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“What You Don’t Know Can’t Help You!” … Eddie K. Emmett, Editor
The Difference Between Doing and Managing In This Edition The Difference Between Doing and Managing ............................. 1 Using Facebook's Ads to Generate Leads .......................... 5 Texas Senate Confirms David Mattax as Commissioner of Insurance .................................... 8 Texas Insurance Commissioner Announces $352.5 Million in Refunds to State Farm Policyholders .............................. 8 Benefits of Representing Aggressive .................................. 8
Most agents are “doers.” They sell insurance and interact with clients to keep them satisfied. Far fewer agents are “managers” who understand the ramifications of their actions and track their successes and failures to learn from the past, avoid pitfalls that block progress and repeat the steps that prove valuable in the achievement of their goals. How much do you know about your agency and about your book of business? Is it important to know specifically how much business your agency writes and how much is retained in each of the divisions of the agency (typically personal lines and commercial lines)? Most of us would say that these statistics are meaningful and important. But few of us actually know those statistics on a day-byday basis. We think that because we think we can access that data, it is sufficient. But if you were to get into your car and drive – without direction and a plan, simply knowing that your destination was 1,000 miles away, what would happen?
Enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day Crossword Puzzle on page 9
You could certainly say that you were motivated to reach your goal and you would spend the time and effort to accelerate the vehicle for the time needed to make the trip.
But unless you actually stopped and referred to a map to determine where you had gone; unless you understood the need to re-fuel and refresh every so often, you would quickly become lost and run out of gas and energy before achieving your goal. A better plan is to pre-plan your route including pit stops for fuel and food. That way, you could monitor your results as you drove and make adjustments, as needed, to reach your goal refreshed and on time. Similarly, “managing” your agency differs from simply selling insurance whenever possible and processing customer requests and transactions. The critical issues in your agency are how much (commission dollars) and how many (customers and policies) are being written as new business as your trip (your year) progresses, how much commission and how many customers are being retained or lost during the process, and whether the results will allow you to reach your GOAL (the destination for the agency for the year). How would you know where you are going in your road trip if you didn’t even have a goal? Would you consider going on a driving vacation with no target planned? How would you know if you have reached your goal if you don’t even have one? Continued on page 4
Aggressive Rocks!
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March 2015