Guidance for New Life Agents

[DHK]

When I find something good, I'll post about it.

5 income-increasing communication tips | MDRT Blog

5 income-increasing communication tips
POSTED ON APRIL 8, 2016 AT 8:40 PM.

If you don't communicate well, you're limiting your income. Consider these time-tested tips to close more sales and take your production to the next level:

1) People don't buy what they don't understand

Keep your explanations simple and elegant, and combat the communications "curse of knowledge." You know your business so thoroughly that you may not be explaining it well to clients. If everyone can understand you, you'll be richest advisor in the world. If no one understands you, you're out of business.

From Don Connelly, mentor to financial advisors as well as founder and CEO of Don Connelly 24/7. Watch his 2015 Annual Meeting presentation.

2) Sell dreams, not products

Carmine Gallo
Your value as an advisor is tied to the problems you solve. Your clients dream of a worry-free retirement or putting their children through college. Remember, you sell dreams, not products.

From Carmine Gallo, corporate communications coach. Watch his 2015 Annual Meeting presentation.

3) Tell clients how insurance solves problems

Communicate to your client about a problem, such as taxes, that may destroy the income and assets they spent their whole working life accumulating. Let clients know insurance — with discounted dollars — can pay for what needs to be done to protect their assets.

From MDRT member Ben Feldman, in Anatomy of a Sale.

4) Just ask

At the end of every client meeting, ask your client the following question: "What do I need to do to earn your referrals?"

From 32-year MDRT member Judy Byle-Jones, CLU, ChFC, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

5) When silence sells

Sometimes your prospect is ready to say "yes" to your advice — but you keep talking! Instead, they end up saying "no" because you kept talking! Pause often, and give clients a chance to say "yes!"

From 17-year MDRT member Angus Donald McQueen, Dip CII, Dip PFS, with 14 Top of the Table qualifications, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Insurance Pro Shop helps EXTREMELY well with points 1-3. So well, that #4 should be automatic that you DESERVE referrals, but you do need to ask with the proper intentions. Sandy Schussel's mastering client referrals course is invaluable for that. And yes, #5 is that we do need to pause on purpose to let people think things out for themselves and not to interrupt them.

 

[Hammer Lane]

Thanks for posting, DHK. Glad to know that there are folks out here looking to share great information that can help us all.

 

[LLBishop1970]

Just getting into the industry. This has been a helpful read. Thank you.

 

[stanley]

Thanks for sharing DHK ...it's a testament to your OP that agents are still finding, reading and gaining knowledge from this thread some 5+years after the original post!

 

[wynter]

Thank you so much for sharing. I'm newly licensed in Accident&Health/Medicare/LTC and taking the Life test shortly. This has been invaluable as it has confirmed some of the information sources that I have found on my own - most notably Insurance Pro Shop. This has certainly given me concrete action items and insights that I can run with. Thank you again DHK for the information and to everyone else who has shared. This newbie is feeling encouraged and ready to invest the necessary sweat, tears, and mettle.

 

[TomZack]

Thank you DHK for being generous enough to share your 'life' experience. I am new to the business and, in fact, am starting part time with an independent agency.

I plan to share your thoughts with my mentor at our next meeting on Monday. Good food for discussion.

Again...a hearty "thank you"!

Tom

 

[runtilmylegsdrpoff]

Great information, I am a newbie as well. Thank you for posting this!

 

[DHK]

I always love reading Van Mueller's articles in Retirement Advisor magazine, but I have never heard him speak.

All I can say is WOW! This is great!

 

[xrac]

I always love reading Van Mueller's articles in Retirement Advisor magazine, but I have never heard him speak.

All I can say is WOW! This is great!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=crvcebt0qCw

Thank's DHK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DHK]

Just wow!



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I just finished reading three books by Claude Whitacre. Claude is the one who made the Ben Feldman recordings public that I posted earlier in this thread. Anyway, he wrote 3 OUTSTANDING books that, in my opinion, if you want to excel, you need to buy, read, and apply.

Claude just happens to think and write the way I tend to think and write. Now, he did sell life insurance for a while, but he's been selling vacuum cleaners for a long time. Claude says he uses about 71 different selling techniques, and only ONE came from his industry. Almost everything else he does, came from other industries. (Like me, he has also studied network marketing sales strategies and applied what he can to what he does.)

Here's his review of The Feldman Method book by Ben Feldman:


Here's his review of Frank Bettger's book on "How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success in Selling":


Current pricing is $2.99 for each Kindle book... or thousands of dollars NOT to read them.

https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Essentials-Your-First-Days-ebook/dp/B01MCSYGNL/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

My review:
This is a FANTASTIC framework for training new salespeople. I certainly wish I had a manager that would've had such an organized way to train when I first went into full-time, field-based, commission sales. I would've avoided a lot of pain, similar to what Claude outlined in the beginning as to why he wrote this book in the first place.

It often seems that most companies hire by this maxim: "Hire 'em in masses, teach 'em in classes, sell all their family and friends, and fire their ***es." The reason is because there is far more demand for a "position" than there is talent and skill to teach these new people. It's also a sad thing that I've found that many sales managers are sales managers because they BARELY made their own quotas themselves, or their personal experience is 25 years ago.

I also want to suggest an idea to the reader: If you're looking for a job, and you're considering commissioned based sales, use this book to help you craft a LOT of questions to ask in the interview process as to what you know you're going to need to be successful. Then rate their answers on how specific these recruiters/sales managers are for each point. Remember that YOU have far more risk for the success of your new career than the company does. It's unfortunate, but because YOU have more risk for the position than they do, YOU need to ask more questions of THEM, than they have to ask of you. And no, it won't work against you. They'll see that you have a great deal of potential by asking such pointed questions... they'll WANT you.

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Prospe...spects-ebook/dp/B00ICR4V1C/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

My review:
I've been in sales for a long time. I admit, I did not learn much in this book. However, this book has some of the BEST LESSONS in it that I had learned and concluded from being in my "School of Hard Knocks". Part of me wants to give it less than 5 stars for practically GIVING these lessons away so inexpensively that I've paid for myself in lost sales opportunities and paid training courses (that literally cost THOUSANDS).

In short, for me, this book just reaffirms the way I think about a professional's selling process. Sometimes I wonder if I'm on the right track with the way I think. Yes, I get decent results, but having this book as an 'affirmation' of sorts is valuable in and of itself.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Call-Closing-Ultimate-Guide/dp/1484907779/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

My review:
I've read several dozens, if not hundreds of books on sales. You could probably eliminate 75% or more of them just by buying, reading, and applying what is in this book.

Here is the basic theme of this book: Be honest, be direct, and be sincere... with a little showmanship. Selling has ALWAYS been about the experience you deliver for the prospective customer. Make the entire experience one that is enjoyable for you and them, and profitable... which you will leverage into referrals. This book will help show you how. My career will forever be changed because I bought and read this book. I've got some work to do now.

If you can't afford the $10 for these 3 books, you should go find something else to do.