On today’s walk, I thought I would talk about the value of using an outside resource, such as a sales coach, to help in planning.

Every single year, Brokers International does an offsite planning meeting, and that planning meeting usually takes place late in the year. And we’re doing planning for the following year. And our goal at the end of that meeting is to have annual goals for the company by Department.

And not only do we set up goals on an annual basis, we break down those goals into tasks. And what tasks have to be accomplished every single quarter in order to stay on pace with the goal? That’s a process known as traction, and it’s based off a book called Traction, written by a gentleman by the name of Gina Whitman. And we have found that process to be so beneficial that we hired a coach to help us walk us through that process.

So every single year, we meet with that coach, sometimes twice a year, sometimes four times a year. And that coach really helps us create the guardrails for the process. She doesn’t come up with the answers, but she does guide us in that process of creating and keeping on task with what’s important. So over the last three years, we have used the same coach, and that coach has provided us number one infrastructure. She keeps us adhering to an agenda so that we’re not wasting time.

She also makes sure that the conversations we’re having are relevant to the top. We call it squirreling. Ever been in a conversation where you’re talking about one thing and ten minutes later you find out you’re talking about something else? We have a habit of doing that at BI, and that’s one thing that our coach keeps us on task with. So she not only has the end goal in mind of us coming up with our goals, she also knows that we have a tendency to squirrel, so she keeps us from that.

And she also pinpoints the conversation so that we’re talking about the things that matter. Every single week, we have an agenda management meeting with the same agenda. That agenda ties into that traction process,and that coach has kept us on track with those guardrails every single year.

One small example of using an outside resource is to help you build your business.

Take care. Bye.