Why are we so lazy?

[Crabcake Johnny]

Talented B2B Sales Professional Needed - $78,000+

Anyone familiar with the mortgage broker industry? If you don't think an ad like this gets replies you're wrong. Basically, you're logged into an auto-dialer all day cold-calling, 10 hours a day for 1.5 deals per day and note that each deal is $200. So it's cold-calling all day for $300 per day.

Anyone want to take a wild stab at the results of being on an auto-dialer all day generating insurance prospects? 2 deals a day....at least.

I had a good independent buddy of mine quit selling insurance in Kansas about 2 years ago. He went to Capital One to do mortgages and take a while shot at what they had him doing 8 hours a day.

Any successful mortgage broker would double or triple their income selling insurance.

Now - I can include myself in this so don't get me wrong. But what exactly is the reason insurance agents aren't on the phones 5 hours a day generating leads and 3 hours a day writing deals.

 

[happy]

Your post is great timing for me because just a few minutes before reading it, I was making a plan for me next week to stop the laziness. I was asking myself the same question. How come even though I know that every 2 hours of b2b will result me at least one sale, I am not doing it for more than 10 hours a week to make five sales?

Whenever I am not making the money I wanted to make by the end of the month, I could not blame the clients, the companies, nor the industry because I know that it was all my fault. Because if I worked even just a full 30 hours a a week which is significantly less than how long most people work for, I can have at least 5 sales a week. I mean 30 hours of actual work put into it because you can be in your office for more than 40 hours a week but just pretend to work. We have a very good industry where you can make good money just by putting in the effort to be an expert in your product, learning how to sell and the hardest part: putting in productive hours.

 

[Delta76]

It all comes down to Al Granum's Rule #1: From 9 to 5 (or whatever hours fit your business), do nothing but see people or fight to see people. In other words, if your doing anything besides meeting with prospects or clients or trying to set meetings, your doing something terribly wrong. Save the paperwork, run quotes, and prepare presentations either before or after Pay Time.

 

[Guest]

My theory is that our DNA is coded such that we 'require" that each action have a positive re-action or result. All our lives if we did "A" most often we got a result.... usually good. No matter what job we did, if we did something, something happened.

If you cleared the table the table looked good.
If you brought food, people enjoyed eating
If you solved a math problem, you felt good about yourself
If you drove a truck, you made a delivery
If you did surgery, someone lived
If you wrote a report someone read it.
If you read a report you learned something.
If you put bolt X on screw Z, something got built.

But what happens in sales... especially prospecting? It is one of the few activities where you can do something and either nothing happens or most of the time something non-positive happens. Our brains are not coded for that. It is why so many people NEED to listen to motivational tapes and go to meetings. I think that after a while if we don't get our batteries charged up, they run down... and we just become lazy. It is easier for us to AVOID the consequence of sales and prospecting than to face it.

It never ceases to amaze me that the guys and gals who are super-successful in this biz are not the smartest or have degrees from the best schools. Just just DO the work. They have a great work ethic.

Take our own John P. I've talked to John a lot. He is not the smartest man in the world nor does he have a degree from Harvard. But he has about the best work ethic of anyone I've ever known. Maybe it's his military training, but every day he "goes to work." While I'm screwing around with SugarCRM or at Staples looking at printers or doing the 1,001 things that 'fool me' into thinking I'm working... HE is out there actually working.

I'll bet it is the same for Dave F., Rick B., Senior, STI, James, and the others who mentor people here. The do the %$#@ing work. They are "above" their own DNA coding. They've figured out how to 'deal' with it in a way that works for them to keep them going. I'm not there yet, but making improvements all the time.

YMMV.

Al

 

[Chkndinner14]

Earlier in my career, I had a big sign on my desk...."Is what I am doing right now, the best use of my time?" That worked great when I was fighting to make the mortgage every month.

It is different now that I have been around and am established. But, I have a hard time pushing through to the next level. There is no reason I can't make more, it comes down to laziness.

BTW- If you are new and you are reading and posting on this forum during working hours, you are violating the rule above.

 

[Chkndinner14]

While I'm screwing around with SugarCRM or at Staples looking at printers or doing the 1,001 things that 'fool me' into thinking I'm working
Al

Well said, I have seen many an agent that were expert at computers, spreadsheets, ratios, statistics........but, they never made any money.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

What it really boils down to is, are you getting the result that you want.

I never confuse effort with results. That's emotion conquering logic. When you make 26 straight hours worth of cold calls, just poundin' it, you feel good afterward - you were busy, and you're probably tired...but did you get any results?

Here's a golf analogy for anyone that plays; you could stand on the range poundin' balls day after day after day...but if you're not doing the right things to improve, neither will your scoring.

Measure results. It 's the only thing that matters.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I love that post. Results are results. I know agents who are closing 1 out of 10 shared leads - but get 20 a week.

Is that better than an agent pounding the pavement 40 hours a week and doing 6 deals?

The bottom line for me is a 40 hour work week = "X" pay. If you're working 15 hours a week, putting in 2 deals and making $1,200 that's great.

But if another agents is far less effective and have to work 40 hours to put in three deals the bottom lines is their family has an extra $600 a week.

But we all know the truth - especially with health insurance. If we spent 4 hours a day doing nothing but prospection (pick your type) there's not an agent on this board who wouldn't put in 7 or 8 deals a week.

Our fears are also baseless. When we prospect we fear that we'll be chewed out. Does that happen? No. 99% of the people we cold call on are very pleasant. Heck, I can see the B to B fear since it's personal contact. But what's the fear on the phone? I don't know - you tell me. I'm not a fan of the phone and have to psych myself info it.

But then something stupid happens once I've started making calls and I get into the mode and don't mind it at all. So it's not that I don't like telemarketing - I don't like the games my mind plays before I start.

But it's our avoidance of rejection that's at the root of the problem. Prospecting is like asking 100 girls out on a date and having 90 say no. It's personal to us. When people say no we mistakenly internalize it.

You're cold-calling? Then you're a microscopic blip on the radar of someone's life. The call is 20 seconds, they say "no thank" you and 10 seconds after they hang up the phone they forgot you ever called.

 

[Winter_123]

You're cold-calling? Then you're a microscopic blip on the radar of someone's life. The call is 20 seconds, they say "no thank" you and 10 seconds after they hang up the phone they forgot you ever called.

As you said, it is like asking girls out on a date )))

Winter

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

A lot of this comes down to self-esteem and what you think you're worth. If you don't think you're worth six figures and you start tracking six figures you'll push the self destruct button.

If anyone here has been a sales manager before you've met a lot of extremely talented reps who have designed their lives to make sure they're never really successful.

I've seen sales reps make huge commissions and take the next two days off. I've seen sales reps have a huge month then they can't close a deal to save their life the next month.

I saw a lot of that in cars - salesmen who topped the board in June with 32 cars and in July sold 4. Why? They made too much in June. They brought home $8,000 and their bills were only $3,000. So they they can drink coffee on the floor all day until the extra $5,000 is gone before they have to work again.