You're Going To Be Great At This!

Over the years I've worked with, and for, many companies, large and small. And as each of these companies varied in size, structure and philosophy, there was also differences in how they handled the issue of a "holiday" party.  As the Christmas party became a Holiday party (and to be fair, not everyone celebrates Christmas and I can respect that), the parties themselves morphed into several formats, or worse, just disappeared altogether.  One company I worked with left the issue to each location's manager to provide for a small "get together" and a small amount of petty cash could be used for refreshments. Since our location was rather small, the manager would order a few pizzas and provide soft drinks in their home. There was an unofficial "bring your own" policy for alcoholic drinks and we even had a gift exchange.  It was all good and everyone behaved, however each year we would receive some story from the home office about how another location...

People in business love to get referrals. Unfortunately, many people don't know how to ask for them, or worse, don't even have a system in place to get any. In my years in sales, I have found an easy way to acquire referrals, and it doesn't cost a dime. But first, think back to a time when people would hand out multiple business cards to their clients. "Here's one for you and two more to give to your friends who may need my services," was the method. Interestingly enough, I still see people do this, which is a waste of money as the extra cards were destined to be tossed into the trash. Let's face it, you don't want to carry a pile of other people's cards to distribute, and other people don't want to carry around your cards to hand out either. Business cards are expensive and not very effective. In my experience, cards are good for two things: drawings (W in a free breakfast!) or to be left with a nice fat tip in a restaurant. So what is the sol...

When you meet with a prospective client do you have materials on hand the prospect can take with them? Business cards, brochures and assorted "swag" can be useful tools, but I have learned one effective way to make an impression while talking to the client.  Typically I meet clients through referrals or networking events. When I get an opportunity to meet with the prospect in a one-on-one setting it's usually in a coffee shop or a small diner. During this meeting I will give the prospect a tri-fold brochure with information about my business, website, testimonials and other "boiler plate" language. The most vital part of the brochure is the back cover, which is  where I place a list of the products and services I offer .   I find that the best approach is to start off by introducing myself (if they haven't met me before) and get a conversation going. While doing that I hand them the brochure, showing the front with my contact information, and casually flippi...

Several years ago I was arriving to a networking event a bit late.  I parked my vehicle near the back of the lot and walked past all of the other attendees' cars with their wraps and sign magnets. I noticed a few realtors had attached business card holders to their cars. For some reason I kept thinking about how smart it was to let people grab a card while I could be doing other things, like shop. A few years later I bought one of these card holders from a local office supply store. I measured out how much room I had on the back of my car as well as the size of the card holder. Next I went to Vistaprint and designed a sign magnet with enough room for the card holder to stick on without blocking my message. You can see the results below.   I quickly realized that the sun and rain would make my cards look "weathered" after a while so I learned to only leave 2 cards in there at a time. (Cards costs too much to throw out a dozen at a time because they got soggy.) This also ma...

I've been off the grid for a while, and for good reason. In a nutshell, I had hit a wall. Creating content for this blog, along with memes (which I hope are funny) and short videos takes a toll. And since I have another role as president of Surf Financial Brokers , which can involve lots of travel, my time and mental energy had nearly gotten wiped out.  However, I have also used that time to decide what I wanted to focus on in my next book. My only other book, " You're Going To Be Great At This! " was written and published in 2017, so you would think I have more to offer. But I didn't want the follow up to be the throwaway information. In a lot of ways it's like a musician who releases several albums and then the record label wants to release the stuff that sucked and didn't make it to the other albums. I don't want to do that to you. Also, my master plan is to use the next book as a link to my future speaking engagements. Hopefully Covid is behind us ...

For the most part, selling insurance is a Monday through Friday job, with a few exceptions. There are those people who are only available on the weekends, and for those clients I make appointments. However, there was a time at the beginning of my sales career when a sales manager required us to cold call on a Saturday and it didn't always end up as planned.  Our sales crew had fallen behind in our production goals and apparently the sales manager was getting grief from his boss (or bosses). Either way, he announced to us during a Friday morning meeting that we would be working the following morning, which was a cool Saturday in the fall. No one was pleased to hear this since most of us had plans to sleep in or do something more enjoyable.  After we complained a bit the manager said we could ride in pairs, so I looked over at a guy I knew and got along with, Frank. We nodded at each other and after the meeting we came up with a game plan for our Saturday morning. Frank said he ...

While coaching youth sports at the local rec center years ago I met one of the parents on an opposing team. He gave me his business card and a few days later I met him and his business partner for an introductory meeting. Nothing much came from it as they were just starting out with little to no money to spend. I promised to keep in touch.  About a year went by when I ran into Jeff at a local networking function. He said he and his business partner had split up, as there were differences in business philosophies. However he implied that he was now running the business much more successfully by himself. I invited him for a lunch meeting at a local sandwich shop (my treat, of course!) and he accepted. The sandwich shop was in a strip mall. I liked taking people there to meet because it was quiet and reasonably priced. Over the years I've learned the chances of someone buying from me increase if I treat them to a meal or coffee.  Across the parking lot of the strip mall was a cha...