The short answer
Work backward from the goal. Divide the new business goal by the average first-year revenue of a win to get the wins you need, multiply by how many first appointments it takes to produce a win, and turn that into touches and hours a week. In one real producer's Runbook, a $250,000 goal came out to 35 touches and 5 hours a week.
Why "prospect more" doesn't work
"Prospect more" isn't a goal. A producer can't tell whether they did enough this week, so they either overdo it for a week and burn out or they quietly drift back to servicing the book. The fix is a number.
The math, step by step
Here's the chain, using a real example from a producer's Runbook:
| Step | Example |
|---|---|
| New business goal | $250,000 |
| Average first-year revenue per win | $75,000 |
| Wins needed (goal divided by average, rounded up) | 4 |
| First appointments needed per year | 24 |
| Touches per week to produce those appointments | 35 |
| Hours per week that takes | 5 |
| Hours the producer protected on their calendar | 6 |
Verdict: it fits, with an hour to spare.
Where the numbers come from
- Average first-year revenue comes from the producer's own recent wins, not the agency average.
- Appointments per win comes from their own history: how many first meetings it usually takes to land one account. In this example it's 6 appointments per win.
- Touches per appointment comes from running a real sequence. Use a planned multi-channel sequence and track it, and within a quarter you'll have your own ratio.
If a producer doesn't have history yet, start with the agency's numbers and replace them with their own as the data comes in.
The step most people skip: hours
A touch count means nothing until it's on the calendar. Turning touches into hours shows whether the goal is realistic before the year starts, not in November. If the math says 9 hours a week and the producer can protect 4, you have three honest choices: raise the average account size, improve the conversion rate, or change the goal. All three are better than finding out at year end.
Check it every week
The weekly number turns into a simple question: did you hit your touches? A producer who knows their number doesn't need the owner to tell them whether they did enough. That's a big part of getting producers to prospect without you.
Every Personal Runbook we build has this math worked out to the producer's real number, from their own goal and their own history.