Planning Ideas 2019 Business of Insurance Podcast

EP - 37  Ideas to consider as you plan for next year and information for whenever you feel you need to make some changes. 
While most people do the goal setting at the end or beginning of the year, it can be done at any time.
Don’t just look at your sales goals, look at your productivity goals, your team goals and hopefully your marketing goals. Don’t forget about those personal goals too!.
Regardless of your position in the insurance industry, you should have some sort of plan to follow for the new year. If your boss doesn’t give you one, create one yourself.
Ideas to consider as you plan for 2020.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
When I first started in sales, my boss would hand us a one page sales plan. We usually had about a week to complete it. If I remember correctly, it started with how much production we wanted for the next year and broke it down into what we needed to do to get there. (we backed into it)  In order to really do accurate predictions, we’d need to look at what we had done in the past. Some of that was in our heads, some of that was made up, but very little was really tracked. As I’ve evolved in the consulting world, I realize that the data is essential for creating a plan that will be productive. My boss knew he needed our numbers to do his own numbers…..but he didn’t provide a lot of guidance on completing our plan so that it was accurate and attainable.  For a sales plan, you need to know what you did last year, what worked, what didn’t, where the business came from, how profitable the different accounts are. If you aren't using a CRM that tracks where business comes from, integrates marketing efforts and expenses, it’s hard to get an accurate recap. Often times senior management has these figures, but it isn’t to often that this information is available to those pounding the pavement!
As a professional, you want to know these numbers. Honestly, I’m not a numbers person, accounting is not my thing, but I do know my numbers. I think this is one of the differences between success and marginal success…...numbers can motivate, numbers can show what’s working, what’s not working, what you need to stop doing and what you need to do more of.  
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of businesses fail because they didn’t know their numbers. Maybe they looked at them once or twice a year. I have some clients who look at them daily...I think that’s a little overkill, but at a minimum, you should be looking at them monthly!
As you are doing your planning for next year, where are you getting your numbers? Are you guessing like we did years ago or do you have actual numbers that you can evaluate? If you don’t have actual numbers to use this year, make sure you have a plan to track everything next year so you can better project and plan.
TIME MANAGEMENT
In my business roundtables, when I ask about challenges, the number one area people want help with is time management. I wish I had a magic ball for this but I don’t.  If you struggle with time management, you aren’t alone. 
I believe that technology is a great thing but it has also created a lot more work for many people. Managing multiple email accounts, multiple social media accounts, in addition to having multiple browsers open every time you are working. 
Tips to consider to help with your productivity. Maybe you can incorporate a few of the ideas into your planning for next year to help you reach your goals.
Time block - take out your calendar, look for some times that you have free every week or month, and block them out to be productive. Maybe it’s your time to call two clients or prospects; maybe it’s your time to write 2 handwritten notes, maybe it’s your time to work on a long range project. When time blocking, you want to color code your calendar. You don’t need to go crazy with the colors, but it should stand out. One real key here is that you need to make this time a priority and create tasks that you