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If you want to win in broking and grow your business successfully, you have got to be well-prepared, writes Phil Quin-Conroy, CEO at PLAN Australia.
I recently came across an interview with one of Australia’s most successful athletes. He was discussing the hard work, dedication and training that goes into a win. Whilst he spoke about how on-the-day performance is obviously important, when it comes to winning, he cited preparation and training as a much more crucial element.
The same is true of any endeavour undertaken in business: there are a number of factors that must align in order for you to stay ahead of your competitors and perform at your best.
Just like an athlete needs the right regime, training and preparation to take home gold, your broking business can only grow and flourish with the right preparation. Here are some tips on how you can prepare to grow your broking business.
Commit to a training schedule
Education and training can play a vital role to help you build out your business. Not only does training help develop your skills as a broker, but forums such as professional development days can help you identify new areas of opportunity that you might want to pursue.
Whether it’s getting updates on the market and coming to grasps with regulatory changes, or discovering how you can better leverage technology in your business, training will help you stay ahead of the competition, so get these opportunities in your diary – and commit to them.
Build your support team
The journey to success is much harder without a quality support network. Are you doing enough to build yours? Advice from senior industry figures and top-performing peers can be invaluable when it comes to growing your business, offering you a fresh perspective, business counsel and ongoing support.
Your aggregator should provide you with a great support team, but it’s also up to you to build connections and schedule regular catch-ups with key contacts. Investing in relationships should be a key component of your business building preparation.
Critically assess your business
For many athletes, it can be hard to take a step back and analyse their own performance. The same can be said in business. Brokers can often become too absorbed in their day-to-day to step back and assess how they are really tracking.
Be sure to build regular reviews into your calendar and assess your business growth against key agreed performance indicators. It’s also important to reflect upon the qualitative aspect of your business. Review your value proposition and customer service processes regularly and consider how you can improve on these.
In addition to internal reviews, some great ways to assess your business are via a client survey or industry benchmarking tools.
Maximise your existing customers
You might have ambitious growth targets for new business but before you expand, you need to make sure that your current client database is well managed. After all, existing clients represent the easiest new business opportunities.
A well-kept database is essential to making the most of your existing client base. Make sure you are using a decent CRM so you can efficiently capture all client details and automate messages to customers on significant milestones.
Another practical way to maximise the potential of your existing customer base is to ensure you have a segmentation strategy in place. By grouping clients, you can cater to their preferences in an efficient way, and employ different strategies for each category. For example, if you are looking to incorporate asset finance into your business offering, it is extremely useful to know which clients are small business owners.
Remember, winning goes beyond the race. Put in the hard yards so that you can go into every ‘race’ with the confidence to succeed.
Phil Quin-Conroy will continue to explore how brokers can achieve long-term success with a winning mindset in this blog series.
