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With the new Australian Financial Year arriving here are some diverse suggestions to keep you steaming ahead – and try something different over the coming months.

Top 5 hotties

Sit down and write the names of your 5 top prospects for the next 12 months – the ones that will give the biggest boost to your bottom line. Now, take each one separately and develop a completely personalised action plan. For example, who do you know who can help, what can you do to get their attention, can you give them something that adds value or support the same event/charity/sports team?

Put Santa to work again

In Australia and New Zealand, ‘Christmas in July’ is a great excuse to say thank you to your new and renewing customers – and your people too – it will strengthen those vital relationships.

Try some new tech

The pace of change never slows. Doing the same as you’ve always done won’t keep you moving forward. Give some new (or just new to you) tech a try. Maybe it’s Skype meetings with your clients before sending that annual invoice or adding Live Chat to your website. The insurance industry can now benefit from online risk profiling platform www.riskadvisor.io . Yes, I have to admit a vested interest but the added value it brings to a client/insurer/broker relationship could be worth thousands to you. The trick is not to try too many new things. Pick one and make it work.

Up the social responsibility ante

Everyone is much more in tune with social responsibility. Most of you will be doing something to help the local community and I suggest using the next financial year as a time to up the ante. Why? Involving your team will increase their sense of pride in working for you and help attract new talent. It can also benefit the business through strong ties with a client or networking with a new pool of prospects – in fact the best communities to help are those that your business and customers care about, not just one local to the office. And finally, it’s simply a great thing to do.

Compliance is great

No, really! Especially in the insurance industry, compliance is often seen as a necessary evil. In actual fact, if you use it in a positive way, a strong compliance and good business practice base will help your business thrive and increase trust levels. I’m lucky enough to have got to know www.goldseal.com.au and www.compliance-master.comwho are great partners to help you.

And a final note

If you haven’t yet seen ABC’s new series War on Waste then watch it. It’s eye opening and will make you think about how and why we have become such a wasteful society http://www.abc.net.au/ourfocus/waronwaste/. As a plug for my local Toy Library they are a great way to reduce the number of toys going into landfill every year – www.banyuletoylibrary.org.au

Before you dive headlong into another year, take some time out to refresh your marketing plans. Here’s my 5 tips to help you on your journey.

1.     What worked last year? – do more it. Do you know how you won your last 5/10/50 clients or increased income from current clients? It should not take you long to work it out, and once you have, use that as the basis for this year’s marketing effort.

2.     Mobilisation – many of us don’t look at their websites as often as we should, let alone show them some care and attention. Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead. Studies also show 48 percent of millennials view video solely on their mobile device https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/mobile-marketing-statistics-for-2016 . So, make sure your site and emails look great on your phone and tablet. Google will like you better too!

3.     Embrace something new – Are you bewildered by all the new apps and tech tools around? I don’t advocate spending all your time on them, but some are well worth a try e.g. hootsuite www.hootsuite.com , canva www.canva.com, video content not just text, an automated email series e.g. www.mailchimp.com.

4.     And repeat – how many times have you seen a monthly company newsletter produced 4 times a year or that weekly blog turn into a six monthly update? Too many businesses I speak to plan to communicate with clients and prospects on a regular basis but don’t keep it up. If you can’t devote the time or resources then find another way – or outsource it to someone who will.

5.     Don’t forget your clients – marketing and sales is not all about new business. Most businesses can achieve substantial growth just by paying more attention to their current clients and what you can do to help them. Not only will this turn into more profit, but likely lead to some great referrals too. Try upping the ante on client feedback and account planning – read more http://www.crmxchange.com/Press_Releases/salesEQUITY_Ups_the_Ante_on_Client_Feedback_and_Account_Planning.aspx

And finally, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Be realistic about what you can achieve and then you are more likely actually do it!

Here’s to you making 2017 a success.

This week, I went to the Australian National Insurance Brokers Conference (NIBA) for the first time in a few years. It was great to be reminded how many people I know in the industry – although it is a bit scary how long I have known some of them for!

Events and conferences aren’t what they used to be, maybe I’m just getting old, but the biggest value is still the opportunity to connect with a large number of like-minded people all in one physical space.

One thing that struck me was that this conference, just like every insurance conference over the past few years, is talking about reinvention, digital disruption and new technology.

It is true, there are some cool and useful tools out there for brokers/underwriters. CGU’s virtual reality room designed to help people understand the hazards around them is brilliant – if you have not experienced any kind of virtual reality set up I whole heartedly recommended check-out https://vr.google.com/cardboard/. Other tools like RiskAdvisor’s online Risk Profiling and benchmarking system www.riskadvisor.com.au are designed to help brokers and insurers discuss risks with clients and improve relevance and reputations in the industry.

The biggest challenges to this new world that I see are two-fold. One, where new technology is being developed by an individual insurer, by its very nature it means it is not common across the industry and requires brokers to use multiple systems. Secondly, and most importantly, are brokers in particular actually prepared to invest time, effort and some money in adopting these new tools – or is it mainly lip service.

I fear it is mainly lip service for the vast majority of brokers – but I’d love to hear from people in the industry who can prove me wrong!

We hear what how Matthew Pollard, The Rapid Growth Guy, went from 184 followers to 11.5k in a 5 months to become one of the top business coaches to follow on Twitter.

Paul New, CEO FM Innovations, tells us why being disruptive is so important.

The big fella himself, Santa, gives us the run down on his seasonal business.

Annette Lakey reveals what it takes to be a true family law client advocate.

Mike Minear tells us of his fascinating career journey that had him setting motor racing records and spicing up conferences around the world.

We also get the low down on Government grants from Peter Nolle at Treadstone and a great Healthy Summer Recipe from Lucia Butum.

Read the issue at www.insightbusinesslifestyle.com.au and subscribe to get the latest real-life stories in your inbox.