MarshBerry is seeing a trend in firms striving to evolve into larger, more sophisticated versions of themselves. However, there are noticeable thresholds where firms are bumping their heads and feeling like the next growth phase of their business is just out of reach. When top-performing firms want to drive predictable, profitable organic growth, they develop strategies based on future needs and challenges and never accept the current environment as an excuse for their setbacks. Blending awareness of where you are today and taking action for tomorrow can drive an evolution for your business.
Assess Your Business to Determine What to Improve
True growth and improvement start with a valuation of where your business is today. Determine your starting point by looking at key areas and metrics around leadership, sales, talent, and operations and asking yourself the following questions:
- Can you put your business in a position to control your future by achieving predictable, profitable organic growth regardless of a hard or soft market?
- How do you compare to industry benchmarks around weighted average shareholder age, so you can be in a position to control your future? (i.e., Will you need to sell? Or can you remain independent?)
- Have you developed an annual strategic plan to achieve new business and productivity goals?
- Are you merely an insurance vendor to your clients or a strategic business and risk mitigation resource?
This isn’t just about your business’s current financial state. Take a look at your culture, client relationships, and even technology and cyber security. These elements may need a little polish or a major overhaul.
Take Action
After you’ve completed the awareness stage, you can start to take action on what you’ve uncovered. It helps to ask three key questions:
- What should you start doing?
- What should you stop doing?
- What should you continue doing?
For example, should you start exploring pipeline management platforms? Maybe you should continue to increase business sales goals. Organizing your goals into action-oriented next steps gives you a clearer path to building organic growth. But beware of common inhibitors of evolution. An incomplete or unclear vision, lack of team buy-in, or resistance to change will all cause your business to stagnate. Coach your team to accept these changes as positive – they can help to drive profitability and improve the overall quality of the business, a win for the whole team.
