You Can't Manage What You Can't Measure

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. My agents and team have heard me say it so many times that I could hear their eyerolls as they read that line.

I’m a firm believer in tracking the important metrics of a team’s success, aka their key performance indicators, or KPIs.

Without this vital data at your fingertips, you don’t have a clear picture of your past performance, you can’t track your progress, and you won’t be able to accurately plan for the future.  

If data is so important, then why aren’t more agents using it at their agencies?

Many simply don’t know where to look. If you use an agency management system at your agency, you have dozens of reports at your fingertips that you can run. If not, you can use the reporting inside your sales and financial tools to get a clearer picture of your agency’s performance and progress.

Other agents have their data, but aren’t sure how to use it. In that case, here are a few of the most important pieces of information you can gather for your agency to understand past performance and plan for the future.

New Leads Per Month

Knowing how many new leads your agency brings in per month and where they come from is helpful for a number of reasons.

First, it is a measure of your agency’s opportunity to grow. Without leads, growth grinds to a halt. Second, it is a measure of how well your marketing efforts are working. This can help you be more efficient with your marketing dollars. If the majority of your leads are coming from your social accounts, budget more money for those efforts. If you spend a lot of time and money cold calling with no success, dial back your investment in that sales channel.  

Sales Growth

Digging into your agency’s sales growth record over the last month, quarter, or year can help you understand how many policies and renewals you’re selling.

You can use this information to set goals for improving your performance. For example, you may find that your renewal sales lag behind your new sales. Armed with this information, you can investigate why this is occurring and take action to boost renewals. If you can break this information down by CSR, you can use sales growth data to help your team set goals, too.  

Average Policies Per Client

Cross-selling policies to existing clients is a powerful way to grow your agency’s revenue.

To arrive at this metric, divide the total number of your policies in force by your total number of clients. If your average policies per client is less than 1.4, you have an opportunity to improve your cross-selling performance. If you’re a P&C agent, you may consider adding a life insurance and umbrella policies into your sales presentations. If you sell commercial, consider incorporating workers’ compensation insurance in your discussions with clients. 

Use the Reports in EZ Lynx and QQCatalyst

Many Smart Choice® agents use the EZ Lynx agency management system to help them run their agencies.

If you are an EZ Lynx user, you can run all sorts of reports within the system. Just click on the Master Reports icon on the left side of all EZ Lynx pages. It looks like a little line graph. From there, you can choose reports by category or create a custom report. 

If you are a QQCatalyst user, you can also run all sorts of reports from your agency management system. Standard reports include accounts by size, cross selling, revenue, sales, and lost premium due to cancellations. You can also create custom reports in QQCatalyst. 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say it once more: you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Running and reviewing reports on your agency’s performance helps you monitor your team’s progress and help you set realistic goals for the future. If you want to maximize the data contained in your agency management system or learn more about how reports can help you grow your agency, get in touch with your State Director.