The Preeminent Producer Podcast

The Importance Of Setting Your Commission Income Goals

• The Preeminent Producer • Season 1

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Knowing your numbers and having a target for your commission income is a MUST! Listen in to a conversation from our recent Preeminent Producer Coaching Call.

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Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to stand out from the competition? Do you find it challenging to grow your book of business and create a fulfilling career? 

Then welcome to The Preeminent Producer Podcast! Each week, we'll be tackling important topics, sharing proven strategies and insights from successful producers that are in the trenches and have traveled the journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer. 

You'll discover what it really takes to become Preeminent & build your book of business, in a way that isn’t being taught anywhere else. Our hosts are experts in the field and have built thriving businesses by becoming the most trusted adviser to their clients. Welcome to your journey to becoming a Preeminent Producer. 

Let’s dive in!

Ready To Grow Your Book Of Business? 
For More Information go to: 
https://www.thepreeminentproducer.com/

Speaker 1:

If you have vague goals, you're going to get vague results. And this is especially true when it comes to knowing your numbers and setting financial targets of your revenue goals, and all of that In this episode of today's preeminent producer podcast. We are going to just take a small clip from a recent coaching call the coaches did with the different producers inside of our coaching program, talking about the importance of setting goals, and we'll let you listen in and hear what they have to say. So let's dive in.

Speaker 2:

Are you a commercial insurance producer struggling to stand out from the competition? Do you find it challenging to grow your book of business and create a fulfilling career? If so, then welcome to the preeminent producer podcast. Each week, we'll be tackling important topics, sharing proven strategies and insights from successful producers that are in the trenches and have traveled the journey to becoming a preeminent producer. So discover what it really takes to become preeminent and build your book of business in a way that isn't being taught anywhere else. Our hosts are experts in the field and have built thriving businesses by becoming the most trusted advisor to their clients. Welcome to your journey to becoming a preeminent producer. Let's dive in.

Speaker 3:

I think one of the things if you're not doing you should be doing now is having that goal actually have a number of what you want to write as far as commission income goes, and keeping track of that. We happen to use another software, but when I started I used to spreadsheet everything on paper. That shows how long I've been doing this, so I think with a pencil too. But the fact is that if you don't know what your goal is from a number standpoint, it's hard to reach that because you're constantly you know yeah, I want to write more. I mean, you're in this business and doing well, or you wouldn't still be here, and so everyone wants to write business. But having that in front of you, hard numbers, and trying to end keeping track of what you're writing and how far off you are is, I think, the only way that you can really push yourself to achieve that. And then, once you achieve that, then then there's a celebration and then there really is okay, I've done it. And now I set my goal for the next year.

Speaker 3:

And you know, I'm sure you probably have goals with your agency principal probably has goals with their carriers. Knowing what those are are important. If you don't, you want to find those out so that you know if we have to write X amount of business with, say, travelers, you know how much are you contributing to. That is that you know if they've given you a goal, they probably want to write business with you. So you know, focus on that instead of focus on, like surplus stuff or so or business with another carrier. So I think having goals written and followed and then celebrating when you hit those goals is going to be very helpful for you to realize that.

Speaker 4:

Sure, I think the other thing that we can talk about the way to grow a book of business other than just through working harder and doing all those kind of things is setting a minimum account size, and we've talked about this in the past and it could be different for Kyle than it is for Josh, than it is for Ben. It's different for everybody. But you should set a minimum account set. I'm not writing anything below this number. It could be in a revenue number $5,000 of revenue, $2,000, whatever your number is to start out, and every year you raise that up because it'll force you to work on larger and larger accounts. If you can take those accounts that are under your minimum account size at the end of the year, give them to someone else. If you have the luxury of a small commercial alliance department, give it to them. You will find that those accounts take the greatest majority of your time and you will find pretty much that the Pareto's principle, the 80-20 rule, is pretty true. No matter how big your book of business is, that 20% of your clients will give you 80% of your revenue and those 80% that are remaining will take a whole heck of a lot of your time. So I think that's great and I love the answer, josh. I think it was you and everybody kind of implied it, and you kind of don't want to say, well, I'm embarrassed by my book of business, no, I'm proud of my book of business at this point, which means that, yes, I want to grow the book of business and I think, ben, you sort of touched on something that I think is really important for us to talk about and that is making a whole lot of money, and I think there can be some bad connotations that come with that. Now, I want to make as much money as I possibly can, as long as I'm doing it professionally and ethically, the two things that really guide our agency here.

Speaker 4:

What does more money let me do? Buy more toys. You said ties, but I don't wear ties anymore now. Buy more toys, yeah, but no, what it allows me to do is, as you guys have said, provide for my family and also let me be philanthropic.

Speaker 4:

In other words, I support some nonprofits here in town. I like the idea of making a lot of money and it feels very good to give some of it away. Now, I'm not giving billions of dollars away, but it's a very satisfying feeling to support nonprofits in your community, support your church, support outreach and those kind of things as successful businessmen and women. It gives us the opportunity to give back to the community that we live in and make that community a better place. I have an obligation outside my business to try to help my community be better. I think that's it. Also, the final thing I'll say is never be too busy to get better. We talked about this in a previous conversation we had. It's really. I know we're busy, I know we're in a crazy insurance marketplace right now, but you're never too busy to try to get yourself better.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would add to that that you set your goals. You set your minimum account size. You make sure that the accounts you're going after fit your carrier appetites. Hopefully by now you know why you're different than your competition. Hopefully you're using the business suite of products to help differentiate you, because they do that automatically. Now you're armed to go after those accounts that meet that minimum threshold.

Speaker 3:

You're going to spend your time on those. You're different, you know why you're different. Then you go after them. You spend your time on that. You're picking your clients because obviously, once you write them, I don't know about how each of your shops work, but the producer is still involved with things, hopefully not the day-to-day stuff. I'm saying that because if you're taking call-ins, you're doing the smaller type of business. You're going to get pulled in after the sale. That's another reason to make sure, because your time is valuable, that you set that. As Rick said, you set that minimum standard of the size of account, maybe even the type of account that you're going to go after. If you do those things and then target different businesses that meet that criteria, use your differentiation strategies, you will absolutely see your hit ratio go through the roof. You will absolutely have fun doing it. I think at the end of the day, you'll meet those goals, ben. Then again, make sure you celebrate those goals, however that looks like.

Speaker 1:

All right, I hope you enjoyed that clip from that live coaching call. If you'd like full access to those coaching calls and many more, I encourage you to check us out at thepreeminentproducercom and find out more about the coaching programs that we offer, where you can get personal coaching from the coaches that you hear on these podcasts. Until next time, guys. We'll see you in the next episode of the Preeminent Producer Podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the Preeminent Producer Podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to subscribe, rate and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. That helps others find the show and we greatly appreciate it. Once again, thanks for joining us and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Preeminent Producer Podcast.