The last time you went to a discount department store, how easy was it to find someone to help you? When you finally did find someone, how was the service? Did they know very much about the product you wanted to purchase? If not, this experience is both infuriating and frustrating — that firm has a problem because they have sacrificed the quality of service, affecting your satisfaction as their customer. Good service, from competent, well-educated salespeople, seems to have become all but extinct in America. There is a basic lack of pride of workmanship, training in product, and financial integrity in many firms. Therein lies our opportunity – UA cares.

Quality workmanship is the most important objective that any company or individual can set, and UA has always made this our primary goal. Many companies formerly in the health insurance business aren’t around today due to a basic lack of understanding of the importance of quality financial ratings, logic in the structure of benefits, speed of claims-paying ability and service, and fair compensation for salespeople. While UA is excellent at these, being great isn’t good enough. In our view we can continue to get better, regardless of how well we already do, and that means the difference between a good company and a TERRIFIC one.

To illustrate this concept, let me tell you the story of W. Edwards Deming.  Mr. Deming was an American statistician and management theorist who introduced a new strategy for managing businesses in the early 1950s.  Post WWII, American automakers were booming; and there wasn’t much in the way of foreign competition. When offered ways of increasing profitability through quality improvement, leaders of American businesses at that time politely dismissed Mr. Deming’s ideas – their companies were in “good” shape. Change was viewed as unnecessary.  Mr. Deming then approached Japanese automakers about improving the quality of their workmanship. Under Mr. Deming’s leadership, the term “Made in Japan” went from being synonymous with the poorest of quality to that of the world’s best. Year by year, a little at a time, American automakers increasingly lost market share over the next three decades because Japan’s automobiles had better fit and finish year-to-year, improved gas mileage constantly, and engines lasted longer with fewer repairs. As quality became the focus of the Japanese, by the 1970s their sales and profits

skyrocketed — to the detriment of their competitors. America’s automakers finally realized the importance of quality improvement and implemented Mr. Deming’s measurement systems. Now, to remain competitive, both Japan and America continue to strive for improvement in the quality of their work, even though their products are better than they have ever been. Customers value quality above all else, when they realize the long-term benefit in true cost. As a parallel, just look at the decline of the managed care industry as the true quality of their products was realized, relative to their true cost.

Great companies realize that the pursuit of quality as a value by every team member is not a sometime-thing, it is an all-the-time thing. The pursuit of improvement in quality requires the building of a culture from the top to the bottom, in which every single individual participant is involved in the pride of their personal workmanship.

What was Mr. Deming’s big idea?  Well, he named it Total Quality Management (TQM).  Although he outlined 14 points for TQM, the main idea was to focus on improvement.  Unfortunately, most businesses manage based primarily on the average, with producers falling into three categories: below average, average, and above average, tending to focus only on bringing those below average up to average. Herein lies the problem.  Those far below the average feel that they must make huge, immediate improvements that seem impossible, causing a lack of motivation and pride. Those above average see little incentive to improve, since they are already “doing well.” There is a better way – a constant focus on improvement, from everyone on the team.  Regardless of how high or how low the standing in the company, in TQM everyone is expected to get a little better at a time, all of the time.  TQM motivates everyone and creates a playing field upon which everyone can compete based on the simple concept of individual improvement. From this results a sense of the pride from your progressive contribution.

Think of TQM like learning to pitch a baseball.  If you’ve never played ball, maybe the initial goal is to get the ball anywhere in the vicinity of the catcher as frequently as you can.  Next, you aim to get the ball in his glove regularly, then hopefully within the strike zone with frequency.  Once that is accomplished, you manage the position of the ball within the zone.  With that mastered, you learn different types of pitches, speed and how to pitch to specific batters, anticipating varying levels of skill. Soon you may be among the best, but the quest doesn’t end there. Even at the pinnacle of his long career, Nolan Ryan still worked very hard with his pitching coach at honing his skills –which was the reason he was successful for so long. As you can see, by shaping your behavior a little bit at a time, all of the time, your performance can improve greatly over time. It doesn’t really matter who it is, everyone, every day, needs feedback on improvement from their coach. It doesn’t matter which sport — even golf’s greatest, Tiger Woods, asks for lessons. This is where your Unit Managers, Branch Managers and FVPs come into play – they sincerely want to help you get better because that’s how the team wins.

As applied to your work at UA, it doesn’t matter what categories you measure. Improvement should be expected in all of these areas:

1. Improve your contact, interview, and sales ratios on all lead and referral systems. Track and measure your results each week on each type and do more of what works best. You can’t know this unless you religiously measure present results against past averages. Lead returns can change over time.

2. Increase app counts and commissions by presenting additional offers per household. New sales revenue can advance significantly, if you track the additional offers and the sales that result per presentation. When you do, watch your closing ratio improve with your earnings.

3. Lower cost-per-policy issue and turnaround time by properly submitting apps. The Home Office is your customer too, and a correct app is the quality product that you should offer. There is considerable extra cost in correcting errors.

4. Lower cancellations by improving your speed of policy delivery. Mature agents know that selling a policy only generates a temporary loan. Successfully delivering it and placing it earns a long-term commission and renewal and also avoids charge-backs.

5. Improve persistency. Identify efficient ways to quickly service customers with a personal phone call or visit. React immediately to requests for service.

6. Track and improve your production measured on a net-net production basis only (net of both cancellations and lapses). This is the way you and UA really get paid, and in fact should be the way in which all leads and recognition are actually earned.

7. Increase the growth of your in force renewals by measuring production increases against lowered shrinkage. You cannot know how much production will generate growth unless you measure it against your lapses and cancellations.

8. Lower your personal claims-loss ratios from writing better risks that influence future premiums positively. Measure the cost in claims as a percentage of the premium you write.

9. Progress in the conversion percentage of recruits to producers by managers. Increase this percentage monthly by surveying your successful converts on what training you did that made the difference. Then, contrast it with what you didn’t do with those who failed – then do what works best most frequently. 

TQM measurement for improvement works best when measuring present change relative to a recent average. All of these items may be quantified and measured for improvement. All improvement, in any area, will pay you and your team more!  The pride of a job better-done should be your primary motivation — it will translate to your paycheck quickly.

That’s what we always want here at UA — just get a little better at a time, all of the time.  By expecting continuous, incremental improvements from every Agent, Unit, and Branch team member, better and better results are achieved with a sense of pride. Small incremental victories add up to larger victories. If you track the rate of progress among your competitors and your improvement is slightly faster, then, no matter how far ahead they are, you will always pass them over time.

Be sure to check out pgs. 6-7 and learn more about UA’s new Critical Illness policy.  Adding this new product to your portfolio is sure to incrementally increase your sales opportunities too. As we all know, incremental improvement from everyone in your branch, in all areas, is what’s necessary to move your entire team to the top. Remember, create small victories for yourself daily. They add up to bigger ones yearly — all by GETTING A LITTLE BETTER AT A TIME, ALL OF THE TIME!