Ridiculously Amazing Insurance Podcast - Back to School, Back to Your Agency

If you feel like things were a little slower during the summer around the office, consider this podcast episode your official call back to reality. On this episode of the podcast, Kelly and Dave outline their four tips for refocusing on your business at the conclusion of summer and setting yourself up for a successful end to the year.

Think about what will set you up for success in 2020 – Chances are, it has been a few years (or more than a few years) since you had a brand refresh, so now is the time to be thinking about a marketing strategy to launch in January 2020. If you are like most other agencies, you don’t have the resources internally to create and implement a brand guide on your own, but – lucky for you – Agency Performance Partners offers this exact service! And podcast listeners receive $500 off their brand guide. Co-op money from your carriers could help with this expense.
Focus on training for the softer skills – If your new branding works as well as you hope it will, your phone will start ringing more, so communication and sales process training will become crucially important for the functioning of your business. Columbus Day and Veterans Day are perfect opportunities to have your office open for the day, but to host training sessions since the workload will be light otherwise. Remember that everything you do now will pay off next year, so start investing now in your team, from virtual training hours to in-person trainings to the 6-month program offered by APP. Co-op money from your carriers could also go a long way to help here as well.
Address underperforming team members – Develop a performance improvement plan, outlining expectations and next steps if the employee doesn’t meet the milestones set out in the plan. For a 30-day plan to take effect, you really want to start in mid-September so you don’t get too close to holiday time if you do have to let the employee go.
Think of September-December as the final “third” of the year – Be aware of the time you have left to reach the goals you set up in January. Take a look at your progress and make any necessary changes to get where you want to be. This is a great time to assess your carrier commitments and perhaps make a final push to reach the next threshold.

The APPX Time Management Program has been launched, and Kelly and Dave hope it will help banish the word “busy” from agency vocabularies by making team members more proactive in their time management. Also, now is the time to sign up for an agency assessment, since this is the most competitive price of the year.