Financial

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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, …

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 …

I probably wrote what I am about to share with you in my head a dozen times over the course of the last year. It’s a topic we all talk about together as agents and financial experts but rarely share in quite the way I am about to share with you now. I will forgo explaining the math because, if …

If we consider a simple definition of accountability as, “the ability to account for your own actions,” it seems surprisingly straightforward.  But, accountability also involves having clearly communicated objectives, being granted authority over those objectives and having predetermined outcomes for either success or failure. Any ambiguity over outcomes, objectives, and timeframes will affect your ability to be accountable.  If someone …

Several years ago, when I was managing an insurance office, I was interviewing a prospective sales rep who I felt had great potential as an agent. Throughout the interviewing process, she was articulate, impeccably dressed, and demonstrated excellent people skills. I was convinced that I had found a real superstar. Shortly after she was hired, my new agent invited me …