Is sales a talent?

[Guest]

John Savage is considered to be one of the insurance industries all time greats and by his own admission it took him 9 years to become really successful. That sounds like it was learned not born. Look at the examples of NYL's all time great Ben Feldman and MetLife's Mehdi Fakharzadeh. Neither were a "born salesman" but all of the greats shared one thing in common. They would never, never give up or quit and they worked harder and smarter than any of their contemporaries.

Harder and smarter, that's huge. If you think you can just work smarter, forget it.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Harder and smarter, that's huge. If you think you can just work smarter, forget it.

Satirical bumper sticker I saw some years back:

"If hard work is so great, why don't rich people keep it all for themselves?"

 

[somarco]

Ben Feldman and MetLife's Mehdi Fakharzadeh. Neither were a "born salesman" but all of the greats shared one thing in common. They would never, never give up or quit and they worked harder and smarter than any of their contemporaries.

You cannot teach desire or motivate people to do things they would not do otherwise.

All the sales training, power phrases, scripts, closing techniques, and of course . . . the leads . . . will not turn someone who does not have the DESIRE and MOTIVATION to succeed into a super star.

If you want to make athletic comparisons, and I think there are similarities but not enough to connect the dots completely, then look at Tiger Woods most recent play. A bum knee and 2 stress fractures and he played well enough to beat Rocco.

Does Tiger have talent? Absolutely. But it took a lot more than talent to win that tournament.

He won because he WANTED to win.

Same with Feldman and Fakharzadeh.

And the same with Bill Porter.

These are truly amazing people who had one thing going for them above all else.

Desire.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

On the importance of mental toughness, and attitude:

Spending many years in Chicago watching the Bulls win all their championships I, along with many who followed them closely, discovered that Scottie Pippen was actually a much more physically gifted player than Michael Jordan.

However Scottie once had to sit out a playoff game with a headache.

MJ on the other hand, was playing in a playoff game against Utah one time with a 102 fever, and puking on the sidelines during timeouts.

 

[Guest]

Burning Desire and commitment to excellence, I'll hire those guys every day!!

 

[TimLett]

First of all, when you said lazy, I thought you meant Manny Ramirez, an amazing natural talent and will never achieve what he could due to his horrible attitude.

Agreed...Manny and Andruw are two peas in a pod. Both of them incredibly talented but will never reach their full potential because of laziness. Sure, they are in the majors. But imagine what they could do if they gave 100% instead of 40%.

If you've ever heard of, or read the book "Talent is never enough" by John C Maxwell, there have been instances where people who had desire surpassed the ones with natural talent because they worked harder to get what they wanted.

Agreed. Talent is never enough. But, neither is desire. I have run into folks who wanted to be singers...they had desire and some ability...but they were never successful because they didn't have "it"...that indefinable quality called "it". Same goes for sales. Not saying they could not sing at all or that one could not sell at all. But, the original question involved the word "successful". Just because one sings here and there or sells here and there does not make them successful.

Also, you described you doctor like this: "One of my physicians is a man of great intellect. He is an extremely competent man when it comes to internal medicine and how to use one of those things that views your colon and intestines . And, he can explain what this-and-that does and how it all happens. Photographic memory!!!"

One would think that if he decided to apply his natural talent (photographic memory) and his ability to explain what seems to be difficult (this and that) he actually would be able to sell insurance if he was taught how to. His product knowledge would crush, he'd remember everything from the needs analysis, he'd even remember a client 6 months later. Those natural gifts combined with sale skills would work quite well.

Again, the issue is could he be successful. Yep, his product knowledge would be crushing. Agreed. But, would that alone unlock the door to successful selling? Its not a science, but I don't think so.

And are you saying he can't sell due to lack of personality? have you seen some of the agents out there? I'm not surprised anymore, nor do I assume anymore.

Do I think he would be successful? No. Would he sell come policies every now and then. Probably, yes. He'd have a much better chance doing sales over the phone in his pajamas than in person. Again, he is successful at what he does because he is wired to analyze medical issues and run microscopes where they really shouldn't go, in the first place. At this, he is successful.

Hey...its a difference of opinion on personality styles and how successful they could or could not be at selling insurance.

 

[Guest]

Agreed. Talent is never enough. But, neither is desire. I have run into folks who wanted to be singers...they had desire and some ability...but they were never successful because they didn't have "it"...that indefinable quality called "it". Same goes for sales.

Singing is a talent you're born with, it's you're voice. You've heard karaoke singers and they suck because they aren't able to sing no matter what lessons they take.

I can learn to sell, I can learn to cook, it doesn't mean I'll be good at either, unless I have a good teacher, I follow the instructions, I persevere and work.

Someone without a naturally good singing voice will likely never be good enough to sustain a career, yes, there have been instances of it happening but they had marketability, business sense, desire, preparation, etc.

I think we can all agree it's never really one aspect that equates to success.

Like I said on one of my first posts here:

Good leads + bad or no training = Failure

and I'll add:

Desire without guidance = failure

Great training + bad leads = failure


Let's do an experiment.

How many people on here who aren't selling like they'd like to and complain about leads had good enough training?

Do you feel like you were really trained properly to sell?

Do you have the confidence that goes with that training?

I had 12 agents in PA, we trained them for four weeks, fro 10 to 4Pm 4 days a week, we then bought Leadco leads and everyone of them had at least one sale their first day on the phones, many of whom never sold before, mostly never did phone sales.

**I should add, they all received 6 leads each per day and continued selling until some went off of the presentation and reverted back to habits that caused them to fail in the past.***

Coincidence?

 

[Chadcs]

I've always read that sales can and should be taught. However, I certainly think some have more innate skills than others! Similar to anything else though...

 

[ijerome]

The 20/80 formula works today as it did when it was discovered 75 yrs ago. That is why those in recruiting always throw enough agents against the wall to see who will make it, given equal training, need, desire etc. It is the "it" factor that cannot be found out on a test, interview etc. Some of the most unqualified people make it to the 20% level simply because they do it. Others, try as they may, no matter what training, motivation etc. never get above the 80% level. You can't buy it, train it, or even find it. A good manager will recognize "it" and devote his time to the one and let the others go. That is why there are so few good managers. They get worn out.

 

[Guest]

The 20/80 formula works today as it did when it was discovered 75 yrs ago. That is why those in recruiting always throw enough agents against the wall to see who will make it, given equal training, need, desire etc. It is the "it" factor that cannot be found out on a test, interview etc. Some of the most unqualified people make it to the 20% level simply because they do it. Others, try as they may, no matter what training, motivation etc. never get above the 80% level. You can't buy it, train it, or even find it. A good manager will recognize "it" and devote his time to the one and let the others go. That is why there are so few good managers. They get worn out.

I have an idea as to why they hire a bunch of agents and then they see what sticks. I call it (drum roll please):

The Degree Concept

If you look in the help wanted section for a job, you need a degree or certification, whether it's accounting, mechanic, even a receptionist (MS excel knowledge). Basically something that lets the employer know that you can do your job.

In sales what do you need? To be warm and breathing? Have an Uncle in the biz? Talk a good game? None of which tells anyone that you actually know how to sell.

And having the insurance license only allows you to sell insurance legally, it's required, it doesn't mean that you can sell. Which is obvious to many of us here on the forum.

So whoever knows how to sell, or was trained minimally enough to pass the grade compared to the real bottom feeders, they keep, whoever doesn't sell, oh well.

So what if you got the equivalent of a degree in sales? Would you be able to sell? Yes, and you'd be able to sell anywhere you went, cars, real estate, cell phones, whatever, you can write your own ticket, ask for higher commissions, have better references and kick everyone else's butt!!

There's a reason many of us here don't work for an agency, they can't pay us enough because we know what we're doing and don't need them. We know how to sell, you can tell by how we speak.

So learn how, develop the skills, you'll undoubtedly sell better than you do now, right? You may not be in the 20% but if you doubled your sales, or made an extra $5k or $10K, isn't it worth it?

Here's a few good questions.

Did any one of you out there suck when you first started?
Did you become a success eventually? How?
Have you sold anything else well? How?

I'd venture the answer would be that you learned how to sell.