Tag Archives: customer relationships

Determining Sales Potential

There are obvious signs and hidden signs which help you determine the volume of work an agency may refer to your business. Using your time wisely is important in achieving growth and increasing the number of job referrals you get each month.

The design for success in sales is not to be popular or “liked”; your job is to build relationships between your customer and your business which generate ongoing repeat job referrals. Following the designs of success by doing your homework will pay rich dividends.

Begin with the obvious signs of potential. Look around, how many people work in that office/agency? How busy are they when you walk in? If they have a large staff, they likely have a large “book of business.” Another simple way to find “low-hanging fruit” is to simply check your records & see which offices sent you one or two jobs last year. That’s a good starting point because perhaps they are sending you “some” of their referrals and sending some to your competitors. Determining their potential allows you to hone in on places where you are already liked…then follow a sales design process to increase the number of referrals they send to you, not your competitor.

Hidden signs—this may take some homework and information digging. One way is to ask the agent or their staff and see what their PIF count is (PIF=Policies In Force). Learn effective & tactful ways to ask about their PIF count and what percentage of their business is property vs. auto. Learn how to ask the volume of property claims they have per month…and how many of those are program vs. self pay (or other). There are other highly effective ways to determine agency potential; be watching for an upcoming sales tip on ways to discern sales potential.

Building relationships is not about getting people to “like you”, or “taking them to lunch”, it’s about building referral sources which generate multiple jobs on a regular basis.