Prospecting

Success in the insurance and financial industry is a direct result of making connections that engender sales; and these sales come from quality leads and effective appointment setting. This article touches on the art and science of setting those appointments. Your number-one focus when calling to set an appointment with a lead should be to get it done within the …

Appointment setting is the bridge between prospective leads and finalizing sales. Without this critical skill, an agent is severely handicapped in obtaining new clients. Most agents can sell once they are in front of people or they would not be in business. Augmenting sales ability with effective appointment setting skills will ensure your future success. The first step in developing …

Here are nine things you need to do to put your business in a position to attract more high-quality clients through referrals. If you can establish all, or most, of these strategies as solid habits, you’ll create an unlimited supply of high-quality referrals: 1.  Treat the entire referral process with importance. How you send it out to the world is how …

Have you ever had a sale that didn’t close and you weren’t sure why? Chances are you lost the sale because you didn’t establish sufficient trust and rapport with your prospect. Once you have developed trust and rapport, you’ve actually got the hard part behind you and you’re probably going to make a sale! You see, it really doesn’t matter …

Why is it that some sales reps consistently earn a six-figure annual income while other reps, putting in the same hours, selling the same products and trained by the same sales manager, struggle each month financially to make ends meet? The answer to this question is painfully simple:  the six-figure sales reps understand the importance of business development and never …

The top three methods for bringing in new clients are:  1) Referrals from other clients; 2) Referrals from Centers of Influence—particularly CPAs; and 3) Seminars. The seminar environment can be a powerful way to add value to your existing client relationships and position yourself as a valuable resource to prospective clients. Many financial professionals like to combine these strategies to …

Essentially a sales manager’s primary responsibility is to recruit, train and motivate his or her sales force to achieve peak performance. Of these three vitally important management tasks, recruiting is the least understood and by far the most challenging. If you’re successful during the recruiting interview process and hire a superstar sales rep, you’ll find that he or she is …

Whether you’ve asked for a referral or one has been volunteered, what do you usually do with it? Do you say, “Thanks, I’ll let you know what happens,” or do you linger a little longer to learn more about your new prospect? I always advocate quality over quantity (though quantity is always important). Coming away from a meeting with 20 …

The heart of any company can be found beating inside the walls of its customer service department. Providing superior customer service after the sale is a smart business decision that pays long-term dividends. All the money that a company spends on sales training, marketing research, advertising and PR initiatives to attract new customers is wasted if they can’t keep them …

One in three financial advisors owns an iPad. The problem? They’re all using them the same way. Advisors and agents are constantly looking for new ways to engage people and differentiate their services. The iPad is arguably the greatest engagement device available today. So, what are three simple ways that you can use an iPad to engage more people and …