The 80% Solution to Growing Your Business
The late Ben Feldman is regarded as one of the best financial services sales professionals ever. He was based in East Liverpool, Ohio, population 13,000. At his peak he sold more life insurance by himself than 1,000 life insurance companies in the United States.
How did he do it?
Ben kept it simple. First, he understood that he was in the marketing business and organised his schedule, staff and office so that he was able to spend 80% of his time on sales-related activities. Ben was typical of many of today’s top professionals whom I’ve encountered, coached and work with. There are four things top professionals do to consistently produce superior results:
Stay results focused – This is a sales business, and the main reason for your existence is to market and sell products. Top producers organise themselves to spend 80% of their prime time on sales-related activities.Compare this to poor producers, who spend 80% of their prime selling time on service-related issues and just 20% on marketing.
Actively manage relationships – Top producers also understand that relationships require nurturing and managing. These relationships include
- Suppliers (underwriters)
- Referrals sources
- Internal team members
- Prospects
- Clients
Retain desirable clients – It’s important to understand how the 80/20 rule applies to your business, identify your top 20% accounts that generate 80% of your business, and put an active program in place to retain and cross sell. Top producers understand that this group of top 20% clients is their own captive and private network, and 100% retention is the key to future growth.
Aggressively pursue referrals – Top producers continually seek ways to better serve and satisfy the needs of their desirable clients and regularly ask for referrals. For many, this is their sole source of new business growth. They take the time to educate their top clients on what their ideal client looks like and on how, by assisting with referrals, clients will enable their top producers to serve them better into the future.
Give the 80% solution a try. See how you can reorganise your office and schedule so that you are spending the majority of your day focusing on results, relationships, retention and referrals.
If it works for Ben and other top professionals, I’m confident it will work for you.
