Host: Tim Martin
Guest: Michael Beck
Episode 16: Marketing By Engaging People Around You – Michael Beck Interview
June 6, 2014
Welcome to Success is Voluntary, a podcast devoted to helping you become the salesperson you were always meant to be, where it’s all about helping you learn the techniques and tools that will enable you to win in the increasingly competitive world of voluntary benefits. Welcome your host, a guy who has hired and trained over 2,000 voluntary benefit salespeople in his career, Tim Martin. Success is Voluntary, selling voluntary benefits.
Tim Martin: Yes, my name is Tim Martin, and you are listening to episode number 16 of Success is Voluntary, 16 as in sweet 16. Today, I’d like to introduce you to a good friend of mine by the name of Michael Beck. Michael Beck is probably not someone you’re familiar with, and that’s a shame.
I’ve known Michael for, oh geez, going on almost decade, and Michael has helped me greatly over the course of my career. Michael started in the restaurant industry, as did I. He went to the insurance industry, as did I, and now he bills himself as an executive coach and strategist. If you need help in either one of those areas, I will tell you Michael is your guy.
Today we’re going to talk about a lot of things, and I want to apologize a little bit for sound quality. I recorded this while I was traveling for work and did it with a Bluetooth headset that was in a conference room, but there was some background noise you will hear from time to time, and I apologize, but it couldn’t be helped. It was the only time I could get Michael’s and my schedule to sync up, so without further ado, here is Mr. Michael Beck. Hey, Michael, thanks for joining us.
Michael Beck: Hey, Tim. Thanks for having me. I’m glad to be here.
Tim: Like I said in the intro, Michael, you and I have known each other for quite a while now. You’ve been a huge help to my career, and I’ve invested in several of your programs over the years and really believe in what you’re doing. When I started to do this podcast, you’re one of the first people I thought of.
I thought, “I have to get this guy on,” but I wanted to make sure I had a couple under my belt before I was stumbling through it. I don’t want to waste your time. I appreciate you being on here. Michael, I always let the guests introduce themselves, so tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to this point in your journey.
Michael: Well, thanks, Tim, and first, let me just say I’m really happy to be here. You and I have known one another for a number of years, and I think highly of you and am pleased to be a part of your program. I come from a very varied background, and I’ve held executive positions in a number of different industries and got into coaching, business coaching, and then executive coaching, oh, about 14 years ago, and soon after I got into it, really found a niche in insurance and financial services.
Although that’s not where I focus these days, I spent probably a good 10 years helping folks in that arena succeed, both agents and managers and executives. I first started getting into the coaching world because I just had worked for so many poor leaders and so many poor managers and just felt I really wanted to make a difference, and I thought I could do it better being outside of a company than right from within it, so that’s how I ended up where I am.
Tim: Sure, not nearly as much politics if you’re outside the company. You don’t have to worry about hurting anybody’s feelings and that kind of thing. Sure.
Michael: Right.
Tim: Or career advancement or any of those things, so that’s interesting, an interesting route. You and I share a similar background in that you were a food service guy at one point. Right? I mean isn’t that where you started your career, your professional career?
Michael: Oh, good memory. Well, I have an eclectic career. I call it a “checkered past.” I’ve done everything from structural engineering to international development to I ran a large law firm for a short time. I spent a good 12-15 years in the restaurant industry. I had a partner. We owned a bunch of restaurants and did franchise development, and my work overseas was heavily involved in restaurants and food manufacturing. So yeah, we have that in common.
Tim: You bet. You’re not as involved in the insurance industry as you once were, you said, but like I said, a good chunk of your coaching and development (especially as you were starting) happened in the insurance industry. Can you kind of lay out a couple of things that you saw that led to people’s demise, if you will, and maybe a couple of things that you saw that the people who were successful had in common?
Michael: Yeah, I would love to because, in some ways, being an insurance agent or a financial representative or any independent person, it’s irrelevant what the profession is… It doesn’t matter whether you’re an attorney or an insurance agent or a consultant or a coach or a chiropractor.
There are some commonalities in succeeding, and like you’ve kind of alluded to, there are commonalities in where people fall down in all of this. One of the interesting things is really addressing the question of…What skill do you need to be good at (maybe best at) in order to succeed as an insurance agent?
Tim: What is my answer to that? My answer would be you have to be able to fill your pipeline. I think Zig Ziglar said that the number one reason for failure in sales is a lack of qualified prospects.
Michael: No question about it, and, of course, you got the answer right because…
Tim: I’ve been there.
Michael: …you know it, and you’ve succeeded. Right?
Tim: Mm-hmm.
Michael: When I look at folks who do not succeed in this business, it’s because they don’t master marketing, and there are lots of different ways to market, so there isn’t just one way that works. You know, the common thought is, “Well, yeah, I’m going to get lots of referrals,” and referrals are fantastic, but I know very, very, very few people who get the majority of their business from referrals. It really comes down to marketing, and the folks who don’t market don’t succeed. The folks who rely on buying leads don’t succeed.
Tim: The folks who rely just on networking don’t succeed.
Michael: Well, yeah, I mean networking is all well and good, but, of course, networking takes different forms, and we can talk about that in a moment…what networking means (or what it means to me). Before we leave this, I wanted to chat more about the whole concept of marketing and lead buying and why that won’t ever work; it doesn’t work. You can make a living at it, but it’s painful, and it’s like being on a hamster wheel because it never ends. It never ends for two reasons. People are attracted to us and respond to us by who we are and not by what we do.
Tim: That’s right.
Michael: So when you get prospects, at arm’s length, I’ll call it…in other words, let’s they fill out a form on the Internet and request a quote or something like that…it has nothing to do with who you are, and so it’s a completely impersonal transaction, which, of course, brings me to the next point, and that is…What kind of people request insurance information over the Internet?
Tim: People who are having trouble finding insurance, for some reason.
Michael: Well, either they’re having trouble finding insurance or it’s just a convenient way to get a quote, right?
Tim: They’re just shopping, in other words. Absolutely. Maybe they’re trying to find the absolute lowest price or they’re just shopping. They’re not really that interested is what you’re saying.
Michael: Well, if there’s no relationship and you’re going with a name brand (you know, a recognizable company name), then the only differentiator is price, and so you will attract price shoppers. When your price is low, you’ll get great business, and six months later or a year later, they do what they do, which is shop for a lower price, and they switch.
It’s a revolving door that way. That’s why I said it’s like a hamster wheel, a hamster on a wheel, because it just never ends. It’s not built on a relationship. It’s just you happen to have the lowest price at that time, and so you get the business.
Tim: Yeah. When your carrier changes their algorithm two months later, you don’t have the lowest price anymore. Yeah.
Michael: Exactly. The flipside of that coin, of course, is because people are attracted to us by who we are, if we can come up with ways to allow people to see who we are as a person then we increase the likelihood, tremendously, of people wanting to do business with us.
Tim: Yes.
Michael: Do you ever hear the expression, “People like to do business with people they like”?
Tim: You bet. In fact, I just did a training, and that was one of the things I led with: people do business with people they like, know, and trust. Always have and always will.
Michael: Exactly right, and although people have heard that expression before, maybe they’re not really convinced it is true, and so let me offer an example. I know it’s happened to me. I suspect it’s happened probably to just about everyone listening. You go out because you’re in the market for something.
I don’t know what it is, a TV set, a stereo, or a widget of some kind, and you know you’re going out just to shop and to learn more about it so you can make the best decision you can make. You go into one store, and you get some information, or you see some different models. You go to another store, and there’s a salesperson there who just completely engages you.
They’re not pushy. They’re knowledgeable. They’re fun to be with. You just like them. There’s good chemistry, and sure enough, you end up making the purchase right then and there because you feel good about the information you have and you just want, really, at some level, you want to reward that person for being a professional at what they do.
That’s a perfect example of doing business with somebody you like. That’s what triggers that. The key, then, to marketing is allowing people to see who you are so they can decide whether they trust you and like you.
Tim: That makes sense. That makes sense. In fact, this is something you taught me a bunch of years ago in a recruiting class. This doesn’t work just for marketing for accounts. This is a great recruiting tip, as well. In fact, I think the exercise was you asked us to write to (or email) five people and ask them…
Michael: Oh, right.
Tim: You remember that exercise?
Michael: Yeah. Yeah. You want me to share that?
Tim: Yeah, share what you asked us to do, and I’ll tell you kind of my results on that because it’s really interesting to me.
Michael: Oh, good. I’d love to hear your results. Here’s the interesting thing: We tend to get all caught up in our knowledge and our years of experience and our professional demeanor and sometimes lose sight of the fact that people are attracted to us by who we are. There’s something about us that people like.
Now some people won’t be attracted to it. Others will. All we’re looking for are the folks who are attracted to it, but one of the problems that most of us have is that we tend to discount the things that come naturally to us, so we tend to downplay or dismiss things that we just always do. I mean it’s just us. It’s not that big of a deal.
Now it’s not that big of a deal to us because we live it all the time, but to others, it could be the thing that sets us apart from everybody else and causes folks to want to do business with us. The exercise I gave everybody, and this is a great exercise for the folks listening, is ask five people for five things about you that make you a success at what you do.
Now here’s the interesting thing: You have to remember that none of these folks talk to one another, so if you see a pattern, it’s a true pattern. It’s not like everyone collaborated and said, “Yeah, yeah, I think we all agree that he’s a good listener, or he as a great sense of humor.” When you see that pattern, it’s really something to make note of. The other thing… Well, there are actually two more things.
You’re going to find people will say things about you that you knew were true. People will say things about you that you knew were true, but you really didn’t think anyone paid attention to, and very occasionally, you’ll find things that people say about you that you never realized about yourself. Now here’s the thing: When you become aware of any of those (when they’re brought to the surface), that allows you to speak about yourself not in terms of what you do but in terms of who you are.
If you’re in conversation with somebody, it allows you to say, “Well, you know, people tell me that I have a great sense of humor, and I’m easy to talk to.” Right? You don’t have to say that about yourself. You’re really relating that others have said that about you, which is who you are, not what you do. It’s not “I have 10 years of experience in the industry” or “I have the third largest agency in the state.” No one cares.
Tim: Right.
Michael: Right?
Tim: Right.
Michael: What did you find when you did this exercise, Tim?
Tim: Well, it was really interesting because you told us that it would happen. .So I did it…I got five people to give me five things, and when I was getting prepared for this to interview you, I have a folder that has your name on it. It says “Beck” on it. I pulled out my Beck folder, and it’s not the first time I’ve done this since I did the exercise in the first place, but I kept it.
I put them all on a table, a 5 x 5 table with the names going down one side, and then each of them had five things that they said about me. I kind of tried to separate them by, just like you said, things that I knew that everybody should know about me, things that I knew but I didn’t realize people were paying attention, and then the things that I really didn’t know that strongly about me, that kind of surprised me that people would mention that as one of the reasons I had been successful.
I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging or anything, so I won’t get into all of them. The one that was shocking to me was everybody mentioned my passion, and I guess I just didn’t even see it. Once I realized it, I’m like, “Well, yeah, I am very passionate,” but I didn’t realize that was what people saw as one of the reasons I was being successful, because I do have a passion for this business.
I do have a passion for coaching and training new agents, and I do have a passion for helping people. I think that since then, I see how that has been a huge advantage for me, but up until that point, I had no idea that that was something that people kind of looked at me and said, “Well, no wonder he’s successful. Look at how passionate he is about it.”
Michael: Beautiful. In talking with people after then, did you ever mention to them that you’re passionate about this?
Tim: Absolutely. In fact, that’s where I was going next. That changed my whole recruiting model at that point because whether I was doing a one-on-one interview or if I was doing something that you’re going to mention here in a minute, I’m pretty sure, talking to somebody in the coffee line at Starbucks, I made sure that that came through in the conversation somehow or another, my passion for our industry, my passion for coaching, my passion for helping people, whatever I thought would resonate best with that individual based upon the little bit of conversation we had. I made sure that they knew that was big part of who I am.
Michael: It’s really fascinating, and I appreciate you sharing that. It seems like such a simplistic exercise, but it’s just so powerful. It’s very cool.
Tim: Well, and I tell you, it will change you because, again, I was moved, quite honestly, so I would really recommend everybody does that exercise, just ask five people, because you’ll just be moved. That’s the best way for me to put it. I was almost in tears reading the responses.
Michael: Wow. Wow. Let me share not an exercise but a marketing strategy that really leverages this concept. We don’t have time to go into all the details of it, but I’d like to share, conceptually, what it is, and you alluded to it. It’s talking to people. Just talking to people. I always like using just talking to people in line at a coffee shop as a great example.
Now people are taught, agents are taught, managers are taught, to talk to folks, and the way I’ve seen it done by most folks is that they’ll strike up a conversation with somebody. Of course, the purpose of the conversation is to find out whether there is some interest. Let’s talk in terms of an agent finding a new prospective client.
You chat, and they’ll say, “Well, what do you do?” The person says, “Well, I’m a bookkeeper,” and they go, “What do you do?” Then the person says, “Well, I’m an insurance with ABC Insurance, and you know, we have very good rates and competitive products, and look, let me give you my card. If you’re ever in the market for new homeowner’s insurance or auto insurance or life insurance or annuities,” whatever you’re marketing, “give me a call. I would love the opportunity to see if we can help you.”
Tim: Right. Right.
Michael: Right? That’s not an uncommon conversation.
Tim: “Oh, and here are three of my business cards.”
Michael: Yeah. Yeah. “Oh, here are some extras in case you want to pass them out to others.”
Tim: Right.
Michael: Now when I say it like that, it just sounds ludicrous.
Tim: It does.
Michael: Right? Because…why? You don’t know the other person. They don’t know you. There’s no connection whatsoever, and in fact, if we were to break this down, you would see where, really, what that amounted to was an in-person telemarketing call, right? Because once the agent got hold of the phone, so to speak, they just went forward, recited their 30-second elevator pitch, and foisted their card onto somebody who they didn’t know if they had any interest at all.
Tim: Yeah, interruption marketing, in other words.
Michael: Interruption marketing. Exactly. You know what happens with interruption marketing. Right?
Tim: Mm-hmm. You TiVo it, right?
Michael: Yeah, you TiVo it. The classic example of interruption marketing is TV commercials, and that’s exactly what we do. Either we mute them, we change channels, we TiVo it, or we go get a glass of water or something. Right?
Tim: Right.
Michael: If it’s uninvited, we typically tune it out pretty effectively. Conversely, if you can have a conversation with somebody in line at a coffee shop simply for the sake of being friendly and you learn about them (you take an interest in them), there’s an interesting dynamic that takes place.
Again, we don’t have time to go into all the details of how this works, but if I spent three or four minutes talking to you and finding out about what you do and how long you’ve been doing it and what you find enjoyable about your work, at the end of that time, who feels closer to who? Do you feel closer to them because you know so much about them now, or do they feel closer to you?
Tim: They feel closer to you because the more they talk, the smarter you are.
Michael: Well, exactly. They feel closer to you, and I see it even another aspect of it. The more we take an interest in somebody, the closer they feel to us because we’re somebody who takes an interest in them and obviously finds what they’re saying interesting; otherwise we wouldn’t be talking to them.
Tim: Right. Right. So oddly enough, the more you take an interest in someone else, the closer they feel to you. Then there’s an art to having this conversation effectively, but two minutes later, when one of you is stepping up to the counter and you kind of bring up the topic of, “Would you ever want to get together? Let me tell you a little bit more about what I do and maybe even be able to help you lower your premiums or get better coverage and secure your future,” or however you’re putting that, they’re far more likely to be interested because they like you.
Tim: Right.
Michael: It’s a very different dynamic. Tim, did you ever use that approach?
Tim: Oh, yeah, I still do to this day. It’s been a big part of my recruiting efforts over the years, and I think the key to it is, and again, because of time and I’m sure if people want to find out more, they can work with you on this, but the key to it is really is taking that genuine interest.
About 95 percent of the conversations I get into don’t lead anywhere for business or lead anywhere for my agenda. It’s just about being a human being. If we’re doing that, I really believe that we’re going to find those opportunities, but a lot of people stare at their iPhone screen and check their Facebook status instead of engaging the people around them.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. It’s fascinating to me because I’ve helped folks, I’ve helped agents find new clients this way, and I’ve helped managers find new agents this way. The results are very, very consistent, and they’re very high.
Tim: Very high.
Michael: Right? In other words, I mean my experience with this has been that for basically every six conversations that you start, you will have one success.
Tim: I agree with that. I agree with that. Mine might not be that high. Maybe it’s only 1 in 8 or 1 in 10, but I really haven’t tracked it in a long time. When we were doing the exercise, I was tracking it pretty carefully. I’d say I think it was about 1 in 8, probably, for me, but I’ve gotten better since then too, so absolutely.
Michael: Yeah, and so I’ve had people hit as high has 25 percent, but the average has been about 15 percent, about 1 in 6. That’s remarkable. I mean, if you think about it, by striking up a conversation with somebody, and that includes all the conversations that are just complete duds where they grunt at you, 1 out of every 6, 7, 8 of those conversations leads to someone who wants to sit down with…who wants to sit down with you. It’s remarkable.
Tim: It’s a big difference than buying a lead that’s been sold three other times on the Internet already.
Michael: Exactly. Exactly. As you know, as rates change, the price shoppers move on, and the folks who do business with you because of you are far less likely to jump just because the rate moves a little bit.
Tim: Yeah, very much so.
Michael: It’s really an interesting dynamic, the whole idea of people responding to you because of who you are, not what you do.
Tim: I think the key there, what you’re saying, is to be cognizant of who you are, why that separates you and being able to articulate it in a way that it’s not braggadocious. It’s not “Look at how cool I am,” but “This is what people tell me about why we’re so successful” or “This is why my clients tell me they do business with me.”
Michael: Yeah, exactly. See, now even if you don’t really delve into this and decide specifically what about you is special or unique, even if you don’t do that, you just chat with people, and you chat with them without an agenda so they get to know you and you get to know them, you’ll find your share of folks who like you. People are attracted to who you are, and people like to do business with people they like, and it just works.
I mean we’ve glossed over a lot of the details, and to bring it from 1 out of 12 up to 1 out of 6, you have to get all the details right. Regardless, the whole idea of marketing, it’s not selling anything. It’s allowing people to see who you are. Even when you’re generating or trying to generate referrals, or you’re networking, it’s all about who you are. It’s not about what you do.
Tim: Boy, yeah, Simon Sinek wrote a great book on that, and you’ve probably seen the TED talk of Start with Why, and that’s basically what you’re talking about here too.
Michael: It is. Simon’s talk is a little deeper than what we’re really getting into, the Start with Why, but it does reflect the same thing, and that’s that people want to do business with an organization whose purpose they can align with. If the company starts with their why and everyone knows what that purpose is, they’ll attract people who not only align with that but become adamant fans of that.
Tim: You bet. Well, and I think you can boil it down to the individual. Again, I think people are going to business with you based upon, again, who you are and what you stand for and those things. You’re going to repel some people that way too, and that’s okay because not everybody who has the money makes a great client for you. Talk a little bit about that. I know that you really believe that, as well.
Michael: Well, no question about it. When any of us starts out in a business, our inclination is to take on everyone and anyone who will do business with us. Maybe rightly so, but at some point, it sure is nice to enjoy working, and the only way you enjoy working is by working with people you like. This is a really very interesting dynamic, Tim.
It seems that if you’re focused on a certain type of person, and I don’t care whether it’s their profession or their age or who they are, you’re focused on that, it seems like you’re eliminating so much of the potential that’s out there. Oddly enough, just the opposite happens because when you begin working with people you really like, not only do you have a much better time (and it’s energizing rather than draining), but you begin to get referrals because they like you, as well. They refer people who they like to you.
Then another interesting dynamic takes place, and that is that let’s say you choose to work with a certain group of people. Let’s say a profession as an example. One of your clients is going to come to you one day because they like you, and they trust you. They know that you’ll do right by them.
They’ll say, “I have a friend over here who is this, and I know you don’t work with people like that, but do you know somebody who would work with them?” It allows you to go, “As a matter of fact, I actually do work with people like that. I would love to help them,” and so that happens quite a bit.
The more clarity you get about whom you want to work with and make a point of working with people who you like, the better it is. When I would speak to agents and talk to them about how they spend their time and their client portfolio, pretty much across the board, everyone would say there’s this 20 percent of their clients who cause 80 percent of their problems.
Tim: I believe that.
Michael: Right?
Tim: Yep.
Michael: You know, either they’re lapsing coverage, they’re arguing about the bill, or they’re just needy and demanding, and it sucks the life out of you. Imagine if you basically were able to handpick the people you work with, only dealt with people who they like you; you like them. Think of all the energy you would save, all the time you’d save.
This is kind of an interesting lifestyle approach, but even if you didn’t grow your business at all but freed up more time to do other things that you do enjoy…play golf or spend time with the kids or some other hobbies that you have…it just makes quality of life so much better when you choose who you work with.
Tim: Which probably will make you more attractive to those new clients, anyway. If you’re well balanced and you enjoy your career, I’m guessing you’re going to get more of those referrals, and you’re going to get in front of those good clients.
Todd Duncan, in his book Time Traps, really talks about this issue with identifying those clients who are your revenue drainers, really. They create a little bit of revenue, but the effort you have to exert to keep them isn’t worth it, just isn’t worth it because you could be using that same effort working with people who like you and are low maintenance instead of high maintenance.
Michael: Exactly. Here’s an interesting observation, and then we can move on from this topic, but if you’re chatting with somebody in line at a coffee shop, and you like them, and you can imagine them being a client, there’s a reason you like them, right? Either they’re easy to talk to, or they’re fun, or they’re just comfortable, or they seem really sharp, intelligent, or professional, and that’s a good reason to give them. It pays them a compliment, and it lets them understand why you’re asking them if they have an interest in sitting down with you, right?
Tim: Yeah.
Michael: Like, “You know, you’ve been really easy to talk to. It would be great if we could do business together, but I would love to be able to sit down and show you what I do, and see maybe if I can help you even,” and they’d be more than happy to. They always will. Then you end up with a portfolio of people you like. It’s a very interesting dynamic.
Tim: Well, like I said, I continued to do it in the recruiting front, and it really ended up being, at the height of my recruiting (I don’t do nearly as much as I did at one point), like when I was recruiting 100-plus agents a year, literally about 60 percent of my recruiting was exactly what you’re talking about.
Michael: Yeah, I don’t doubt it. I don’t doubt it. You know, the folks who I’ve helped use that for recruiting… I had one manager cut out all of his Internet recruiting and only did that kind of recruiting. I call it “active recruiting strategies, networking” and the kind of conversations that we’ve been discussing, and they more than doubled their recruiting results that year.
Tim: Got rid of Ineedajob.com and doubled their recruiting results.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. It’s crazy.
Tim: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. What are you doing these days? What is new in the world of Michael Beck? I love your blog, and we’ll put a link to it on the show notes and all that, but tell me a little bit about what is on the horizon and what you’re excited about.
Michael: Well, thanks for asking. I’ve continued to evolve my business and, these days, mostly work with executives and organizations and work with them in two areas. I help executives with leadership development, so they’re more effective as a leader and also help organizations and help leaders with employee engagement, which is essentially bringing out the best in people.
You want to bring out the best in people, I don’t care whether it’s a sales team, a corporation, or a department, the key to high productivity, low turnover, and better results is bringing out the best in folks. It’s funny. Before you and I connected today, I was going over the Gallup study on engagement that came out last year.
I wanted to confirm my memory that companies who have higher levels of employee engagement had a 50 percent greater profitability than other companies, and I was wrong in that number. I looked at it, and I looked at it again. I thought it through again because the number sounded so crazy, but it was 150 percent greater. It’s 2-1/2 times greater, not 50 percent greater.
Tim: Wow.
Michael: It’s pretty remarkable, and again, I don’t care whether you’re talking about a sales team or an entire company. The more you engage folks and the closer you get to bringing out their very best, the happier everybody is, the more productive they are, and the more profitable everybody becomes. Those are the things I work on these days.
Tim: It’s getting the want to out of the people instead of the have to.
Michael: Well, exactly. Exactly. You know, there’s always a discussion about…What exactly is employee engagement? How do you define it?
Tim: Sure.
Michael: To me, an indication of whether or how engaged somebody is in their work is how they spend their discretionary time and effort.
Tim: Exactly.
Michael: It’s not what they do between 9:00 and 5:00. It’s…Do they lose track of time when they’re working? Do they turn and think about problems they’re having overnight or over the weekend or something? That’s the sign of somebody who just loves their work and gets energized by it instead of drained by it.
Tim: Boy, that’s an hour right there by itself. We could do an hour or more on that.
Michael: Yes. Yes, indeed.
Tim: Absolutely. Well, we’ll have to have you back on to talk to the managers about how they keep their sales team engaged because I know they have a lot of ideas on that.
Michael: No, I’d love to.
Tim: Where do people find you, Michael?
Michael: Well, the best place to learn more about the work that I do and to contact me is on our website, which is http://www.michaeljbeck.com. I have articles and my blog there. I have, obviously, our services, and I do have a recruiting program that I still have available on DVD. The strategies work whether you’re doing prospecting for clients or finding new agents, but I don’t have it listed on there. If they’ll contact me through the website, I’m happy to send them a link so they can read all about it and see a variety of testimonials.
Tim: You bet. I also know you’re big on LinkedIn, so I will put a link to your LinkedIn profile on the show notes, as well.
Michael: Thank you.
Tim: People can contact you there too. Michael, I really appreciate you being on, and I have to tell you I appreciate you. You made a huge difference in my career and the career of a lot of people over the years who either I’ve paid to go through your training, or I have obviously trained.
I have done some training on your stuff, as well, to my team. Whenever I take my people through it, it makes a huge difference, and so I want you to know, sometimes, you don’t know what kind of a difference you’re making, but you’re making a difference.
I’m going to close with this question: How do you want to be remembered? Because last time I checked, 10 out of 10 of us don’t get off this rock alive, so how do you want to be remembered?
Michael: That’s a good question to ask. As you know, most people don’t ask that, and so most people don’t give thought to the answer to that. I would like to be remembered as somebody who made a difference and brought out the best in people.
Tim: It doesn’t get much better than that. If you make a difference, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Michael: It jazzes me.
Tim: Good deal. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We’ll talk to you soon.
Michael: Awesome. Thanks, Tim.
Tim: Uh-huh.
Remember everything is voluntary, including success. Take it in your hands now. Head over to www.successisvoluntary.com/iTunes/, and stay up to date with all the latest tips, news, and techniques in the world of selling voluntary benefits.
Wow. I hope you got as much out of that as I did. I promised you Michael would definitely challenge your thinking and told you that he is a great guy. I really appreciate you as a listener. Could you do me a huge favor? If you haven’t had a chance yet to go over to iTunes and rate the podcast, I would be ever thankful if you would. It really helps other people find it.
Several of you have asked, “How do you do that?” Well, you have to log into your iTunes account. If you don’t have an iTunes account, it’s going to be awfully hard for you to rate the podcast, but if you have an iTunes account, just go there, click on Success is Voluntary, and you just click on the five stars (hopefully). Give us a five-star rating, and just leave us a comment. It definitely helps.
Hey, you’re going to love our guest next week when we bring in Chris Della Sala who’s going to talk to you about why brokers are more excited about voluntary benefits than ever before. I’ll see you next week!