To successfully hold your sales team accountable, create a system to respond to team behaviors.
Marketing activities are a necessity for any insurance agency. All team members should participate in marketing activities, and if you need a way to hold team members accountable, here are some suggestions.
Accountability and Leadership
Create a checks and balances system to help hold your teams accountable. You need two things:
- A leadership commitment for participating.
- A system to hold departments accountable for their action or inaction.
This is where many agencies become stuck. Leadership doesn’t want to hold their sales team accountable for any inaction, and reasons start to become excuses.
This happens for one of two reasons:
- Leadership doesn’t see the value in marketing and thus agrees with the sales team.
- Leadership is uncomfortable holding their producers accountable. They don’t know how to respond when their producers refuse or sidestep their responsibilities.
Define your system
To create accountability within your teams, define a set response to action and inaction. Increase regular communication until your whole team is functioning smoothly. Set up one-on-one check-ins to troubleshoot barriers, talk about solutions, and review results.
Some useful ways to hold your teams accountable:
- Regular reviews and coaching conversations
- Team training sessions
- Easy-to-use data collection and tracking system for all activity (CRM, marketing platform, social media platform)
- Activity and results reports reviewed and discussed
- Public scoring board and gamification to create competition and public recognition
- Withholding commission if tasks are not completed (this should be an escalated approach only)
Follow-through
For positive results, there must be a strong leadership commitment to enforcing the system they created. By creating clear expectations and a reliable system, you create a foundation for your team to rely on that will lead them to success.