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 …
Read More »How to Get on a Not-For-Profit Board
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 …
Read More »Are You Qualified to Sell?
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 …
Read More »Marketing and Sales Ideas that Get Us into Trouble
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 …
Read More »Easy Ways to Reframe Rejection
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 …
Read More »Simply Sell!
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 …
Read More »Why Some Entrepreneurs Fail (While Others Wildly Succeed)
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 …
Read More »The Importance of Commitment and How to Be Committed
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. …
Read More »How Advisors Demonstrate Trust in the Workplace
Trust can mean different things to different people. Trust is also a function of both character and competence. To demonstrate trust, we need to see it in action. For some advisors, establishing and extending trust can be accomplished quite quickly. If there is trust between an advisor and a client, you’ll see more effective communication and collaboration, and of course, …
Read More »No More Smooth Sailing Sales Managers: How to Make a Splash by Managing Reps at All Levels
Ongoing management: Low performers, mid-level performers and even high performers need it. It does not assume high performance, and once high performing, it does not assume it will always continue. Everyone needs to be managed on a consistent basis. In sales, the goal of ongoing management is participation rate. Participation rate is the percentage of sales team members who are …
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