You're losing revenue. The organic growth is weakening. Referrals are down year-over-year. Churn has gone up. You want to stand out in your market. You're keeping up with the Joneses. Commissions are decreasing and you know that you will need to transition to a consultant model to survive in the future. Your support staff is spread too thin. An important account asked for something. You've got a competitive situation. Did I forget one?

This isn't a commercial for the services I sell. This is a high level checklist designed to help insurance brokers through the process of selecting a value-added service.

Too many times decision makers find themselves buying the wrong solution because they moved too fast or convoluted the buying process. Here are some suggestions on how to buy a value-added service.

1. What problem are we trying to solve?

This is extremely important. Where you start isn't always where you end up. Once you get in to the buying process with vendors they will help you uncover additional challenges that you didn't realize you had.

There job is to identify problems and solve them. You decide what problems you want solved.

2. What is the cost of the problem?

Quantify your pain: in hours, accounts, and dollars.

3. In House vs. Outsourcing

Do you want to hire someone new? Will their personality mix well with the others? Can you afford another headcount plus benefits? Thanks, Obama.

Take a look around your office. Do you have any employees who possess the skills necessary to perform this new service? If so, are they reliable. Finally, are you able to shift their current work load elsewhere to free up time for their new responsibility?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions you should outsource the solution. It's easier to fire me for incompetence than Jerry who has been with you for 15 years.

When outsourcing try not to engage more than 2 vendors. We will drive you nuts with our emails, voice mails, value touches, and check ins. You'll be so crazy you'll forget the problem you were trying to solve.

4. Budget

In my world, like yours, you get what you pay for.

6. Timeline

When do you want to hold the ground breaking ceremony? Have a good idea of when you can commit to minor to moderate office disruption for a couple of weeks to a couple of months. A strong employee & client engagement is critical and will be the biggest determining factor of your ROI. Take in to consideration vacations (summer) and any scheduled leave (medical) for key players and plan accordingly.

7. ROI

This is where "cost of the problem" comes in to play. How will you know if the problem is being solved and at what rate? Will this new service return it's investment in years 1, 2 or 3? Evaluate your employee or vendor on a monthly basis and share your feedback. It's their job to execute. It's your job to hold them accountable.

This checklist is written by someone who has been on the buying end as well as the selling end and these are my best practices. I'm interested to learn some of your best practices. Leave a comment if you have a minute.

-R