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Practice management

Unleash Your Most Powerful Competitive Weapon: Front-line Ideas

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Imagine a competitive weapon that allowed you to dramatically upgrade your service levels, lower your costs, improve your ability to problem-solve, and better keep up with fast-changing regulations, policies and services. And despite the game-changing nature of this weapon, it’s free and few of your competitors make use of it. What is this weapon? Ideas from your front-line staff. Every …

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How to Get on a Not-For-Profit Board

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There are many advisors that volunteer, give back to their community, and use their skills and talents to become board members for not-for-profits, foundations or endowments. They bring their strong financial background to the table and usually take on the role of treasurer or part of the finance committee for the charity. Their intention is to contribute in a meaningful …

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Are You Qualified to Sell?

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As a sales strategist, I have witnessed salespeople try to disqualify a client time and time again. Whether they realize it or not, they’re actually looking for a reason to move onto the next call or what they feel may be the easier sale. They’re cherry picking for the slam dunk, the lay down, or the rollover. I have heard …

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Marketing and Sales Ideas that Get Us into Trouble

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Marketing and sales initiatives are a company’s lifeblood. Yet, the top leaders of many companies harbor serious doubts about the effectiveness of such initiatives. The confidence level among some executives is so low that they’re not sure it would make much difference if they threw most of it out. The range of opinions on marketing and sales is amazing—from doubtful …

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Easy Ways to Reframe Rejection

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The financial industry is rife with rejection, and some agents/advisors deal with it better than others. How do they deal with it? By building up their emotional strength and not taking it personally.  Indeed, it is possible for advisors to desensitize themselves to rejection and become like Teflon. However, if your days are filled with calls and meetings that are …

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Simply Sell!

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Here are a couple simple tips to become more productive and successful at the most important thing a salesperson is required to do: Selling! If you’re not investing your time in selling as much as you possibly can each day, then you may not be making the most of your opportunities. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Well, sometimes we can get …

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Why Some Entrepreneurs Fail (While Others Wildly Succeed)

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The difference between entrepreneurs who fail and entrepreneurs who wildly succeed can be summed up by their appetite for one, five-syllable adjective: UNCOMFORTABLE.  Let me tell you a story to illustrate this point. When I was 24 years old, I agreed to accompany a broker on a sales call with an important prospect. We introduced ourselves and gave him our …

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The Importance of Commitment and How to Be Committed

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When you order an egg and bacon breakfast, you get a blend of both chicken and pig. However, the chicken’s involvement is limited to the egg while the pig is completely committed. There is no better definition of commitment for an entrepreneur. When it comes to commitment, there are no gray areas. Either you are committed or you are not. …

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General insurance industry needs a fresh lease of life

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The Financial Express, June 30, 2014 With the election handing a decisive mandate to the new government, now is the time for concrete steps to revive the economy. Budget 2014 is a critical platform wherein the government should announce macro and industry specific measures to enable the economy to return to the growth path. The general insurance industry is among …

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The Business Benefits of a Pipeline Mentality

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Today, the customer story is simple. Loyalty ranges from non-existent to temporary. Mining the Internet is second nature, and people rely on smartphone apps to cut through the clutter. With an endless array of channels available, engaging your public can be an exercise in futility. Salespeople have always asked, “Whom can I talk to today?” The search for prospective customers …

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