You're Going To Be Great At This!

This past weekend I had a conversation with my sister. We hadn't spoken in a few weeks and she likes to check in on me because I'm still her "little brother". As usual, my work came up and I told her about a mutual friend of ours who has been jerking me around lately on some insurance policies. At first the lady wanted policies, now she won't return my phone calls. "I didn't know she was like that," my sister said. "She always seemed to have her act together." Then my sister asked, "Do you get that often?" "Often enough," I said. People can be great, but there are so many that are just complete flakes.  I have never understood why people do things. For instance, I told my sister how I will meet people who ask what I do for a living. About a third of the time, when I let them know that I am an insurance agent their response is "Give me your card. I have been looking to get more insurance." I hand them a card and...

For the last year I have been trying to maintain my business. Luckily for me, I'm a one-person operation, so I am not on the hook for payroll, much less overhead for a staff. But while in the throes of a pandemic, I have had to look for a whole new clientele that is hunkered down in isolation. Meeting people has been tough to say the least. Sure, people are going places, but everyday events like going to the movies, festivals and other places have been rare. And I'm the first to admit that Zoom meetings are not my forte. In person networking meetings, on the other hand, are right in my wheelhouse.  I love a good networking event, so much so that I even discussed how to get the most out of one in my book . So you can imagine how thrilling it was to actually attend a good luncheon again this week.  This particular group typically meets once a month and always was a great source of clients and referrals for me. It's a very loose knit group with not a lot of structure. No dues ...

Everyone wants to be successful, but not everyone knows how to define that success? Is it a nice car and a big home in a great neighborhood? Is there a specific time you know you have "arrived", like when you are driving your yacht or playing golf at a very exclusive resort? Or is it when you finally break $100,000 in sales, or better yet, personal income? The answer to all of this is very easy to determine. The way to succeed is to first have a goal. When you reach that goal, you have succeeded. That's when you set another goal and do it all over again. You can have more than one goal and have a series of smaller goals to get there.  Let's say that your ultimate goal is to make $100,000 in income this year. What activities do you need to accomplish to hit that goal? Assuming that each sale makes you $1000, you are going to need 100 sales over 50 weeks (you get 2 weeks vacation), so we have now broken it down to bite size pieces. Two sales a week will garner you $100,...

On the last couple of posts I discussed how difficult it can be dealing with co-workers and management. However this time I want to take a look at the clients we deal with each and every day. In my book I had an entire chapter on "How To Be A Good Customer", but apparently it went unread. Before I get started I want to acknowledge that a vast majority of my clients are awesome people. Many have become friends of mine as well, especially the ones that are local to me. This helps tremendously when there is an issue as they know the kind of person I am and can trust that I'm not out to screw them over.  But as we all know it only takes one grouchy, irritable jerk to ruin your day or week. Anyone in sales, self-employed or otherwise depends on their customers to earn a living and can share a multitude of stories about these people. Here are a few of my stories.   1. The drunk guy. Back in my retail days I managed a music store. We opened at 10am (mall schedule) and usually f...

"I love people. I wish I had a bucket full of them. Chopped up into little pieces." - Anonymous Like I stated in my last post, not everyone will handle problems the same. And they don't handle other people the same either. As a former manager of people, I have dealt with some people who are on the ball and only need help when there is a serious problem. Then you have the ones who need someone to cut their food for them and show them how to chew with their mouths closed. When I was in college I got a summer job delivering pizzas for a large national chain. The manager of the store had apparently worked his way up from delivery person and was in charge at the ripe old age of 20. Considering his age, he was actually a decent manager. So I thought it was interesting when he convened a staff meeting one afternoon to go over some issues that needed rectifying.  "I don't care what is going on in your personal lives," he said. "When you clock in, leave all that...

Many years ago when I was working in retail I had a boss who was a real sarcastic guy. Whenever we had a problem with a customer or an employee he would say, "If it weren't for people it would be the easiest job in the world." He was absolutely correct in this assessment. People can be a pain in the butt. Dealing with people can be difficult. Everyone handles the day-to-day problems they have differently. Some get stressed out while others are like those non-stick pans with their problems just sliding off of them. There is no "one size fits all" approach to people, especially when it comes to your clients, customers and co-workers.  I once worked with a very abrasive young man. He had a thick New York accent, which in South Carolina went over like a lead balloon. In a lot of ways he sounded like the cartoon aardvark that was always trying to eat the ant. So when he would make his morning calls to set appointments, he didn't have much success.  "I do not...

As the owner of a small independent insurance agency, I try to bounce ideas off of some of my colleagues from time to time. I enjoy finding out how they handle certain situations or use their marketing budgets (if they even have one). Recently I was on the phone with another agent and sharing some prospecting tips someone had shared with me. (We like to "show off" our knowledge sometimes.) That's when it hit me. "Would you be open to doing a three-way call, maybe once a week or so?" I asked her. She thought it would be a great idea.  After discussing it with the third agent we agreed on a day and time to meet. He already had a Zoom account set up so we tried it as a "trial period" just to see if we would get any productive information out of it. Three months later we are still meeting on a weekly basis and our group consists of about 4-6 people, depending on their schedules.  Even though we all sell insurance, there are a few facets of this group that ...

In the previous post I shared how Fred*, had hired me away from one company (where he had previously recruited me) to work at his present insurance company. He had failed to mention that I would have to pay for my training and supplies, which really pissed me off. His lack of honesty and professionalism revealed his true colors.  What he didn't know was that I was being less than honest as well. I had no plans of staying with this company for the long haul. As a matter of fact, I was in the process of being hired with another company that paid better, had higher standards and was overall a better fit. But I still wasn't going to let Fred get away with being an idiot. So it was a surprise when he insisted I had to take a drug test. He pulled out an oral swab kit that we would use sometimes when taking life insurance applications. It tests for drugs, as well as a lot of other stuff, by placing the thick cotton swap between your cheek and gum and letting it just sit there for a co...

On the previous post I shared how Fred*, my sales manager from one company left us to work for a competitor, and about the same time yet another company, bigger and better than either of the other two, was trying to recruit me to work for them.  I had to make a decision. To say I was floundering where I was would be an understatement. My morale was low. When I was hired at the original company (Company A) they had promised to help me get my securities license, which at the time was an attractive offer. However, when I would bring it up they would move the goalposts. "Sure, we'll help you when you sell more life insurance." This was a slap in the face to me since I had been a decent producer.  The other company (Company C) that was wooing me also said they not only would help me get my securities license, but that it was required. My problem was that if I left Company A I would have to suffer through several weeks, or even months of Friday meetings, good old boys and low p...