You're Going To Be Great At This!

Last week I was listening to an life insurance selling podcast (yes, I'm an insurance nerd) and the topic was on why people get into selling insurance and the motivation to stay in the business. In other words, if someone were to ask me why I sold insurance, what would my response be? Naturally, the correct answer was that agents want to help people protect their families' financial security. They gave examples of handing claims checks to grieving widows who asked, "Am I going to be okay?" while small children played in the background. Knowing that this family could stay in their home while making a commission was their calling (like the priesthood) and these agents felt like they had accomplished something when they convinced the client to buy a policy. On the other hand, agents who were in the business just for the money were the ones who never lasted long. Their intentions were short-sighted and self-centered. I began to ask myself questions. Was this me? Am I maki...

We've all heard the expression "lead by example". This principle was drilled into my head when I was a young management trainee at a national music store chain. Steve, the store manager who was tasked with teaching me all he knew was a sarcastically funny guy and would often paraphrase his hero, Lewis Grizzard, peppering the writer's words with hilarious profanities. And in fits of rage he would utter some of the funniest stuff I ever heard.  One of his frequent outbursts was "Who's paying who around here?" This was usually when we received bad service. In Steve's mind, if we were going to provide great service, which he demanded, then we deserved equally good service from our providers, like electricians or carpet cleaners. And if the carpet was still dirty or the electrician had done shoddy work, Steve would proclaim, "Who's paying who around here?"  Another thing he'd say is that I, as a manger of a staff consisting of high schoo...

When I wrote my book, "You're Going To Be Great At This!" in 2017, I had a strategy in mind for marketing it. I had been attending my local Toastmasters group for a couple of years and was working on my speaking skills. There I had met some people who were aspiring authors and were also working on presentation skills to support their books.  My plan was to use my book, my speaking engagements and my insurance agency to all promote each other. If I spoke, I could mention the book and my agency. When meeting insurance clients, I could mention my book, etc. I could also speak locally to civic and other organizations on insurance topics, hoping to attain to clients, as well as talk up my book.  Things were starting to happen. I was asked to speak to some new real estate agents about sales, and in my talks I mentioned the book and insurance. One of the interesting things that happened was that I was enjoying it all. The change was fun and interesting.  As I mention in the boo...

I asked my good friend, Davan Johnson, to let me pick his brain recently. He's the owner and founder of Davan Enterprises Insurance Agency , as well as a integral part of his community and active member of several service organizations in and around his home town of Bristol, Tennessee. We discussed his insurance business, his thoughts on finding clients and sales in general. He offers great insight.  Thanks for talking with me Davan. First off, I'm curious as to how you got into the insurance business. I had left a career in the restaurant industry that I thought I was going to retire from but quickly realized that I didn't actually own or have control of my destiny. So I was trying to decide what was next. I knew this time I wanted to do something that created residual and passive income. I chose insurance because I had been around it all my life with my mom using it as a fall back position. She was typically always an employee though, not an agent. But I remember pretendi...

Recently I did an interview with Mitch Russo of Thrive Global, an American company that provides behavior change technology and media to support individuals struggling with stress and burnout. And with plenty of both in sales, Thrive Global has found a niche. Founded by Ariana Huffington in 2016, the company is now highly regarded and was named one of  "The Top 10 NYC Startups to Watch in 2017" by Inc. Magazine. Our interview was on the topic of "How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy". Personally I don't think people want to be "sold", even though I have worked with companies that think the opposite. This is fine if you believe that, but I won't work for them again. In my world, building a rapport with someone is going to go a lot farther for me down the road than just a transactional sale.  Given that we are currently in the midst of a global pandemic, the interview was timely as we discussed recent events and how to work around it all, ...

There are two types of sales - transactional and relationship based. When you go to the store and buy groceries, you pick out what you want, take it to the cashier and pay. No one asks you about your dietary restrictions or who else is going to eat dinner or what your grocery budget is. It's a pure transaction. Some would even go so far as to call this sales person an "order taker".  A relationship based sale is different. No, there isn't a real "relationship" involved, but the seller will ask questions. And if they are worth their salt, the sales person will drill down for more information. This is where a great tool, the fact finder, comes in handy. No matter what industry you are in, you can use a good fact finder. And if you don't have one, make one. In my 35+ years in sales I've seen people who do both. When I first broke into the insurance business, we sold accident plans door-to-door. There weren't a lot of return visits or questionnaires....

In my book I give a quote from my friend, Johnny Fryar, who said, "The hardest part of the job is finding someone to talk to." He was absolutely correct then and it still rings true. People avoid us salespeople because they think we're always trying to sell something. And we are.  You don't have to be great at reading body language to notice people cringe when you walk into a room. My friends would barely put up with me but the moment I mentioned anything to do with my business I could hear the air getting sucked out through the ventilation. Over the years I've learned to tone it down a bit. And I have very forgiving friends. Not that I'm an extrovert, but if I'm faced with a networking event I can mingle with the best of them. And it really doesn't have to be any sort of professional meeting either. I've gotten clients whom I met at wedding receptions and kids' basketball games. Put me in front of someone and I'll find a way to open up a d...

Recent events have brought the topic of racism and it's effects to the headlines. As I watch protests and marches on the news, I thought back to my own experiences in sales. Most notably, I recalled a specific training session we had about 10 years ago.  I was working for a very large insurance company and each month we had a meeting in our regional office. The manager of the office would often bring in a sales coach who would talk to us as a group and later in some breakout sessions. This gentleman was old school, to say the least. He had to be in his seventies and would often quote scripture as he tried to motivate us to sell more life insurance. As our group of a dozen or so was much younger, his words were met with blank stares, even though he was our manager's mentor. During one of these meetings he looked at a young agent who was Latino and said something like, "You should get out there and sell to your peoples." We looked at each other and shook our heads. The ...