I shared with him what the goals were or the goals that we set were for the organization. Now Sampson's more of a silent partner in a way, so he wasn't involved in the annual planning. And as he sat there and listened to my goals or that me sharing my sharing our goals, I thought it was providing some great information to him, right? 35% clip. If we can hit this, this is going to be phenomenal. And he sat there and he listened. And after I got done sharing how I thought we were going to get there, he looked at me, he said, great, what would it take to double that? Now if we were to double that, just to give you a little perspective, we'd be talking about, well north of 100% growth, 1001500 20% growth. And when he said that, I immediately clenched up, like, what do you mean? Double that? That's impossible. I don't even know. I don't even know how we'd even start going down the path to double the goal I've already set for the team. He said, I know, but here's what I want to ask you, he said, if you were to set that goal, what appears to be an impossible goal, let me ask you this. What would you have to focus on this year in order to make that a reality? And what would you have to get rid of or let go of in order for that to be a reality? And it was interesting. Immediately after he posed those questions, he and I went into a very lively conversation in a very positive way. And we were talking about the business at a totally new level we had never talked about before. And it didn't hit me right there and then. And as I sit here in August, reflecting back on that conversation, staring ahead at, what, four months to go, the good news is we're on our way to probably hitting our 35% clip, which I'm excited about. Are we on the path to hit the goal he set to double it? Probably not. But I will tell you this. We are thinking at, as a business, on a level that we were not even capable of thinking on January 1st. The things that we have decided to focus on, the enhancements we have decided to make to our products inside the agency growth accelerator, and more importantly, the things we have decided to say no to, are really starting to make some of these lofty goals a reality. And that's what I wanted to share with you. In the insurance industry, we have this tendency to set very lazy sales goals. In fact, I know agencies who don't even set sales goals for their producers. And I'm going to be very blunt about this. Anybody who tells you goals aren't worth having does not know how to actually hit them. That's why they're telling you goals are not worth having. You need to have clear goals so that you can measure your progress, measure your journey on your path to achieving them. Yeah. And you need somebody to hold your butt accountable to do the things you need to do every week to hit them. But here's the deal. We are setting really lazy sales goals within this industry. In fact, I know agencies that say, you know what? Growing is actually not a priority for us this year. What? So I want you to start considering as we look ahead, before you know it, January 1st is going to be right around the corner. And you look ahead at what your team, your agency is going to do to grow in the coming years. I hope organic growth is a piece of that. But I'm going to challenge you to start setting loftier dare impossible sales goals. And it's not to set those goals so that you hold accountable all hold your producers accountable to achieve the impossible. Otherwise they're out. No, no, no. You set them because it forces you to have a completely different conversation than you are having today. It forces you to get very clear on what your priorities are going to be. It forces you to get very clear on what you need to eliminate that you are doing today so that you can start to think on a whole new level now. Ironically, at the same time I bring this up to you, I am reading a book that just came out called the Science of scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson. And this book has absolutely opened my eyes on how we are going to continue scaling our revenue by doing the things that started with that conversation I had with Samson at the beginning of the year. When you think about scaling your agency, your company, if you sell, you know, if you're an industry partner, if you are interested in scaling your business, let me just read to you some of the notes I'm taking from this book right now that I am applying to Complete Game Consulting that I highly recommend you consider. This episode is brought to you by True Captive Insurance. What if you could take full control of your healthcare strategy without the financial burdens of traditional insurance? At True Captive Insurance they make that possible. As the only captive in the nation that puts up the majority of collateral on your behalf. They provide financial flexibility from day one, making them an advocating partner for their customer success. TrueCaptive's fully customizable plans and cost saving strategies ensure you never have to choose between affordability and quality care. It's time to break free from the limitations of conventional insurance.

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Number one. If you want to change something, hence a better sales goal, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. So look at what you're doing today. It's not about how do we make our current model a little better. If you want to achieve scale, you have to reconsider your model altogether. What are you doing today that shouldn't be done at all? How can you enhance what you're doing so that a year from now it doesn't even look like what it does today? What I'm sharing with you today is more a mindset shift than anything. This is not strategy. This is not tactics. This is not finding the silver bullet. This is about a shift in your mindset and how you think about growing your business. If you want to scale you must have a clear focus and a simple system that effectively produces the desired result. This isn't about how much more can we do. This is about simplifying what you are doing today. The greatest example I can give you is is peer of mind in this industry and I'll let him name nameless to keep him to give him a competitive advantage when he made the decision at his benefits firm to say no to everything else and simplify their process down to the point that all they sell is health insurance captives. That is it. And everything they do around their system is to qualify or disqualify prospects as to whether or not they will be a fit for their captive. That was the day his agency's revenue took off and they never looked back. It wasn't about what other things can we do in addition to what we're doing. No no, no. He eliminated everything else and he said this is what we're going to be world class at. That's what we're doing right now. Complete game consulting. We're not trying to figure out how many new revenue sources we can create. No, we're actually eliminating revenue sources down to the ones that we do the best. We believe our agency Growth accelerator program will become the number one training program in the insurance industry. Is going to become a recur, a recruiting and a retention weapon for agencies that choose it. We have our expert content done for you. One of the best social media content platforms out there. That's all we do. We say no to everything else. Where do you need to go more narrow to grow your agency? Right now we are kept from our goals not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal. When you set reasonable goals you give yourself a really good chance at getting distracted because things that should not be a priority become a priority. There's nothing worse than chasing a goal you shouldn't have in the first place. So consider that make your goal much bigger and make the deadline far more aggressive. Seemingly impossible. Comes back to my point about take your sales goal next year and I dare you to double it. Not because you're going to force your producers to hit it, but it's going to force you to have better conversations. If you're not going fast, it likely meets your unfocused it means you're optimizing things that shouldn't exist. An inherent problem with long range goals is that they justify you making bad decisions today. Yeah, three year, ten year visions are good. We set them. But what can you do to scale today? To scale, you'll want people who want to be held accountable. Another big thing, right? If you're gonna hit your sales goals next year, is everybody on your team willing to be held accountable now? This is the big one I wanna share. In order to scale, you have to become pro. A pro at letting go. Even if you have been heavily invested in it, there is nothing worse than pushing a bad idea down your team's throat because A, it's your idea or B you've already invested a lot of time and money in it, so you're going to see it through. We're doing it right now. We've invested time and money in some things that just have not panned out. We're going to let them go. Yeah, it's a sunk cost. I get it. But my point is this. If you're wanting to scale, your book of business or the company you own or are an executive at, it is not about how many new different revenue streams can you create. It's about getting so damn world class at very few things that you become the market leader in them. And it's setting goals that may appear impossible today, but in doing so, it's going to force you to have conversations at a level you are not having today. And it's going to force you to eliminate those easy distractions that are keeping you off track right now. Because quite frankly, your current goals are too easily achievable now. I get it. Your goals may have to be more on the service side today, it may have to be more on the hiring people side today. I understand and I'm focused on sales goals right now. But my point is, if you want to scale, you have to start thinking big. If you want to scale, it's not about trying to do more, it's doing less, but getting world class at it. And it's about eliminating all the noise that is keeping you from scaling today. And it is. There has never been a better time to scale right now with the advent of AI and all the things it could do to help you automate what is manual today. It's never been easier to grab attention at scale using platforms like social media. Scaling is possible if you're willing to go there. I talked about this on a previous episode. Are you leveling up your standards and your expectations for your sale, for your sales? Right. If you're an organization right now that focuses on small group business Whether it's commercial or benefits. What would it take to start writing larger groups? What happens to a lot of agencies is they go win that piece of business that's larger than they're used to. Instead of making that their nor their new norm, they retreat. They go back to the room temperature that's comfortable. Make that your new norm. We have clients right now. They used to write groups, 50 to 100 lives. Guess what? Their average conversation right now is groups in the hundreds, if not thousands. Why? Because they level set their standards and expectations, which is a part of scaling. They're setting goals others would deem impossible. But it's forcing them to do things they've never done before, which will get them to places they've never been. And when I look at where we are today as a business, I'm recording this on August 25th. We sit in a position we've never sat before. And it's not because we have gone out and try to do as much as we can. It's because we got very clear about what we do very well. We've had a lot of offers from other industries to have us come do what we do for them. But we know where our niche is today. We're the insurance experts when it comes to grabbing attention. Why? Because my entire team, for the most part, comes from the industry. We understand the language. That's why we do what we do best. It's about saying no to everything else. So we're sitting here today looking at a one year, three year game plan, setting some pretty lofty, dare I say, impossible goals. But I am very excited about where we're going to be in the next 12 to 18 months simply because we are thinking differently and we are eliminating all the noise. How about you? Where do you need to sit down right now with your team, with your book of business and go, all right, we want to grow and in order to grow, we need clear goals. But these goals can't be what we've done for, for the last five to 10 years, which is set, very manageable, achievable goals. They don't force you outside your comfort zone. How can we. I want you to take the goal you have right now going into next year and I want you to try to double that. Start there, take the current goal you have and double it. Just that exercise alone will force you to have a different conversation. It'll force you to get really clear on what you're going to eliminate and then go into next year and stay heavily focused on that goal. If you haven't read the book Traction. Go get it. It is the best book for setting quarterly priorities and keeping you focused on those priorities that are going to give you the best chance to hit your rocks. And as you have these new conversations, you're going to be investing in different things, investing in both time and money. And you know what? If it doesn't work, try something else. Let go. Don't hang on to a bad idea because it's what you invested in. Let go. And but man, when I look ahead at our next 12, 24 months, I couldn't be more excited. So how about you?