I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that question from potential recruits over the last 16+ years. Sometimes it is an honest question and asked with the purest intentions. Other times I think they are asking it because they are very skeptical and are basically saying, “This sounds too good to be true.” These are the same people that read reviews about careers with the various carriers on sites like glassdoor.com.  They not only read the “reviews,” they believe them. I’ve read some horror stories of the way recruits were neglected. Now I’m not naive enough to believe that it doesn’t ever happen. All I can speak to is my own personal experience, the leaders that have reported to me have never displayed that type of behavior.

The potential recruit probably have a pretty good idea that the “washout rate” in Voluntary Benefits is fairly horrific. (On a side note, that is one of my main motivations for this site, my writing, and the podcast. I am crazy enough to believe that I can help new Agents hold on!!!)  Perhaps they are hoping that I will give them an excuse not to pursue a career that could literally change their life. I mean, if they don’t ever start, then they can’t fail…..right?!?! WRONG! The great Wayne Gretzky famously said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Whatever their intentions are, it is a question that demands (and quite frankly deserves) to be answered. Here is my response: Every. Single. Time. 

“Listen, Rudy Recruit. We lose people for the exact same reasons every organization does.

• Their husband gets transferred across the country.
• Their mother is diagnosed with cancer and they feel they need to take care of her.
• They get a call from SeaWorld to work as a dolphin trainer. (Yes, this really happened to me. I can’t compete with SeaWorld and their life-long dream of teaching flipper to juggle beach balls.)

Tim’s Three Failure Factors

Having said that, we also have people “fail out” of this career. But what I can honestly say is this, in the 16+ years that I have been doing this, I have never seen anyone who:

1. Was coachable and trainable.

2. Went to work every day.

3. Actually completed their training.

And failed.  Not one time!”

If they “failed out” it always boiled down to at least one of those three things.

• They felt they were too smart to run the system we know is proven to work. So instead they decided to reinvent the wheel. (See Spare Me Your Creativity) Early in my sales leadership career, I would sometimes hire very experienced sales people that were used to making $150,000 or more. Their attitude was always, “Just teach me your product, and get the @&%$ out of my way! I’ll be your best salesperson inside of 90 days. What’s the record? Because I’m going to shatter it!!!”  I’d like to be able to give you their names so you could call and ask them yourself, “Why weren’t you successful?” I’d really like to, but I can’t. And no, the reason I can’t give you their names isn’t HIPAA. It’s simply because I don’t even remember their names. They weren’t here long enough for me to get to know them. They left very quickly once they realized their old ways of selling weren’t going to work.
• Or they thought that since no one was looking over their shoulder, and they were in complete control of their own schedule, they could get away with working 15 hours a week. Their motto was, “I know I started late today, but I’ll make up for it by going home early…”
• Or they were a victim of early success….Maybe they opened up a 45 life case their first couple of weeks (by calling on their uncle’s cabinet manufacturing company.) They were able to parlay that into a couple of sweet referrals. Now they are too busy to come to that class they registered for when they first started. Unfortunately, they miss an idea that could have made them an additional $50,000 in commissions this year. Why? Because they refused to move the enrollment that will net them $1,000 in commissions. Perhaps the class they missed might have given them an idea that helped them stick and stay…but we’ll never know because their wife told them that they had to go get a “real job.”

Is it possible someone could do all three things above and still “fail out” of this business? I guess it’s possible…. But highly unlikely! If it was going to happen, I think I would have seen it at least once out of the 2,000+ VB sales people I have hired and trained over the last 16 years.

I conclude this topic with Ruby Recruit by saying this, “What I do know is this: The insurance industry statistics for retention of agents during their first two years is embarrassingly horrible. But of those that make it to one year, 80% eventually retire from the industry. In other words, it’s not for everyone, but for those that do what we ask, when we ask, and as often as we ask, have a great likelihood of success.

Conclusion: It does no good to achieve only two out of the three items listed above. What good is it if you are coachable and trainable but don’t actually show up for training? You have also wasted everyone’s time (including yours) if you are front and center at every training, but never actually apply what you learned in the field (go to work).

Question: Which of the three challenges you the most? I promise, that if you are really honest with yourself, one of them is a challenge. Will you be vulnerable with this community and share?

I really do want to hear from you and help any way I can! I answer every question and acknowledge every comment! Let’s continue the conversation below!!!

Shortly after I started my career selling Voluntary Benefits (VB) my manager told me, “Tim, the day I stop having fun is the day I stop doing this.” Having spent the previous 15 years in the brutally hard foodservice industry, I thought that any job that didn’t include me having to stand on my feet for 14 straight hours sounded appealing. I’ll never forget the first time I took my kids to the zoo on a Saturday and didn’t have to worry about someone calling me to let me know about a problem back at the restaurant. The sun was shining and all I could hear echoing in my head that day was Dr. Martin Luther King’s voice from his famous “I have a dream!” speech. “Free at last! Free at Last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”

Has every day of my 16+ year VB sales career been full of wonder, joy, and elation? Of course not! I have had hard days. Days that tested my intestinal fortitude. In fact, very few things happen in the real world because a puppy kissed a unicorn. (Tweet That) To earn success means just that. You have to earn it. (Read, “work hard.”) But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun along the way.

Last week I interviewed the VB sales leadership legend, Joe Buzzello on the Success Is Voluntary podcast. (Listen Here) He led a team in the Los Angeles area that opened 19 regional sales offices and went from $0 in premium to over $120,000,000 of in-force, voluntary benefits premium on the books. They hit their assigned sales plan 11 of 12 years including 9 years in a row. During that time it seemed like they won almost every contest and award on the planet. When I asked Joe what he thought the secret was, he quickly mentioned having fun. Then he said something that blew my mind, “Even when we were losing a little bit, I still impressed upon them, ‘Let’s have even more fun!’ You will have a lot more success if you don’t feel pressure in a sales organization. If you’re laughing, if you’re having fun, (and a lot of it is laughing at some of the stuff you would normally cry about) and not taking yourself so darned seriously. If you can get people laughing, they become more open. They become open to having a relationship with you, where you can really mentor them. They become open to criticism because they know you’re a real person.”

Anybody can have fun when their winning. If you want to have sustained success in this industry, you have to learn how to have fun even when you are losing. Let me be perfectly clear on this point. I HATE losing!!! But that doesn’t mean it has to ruin my entire day. As a leader, I don’t have the luxury of sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Nothing is worse than a leader who mopes around. Too many people are watching how I react. If I allow the pressure to show, or God forbid roll downhill, the entire organization can start to stress and press. This makes them less effective in their duties, which creates more pressure to perform, which causes…… This is NO BUENO!!!

So how do I make sure to have fun? Better yet, how do I make sure my team is having fun? Here are:

Tim’s 9 Tricks to Making Sure the Team is Having Fun

• It’s Not Over Until I Win – Reframe your timeline. Maybe you didn’t win….yet. The great coach, Vince Lombardi said, “We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.” The good news for us is this: As long as we don’t quit, the game isn’t over. We can still come back and win this sucker!!! If you want to get fired up, watch this Michael Jordan video!

• Celebrate Small Successes – I try to make sure that we keep track of every account that is opened and that the Agent gets recognized for their accomplishments. We spend part of every meeting recognizing the accomplishments of everyone present, no matter how big or small.
• Lighten Up – Joe also mentioned that he has never liked serious people. Whenever I start to feel stress, I have to take a breath and remind myself that I’m not an Air Traffic Controller. No one is going to die because I made the wrong decision.
• Brighten Up – Smile, smile, smile. It may sound corny, but it is hard to have a bad day or stay mad and upset when you are smiling.
• Stay Thankful – When I was working with my buddy Mike Mueller and we were having a miserable day, he would always say, “It beats hanging siding.” I didn’t understand what he meant until one day he explained. Mike used to be a contractor. The worst job on a residential job site in the Pacific Northwest is hanging siding on a new house. I don’t know if you know this, but it sometimes rains in Washington and Oregon. When the person is hanging siding on a new house, the rain gutters have not yet been installed. So the rain that is running off of the roof comes straight down from the eve and hits the person installing the siding on the back of their head and neck. Considering that the rainwater is usually somewhere between 40-50 degrees, it doesn’t take long for that person to get soaked to the bone and shivering. All of a sudden, sitting in a nice warm break-room talking to people sounds pretty fun.
• Contests – I run some kind of contest almost weekly. Sure they should be doing the very activity I am rewarding them for anyway. But winning a $25 iTunes gift card can really raise their spirits.
• Host Fun Events – I have taken my team bowling, to the zoo, go-kart racing, shooting sporting clays, sailing, golfing, to the spa, to dinner theater, and many, many more. People tend to remember the events much more than cash. They bond, let down their hair, and have fun!
• Think Abundance – All the VB carriers combined don’t have 10% market penetration. If you lose this account to a competitor or even someone inside your organization, MOVE ON!!! I have seen agents spend hours and days fighting over an eight-life case. This is like two dogs fighting over the scraps that have fallen on the floor when they could just jump on the table and eat the feast that is laid out before them.
• Remember your “Big Why” – Last week in my article titled Marrying Your Emotions to Your Logic we talked about how important it is for us to remember why we are doing this in the first place. (Read this to jog your memory.)

Conclusion: If you follow the nine steps above and still aren’t having fun, perhaps this business isn’t for you. There is no shame in that. We need all types to make this world go around!!! My wife is an accountant. If I did her job (a job she has fun doing) you would find me hanging in my cubicle within about 3 minutes. But before you determine that this career isn’t for you, make sure you are honest with yourself. Have you done the activity necessary to be successful? If you aren’t doing the work, you will never know if this career would have been fun.

Question: How do you deal with a bad day? Do you go home, sulk, kick the dog, and complain? Or do you take a breath and say, “I live to fight another day! Tomorrow will be better!” Let us know below what you do to make sure you are having fun.

Prologue: (You didn’t know that a blog post could have a prologue, did you?) I almost didn’t write the following post because I was afraid it would come off as braggadocios. I promise you that I am aware that I can appear to struggle with humility from time to time. The reality is that I am a very blessed man who has achieved success greater than I could have imagined when I started in this industry. I fully acknowledge that my career has been a perfect storm of great mentors, hard work, and God’s grace. I love what John Maxwell says about success, “Without God I can not, and without me, God will not.. So as you read on, please hear my heart.

An “Aha Moment” From the Opulent Lucite Mines of South Africa

The GREAT Brian Tracy says, “Success leaves a trail.” As I look around my office it is clear if you work in the Voluntary Benefits (VB) sales arena, success also leaves awards, plaques, and trophies.

A year ago when I left my previous carrier (Aflac) after 15 years, I made a conscious decision to “thin out” some of my awards. The first awards to get boxed up were those that were for coming in 2^nd place or lower. I did this because I am a disciple of the great American philosopher and spiritual leader, Ricky Bobby. And as I’m sure you know, Ricky Bobby says, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

The next to go were all of my awards for any individual accomplishments. There was only one exception. Of all my individual awards, there was only one that I kept. That one award is the subject of this post and we will return to it in just a bit. Why did I just keep my team awards? Well as those who have ever worked with me will attest, my heart and passion has always been centered around team building and developing the leaders on my team. Whenever anyone on my team won an award, I made sure that the rest of our team went crazy during the awards ceremony and made that person feel like a rock star. Because so many individuals on our team won individual awards, our team happened to also win many of the team awards. When this happened, I had the incredible honor of being the one to accept it on behalf of the team. I made sure that everyone in the room knew that the award wasn’t my award. As the leader of the team, it might have had my name on it, but we were being recognized as a team.

The last awards to go were those plaques that I felt were ugly. Not exactly a very scientific method, but I thought they looked bad and I didn’t want them hanging in my office.

When it was all said and done, I trashed several boxes and took several more and put them in storage. Maybe a less prideful man would have gotten rid of all of them. There probably will come a day when I can do that, but that day isn’t here yet.

So how many awards did I end up keeping? Well in preparation of this blog post I went through my office and counted. I don’t know if I’m embarrassed or proud to tell you that I have pared down my awards, trophies, plaques, etc. to “just” ……..76. (I told you that it was going to sound braggadocios.)

My One Individual Award

Earlier I told you that I got rid of all of my individual awards except one. If you walked into my office today you probably wouldn’t notice it except that it has a tie-dyed Beanie Baby sitting next to it. It certainly isn’t very impressive to look at, and as you probably have figured out, Lucite is not mined in South Africa. It didn’t cost much to make, and I can’t pawn it or even get cash at the recycling center. Why then is it my favorite? Why would I be devastated if I lost it to a fire? (I had typed, “Why would I be devastated if it was stolen.” But I had to erase that because I realized no one would ever steal it.) The reason this one award means more to me than the rest of them combined is simple. It represents the exact moment when I realized that the sale of Voluntary Benefits was a predictable business!!! 

I started in the VB business in 1998. At the end of October, even though I had a great trainer/manager (David Stewart), and felt like I was working my butt off, I was getting pretty frustrated with my paltry results. Fortunately, David sat me down and encouraged me to focus on an upcoming contest that the State Manager had just announced called “Power Club.” All I had to do was average $5,000 per week in new business, for three weeks in a row. In other words, produce $15,000 in three weeks. My first reaction was, “Oh!!! Is that all?” See, I wasn’t averaging $5,000 per month, let alone $5,000 per week. Even though I am naturally very optimistic, I had already given up before the contest had even begun. David was relentless though and made me break down exactly what it would take to produce a total of $15,000 during the contest period. The more we talked, the more I realized that it was not only possible but with his support it was inevitable. It was definitely going to take some elbow grease, detailed planning, and ruthless execution, but if I did exactly what we planned out, my success was certain.

For the first time in my then short career:

• I made sure that I saved the prime hours for prospecting.
• I was strategic in who I was prospecting too. I needed small groups, that paid their people well and would close quickly.
• I became fearless in my closing.
• I woke up with a fire burning in my gut.
• I made sure that I was being effective, not just busy.
• I was waking up employed. (The subject of the upcoming podcast with Joe Clark that will air 4/15)

If you zoom in on the picture above you will see that we must have put together a fairly decent strategy that day. I was able to exceed the contest criteria by $549. (Remember to celebrate every victory! Over is over BABY!!!!) When I realized that I had hit the goal, I became very emotional. The reason I was emotional had nothing to do with me getting a $25 slab of Lucite. It wasn’t the money I had made. It wasn’t even the fact that I had accomplished my goal. The reason I became emotional was that I finally realized that I had the skill, drive, talent and opportunity to be successful in this industry. (I promise you that if I can do it, you can do it!) I also realized that if I could write $15,000 during those 3 weeks, what would prevent me from doing it every 3 weeks? The only potential obstacle to my success was me. If I could keep the same type of focus and activity level that I had just demonstrated, I should be able to have the exact same results. See, if my success is at the mercy and whim of someone else, I can’t sleep at night. But if what Jim Rhon, Brian Tracy, Les Brown, and Tony Robbins kept telling me on the tapes I was listening to was true, and if it really is true that, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” then I like my chances!

Conclusion: Thank you, David, for making me break down this business. More importantly, thank you for helping me to understand that it was predictable! Oh, by the way, it still is!

Question: Do you know exactly how many doors you have to go through today to achieve the level of success you are striving for? Can you prove it? Do you believe it?

Comment below to find out why the Beanie Baby sits next to the award.

The worst thing you can do to a prospect is not making them mad. It’s not being too pushy. It’s not even getting them to say, “What part of NO!!!! don’t you understand?!?!?” No, the worst thing you can do to a prospect is to waste their time!

There are dozens of ways to waste the time of your next potential best client. As the former owner of two Domino’s Pizza stores, I know this all too well. “How?” you may ask. I got called on by literally dozens and dozens of putrid, horrible, time-wasting, mealy-mouthed, milk-toast, pathetic salespeople…..every freaking day!!!! (At least that’s what it seemed like.) So, let me channel my inner David Letterman, “Here is tonight’s Top Ten List!”

Tim’s Top 10 Ways Sales People Waste My Time

• Ask me dumb questions. – “Ummm what do you guys do here.” (Honestly, I got that question once….. at a Domino’s Pizza store. My answer, “Ummm, we deliver pizzas?” I thought maybe it was a trick question. It wasn’t….sigh…) If the company you are calling on has a web site, you had better know as much about them as possible before you meet with the owner. Anything less and you might as well start your presentation by saying, “Ummm, I was too lazy and stupid to figure out how to get on your website.”
• Tell me your customer service, product, or whatever is better than your competitor. – Your competitor was just in here 15 minutes ago and told me that his customer service and product were better than yours. I don’t believe either of you. Unless you can prove it objectively using third-party references, I don’t want to hear it.
• Give me your opinion on politics, religion, same-sex marriage, etc. – I have my opinion, and I don’t care about yours….. not just now, FOREVER!!! You wouldn’t think I would have to even address this, but unbelievably I have seen this dozens of times.
• Tell me about your problems. – I’m not sure why, but I have been subjected to the trials and travails of many salespeople. When I ask you how you are doing, I’m being polite. I don’t need to know that your mother-in-law is trying to break up your marriage. (Again, a true story.) John Maxwell once said, “You shouldn’t tell people about your troubles for two reasons. A) 80% of the people you tell don’t care. B) The other 20% are happy to hear that you’re having problems.”
• Tell me what you can do for me, before finding out if I have a need. – Many salespeople just “show up and throw up.” It seems they are proud that they have memorized their pitch and want to prove to me how quickly they can give it.
• Continue to keep selling…after I have said yes. – The number of salespeople that just blow through buying signs is staggering to me. If I ask, “When is the earliest we could get this installed?” STOP SELLING!!! It is now time to work out the details. I know you’re proud that you have all 97 pages of your script memorized, but I really don’t have time to listen.
• Give me too much to think about. – I don’t have time to wade through every product and service you offer, let alone make decisions about all the options and added customization you and your firm can provide. Ask me smart questions, give me three options, ask me to make a decision. If you are not closing the business owners you are getting in front of, my guess is that you are giving them too many options. Don’t believe me? Read The Paradox of Choice, Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz.
• Prove to me how smart you are. – I get it! You have been to your company’s sales school, studied your product until you can recite all your features forwards and backwards, have 92 letters after your name, and invented the internet. I don’t want to hear one single bit of jargon, buzzword, or acronym that is used in your industry. Please don’t talk down to me, but also don’t assume I know what a “rider” is. Or call your Short Term Disability program, “STD.” Where I grew up an STD was not something polite people talked about.
• Start the sales call without a crystal clear “Commitment Objective.“ – This is my all-time pet peeve! Please do us both a favor and read Action Selling: How to Sell Like a Professional, Even If You Think You Are One by Duane Sparks. He claims that 80% of the sales calls made in America begin without a clear-cut “Commitment Objective.” If you are here to “develop the relationship,” or “map out our buying process,” or “get on my radar,” there are lots of ways (that don’t include me giving up an hour of my life) for you to do that.  I promise you will get much further if you come in knowing what you want me to DO when we get done. Is it to write you a check, schedule a follow-up meeting where you can make a formal proposal, or donate 250 pizzas to your fundraiser? If you don’t know what your “Commitment Objective” is, could you do us both a favor and send someone else from your company to meet with me? You know the one, right? That professional salesperson. The one that is kicking your butt in the sales contest.
• Chicken Out – Don’t ask me for the business. If you do everything right and don’t ask me to buy, your chances of getting the sale are almost non-existent.  In fact, your chances of getting me to buy are dramatically better if you do everything wrong, but still ask me to buy. Each of the following statements was actually made to me in lieu of them asking for my business:
  • “I know you’re busy, so I’m going to get out of your hair and let you think about it.”
  •  “I know you are going to have questions after I leave, so here is my card. You can call me anytime day or night and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.”
  • “I ummm appreciate your time. Have a great day. (No mention of follow-up even.)
  • “So, ummm… what are you thinking?”

Conclusion: If you want to really bug me, waste my time. If you want my business, learn how to be a professional by doing the exact opposite of this list. Professionals add value to my business and I am excited to meet with them!

Question: What are some other ways that salespeople have bugged you? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

There is not a better place on the planet to spend the month of March than Phoenix, Arizona. Most days the overnight low temperature is right around 55 degrees and the high for the day is a sun-filled, cloud-free, balmy 85. The wonderfully distinct smell of orange blossoms, sunscreen, and bratwurst being fired over the grill fills the air. The sound of “Play Ball” echoes everywhere, drowning out the much more subtle sound of icy cold beers being poured and the quiet murmur of the crowd settling in to watch their favorite players limber up for a long season.

As you can see from the map below, 15 Major League Baseball teams call the greater Phoenix metropolitan area home during Spring Training.

I have lived in Phoenix a total of 20 years now and there hasn’t been a single year that I haven’t been to at least 3 games. Many years the number is closer to 10. Why am I so fascinated by these games that don’t matter? I promise you that it isn’t for the level of competition or the strategy. Many times the guys that are going to make the roster are showered and resting in the clubhouse before the 8^th inning. I can also assure you that it isn’t for the drama that unfolds during a close game. Whereas some games remain tight, I’ve also seen where the manager has left a pitcher in the game so that he could work through the challenges that were allowing the other team to beat him like a rented mule. The real reasons I love Spring Training are much deeper than that and somewhat philosophical in nature. I can think of 8 things that Spring Training and Mondays have in common and what they mean for you and your sales career.

Spring Training  & Mondays –

The Connection and What it Means for Your Sales Career. 

• Spring and Mondays are a time of rebirth. – Each spring every MLB Team shows up to Arizona different than the one that closed the fall last year. There are new players, new coaches, new front office personnel, new peanut vendors (Yes, many of the peanut vendors come to Spring Training! How do you think they get their arms into shape?), and new umpires. Every Monday we get a chance to start over in our business. I don’t care how awesome (or pain-filled) last week was for you, Monday starts a new week. What are you going to do with the next five days?
• Hope springs eternal from the human heart. – Every single team that is practicing right now believes that this is their year. This is the year that they break through! This is the year that they are going to lead their division and compete for the pennant. And if they can do that, what’s to say that they can’t win the whole thing? Every player in Arizona has been dreaming of hitting that late October game-winner since they were 9 years old playing whiffle ball in their back yard. What about you? Do you still hold out hope for winning the game by setting all-time sales records. Records were made to be broken. When was the last time you broke any?
• Fundamentals matter. – Do you know what the superstars and the kids that were just drafted have in common? They both are working hard this month on the basics. Things like footwork, speed drills, fielding practice, wind sprints, batting practice, breaking down tape of their swing, etc. Why on earth would someone who has been playing this simple game, at the highest level for most of their life, need to work on such basic things? Because fundamentals are the building blocks of true success. Oh yeah, they must be practiced constantly or they disappear quickly. Many great athletes have made the mistake of thinking they had arrived and allowed themselves to believe that they no longer needed as much intense work on their fundamentals. Unfortunately, they didn’t stay great athletes very much longer after that. What about you? Are you making sure that at least once a week you are doing some Practice, Drilling, and Rehearsing (PDR)? Or are you going to allow yourself to fall into the trap that you are good enough already?
• Intensity matters. – Just because the All Stars don’t play past the 6^th or 7^th inning, and just because most of the crowd is more interested in socializing and drinking beer, doesn’t mean that the players aren’t working their guts out. The challenge many of the players at Spring Training camp have is that they must do something very special to earn a roster spot. These players are willing to work their guts out to make the team. They run out every ground ball and slide hard into 2^nd base to break up the double play. Many times they know they are on a fool’s errand as the team’s roster already has 2-3 people in front of them on the depth chart. But still they hustle and work hard, in hopes of getting their big break. I’m hoping that you are starting to sense a pattern here and are already listing the ways that your intensity matters. The reality is that most sales are won through intense follow-up and dogged determination. This takes Intensity. How would you rate yours? Are you a 100-watt bulb that peels paint, or are you the 15-watt bulb that comes on in my refrigerator when I open the door?
• Even the pitchers bat. – They also take fielding practice, run wind sprints, lift weights, and various other things they don’t participate in during the season. It is important that they are able to step up and do things that aren’t necessarily in their job description. The same goes for the position players. They too often are placed in areas they might be uncomfortable. This can really help a team when someone goes down due to injury and they need someone to step up. The same better apply for you. For example if you sell voluntary benefits, you had better understand how major medical works and how National Health Care Reform is impacting it. The last thing you want is to be called upon by your client to help them navigate the ever-changing benefits landscape and not be able to get the bat off your shoulder. Take some time every Monday to educate yourself on one aspect of your industry that is outside of your normal purview.
• The price of admission is low. – During the regular season, the same seats would cost 3-4 times more. When I bought my Domino’s Pizza stores I had to go $350,000 into debt. The cost to start my insurance business? $350….and some hard work. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have made more money EVERY year in the insurance business than I did in my best two years COMBINED while owning the pizza stores. Now I’m not an economics or finance major, but I’m fairly confident that my ROI has been slightly better here than in pizza. What does this have to do with Mondays? Use today to register for a training seminar on sales. Or spend some money on a coach. Or at the very least, buy a book on sales and actually read it cover to cover. Did you know that 80% of salespeople have never even read one book on sales? But that’s not you, right? Your admission cost to this career was a pittance. Be smart now and invest in yourself. If you won’t, who will?
• The players and close, accessible, and friendly during Spring Training. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, the same players that won’t stop to sign autographs during the regular season will happily spend several minutes thrilling their fans by signing anything thrust at them. They seem genuinely happy to meet and greet the people that indirectly pay their salaries. If you are a superstar salesperson, my guess is that someone, or more likely several some ones, helped make you better. What are you doing to pay it forward? I know your manager’s Monday Morning Meeting is always geared for the new people. And I also know it probably isn’t going to add a lot of value to your sales skills. But what kind of an impact might you have on that new agent that is thinking of quitting? Perhaps you can share your story with him about how you thought about quitting every day your first year. (I know I did.) But you hung in there and went to work every day. Now look at you! Your inspiration for hard work and perseverance might be the only thing that keeps that future superstar in the business.
• It only lasts so long. – The actual games last less than 30 days. It seems like it is over before it even began. Each day is precious and the importance of every at-bat, or fielding attempt is magnified. Rookies and superstars alike must use every minute to showcase their talents. To miss 2% of their time might make the difference between making it to the show or riding busses another season. The same holds true in the VB sales arena. If you give up even a part of Monday you are negatively impacting your chances for success. If you spend all of Monday doing paperwork or justifying your lack of prospecting on the fact that “Mondays are a hard day to set appointments,” you just gave up 20% of your selling opportunities. Are you comfortable with that?

Conclusion: Every day counts. What’s your outlook on Mondays? We are ready to take you and your team to a place where Mondays are their most exciting and productive day of the week.

Question: Are you ready to say TGIM?!?!? If not, why now???

No matter how many times I scream this from the mountain tops, Voluntary Benefit salespeople continue to allow the business owner to shut them down with nine little words, “Let me ask my people if they are interested.” Excuse me while I channel my inner Dennis Miller.  “Now, I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but if you think that you have a snowball’s chance in …..Phoenix of landing that account, you are sorely mistaken.” But as usual, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here.

Let me back up for just a second. If you have been in the Voluntary Benefits arena for any length of time, you know that most business owners are control freaks. If you have done your job and followed a sound sales process, when you ask for the business the business owner is probably going to agree to move forward. Don’t celebrate just yet! Instead of hearing the cash register in your head go cha-ching, you should be hearing a warning siren. You see, right after he or she says yes, their inner voice says to them, “Holy Crap Batman, I just bought! I had better get control of this situation right now or who knows what I am going to buy next!!!” So to tap the brakes, they say, “Let me ask my people if they are interested.” If you wait for those nine words to come out of their mouth, you are going to lose every time. In fact, I call that simple nine-word statement “The Kiss of Death.” No matter what you say next, it is going to look argumentative at best. Pushy and salesy at worst. Obviously, you have to try, but your chances aren’t good. But hey, weirder things have happened…

The ONLY way to avoid the “Kiss of Death” is to crush it with a preemptive strike. In other words, you must bring it up yourself before they do. There are multitudes of ways to do this, so pick a few and practice them with your manager, or fellow agents. You do practice, right? In these examples, you are meeting with Frank of Frank’s Welding.

Tim’s 5 Best Preemptive Strikes Against the “Kiss of Death”

• No pause/interrupt method – Once you have asked for the business, before they can fully respond even, you need to jump in with both feet and say this, “Well Frank, I’ve been doing this a while now (No matter how new you are, you have been doing this for a while.) and there is only one way we have ever seen that this won’t work. That’s if you walk out into the shop and yell out, “Does anyone here want to buy more insurance?” He will quickly see how ridiculous that sounds.
• You’re O.K., I’m not O.K. method – Assuming your meeting is going well, instead of asking your normal closing question, ask this: “You know Frank, I think we can really help you and your employees here! But there is one challenge I can see that might derail this whole thing. This can’t be casual. To make this work, I’m going to have to see everyone, and I don’t know if that is even possible in your environment.” This is also a version of a “Take Away” close. If you let Frank be the guy that solves the issue, it will almost always be a much better solution than what you thought of. People will not burn down that which they helped to build. By the way, If Frank offers a solution, he just bought. I know this sounds silly but, STOP SELLING!!!! Let Frank buy. I can’t begin to tell you how many deals have been lost because the salesperson talked themselves out of a sale.
• Many of your colleagues method – Somewhere near the start of your presentation say, “You know Frank, many times when I am done meeting with a potential client like you, they are so excited about the products and services we provide, they can’t stop talking about them with their entire team. Unfortunately, they are often disappointed with the lack of enthusiasm the team conveys back. But my job is to show you how to make an announcement to your team that will make them want to learn more.
• That would be great if it worked method – Before you ask the closing question say, “The other day one of my potential clients told me that he wanted to poll his employees to see if they were interested. I told him that would be great if it worked. If that worked, I could just call every business owner in town, ask them to put me on hold and yell, ‘Does anyone here want to buy more insurance?’ Then I would know exactly where I needed to go.” Again, he will quickly see how ridiculous that sounds.
• Social proof method – During your presentation, name drop 2-3 of Frank’s competitors that have your product. Then simply say, “You know what all three of these companies had in common? Their business owners were skeptical that their employees would be interested. Fortunately, they decided to bring us in, present to their employees, and then gauge their interest. I’m convinced that if we had done it the other way around, the employees wouldn’t have been interested. Heck if you were to ask me if I was interested in sitting through an insurance presentation, I’d tell you no way, and I’m in the industry!”

Conclusion: No one wants to meet with us until they meet with us. (Tweet That)

Question: What other objections can you blow up with a preemptive strike? Continue the conversation below. I promise that I will respond to every comment and email personally and promptly.

Your manager probably sucks at training. But it is going to be fine anyway. Why? Because at the end of the day, your success is 100% dependent on your efforts.  There is a dirty little secret that prevails throughout the entire sales profession.  Most “sales managers” have no idea how to recruit, manage, and train a sales force when they are first promoted.  In fact, most sales managers got to their position with their company by being a “top-notch” producer.  Let me ask you a question, “Who was the last great athlete that you can remember that was also a great coach?”  To answer that question I think you have to go all the way back to the mid-1980s to Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears. Ditka is one of the few examples of someone who was great in both roles.  I’m not sure why most sales organizations think that their people can accomplish something that even Michael Jordan struggled with.  MJ was arguably the best player ever to hold a basketball but was a lousy coach. The great sales organizations get this disconnect and truly help their new managers. They provide their newly minted managers with ample training and keep expectations reasonable until they grow into their role. Unfortunately, most sales organizations don’t. Instead, they change the title on their producer’s business card and tell them to, “Go get ‘em!”

The reason Jordan wasn’t a great coach was two-fold:

• He was an amazing, naturally gifted athlete.
• He had an inner drive and competitiveness that very few people in history have ever shown.

Listen, I’m not discounting the endless hours MJ spent practicing. They certainly were a huge factor in his success. What I am trying to convey is that he was so good that he was almost unconscious when he played. He never had to “think about” what his next step was going to be, or where he was going to pull up to take the shot. It just flowed out of his being. So consequently he had trouble passing it along as a coach to his team. Can you imagine trying to teach someone how to do something you do naturally? Think about how you would teach someone to breathe. “O.k. First, you move your diaphragm downward…. Wait, what? You don’t know what your diaphragm is? Well, let’s try this… Just expand your ribcage and… well….just breath!”

But I am convinced that his inner drive was more detrimental to his coaching than his giftedness as an athlete. He expected every one of his players to exhibit the same level of commitment that he had when he was playing. He often got frustrated when his players didn’t give the same all-out onslaught of competitive fire that he was famous for. Most sales managers also struggle with this concept. I know I do. I often want the success for that new agent more than they seem to want it for themselves.

I’m not excusing your manager for their lack of effectiveness. Ultimately they are going to have to commit to learning how to recruit, lead and train their team. What I am cautioning you against is putting your family’s financial future in the hands of your manager. If you don’t succeed, chances are that they are still going to be able to pay their mortgage. I’m sure they care about you and want your success, but I wouldn’t count on this alone to make YOUR mortgage. So if you can’t count on your manager to train you, what can you do to make sure you have every chance at success? Train yourself. Here’s how!

Tim’s 9 Steps To Training Yourself

• Stop whining and suck it up! – You have the opportunity of a lifetime staring you in the face. If anyone told you it was going to be easy, they lied! It is going to be hard. Only 11% of new agents survive their first two years in the insurance industry. Some carriers are better. Some are worse. The reality is that none of them have a success rate that is exciting. That’s the bad news. The good news is that anyone who is absolutely committed to success in this industry can not only survive, I am convinced they can thrive. I have seen way too many “marginally talented” new agents (including myself) have unbelievably great success to believe that YOU can’t be successful. The only question is, “Will you pay the price?”
• Shadow every successful agent you can. – It never ceases to amaze me how generous and open the top producers in our industry are. Don’t wear these people out.  But if you ask them to go on one of their upcoming appointments or enrollments, they will be happy to have you join them. Especially if you tell them upfront that you aren’t expecting a penny from them. You just want to learn from the master! A word of caution: They probably aren’t any better at training than your manager. But just watching them will give you ideas. Take their best and forget the rest. Repeat this process with as many high producers as you possibly can.
• Avoid the losers. – I know that is harsh to call someone a loser but they exist. In every sales organization, there are a handful of people that have been around 3, 6, 9 months or longer that have hardly sold anything. Yet new agents will try to pick their brains. The only reason to speak to these people is to find out what they are doing and then do the exact opposite!!! I’m not kidding.
• Read. – According to my own research by polling hundreds of salespeople over the years, approximately 80% of salespeople have never read a single book on sales. As a VB salesperson, you have the opportunity to make a solid six-figure income. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a family doctor. After he pays his student loans, office expenses, salaries of his staff, etc. he barely clears $100,000 a year. I would guess that you expect that your doctor has read at least one book on medicine. When I have confronted my agents over the years, as to why they weren’t reading, their response was that they were too busy. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!? Busy doing what? It wasn’t counting their money, I promise you that. The best news about reading is that you already have access to a doctorate level of education in sales at your public library.
• Invest in yourself. – I know that many people reading this are new agents that haven’t made much money yet. The natural tendency for these people is to say things like, “As soon as I can afford to go to that seminar, I will be sitting in the front row.” Or, “I can’t afford that coaching program.” But the reality is that if you don’t invest in yourself who will? How can you expect to ever be able to afford the help you need unless you go get it first? It is very similar to investing in your retirement. You can’t expect to earn interest and have investment gains unless you have actually put some money into your brokerage account. I have spent literally tens-of-thousands of dollars in sales seminars and conferences. I also have bought and read about 800 books (and counting) on sales. (I personally buy sales books instead of going to the library because I want to be able to mark them up and share them with my team.) I started making these investments long before I could afford them. In 1998 I attended my first sales seminar. It was a full-day Brian Tracey training in Seattle, Washington. It cost $299 that I didn’t have. The fact was that I was dead broke. I put it on a credit card and was amazed that the charge cleared. That seminar changed my life. I used one of Brian’s techniques that very week to close a group that had stiff-armed me several times before. My commissions on that account were just North of $3,000. Talk about an immediate return on investment! But the total ROI on that seminar is incalculable. I continue to use the things I learned from that experience today! The same thing applies to every seminar and conference I have attended since.
• Learn your product. – My first sales manager, David Stewart beat this concept into me. He told me that the key to success is knowing your product inside and out. I’m not sure I completely agree with David. I think understanding the sales process is more important. Having said that, knowing your product inside and out will give you unbelievable confidence. I am a huge believer that confidence leads to competence and vice-versa. A word of caution here. You don’t need to know EVERY product your carrier has the day you start. My advice is that you shouldn’t even attempt to sell more than three to four products in your first year in the business. Some of my best enrollments have been where I have offered only two products. If your carrier is like most insurance companies, they generate 80-90% of their total sales on just a couple of their offerings. Why get bogged down becoming an expert on something you probably aren’t going to sell?
• Don’t ask to be transferred. – Unless your manager is lying, cheating, or stealing from you. There is a great temptation for new agents to see a different sales manager inside the organization that they are convinced would be better to work with. Their team seems to be run better. They are making more sales and seem to be having more fun. I promise there is someone in their organization that is wishing they could be on the same team you are on. The grass is always greener elsewhere. Don’t buy into it. Over the last 16 years, against my advice, I have allowed several dozen agents to move to a new manager. Guess how many times that has worked out. I’ll give you a hint, it’s a nice round number. Exactly zero. Of course, it is great to have a leader that is helping you develop. I have had great managers and horrible managers, but not once did I allow them to control my success. Neither should you! Your success is 100% on you. When I bought my Domino’s Pizza stores, no one from AnnArbor ever came out to help me grow my business. They didn’t hold my hand and show me how to negotiate with my landlord. They gave me an opportunity and it was up to me to take advantage of it. The same thing applies to you. You were the one who wanted to be in business for yourself. Don’t blame your results (or lack thereof) on your manager.
• Get a mentor/coach. – Pay for it, if at all possible. (It will force you to implement the things they suggest.) Find someone outside of your immediate organization that you can talk to on a regular basis. Oftentimes others can help us see the things that are holding us back better than we can. This is especially true if they have more experience than we do. The reason I suggest finding someone outside of your immediate hierarchy is so that you know that what they are suggesting is from a very pure motivation. You know that they aren’t telling you things that are going to benefit them in any way.  I have been blessed to have several mentors in my career. In this podcast, I talked about the impact Joe Buzzello had in my life when he agreed to mentor me several years ago. Even though that formal mentor/mentee relationship is long over, we remain friends years after both of us leaving Aflac. I know that I can still count on him for advice when I am struggling.
• Make mistakes.- Tons of them. This business is caught more than taught. If you think that you can learn how to sell anything in a classroom or by reading a book, you are dead wrong. Yes, I know I just told you earlier to go to sales training seminars and read books. They are critical to your success, but there comes a day when you have to put the concepts you are learning into practice. The reality is that the largest gap in most people’s lives is the gap between knowing and doing. For instance, I know that eating pizza and drinking beer is not going to help me get to my fitness goals. I know that going to the gym is critical. I know that I need to spend more time in quiet contemplation and prayer. But that doesn’t mean I am making good choices all the time. If you don’t go out and have MASSIVE FAILURE you will never succeed. If you haven’t watched what Michael Jordan said about failure lately go watch this video now. I’ll wait here.  

Seriously, please go watch that video. As my friend Heath Oakes says, “If that doesn’t fire you up, your wood is wet.” If you are allowing “call reluctance” or “fear of rejection” to derail you on a regular basis, maybe it’s time to go do something else. You are going to be rejected again and again and again and again and again. That is never going to change. How do I know? 16+ years later I am still failing every day. Every day I have to make a choice to put myself out there and believe that if I talk to enough people a few of them are going to tell me yes. Notice I didn’t say most of them are going to tell me yes. I said a few of them are going to tell me yes. But those few people who say yes allow me to keep the lovely Dizzy D in the lifestyle she is accustomed to.

Conclusion: No one is as interested in your success as much as you are. Your manager’s inability to train you should have nothing to do with your success. You have access to more sales training resources today than ever before in the history of sales. I hope that I can be one of those resources for you. But either way, GET HELP!!!

Question: What is your favorite sales book of all-time? Leave your answer in the comments below and I will send you a link to my “Top 25 Sales Books” that includes a quick synopsis.