3 Optimization Strategies: How To Thrive and Survive

Thought Leadership in Action for Life Insurance

In today’s competitive market, the difference between thriving and surviving often comes down to one thing: optimization. From operational workflows to customer experiences, businesses that optimize intelligently have the opportunity to outperform those that rely on outdated processes and practices.

What is business optimization?

Business optimization isn’t about working harder—it’s about working smarter. By analyzing and improving your existing processes, you may boost your company’s productivity, reduce costs, and increase profitability—all while enhancing your customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.

Start with a vision statement

A vision statement should be your guiding philosophy. Think about your “what,” not your “why.” What do you want to accomplish? Your vision statement should inspire you and your team to want to achieve your goals. Share the statement with your team and ask them to help hold you accountable. Write it down, refer to it daily and discuss it as a group from time to time.

3 business optimization strategies to put into practice

1. Make and write down your plans.
Put together a business plan, a marketing plan, and a revenue goal. Your business plan should describe your practice’s objectives, strategies, and financial projections and serve as your roadmap for business growth and development. Your marketing plan will describe your client acquisition goals and the tools and methods you will use to achieve them. Your revenue goal should be an actual dollar amount that you want to bring in for the month, quarter, and year.

Focused entrepreneur, lost in his thoughts at the office, checking the business plans of the company.

2. Manage your time wisely.
Lack of quality time with your clients can cause them to become frustrated, distant, and potentially move elsewhere. The better you manage your time— and the more time you spend with clients—the greater your potential for client satisfaction, service, and increased revenue will be. So, where can you save time? Try tracking what you’re doing for two weeks. Identify the tasks you do each day and the resources you could use to fulfill non-revenue-generating tasks. Delegating these tasks will give you more time to better service your clients.

“Business optimization isn’t about working harder— it’s about working smarter.”

3. Use the 80/20 client management rule.
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of effort. We’ll interpret this to mean that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients. Ask your top 20% to bring friends to events you host and try to replicate those clients. Dig deep into who they are, their interests, and commonalities, then put yourself in a position to find more of them. To spend more time with them, reassign other clients to a junior partner.

Include Younger Generations in the Plan

Bottom line: be strategic! Take some time now to develop a vision and plans for your practice. Manage time wisely and target clients that optimize your business for potential greater efficiency, productivity, and overall performance.

For resources to help ensure clients' life insurance policies meet their current needs, visit plpromise.pacificlife.com/practice-management.

¹For federal income tax purposes, life insurance death benefits generally pay income tax-free to beneficiaries pursuant to IRC Sec. 101(a)(1). In certain situations, however, life insurance death benefits may be partially or wholly taxable. Situations include, but are not limited to: the transfer of a life insurance policy for valuable consideration unless the transfer qualifies for an exception under IRC Sec. 101(a)(2)(i.e. the transfer-for-value rule); arrangements that lack an insurable interest based on state law; and an employer-owned policy unless the policy qualifies for an exception under IRC Sec. 101(j).

²Internal Revenue Service. “Estate Tax | Internal Revenue Service.” Internal Revenue Service, October 29, 2024, www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estate-tax. Accessed September 17, 2025.

³Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association. “It’s Time to Help Get More Millennials Insured.” Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, July 6, 2022, www.limra.com/en/newsroom/industry-trends/2022/millennials-its-time-to-get-insured. Accessed March 22, 2024.

Carlan Snipes
Pacific Life
Field Vice President, Broad Market

Carlan Snipes brings more than 30 years of experience in life insurance and financial services industries to her role. She specializes in helping financial professionals use creative strategies to address their clients’ concerns by using life insurance.

Broad Market Sales Desk
LynInternalSales@PacificLife.com
(888) 900-9777

The Power of Pacific

At Pacific Life, putting customers first has allowed us to serve families and businesses successfully for over 150 years. As part of a mutual holding company structure, we have no publicly-traded stock, so we can focus on long-term strategies, financial strength, and the best interest of our policyowners.

You and your clients, our policyowners, are at the heart of the business decisions we make.