IDEA EXCHANGE
Minding Your Business Managing Time is Imperative
T
ime is the only resource we cannot recreate, but how can you optimize being “in control of time” rather than being “controlled by it?” People tend to number their days when they are dying. A woman named Wendy who worked for more than 20 years with hospice patients states that there are two main regrets people have when they are dying: “The No. 1 regret is they say, ‘I should have lived my life By Catherine Oak to follow my dreams, not what other people expected of me.’ The No. 2 regret [is] ‘I worked too much and wish I had spent more time with my children and my relationship.’” Here are 10 tips to help everyone be time efficient so you don’t have any regrets about how you spent your time. Determine Time Wasters What are the biggest time wasters? Is it surfing the net? Email? Phone calls? Reading or sorting junk mail? Why is it that these things now seem essential when they did not exist for most of humanity? “Time wasters” need to be trimmed down or eliminated. People need to make time for truly important things — major work projects, family, personal time, etc. Allocate only an hour a day or less to the “time wasters.” Prioritize and Delegate Determine the key things to accomplish each day. Write them down on a white board or on a day planner. Create a task list of secondary items to do in between the scheduled primary items. If you get through the big items first, you will feel better because you will have completed the most important things each day. Delegate “large time-small gain” items such as yard work or house cleaning, which does not need a key person’s expertise. Train or hire someone to handle these tasks the way they should be done, so delegation continues. 46 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL March 24, 2014
Limit Tasks Most people put too much on their “to do” lists. For some people it is difficult to say “no.” Others may want to be a superhero. Be realistic. Only schedule what is possible to accomplish on a given day and “double buffer” the time allocated. If you take on too much, you will feel let down at the end of the day because of all the things that did not get accomplished. It is better to do less and be grateful for the things that got done. Discover
to work on new business. Otherwise, they will not find the time to prospect and work on new accounts.
Streamline the Renewal Process For producers to focus on new sales, the renewal process needs to be streamlined and handled mostly by the service staff. Producers and CSRs should go over the list of renewals at least 90 to 120 days in advance to discuss the how life strategy for each account. From there, CSRs or account can be enhanced executives should gather Handle Paper Once by making simple renewal information, submit One of the biggest “time killers” is how paper is time management for renewal or re-market mishandled. Someone the account, and deliver the adjustments. a while back came up renewals to the client or to with a system for hanthe producer for final review. dling paper. There are only five options Producers should work only on accounts to handling each piece of paper when it is that need their expertise or relationship. received: toss it, file it, read it, delegate it or act on it. Staff Stratification If possible, go paperless! Get rid of the Whenever possible, all persons in the clutter. Start fresh and remember OHIO — agency should delegate tasks to the least only handle it once! costly, qualified employee who can handle that work. With automation, however, most Improve the Hit Ratio service staff are doing it all themselves, Don’t practice quote. No one needs the including claims. In addition, certain practice, nor do underwriters. The firm projects can be batched, such as faxing, should track the “quote-to-write” or hit scanning and filing — all of which can be ratio. The closer the ratio is to 1.0, the bethandled by a clerical person. Consider outter. sourcing work, such as certificates, which The key is to prescreen each prospect to can be handled online or outsee if he or she fits the firm’s program or sourced to third-parbook of business. A few minutes should be ties. spent pre-qualifying so that there is a high likelihood of the business being written. If there is not pain, the prospect won’t move to a new program or agency. Schedule Time for New Business Most salespersons don’t have much time to write new business because of daily pressures from existing accounts, such as service issues or renewals. Time must be scheduled each day for producers www.insurancejournal.com