There are countless metrics you can be tracking in regards to your book of business and your efforts to build that book. Tracking the information and creating reports could become a full-time job in itself. Unfortunately, most of that information and the subsequent reports never result in anything meaningful. However, I do feel that you should track anything that allows you to make consequential adjustments to how you work, as long as the tracking and reporting remains manageable.
At a minimum, every producer should know the following statistics, otherwise known as Critical Indicators or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Current book – Total annualized revenue in your book and how it compares to where you were last year. I will guess that this is the only critical indicator that every producer reading this will already know.
Why? – Well, as a producer, this is the ultimate scorecard. It determines how much you get paid, how many resources you deserve, and documents (over time) how consistent and effective you are as a producer.
Retention – Don’t fool yourself with the increase in your book that came from additional revenue resulting from increased premiums. Measure your retention two ways: first, on the percentage of groups you were able to keep and secondly, as the percentage of revenue retained.
Why? – Just comparing revenue numbers won’t tell the whole story. Additional revenue from increased premiums may mask issues that need to be addressed. In other words, you may not focus on the 10 small accounts you lost for reasons that may lead to the loss of larger accounts this coming year.
Once you identify the lost business, be brutally honest with yourself as to why they were lost and learn what you can do to keep it from happening again.
Closing ratio – Measure your close ratio at the point you specifically give the prospect a chance to say yes or no. If you’re still competing with spreadsheets, measure your close ratio as the percentage of spreadsheets delivered that produce new clients. If you are competing by bringing an improvement plan, measure your close ratio as the percentage of plans presented that result in new clients.
Why? – New opportunities are too difficult to come by. Poor close ratios exponentially increase the work you have to do to refill your pipeline. Have the courage to go back to those lost opportunities and ask for honest feedback as to why you lost.
Conversion ratio – This refers to the percentage of prospects that move from one step of your sales process to the next. For example, in our process, producers use a 3 step process (Step 1 – Executive Briefing, Step 2 – Organizational Assessment, Step 3 – Improvement Plan delivery). The conversation ratios are the percentage of prospects that move from Executive briefing to Organizational Assessment and then again the percentage of prospects who move from Organizational Assessment to Improvement Plan delivery.
Why? – Tracking your conversion ratio is the only opportunity you have to learn where the weak spots are in your sales process. Just like I recommend in the close ratio, have the courage to go back and ask for honest feedback on those opportunities you don’t convert.
Revenue per relationship – This is the total amount of revenue in your book of business divided by the total number of clients in your book.
Why? – This is the single biggest predictor of your ability to continue to grow your book of business. If your revenue per relationship doesn’t grow year over year, your total book growth will be slowed or even stopped. You can only effectively service a set number of accounts. The higher the revenue per relationship, the more money you make.
It is up to each of you as individual producers to self-manage your way to personal success. And, as the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Unfortunately, all the measuring and all the managing in the world won’t mean anything if you aren’t willing to make the behavioral changes necessary to move the numbers.
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