The questions are:

1. How to delegate to increase my available time?
2. How to eliminate much of my accessibility so I can get more management duties done?
3. How to get away from the phone and teach my clients to call my CSR’s and not me for issues they can better handle?

Since CSR means you are in the insurance industry, I’m going to be very specific about the answers, but most of you can relate and massage the information to fit your specific industry.

I’ll answer number 3 first.  Whenever I, or any of my salespeople, delivered a policy, there was a very detailed form that was delivered to the insured at the same time.  The salesperson went over it in great detail, explaining whom to call for each issue.

In this way, the insured always called the CSR when they needed information about any issue they had.

By preparing the client in the very beginning, i.e. at the delivery of the product stage, you won’t have the problem.  Of course, with your existing clients, you should visit with them and go over the same form.

Now for number 1 and 2…Successful business owners have effective systems in place for their companies.  They know that a system allows them to consistently deliver a minimum standard or level of performance.

With this in mind, you must create systems to delegate and eliminate accessibility to you when someone else can handle the problem. I listed 2 great resources for managing your tasks and priorities on June 5th in my blog article titled, “How To Manage Your Time To Grow Your Profits”. Scroll down to the bottom of that article and you’ll find the 2 resources listed there.  Download them to your computer and read them.

Regarding the systems that I haven’t written about, you can check with your association to find out whether they carry any books or manuals that could show you how to set them up or how to improve your current ones.

To delegate functions, all you have to do is DO IT.  That’s right.  There’s no secret about how to delegate.  Just find the right person to do the job, and tell them that it’s theirs. There is no Secret way to delegate.  But you have to make sure that the person you delegated that function to is capable of accomplishing the work.

Walter Wriston, former CEO of Citibank, said, “The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of the people in their organization is going to blow the competition away.”

Here is what I did when everyone wanted to see me.   I rearranged my desk, so that my back was to the door.  When they saw that I was busy, most of the time they just walked away.

Or, when someone wanted to see me, they had to make an appointment with my secretary.  Sometimes, unless it was critical, when she asked them what they wanted to talk to me about, if it wasn’t critical, she told them that the only available date was two weeks later, and she tried to help them solve the problem, or suggested someone else to solve their problem.

Using either of these methods, I reduced my accessibility on trivial things, to a bare minimum.

Technorati Tags: Delegating, delegating for profits, Managing Priorities, time management, time management for insurance agents, time management for insurance reps