02.01.2023

Growing Your Benefits Practice in 2023

Robert Crowder, founder and President of The Benefits Trust, has over 30 years of experience serving pension and employee benefits clients. In 1994, he founded The Benefits Trust as a Third Party Administrator serving small and mid-sized business across Canada. Through Rob Crowder's dedication and leadership, The Benefits Trust has grown into the successful benefits provider that it is today.

Growing Your Benefits Practice in 2023

The year has just begun, and you’re looking at the calendar ahead of you. What can be done in the next 11 months to grow your benefits practice and achieve your goals in one year’s time?

Selling can be complicated, and it inevitably comes with ups and downs. It can be rewarding, terrifying, frustrating, difficult, and simple… all before noon! At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that selling is creating a future result that’s good for your client. If you can achieve that, your sales will speak for themselves.

Let’s take a look at some distinct choices you can make now that will help you take the reins on your benefits practice and turn your goals into a reality, one step at a time.

Determine Your Goals

To reach your goals, you must first determine exactly what they are. Define your goals using the SMART method – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely – and write them down.

Writing out your goals turns them from a passing thought into a solidified objective, and it will help you commit to them. We also recommend sharing your goals with a board of advisors that you can meet with regularly to report your progress and discuss where you’re headed. This board of advisors doesn’t need to be official; it could be your colleagues or friends or family. Whoever they are, having a group of people to keep you accountable is invaluable when it comes to achieving your goals in the long-term.

Determine Your Target Market

A large part of achieving your goals lies in doing things with intention. That includes focusing your efforts on your target market, rather than trying to sell to anyone and everyone.

Your target market can be defined by geographic location, industry, ownership style, or any number of other factors. Do research into your target market to learn the intricacies of those businesses, and determine a clear understanding of why this particular group is your target market.

Ask yourself:

  • What are your business interests?
  • What communities are you active in?
  • What type of businesses do you want to work with? Not want to work with?
  • What are your geographic restrictions?
  • What employee size do you want to work with?
  • What do you have in common with your target market?
  • Can you provide expertise for these businesses?

Aim to spend approximately 80% of your time in your target market. It’s where you have the most success and expertise – both of which will boost your confidence and help you continue making progress toward your goals.

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Know What You’re Going to Say

Once you’ve determined your goals and your target market, you need to figure out exactly what you’re going to say to those prospects.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • How can you help your prospect?
  • What value can you add?
  • When do you want to help them?
  • How do you turn that information into a qualifying statement?

Once you lay out the basic elements, you need to organize those points in a way that can be said clearly in five seconds or less. This is your elevator pitch, and developing a strong one is crucial in reaching your goals.

Now that you’ve determined what you’re going to say, practice it over and over until it becomes second nature. No more stumbling over your words – you’ll know exactly what to say, every time.

Develop a Sales Plan

This step is a big one. This is where you take those goals you made at the beginning and turn them into digestible, actionable steps.

Break it down from big to small – annual, monthly, and daily goals. Let’s take a look at an example.

If your annual goal is to earn $100 000 this year, that might seem daunting and the path to get there may be unclear. However, you can break it down into smaller, more achievable goals.

Let’s assume that the annual employee benefits spend is $3 000 per year, the average commission is 5%, and each employee creates $150 of revenue per year. With an annual goal of $100 000, this means that you need to provide benefits for 666 full time employees. If your target market is small businesses and the average group size is 30 employees, you’ll need to acquire 22 new clients in order to reach that $100 000 goal.

Gaining 22 new groups in a year is a much more manageable goal than earning $100 000, with a much clearer path to get there. You can break it down even further:

Let’s assume that you’re working with a 10% closing ratio. In order to sell to 22 groups, you’ll need to participate in 220 meetings.

If you decide that you want to work for 40 weeks this year, those 220 meetings can be split into 6 meetings each week. If we assume a 10% closing rate on prospecting calls, landing those 6 weekly meetings will require 60 calls. That can be divided into 12 calls per day.

Suddenly your somewhat abstract goal of $100 000 in a year has been simplified into one clear action: make 12 calls per day.

You can alter the assumptions and use your own numbers to break down your own goals and determine exactly what’s needed on a daily basis to help you reach your annual goals.

Commit to the Plan

Once you’ve got a plan in place, all that’s left to do is commit. Be patient with yourself and understand that some mornings, days, and weeks are going to be better than others – this is natural.

Be sure to celebrate the small successes along the way and give yourself credit for a job well done. This will help you to stay motivated and keep you on track as the year progresses.

As things come up and plans change, simply re-evaluate and adjust your goals accordingly. Don’t beat yourself up over making changes – simply take things in stride and continue working towards growing your benefits practice in 2023.

For more information on defining and realizing your 2023 goals, contact us at The Benefits Trust. We’ve been providing Third Party Administration services for over 25 years, and we’re here to help!

Choose Your Plan That Fits Your Business

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