Leading Sales IndicatorsIn all businesses, large and small, new and old, there are leading indicators of success (and failure) - a factor or two that can be used to predict future results.  These factors could be based on historical data but not necessarily.

Your world, your market, your products, and your competition are constantly changing and the reliability of your typical leading indicators must be challenged.  No surprise here.

So, we are seeking predictable linear indicators in our non-linear world (tumultuous laughter!).

For insurance agencies and producers, the key leading indicators are:

• new business appointment levels

• the number of referrals generated

• how much business is “in process”, in the proposal stage, in terms of potential revenue and the number of prospective accounts.

Insurance Carriers can look toward similar indicators:

• appointments/contacts with agencies

• new business submission levels

• how many new people from new or existing agencies have you met this month? 

Choosing these leading indicators is the easy part.

Where the difficulty typically arises, only 100% of the time, is the measurement of your progress, your important activities.  The measurement usually starts and stops, fades in and fades out – this happens so often that we have concluded that it is part of the natural law of sales!

We recommend that you start and then begin again until this becomes your standard operating procedure.

With accurate knowledge of only two or three indicators, course corrections can be made quickly.  This is the only reason to track these indicators – will you change your activity and your behavior based on the outcomes?

So now for some homework: Beginning from the possible and moving toward the impossible…

• How many new business appointments will you have in the next 90 days?

• How much revenue and how many accounts are in the proposal stage this month, right now?  What about for the last quarter?

• How many referrals will you ask for in the next 30 days?

• How many new people can you meet in the next 30 days?

We can assure you that your results will improve by tracking and acting upon these few leading indicators.  Why not check it out?

Best wishes are flying your way,

Sales Coach Newsletter is a product of Redmond Group, Inc.  We are specialists in the systematic process of developing and retaining new business.  We design sales and retention process maps and unique measurement tools to track progress to meet business objectives.  We conduct in-house workshops, individual and sales team coaching, Webcasts and assist with product launches.
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732-957-0005, tom@redmondgroupinc.com