Sales

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 …

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 that trust and rapport, you’ve actually got the most difficult part behind you, and you’re probably going to make a sale! You see, it really …

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 vital management tasks, recruiting is the least understood and the most challenging by far. If you’re successful during the recruiting interview process and hire a superstar sales rep, you’ll find that he or she is self-motivated, …

It was an early morning meeting chaired by the Senior Vice President. There wasn’t any reason to anticipate fireworks on that particular day so the atmosphere was rather relaxed. A sales manager was the last to arrive, and as he sat down, he whispered to the person next to him, “All I want to do is sell.” The meaning was …

Being a sales trainer in the health insurance field, I’ve seen many agents who jump into the business when they’re not fully prepared to succeed. I’m going beyond obvious sales skills, such as qualifying, assessing needs, handling what most people call objections, closing and follow up. I’m also going beyond product knowledge. For the sake of time, I want to …

How can you stay self-motivated and productive in the midst of turbulent times and a sluggish economy? How do you persevere as a salesperson when times are tough, and customers seem to be holding on to every penny in fear of economic uncertainty? Every challenge, setback and personal difficulty you encounter in life also brings with it the seed of …

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 …

Headlines related to the Affordable Care Act and the new healthcare and insurance landscape seem to change more often than the weather. But one thing seems certain in its uncertainty: The future of Medicare Advantage plans. A recent online article stated that, “Because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans are paying higher …

These days, so much of our everyday exchanges happen online. Sure, it’s convenient, but not always the most appropriate venue for an insurance sale to take place. I happen to work with Medicare Supplements, and I find that phone calls are vastly underrated in terms of a way to close those sales. Initiating applications by phone actually makes great sense …