One of the most difficult things to do in Agency is keeping a staff accountable to their efforts and production.
Unless you have a system that monitors calls, keystrokes, computer usage, or have a surveillance system in your office, hich is not the case in most Agencies, you're pretty much going off what you are being told.
What's crazy about it is most Agents fail to see the true opportunity that is being missed by failing to have a structured accountability plan in place in their office.
Being told by an employee "I asked easily 30 people today about life insurance and they all told me no" and taking that at face value without any real verification is not a way to run your business. I hate to say it so boldly but people exaggerate their efforts and fudge their numbers. And no one likes to get called on their bullshit. If you have a producer who tells you they ask every person every time and they have no production to show for it, theyr'e either fluffing you hardcore OR they are in tremendous need of training.
Most Agents hear that there's effort and no performance and shrug their shoulders and say to themselves
"Fish ain't biting right now." But once you are able to (and I hate using corporate lingo) "inspect what you expect" and you strip away the ability for your staff to BS their way through conversations with you regarding effort and production, the real issues begin to show themselves.
Being able to hold a team member's feet to the fire while holding them accountable is powerful. I'm not talking about big brother standing over everyone's shoulder, spying all day every day, but being able to know how, why, and where your producers conversations are going south, if they are making their calls, if they are using their word tracks, if they are pivoting properly... all that stuff. It allows for you to begin to build an Agency with intent and it allows you to build an Agency that is not always reliant on whether or not they have a rock star producer in the house or not.
Most Agencies do not have a way to keep their team accountable and employees not knowing their numbers, fudging their efforts, or exaggerating their claims while having an Agent who simply accepts the answers they are given is basically an asylum being run by the crazies.
Not calling you insane, producers, but the bottom line is that as the owner of a business, we must be willing to dig into our metrics and understand what is really going on and not simply what we are being told. What we are being told is often a fantasy being weaved by employees looking to stay out of hot water, staff refusing to admit they're not talking about a product or service, or just plain thinking they're putting in a lot more effort than actually delivered.
Accountability within your Agency.
Even though they are tough and uncomfortable conversations, it's a big part of why some Agencies go on to become $20, $30, 50 million dollar books and why others simply flop.