Anyone who has been trained to sell knows about the mandatory "warm up" phase where you try to find common ground in hopes the prospect will like and trust you. The agent is taught to ask questions, compliment the prospect on their house, their car, their underage daughter . . .
I once worked with a guy who trained sales people and a cardinal rule was to say something nice about the house as soon as they stepped in the door. This was in Florida, where almost every house (or so it seemed) had a marlin or some other fish mounted on the wall.
One of his sales people would always say "Nice fish. Where did you catch it?" as soon as he walked in the door. One time he walked in the house and . . . no fish. He had no idea what to say other than "Where's your fish?".
Most of my clients come to me as a referral but some still find me on social media or web pages. Point is, they know something about me before initiating the contact, and they know that my preference is for Medigap plans. Most are upper-middle income, live in a nice neighborhood, drive a late model car. And most have conservative values, are Caucasian and grew up in the 1950's.
In other words, they are a "reflection" of me . . . so the "warm up" is reasonably easy and not forced.
That being said, about 60% are females, some married, others are divorced or widowed. I don't track these things but I would guess about 90% of my clients are Caucasian mingled with some darker skinned people, some have heavy accents, some don't. Most are educated, at least some college and many with advanced degrees. I also have some who did not finish high school, some went to trade school.
Regardless, they choose me, not the other way around. Admittedly, I have trouble with some of the accents but I muddle through.
Regardless of skin color, education, income or any other superficial classification. They are all people who need guidance and have asked me to help them.
The warm up is easy because I don't have to pretend to be someone I am not
I once worked with a guy who trained sales people and a cardinal rule was to say something nice about the house as soon as they stepped in the door. This was in Florida, where almost every house (or so it seemed) had a marlin or some other fish mounted on the wall.
One of his sales people would always say "Nice fish. Where did you catch it?" as soon as he walked in the door. One time he walked in the house and . . . no fish. He had no idea what to say other than "Where's your fish?".
Most of my clients come to me as a referral but some still find me on social media or web pages. Point is, they know something about me before initiating the contact, and they know that my preference is for Medigap plans. Most are upper-middle income, live in a nice neighborhood, drive a late model car. And most have conservative values, are Caucasian and grew up in the 1950's.
In other words, they are a "reflection" of me . . . so the "warm up" is reasonably easy and not forced.
That being said, about 60% are females, some married, others are divorced or widowed. I don't track these things but I would guess about 90% of my clients are Caucasian mingled with some darker skinned people, some have heavy accents, some don't. Most are educated, at least some college and many with advanced degrees. I also have some who did not finish high school, some went to trade school.
Regardless, they choose me, not the other way around. Admittedly, I have trouble with some of the accents but I muddle through.
Regardless of skin color, education, income or any other superficial classification. They are all people who need guidance and have asked me to help them.
The warm up is easy because I don't have to pretend to be someone I am not
