Are You Flying By The Seat Of Your Pants...
Just Hoping Your Insurance Sales Will Improve In
2016?
Are you just hoping your insurance sales will
improve in 2016? Or, are you developing a strategic plan to make
sure your 2016 insurance sales improve?
What do you want to see happen in 2016?
Where are your biggest opportunities?
How can you boost your sales and lower your
expenses?
How can you build better your relationships with
your clients?
What do your customers like and dislike about
doing business with you?
What would they like to see you offer?
In The
Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote that the difference
between a successful plan and an unsuccessful plan lay with two
decisive factors. One was good information. The other was the
morale and energy of the troops. It isn’t really any different
in your business. Good data, coming from engaged clients, makes
all the difference. It even makes planning sort of fun.
Strategic Plan Template: What To Include In Yours
A strategic plan is a roadmap to grow your
business. To help you succeed, the information below details the
13 key sections you must include in your strategic plan.
Section 1: Executive Summary
The Executive Summary of your strategic plan
should be completed last, and this section merely summarizes
each of the other sections of your plan.
The Executive Summary is important since it will
help other key people, such as employees, advisors, family and
spouse to quickly understand and support your plan.
Section 2: Your Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a brief description of your
business. Your elevator pitch is included in your strategic plan
since it is key to your business’ success, and often times
should be updated annually.
Here’s why it’s important: if you can’t clearly
and concisely articulate your business to others, you inevitably
miss out on tons of sales and other opportunities.
Section 3: Your Mission Statement
Your mission statement explains what your
business is trying to achieve. While it may seem unimportant,
it’s not. Your mission statement guides you to make the right
decisions; decisions that are in line with helping you achieve
you mission.
Section 4: Analysis of Your Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
The reason to include an analysis of your
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in your
Strategic Plan is to help you determine the best opportunities
to pursue to achieve your growth goals. It also helps you
identify which strengths you must develop in the near future to
improve your sales.
Section 5: Your Goals
Setting and achieving your goals is the hallmark
of a successful business and is a critical element of your
strategic plan.
They key is to first identify your 5 year or
long-term goals. Next, identify your one-year goals; what you
must achieve in the next year for it to be successful and to put
your business on the right trajectory to achieving your 5 year
goals.
Then work backwards two more times to determine
your goals for the next quarter and the next month. Ideally you
update you strategic plan monthly to modify this section.
Section 6: Key Performance Indicators
Great businesses understand their Key
Performance Indicators. By monitoring your Key
Performance Indicators, you know exactly how your business
is performing and can make adjustments as needed.
For example, a basic Key Performance
Indicators such as Total Sales is critical for understanding
if your company is performing well.
Underlying Key Performance Indicators are
equally as important. For example, if sales are affected by 1)
number of visitors to your website, 2) number of visitors who
complete a contact form, 3) number of sales appointments, and 4)
your closing ratio, then each of these Key Performance
Indicators should be tracked.
Then, if for instance, the number of visitors to
your website decreased, you would know and immediately fix this,
rather than waiting until sales plummet later.
So, it’s critical to identify the Key
Performance Indicators you will track in your business and
list them in this section of your strategic plan.
Section 7: Target Customers
In this section of your strategic plan, you will
identify the wants and needs of each of your target client
groups. This is important in focusing your marketing efforts and
getting a higher return on investment on your advertising
expenditures. This is because the more you can “speak” directly
to your target client wants and needs in your marketing the
better you will attract them.
Section 8: Industry Analysis
Your industry analysis doesn’t have to be a
comprehensive report on what’s going on in your market. However,
you should conduct an analysis to ensure the market size is
growing (if not, you might want to diversify), and to help
identify new opportunities for growth.
Section 9: Competitive Analysis & Advantage
Similarly to your industry analysis, your
competitive analysis doesn’t have to be a thorough report
listing every detail about every competitor. Rather, in addition
to defining who your key competitors are, you should list their
strengths and weaknesses.
Most importantly, use this analysis to determine
your current competitive advantages and ways to develop
additional advantages.
Section 10: Marketing Plan
In addition to your strategic plan, I recommend
you develop a comprehensive
marketing plan
describing how you will attract prospects to you, convert them to
paying customers and maximize your sales to your current
clients.
Include a summary of your marketing plan in your
strategic plan.
Next week we will provide you with “How To
Develop a
Comprehensive Marketing Plan”
Section 11: Building Your Team
The team section of your strategic plan ensures
you have the support and training resources to execute on the opportunities
you’ve identified and to achieve the goals you established in
section 5 of your plan.
Here you should list your current team members
and identify the types of people you need to hire or form
alliances with in the next year to achieve your goals.
Section 12: Operations Plan
Your operations plan helps you transform your
goals and opportunities into reality. In this section of your
plan, you will identify each of the individual projects that
comprise your larger goals and how these projects will be
completed. Finally, you’ll map out each of your initiatives, so
you know when each project will start and who will lead them.
Section 13: Financial Projections
The final section of your strategic plan is your
financial projections. Your financial projections help in
multiple ways. First, you can use a financial model to assess
the potential results for each opportunity you consider
pursuing.
Also, once you determine the opportunities you
will pursue, your financial projections will map out the goals.
For example, you’ll know exactly how many new clients you must
attract in the next month, and at what price point, to achieve
next month’s goal.
If you want to make 2016 a great year, instead of
just hoping it will be better, then you need to develop your
complete strategic plan each year. Then update it monthly as
actual results come in and you gain more clarity and
intelligence.
While you will rarely achieve the precise goals
established in your strategic plan, scores of research show that
you’ll come much closer to them versus if you didn’t plan at
all. So, develop
your strategic plan today,
and achieve the goals you desire.
______________________
Note: Everything
you need to complete this strategic business plan and make it
work is in the
Insurance Marketing and Sales Resource Center™,
with our specialized
life insurance and
annuity sales tool kits.
Jeremy and Lew
Nason
Trainers, Coaches & Mentors
'The 9 Out Of 10
Guys'
__________________
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