Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...

sales and marketing
Are the Patients Running the Asylum
By Bill Gough
I
get questions all the time about training
staff, keeping them accountable,
pushing them to close more sales,
etc. Next to your book of business, your
staff is the most important part of your
agency and your biggest expense. As
savvy business owners, we must do whatever
we can to make our employees more
productive by taking a proactive role in
training them and setting them up for
success, which will ultimately help our
businesses thrive.
“You are a direct reflection of your staff.
If they stink, it’s because you stink. You’ve
allowed them to become the way they are.”
– Bill Eggar, Allstate Agency Owner &
Green Sheet Process Creator
Remember, it is your name on the front
door, not your receptionist’s and not your
office manager’s. Therefore, you are the
one that is responsible for whether your
staff sinks or floats.
What are you doing to actively train
your staff, hone your systems and processes,
and create a team that consistently
produces great results If your answer
is “not much” or “nothing,” then the
patients are running the asylum and it’s
time for you to take control.
In 2012, Wendy Murphy, who was the
vice president of my agency, bought my
book of business and became the agency
owner of The All-American Agency. She
now trains her staff – with my help – using
the very best practiced, scripted processes
and systems. She keeps her staff
accountable by making every task measurable
and setting high expectations.
Following are two great examples of
things Wendy is doing in her agency to
take a proactive role in training her staff.
See her results below… and remember, if
we can do it, so can you!
Every campaign Wendy runs has multiple
steps across many media types…
calls, postcards, emails, etc. In January
2013, Wendy started a new campaign
to convert term life insurance customers
to permanent life customers. One of
the steps in this campaign is, of course,
making a call to the customer. The script
for this call is tailored to be a follow-up
to the Allstate “Call Me” postcard and is
designed to create curiosity so the customer
will call back. The script itself is
simple…
“Hello Mr. Jones, this is Sarah with
Wendy Murphy’s Allstate office. I was
calling you today because it is time for us to
do a review of the life insurance you have
with us. I wonder if you could check your
schedule to see if Monday or Tuesday of
next week would work for Cecil to come
out to your home. Which day would you
prefer”
If you need to leave a voice message,
it’s simpler…
“Hello, this is Sarah with your Allstate
agency. I need you to call me about your
life insurance. My number is _______.”
Just from using these simple scripts
in combination with the other steps and
media, Wendy’s staff is getting amazing
results. Initially, her staff made 12 calls,
producing four appointments. But that’s
not all; she received five call-backs from
customers after leaving voice messages
and wrote six policies totaling more than
$7,000 in premium – and at the time she
shared these numbers with me, they still
had two appointments to go! This campaign,
when thoroughly completed, is
practically fail-safe.
The second example I want to share
with you is about the importance of
building a solid “Referral Culture” in your
business. Wendy’s staff is trained to ask
for referrals within the first 30 seconds on
customer calls. We use a full page in our
printed monthly newsletter to promote
our referral program and seek referrals at
every possible opportunity. We don’t wait
for the referrals to come to us… we take
action and go out and get them!
We started taking a proactive approach
with our referral program at The All-
American Agency in 2004 and it is now
responsible for more than $1 million in
annual auto and home premiums. Almost
a third of Wendy’s new business today
comes from referrals. We’ve generated $1
million in 7 years strictly from referrals!
These pointers are simple to implement
and cost-efficient. As long as your staff is
in the office anyway, you might as well
help them reach their full potential. With
success come high-fives, enthusiasm, better
attitudes and more income for all. Ef
Bill Gough is a former multiple awardwinning
Allstate agent and President of
BGI Marketing Systems. BGI specializes
in coaching and training agency staff. Don’t
make the mistake of training by trial and
error. If you want to significantly improve
your staff ’s performance get the best from the
22 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013