Episode 139: Check Your Scoreboard (Encore)

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Greetings, friends. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory with the next episode in the Unstoppable Profit podcast. And I don't have a visual for you, but if I did, it would be the visual of my grandson Nate. When he came over to the house one time and he had his lime green shirt on and he said, and it said on the lime green shirt it says, numbers don't lie. I love that. Numbers don't lie. Check the scoreboard is what it said down below that and I love that. And what I want to talk to you about today is the scoreboard, the backstory in my journey of almost 35 years as a proud independent insurance agency entrepreneur, then creating a philosophy called the three Ps, People, Processes and promotion, in that order, which is in the core basis of our philosophy at upping. Way back when, it was me, it was me all by myself. There was nobody else. And so I was just doing it, doing it. In the words of Michael Gerber, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it and doing it, doing it, doing it and keep doing it. And all of a sudden we had numbers all over the place, we had things flying all over the place, we had marketing going on and we were growing, growing, growing. And then we identified through strategy and by listening to people who knew more than we did about something and using that information to get better all the time, that we really needed to inspect what we expect. And we needed to do a better job of knowing our numbers. So we got really good at identifying our numbers. Because one of the greatest things about the insurance agency business, my friends, as you know, it's really, really simple. New business retention, new business retention, it is that simple, it's not that complicated. So we've got to pay attention to our new business and our retention. So as we continue to grow, we did an acquisition, continued to grow, really started growing through organic growth through the 2000s and got to the point where we had created a very respectable agency in less than nine years. Seven figure revenue, doing well. Okay. Then we really needed to start inspecting our numbers. In addition to that, our agency team was growing, alright. So we needed to incentivize, we built an incentive programs and so forth and so on, and that was fantastic. And we really got to the point a few years later that, okay, we had almost exhausted where we did exhaust what we had created. We needed to reinvent and we did reinvent and we reinvented and we learned a lesson in upp. There's wins and lessons. Lessons are failures. We reinvented, learned a lesson, reinvented again, learned another lesson and then most recently reinvented again and found the secret sauce. And so that is where we are at right now. And what I wanted to share with you today is the secret sauce formula that our leadership team has created in the reinvention of our agency. That is our numbers and our accountability within the agency business. I am so proud to sit here before you today being part of a leadership team that oversees roughly 18, 19 people. And my greatest encouragement for you is just know that as you continue to grow, as you continue to add people, it doesn't get any easier, my friend. So you've got to be strategic. You've got to be on the same page. And our goal as leaders is to grow up leaders beneath us. Our goal as leaders is to grow up leaders beneath us. Super, super important ninja stealth tip for you know that. Alright? So our leadership team is everything within our organization. We are extremely fortunate to have a phenomenal leadership team that I get to participate in, that I get to, you know, lead in many situations. And it's a great, great, great place to be. So that's where it starts with the scoreboard. Okay? So every week our leadership team meets and we have a leadership meeting. And part of that meeting is the scoreboard. It's the second thing that we talk about in our leadership meeting. It's a quick review of the weekly measurables. It's a quick review of the weekly measurables. So you might be thinking to yourself, what are the weekly measurables in your organization? Allow me to share, please. And because these are the weekly measurables in our organization, doesn't mean it's right for every organization. But ultimately, at the end of the day, knowing your destination is all you need to get there. And if you can't, you can't hit an unidentified target. All right? So you've got to identify the targets that you're looking to hit or you can't hit them. Like I said, you can't hit an unidentified target. All right? So our weekly measurables are our new premium production. Because our producers think in terms of premium production. That's just who they are. I mean, they're talking about 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, $20,000 premium consistently with their prospects. So that's the words that are coming out of their mouth, hence the words that might be coming out of their mind and their heart. Alright, so we talk in those terms with them because that's what they're talking about day long. So new premium production close ratio on referrals. Yes, referrals. Our number two source of new business within our organization is referrals. So we want to know what the close ratio is for those referrals. Our policy count. Policy per client count. We want to know what our policy per client count is because we're constantly looking to increase that. We're looking to get to three. That's our end goal. Policy count per new client. Are we writing the entire account? We want to be aware if we're writing the entire account. If we're not, we need to do a better job in training to make sure people understand that we want to write the entire account. We don't want onesies anymore. I mean, back to lessons, right? I've got enough lessons in my history of writing onesies because back in the old days, in the beginning, if you were breathing and you needed insurance and you had money, you were mine. I mean, I love to sell, I love to close, but at the end of the day, right in onesies isn't where it's at. So we learned that lesson. Retention by client count. Yes, we measure it by client. Retention by policy count. We measure by policy as well. Personal lines, Policies lost. Personal lines. Policy premium lost. Commercial lines. Policies lost. Commercial lines Policy premium lost. Number of referrals Online leads, agency growth on net income year over year. So those are the things that we are looking to measure consistently and on a weekly basis. Our leadership team is apprised on exactly where we stand on all of those items so that we consistently know where we're at. Keep in mind we cannot hit unidentified targets. Alright, so we get a monthly update and I am proud, uber proud of our team that I'm looking at a monthly update. The service number as far as, and I'm not going to go into great detail line by line by line, but our overall number on retention is running at about 92.66%. 92.66, yes.

Extremely fortunate, extremely proud of our team. And as far as new business is concerned, we are at.

About 118% of goal. So that's awesome. I mean, we're growing through this adversity. We're not just going through it. We're growing through it. That's where we are. I mean, that's our mindset. We're not going to let anything hold us back. Okay? So year over year, looking at the numbers, we grew by 28.57% in new business and our existing book is growing at 12.25% year over year. So doing good. You know, we could be doing better on the existing book, but at the end of the day, we are making every effort. We know the targets that we are looking to hit, and so we are consistently monitoring that and we are holding our team accountable. We are encouraging them, we are training them at every single opportunity to help the entire team to get better all of the time. Because at the end of the day, my friends, that team culture is everything. Culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast all the time. So it is your team culture and your core values. Do you know who you are? We have our core values that we operate within our business. Those are our core values. If you are watching this on YouTube and if you are not, go back to YouTube and watch these because you can visually see these as well. Our core values are a servant's heart, dedicated to serving our team, our clients and our community. This is how we play. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic and competitive. Number three, we believe in growth. To have more, you have to become more team Sia. Number four, it's more than business. That's what we believe. Everything that we have going on within our agency business, we gauge off of our core values. People are kept and not kept according to our core values. So it is at literally the core of everything that we do. So you might be thinking, alright, tell me more about this accountability that you built into your organization. So.

Our leadership team does a great job in keeping our team apprised of where they are at, because that is one thing that we identified through the lessons of the last couple of years. Our team wanted to know in more detail exactly where they were at at least every month, if not more often than that. They want to know the score because like my grandson Nate said, numbers don't lie. Check the scoreboard. They wanted to see that scoreboard. So what we did is we created a scoreboard for them. And as far as the new business or the sales team, they get periodic month updates throughout the month as to where they're at. In addition to that, our production log on our intranet is live. Blow by blow, you know, minute by minute, day by day as to what's going on. So they all know the score consistently. As far as New business. But our leadership team also pings them and puts out a message saying hey team, just to let you know, so and so's in the lead or so and so's ahead. This month Anna's over 100% of goal and some of you aren't. It's just that strategic messaging of competitive nature because our core values talk about.

This is how we play. Fun, enthusiastic, energetic and competitive. So we are being competitive in everything that we do. Alright, so that's the new business team as far as the service team is concerned. We created a scorecard for the service team as well. And again, if you're watching this on YouTube, you might see a little bit of this. If you're listening to this only, no worries. Go back and check this out on YouTube when you have a chance because every one of our podcasts nowadays are visual and live on YouTube as well. Okay, so this is a copy of our scorecard. I don't know if you can see this.

Super super clearly, but at the end of the day this is the scorecard that is distributed to every team member on a monthly basis and it's on a point system. Okay. Policies to renew, premium to renew, client renewals, sourced cross sell clients referred to you. Five star Google review, continuing education. Remember, back to our core values. If we want to have more, we have to become more. So we built that into our scorecard. Okay. Endorsement increase, increase policy count per client. They all have goals and they all have actual obtained. Okay. So at the end of the day this particular and it's on the point system on the left hand side. Okay. So their points, I know you might not be able to see this super well, but their points right here per line item they get certain number of points equaling a total of 100 points per month. Okay. And so their goal, the goal for this particular agent was 206 policies to renew. Got 194. Great job. Premium to renew 344. 393. Got 329.088. Great job. Client renewal 151 kept 141 of them. And what we're also finding because we segmented our clients years ago and we're continuing to update the segments. Triple A, double A, single A. Some of those clients that are leaving are single A's. And that's okay with us because we want to focus the 8020 rules always in effect. The Pareto principle. It's been said that up to 80%, up 20% of your clients bring you up to 80% of your business. Alright. So you want to take care of those top 20% and you don't want to let the bottom 20% drag you down and waste your time. Right? Source Cross sell. We require two. Source Cross sells. She got five this month. Great job. Clients referred to you. Two. She got three.

Alright.

Five star Google reviews. We require two, she got four. Awesome. Continuing education credits. We required two, she got four this month. Endorsement increase, we required three, she got eight.

Increased policy count per client 1.382%. She got 1.408%. So needless to say, this particular agent got a hundred points this month by blowing away her goals. Could not be more proud. And there's a monetary bonus based on the number system. $100, $200, $300, $400. In addition to that, they can earn a quarterly kicker if they're number one on their team for that particular quarter. So at the end of the day they have ample opportunity to continue to earn more, continue to become more. And our leadership team member writes a note on their monthly scorecard said great job. Holy moly. Numbers in the 90%. In addition you lost only 15k in premium. That is amazing. As you can see being quite a bit and non expiring accounts. My hope is that the calls that we're doing. By the way, we specifically hired somebody to help with closing the back door because you now that we have so many clients, we want to make sure that we strategically have somebody that's closed the back door for us. Okay. To decrease the number of insureds. Keep in mind that we can write in other states. So let's keep what we can for people that are moving out of states. It's part of our overall vision and traction organization system within our leadership team. So we know exactly where we're at. There's a complete recap right here. All lost in July. July only lost and then July 2020 total. So fantastic stuff. Could not be more proud of our leadership team. That's how we do it. That's how we keep track of our scoreboards within our organization. It's all an effort, combined effort of our leadership team who works together to make sure that we are on top of the numbers, that we are clear on where we are in the scoreboard. And like my grandson Nate's shirt says numbers don't lie. Check the scoreboard. It's all about the scoreboard. Because at the end of the day you can't deposit anything that you have not identified. And if you're not forecasting and keeping aware of where you're at from a business growth standpoint or a business reduction standpoint, whether it be revenue or premium, and from an entrepreneurial standpoint from the top Leaders chair. You need to know what your revenue is all the time. Just like that. My friends, I hope this helps you in forecasting and understanding your numbers from a business growth standpoint. If there's anything more that you would like to know, please let us know what it is. And check the scoreboard. Because the Numbers don't lie. This is Mike Stromsoe coming to you live from the Leaving Agency Laboratory and I can't wait to see you on the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Until then, get out there and check the scoreboard. The numbers don't lie. And make sure that you subscribe to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. It's@unstoppableprofitpodcast.com and if you know somebody who might enjoy these episodes, please share it with them. We're out there in virtually every place that a podcast can be found online, whether it's on your smartphone or on your computer. So just check us out. Unstoppable Profit Podcast. Or just go to unstoppableprofitpodcast.com and please share with everybody so we can continue to share the knowledge that we picked up in our almost 35 year journey working in the insurance agency business and leading the insurance agency business. And all we want for you is to help you grow your business to create wealth and have more freedom to live life on your own terms through a simple three step blueprint called the Three Ps People, Processes and promotion. My friends, until the next episode. Take care, get out there, make a difference, be unstoppable, leave no regrets and most importantly, take action. We'll talk to you next time.

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