Take your lead from the Cat in Alice in Wonderland 

Alice said to the Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”  “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.  “I don’t know where…” said Alice.  “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. Do you have a written marketing and communications plan that provides direction for your agency?  Have your associates been involved in putting it together?  Do they support it?  Does the plan include measurable objectives? 

Basic structure for your plan 

There are six (6) basic elements: 

(1)  Objectives 

(2)  Strategies

(3)  Tactics

(4)  Scheduling

(5)  Measurement procedures

(6)  Budget 

Simplicity of Herberg Marketing Grid 

Our business associate Frank J. Herberg, CPCU, agency development coach and former marketing and sales vice president of a New England-based insurer, developed a simple way of setting marketing objectives.  He said there are only four things an agency can do: KEEP customers; ROUND out customer accounts; UPGRADE customer accounts; and GET MORE customers. 

What is your number one marketing and sales priority this year?  Retention? Rounding out accounts? Prospecting for new customers?  What programs and business processes do you have in place today to KEEP, ROUND OUT, UPGRADE, and GET MORE customers?  Which ones need improvement? 

You are on your way, unlike Alice, to “knowing where you want to go.”   

Marketing Action Plan (MAP) 

The acronym MAP is appropriate.  We just completed developing a MAP in partnership with one of our “with-it” agent customers. His over-arching marketing objective this year is to INCREASE POLICY COUNTS. He has laid out, in writing, specific internal agency business processes and specific external marketing tactics that he believes will help the agency reach its number one objective.  In the process, individual objectives were set for all four Herberg Marketing Grid areas,  

Our role has been to develop an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program that supports the agency’s MAP. 

Quarterly MAP checkpoints 

Because his MAP objectives are put forth in writing and are measurable, our client will be able to measure how the agency is doing throughout the year.  What’s working?  What isn’t?  Why or why not?  MAP course corrections may be made as the result of quarterly reviews. 

ROI at year-end? 

Too often, agents find themselves with an unfathomable puzzle at year-end when it is time to decide what course to follow the next year.  How did the investment in time and money pan out?  Without a specific plan and ways to measure results, there is rationalization and guesswork at year’s end. And no benchmarks that can lead to improved results in the year ahead. 

We don’t want our clients in this quandary.  “Throwing it up against the wall to see if it will stick” is no way to run an agency in today’s competitive environment. That’s why we push MAP. 

For more information about the Herberg Marketing Grid and putting your MAP together, visit www.mcmarcom.com.  Or e-mail Don Cookson This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .Call: 508-245-2876.