How Much?

Recently, I posted that the Silver Bullet to agency growth is activity.  One of the natural questions is how much?   How much activity will it take to get x results?  Really, the question is what do I need to do?  What do I need to plan for? 

Great questions!

To answer your questions I need a little more information.  So, here are my questions:

• What is your growth goal?
• What is your average sale?
• What is your closing ratio?
• How do you get prospects?

Let’s assume I want to add $25,000 in commission revenue to my agency (growth goal).  And let’s assume my average sale is $450 (notice: this is commission not premium.  I’ll explain why in a future blog post).  Let’s also assume I’m an average salesperson and my closing ratio is 35%.  Lastly, let’s assume I get my prospects from my direct mail campaign and my response rate is 1.5% of pieces mailed. 

From these assumptions “how much” becomes very clear. 

I need 56 sales!  ($25,000 goal divided by $450 average sale).

I need 160 prospects!  (56 sales divided by 35%).

I need to mail 10,650 mail pieces (160 prospects divided by 1.5%)

Don’t get hung up on whether you think direct mail is the best way to advertise, or whether you think my closing ratio is good or bad.  That’s not the point.  The point is, if you know some very basic numbers, you can figure out very easily how much activity you need to reach your goal!

Everyone has a different idea about the best way to sell insurance.  We all have different goals, talents, resources and abilities.  But we can all achieve our goals with the appropriate amount of activity. 

Success is simple.  Figure out “how much”.  Then go do it!