Driving High Performance

How do you become a high performing brokerage with a strong sales culture? You can’t hire it. You can’t outsource it and you can’t create it on a part-time basis. Building a high-performance business with a strong sales culture is not easy. It takes focus, discipline and strong organizational skills. And it needs to be embedded at all levels of an organization.

Let’s review some key building blocks:

ESTABLISH GREAT LEADERSHIP

Many books have been written on this topic alone and they all agree on one key point: a company’s culture is established at the top. Great leadership is essential in setting the performance standards and expectations for the organization and its people. Great leaders establish guiding principals and values for their organization that govern behaviour and foster an environment of accountability and responsibility — and they walk the talk. This is true no matter the size of the company.

Do a reality check on the leadership at your brokerage

One of the hallmarks of great leadership is effective delegation. The dictionary defines delegate as: “To give a task to somebody else with responsibility to act on your behalf. To give somebody else the power to act, make decisions or allocate resources on your behalf.” Note the reference to “on your behalf.” Regardless of who carries the responsibility for a task or function, the business owner/leader is ultimately accountable for the outcome. Delegation is very different than abdication. If business owners are at a stage when they are not the best leaders for the company, they should consider other options, including promoting or hiring leadership talent with deemed authority and responsibility for decision-making. Nothing can undermine an employee’s commitment and engagement to a company more than ineffective or absentee leadership.

Do a reality check on the company

Depending on your ambitions, goals and the size of your company, this can be as simple as an internal size-up, a more thorough operations review or an in-depth company performance audit. The successful completion of an audit, while challenging, could place your brokerage in an elite status and provide a competitive advantage over your peers. Furthermore, consider a confidential employee survey to gauge what’s really happening internally. Take a realistic look at where you are with the business to date, what the strengths, issues and opportunities are, and whether or not you have the right skill set of people, the right business partners and the right client solutions to get you where you’re going.

CREATE THE BUSINESS PLAN

High-performing companies have a long-term vision, are committed to regular planning and, most importantly, they execute on the plan. They consistently assess where they are against key milestones and take appropriate action. The strategic planning process does not have to be onerous. The most important thing is to take the first step. The process and the plan can always be refined along the way and should be reviewed and updated annually regardless. Ensure the planning process outcomes present clear goals, action items and accountabilities. Most importantly, follow through with execution and implementation. Include your key people in the process. Professional, committed employees want to be actively engaged in the goals of the company. Establish key measurements for your company and regularly assess company performance against them. Tie the plan back to the financials and measure and monitor regularly.

ESTABLISH STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES

High-performing companies run a tight ship. They use current technologies, making sure that all back-office activities fully support front-end sales and service activities. They establish how things are to be done at their organizations; these processes are then documented, form the basis for training and provide a backdrop for measuring performance. These procedures become part of an organization’s brand, since they are designed to ensure the consistent delivery of high standards of service and a consistent sales approach that ties in with the businesses’ value position.

One of the biggest challenges a brokerage faces is that the client experience is completely different depending on the brokerage representative with whom a client interacts. This is especially challenging in larger organizations with multiple branches. When tight procedures have been established in all areas of a company, and consistent training is undertaken on those procedures, the client can expect the same high level of service throughout the company. There should be documented steps for every process at the company — ie. how the claims reporting process works, the six questions to ask every prospect, the sales process at a company, the materials the company sends to all of its prospects and the renewal process for personal lines clients, etc. etc. Store these policies in an operations guide that is continuously updated and improved as new ideas and issues present.

Use regular company meetings or workshops as a forum to create how things are to be done at the company. These are great forums to get all staff

proactively engaged in resolving issues and taking ownership of problems. Regular internal company workshops allow everyone at an organization the opportunity to plan, test, establish policies and even role-play for every aspect of their business, including each stage of a sales or service process. It creates a system for company-wide implementation and helps the company bond together as a team.

DEVELOP YOUR CLIENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

High-performing organizations have a unique, clearly articulated and well-understood value proposition. Everyone at the organization is clear on the features and benefits of their firm in meeting the needs of clients. Good service is merely the price of entry today, because clients want more. High-performing organizations know how to demonstrate “value.” In turn, they receive loyalty and more importantly commitment from their clients. They also understand that every client has the right to be somebody’s “A” client, even if they might not necessarily be their targeted “A” client. Successful businesses know their preferred clients and prospects; they have clear relationship management strategies, service plans and appropriate products to meet their clients’ needs.

It costs six times more to get a new client than to cross-sell or up-sell a current client. Maximize this return on relationship for each client; segment the book of business so everyone knows who the A, B, and C clients are and who the target clients should be. There should be documented service plans for every level of client, including when and how to make contact or “touch the client” and how to handle various procedures such as renewals.

Client service plans should be established up front with new clients and reviewed annually. The roles of each individual involved in managing the client relationship should also be incorporated into the service plans. In the brokerage model, clients establish a relationship of trust with the individual through whom they arrange their insurance program. Producers should not abdicate this client relationship and should be clear about their ongoing role so as to avoid the client’s perception of “bait and switch.”

The second installment of this two-part series will appear in April 2009.

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BUILDING BLOCKS TO A HIGH-PERFORMING BROKERAGE

Measure, manage and communicate by implementing the following steps:

A. Establish great leadership.

B. Do a reality check.

C. Create the business plan and revisit and update it annually.

D. Establish standardized procedures

E. Develop the client management strategy

F. Invest in the marketing plan

G. Develop the people strategy

H. Implement world class sales pr actices

I. Review and monitor financials

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Great leaders establish guiding principals and values for their organization that govern behaviour and foster an environment of accountability and responsibility — and they walk the talk.