Get the Ball Rolling: How to Plan for Your Title Company’s Successful New Year!
The end of the calendar year is a time to reflect on how much you’ve accomplished as a title company owner. While it’s always beneficial to look back, the new year presents you with a prime opportunity to start planning and setting goals for the months ahead. In other words, it’s time to come up with a plan.
Creating a plan that positions your title company for growth and long-term sustainability may be easier said than done. And, as the saying goes, even the best-laid plans often go awry. The key is to understand the essential ingredients of a plan that is designed to achieve results.
Does Your Plan Include These Important Aspects?
It goes without saying that your company’s plan will include goals for the new year. But, it’s not enough to simply acknowledge and state those goals. Instead, consider whether your goals are SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timebound.
A SMART plan ensures that there is no question about what the goals are, or when and if you’ve achieved them. By setting ambitious yet achievable goals, you can remain profitable as you work toward long-term objectives. An important part of the goal-setting process is setting goals that are measurable — and following through on measuring them.
Undoubtedly, your plan should be centered on revenue building to protect the longevity of your title company. While your plan can include both revenue goals and cost-cutting goals, it’s necessary to consider seasonal fluctuations in the real estate market, and formulate more aggressive goals for the busy months to cover the slower months.
As building revenue goes hand in hand with fortifying relationships with the right partners, be sure to consider the following questions when developing your plan:
- Who in your area is part of your target market?
- How can you develop a relationship with them?
- What can you change in your process and activities to focus on those target audiences?
- Are you reviewing the challenges the sales team is facing when trying to reach your target market and working to overcome them?
Finally, with regard to revenue building and cost savings, you should incorporate into your plan a goal focused on variable versus fixed costs. Determine whether you are managing your spending to place more emphasis on variable costs. That way, your expenses will naturally fluctuate with the ups and downs of the market.
Keeping watch on the current state of the title industry is important, too, and the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association both publish statistics on the state of the overall market.
Since referrals are as good as gold in the title industry, your plan should take into account what people are saying about your service. Be sure to keep an eye on your website, social media platforms and search engines and craft your plan accordingly. For example, are you asking for reviews online? Are your reviews mostly positive? How are people talking about your competitors?
In order to obtain referrals, you must instill confidence in your company among your key audience. Your customers and industry associates need to know the process will go smoothly when working with your title company. To that end, be sure to build your process into the plan. Is there any training or cross training needed? Are you working to develop relationships with the other side of the transaction?
As mentioned above, it’s imperative to track your goals and make them known to your entire team. Be sure to get everyone on board and share key metrics with your team. You may even wish to provide an incentive or reward for achieving goals. If you’re not realizing a specific goal, look at the ways in which you can improve those numbers.
Proliant Is Your Plan for a Turnkey Title Solution
Even with the best plan in place, it can be difficult to implement when you’re a title company owner faced with compliance complexities, IT security demands, consumer protection requirements and numerous other time-consuming challenges. The good news? Proliant Settlement Systems offers you a unique franchise opportunity that lets you own your own title company, but with all the financial operational advantages and support systems that eliminate the most difficult barriers to entry.
With Proliant’s private-label franchise system, you can focus entirely on building your business plan and boosting your brand, while we provide your back-office support. Our fully compliant system helps you run a full-service title company with the tools and expertise that allow you to provide the best customer experience possible. So, you can start your new year strong with Proliant.