Every book I’ve ever read on B2B sales stresses the importance of building relationships with your prospects and customers. This is great advice! It’s also worthless. The problem is that most authors don’t give you any practical tips on how to do it. It would be like a track coach telling you that to beat Usain Bolt in the 200-meter dash, “You need to run faster than him.” Great advice, just worthless (Especially to me, I might not make it 200 meters!)

Listen, I couldn’t agree more that relationships are king! All things being equal, people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. All things not being equal, people still want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. So how are you going to develop these relationships? I’m glad you asked! Here are my top 9 tips to help you transition from just another salesperson, to the enviable position of being a trusted advisor.

• Get off the phone…..at least half of your prospecting time. Using the phone as a tool to set appointments with prospects is very valid, but it has its limitations. I can tell a lot more about a prospective client just by walking in their front door. What is the energy level like? Are the employees friendly or surly? Are the business thriving, or has it been 25 years since their last coat of paint? Besides, it’s much harder for them to dismiss you out of hand in person than on the phone.
• Get face time…..with the owner/CEO. Often after the decision maker has given his or her blessing, we are handed off to the HR staff or Office Manager. If we are not intentional with our actions the person that gave us permission could forget we exist. Don’t believe me? I almost lost a case when an agent from my carrier was told by the owner that they hadn’t seen their agent in two years. Well, that agent was me. And I had literally been in his business every month, to see new hires, from the time I opened them as an account. He just hadn’t seen me. Since then I have made it a habit to just poke my head in the door of the owner every single time I am at his business. I also make sure that I have a formal meeting once a year to update him on the results we are achieving for his business.
• Hone your listening skills…..and not just so you know when it’s your turn to talk. Nothing will separate you more convincingly from your competition than showing your prospects and clients that you are paying attention to their needs and concerns. If you want to alienate them suggest something to them, that they told you they didn’t want the last time you were there. Unfortunately, I’ve been there, done that in this category. I promise you, it will make you feel like an idiot.
• Don’t be a stranger…..or make them get a restraining order either. How often is too often to follow up with a prospect or visit a client? My advice is, “Probably way more times than you are going in now.” Worst-case scenario: They already have every product and service they can possibly buy from you, and there hasn’t been a new-hire employee in 10 years. They still deserve to see your smiling face at least 4 times per year. And don’t go in empty handed. Take them donuts, or candy, or some company trinkets. SOMETHING!!! They are great customers and deserve to know how much you appreciate them.
• Never lie…..or exaggerate…..or over-promise. If you can’t meet their requirements, let them know. It should go without saying, but since the advent of social media, the irate customer can ruin your reputation in the community at the speed of bits. You can’t afford the negative attention, nor do you want it.
• Discretion…..really is the better part of valor. Often times you will be working inside of a particular niche of businesses. In fact that may be why you got the appointment in the first place. You walked in and said, “I work with ABC Welding, XYZ Welding, and LMNOP Welding. They love me! Do you want to know why?” (My first manager, David Stewart taught me this trick. I thought he was nuts, but I tried it and it worked!!! I’ve used it to set dozens of appointments over the years and if done properly, it is devastatingly powerful.) Because you work with several of this guy’s competitors he may ask you to reveal information about them. I’ve been put in this awkward position multiple times. Each time I have simply said, “I really can’t discuss anyone else’s business without their permission. I’m sure you wouldn’t want me telling them about your shop. That’s fair isn’t it?”
• Maintain a positive attitude…..even if they don’t. I don’t care if you are having the worst day of your career when asked how it is going just simply say, “How could it be bad? I’m calling on one of my favorite clients!” I can’t tell you how many times I have seen agents over-share their problems, ailments, challenges, and baggage with the office manager or decision maker. Yes, I get it. You’ve had a bad day. Your dog got run over by the garbage truck 3 days after you spent $2,000 on his hip surgery. Let me clue you in on a little secret: 80% of the people you are telling your troubles to DON’T CARE. The other 20%? They’re secretly happy you are having challenges!!! This advice is especially challenging to remember when the person you are talking to is a Debbie Downer herself. She almost goads you into trying to show her that your life is way tougher than hers. DON’T DO IT! Seriously, If you are really that depressed, stay home. The last thing your client wants is your baggage. Trust me, they have enough problems of their own.
• Clients come first…..or they shouldn’t be your client. You get paid in exact proportion to the value and service you bring your client. In other words, you need to serve them. What do you think of when you hear the word servant? Is it someone who put their own needs first? What if your clients is a jerk? Trust me, I’ve had my share of jerk clients. There are times that the old adage, “The customer is always right.” is pure B.S. When that happens, you must evaluate if someone else might be better suited to serve them. If so, introduce them to your client. If not, fire the client. I’ve done it twice and it was incredibly liberating. If you are ever in a position that putting the client’s needs ahead of your own is going to be untenable, you might need to fire the client.
• Don’t forget…..the little people. Your relationships inside an organization will make or break you long-term. If you have a phenomenal relationship with the owner but haven’t taken the time to develop trust anywhere else in their organization, you might be in for a rude awakening. One of my favorite and most profitable clients sold his business one day, completely out of the blue. No one, and I mean no one, inside of his company had a clue it was coming. The new owners brought me in to fire me about two weeks after the deal closed. It seems that their nephew worked for one of my competitors. Fortunately, the employees got wind of what was happening and stepped in to save me. I had worked very diligently developing relationships with the Office Manager, the HR Director, and the 8 crew foreman. Additionally, I had over-delivered on my promises to many of their frontline employees while helping them navigate the claims process. Every time I walked in there, I felt like Norm at Cheers. (If you don’t get that reference, I’m worried about your generation.) The owners quickly realized that I wasn’t just one of their vendors, I was part of their organization. I made the lives of their staff better and easier. Can your clients say that about you?

Conclusion: You are only as good as your relationships. There is not a single thing on your “To Do” list that is as important as fostering loyalty through service.

Question: What are some of the things I missed that you do to develop bullet-proof relationships?

I really want to know! Continue the conversation below. I promise to reply personally and promptly to every comment or email.

p.s. If you want to see a great smile check out Usain Bolt’s face, when he realizes how fast he just ran, by clicking on his picture above!

No one loves technology as much as I do. I am writing this Internet Blog Post on my MacBook Pro while listening to my Jambox Mini speaker that is connected via Bluetooth to iTunes on my iPad. I was interrupted by a phone call, just as I was starting to write, that I took on my iPhone using my Bluetooth LG HBS730 earbuds. All of this simultaneously in one room.

This weekend I used my Bluetooth iGrill which allowed me to make sure my steak was exactly medium-rare without having to guess or stay by the grill. I was able to stand inside and talk with my wife knowing that when my steak was ready, that a pleasant English woman (that seems to reside in my iPhone) would chant, “Your food is ready. Your food is ready.” I’m kind of bummed she didn’t know exactly what kind of steak it was and recommend a nice Cabernet Sauvignon to pair with it. Seriously, sometimes I feel like I am living in a sci-fy movie. So why do I still use a low-tech “Prospect Box” to keep track of the companies I am prospecting on instead of using an electronic CRM/Database?

I can think of 8 reasons.

• CRMs are very powerful – But with great power (say it with me) comes great responsibility. Responsibility to tackle the intense learning curve it necessitates. The time spent doing this will be time sitting in my office instead of out “Talking to a whole bunch of people.”
• I forget – When I am out prospecting, I might walk through as many as 40 doors in a single day. My goal, of course, is to set an appointment with the Decision Maker. Unfortunately, I’m usually only successful about 15% of the time. That means I have picked up 34 businesses that I need to remember details about. I’d rather capture that information immediately after walking out, then later that night when I am tired and they all blur together.
• I’m lazy – Assuming I took good notes on the business card immediately after walking out of the business, I don’t want to duplicate my work and sit at the computer entering the information into my database.
• Smartphones suck -For entering data. There are some cool, intuitive, CRMs for iPhone. I’ve tried them. Maybe you enjoy “texting” all your prospects information into your phone, but I’ll pass. Now checking football scores on ESPN and watching funny dog videos on youtube on the other hand….
• Computers crash – If you have ever lost your work due to a hard drive failure (and who hasn’t) you know how painful this can be. Never once has my “Prospect Box” left me staring at the “Blue Screen of Death.”
• It’s transferable – Most of my career has been spent hiring and training new agents. I have made sure that every aspect of my daily routine is something that a new agent can duplicate easily. If they see me using an expensive, complicated CRM system, their first thought is they have to spend a ton of money and learn the software before they can start prospecting.
• It’s cheap – Did you notice I didn’t say, “I’m cheap?” I have zero problem spending money… when it helps advance my business. But I hate to spend money on things that don’t return the value I believe they should.
• If it ain’t broke – There may come a day when someone develops a CRM that is inexpensive, intuitive, allows easy data entry in the field, has built-in redundancy to minimize the risk of data loss, and can recommend a good wine to pair with my porterhouse. But that day isn’t here….yet.

Conclusion: Great follow-up skills will make you a great salesperson (and a great deal of money).

Question: Who are the top ten hottest prospects in your follow-up system? If you don’t know, how can you call it a system?

There is a world of difference between selling tangible goods and intangible concepts. I have hired and trained over 2,000 Voluntary Benefits (VB) salespeople over the last 16+ years and many of them came from a background of selling tangible things such as cars, real estate, computers, copiers, etc. For the most part, they struggled (at first) with making the transition to selling the intangible.

If you sell tangible items, you can get your client to activate many of their senses by having them interact with the product. Why do you think they are so eager to get you on a test drive at the car lot? They know that once you get behind the wheel you will have the opportunity to engage all five senses.

• Sight: You probably will pick the car you want to drive based upon color and style.
• Smell: Is there anything as wonderful as that first whiff of new car smell you experience when you get in?
• Touch: Undoubtedly your hands will caress the supple leather of the seats and you will feel the power of the acceleration as you mash on the accelerator.
• Sound: Wow! The stereo in this thing is better than the one back at your place.  You are tempted to crank it way up, but you want to listen to see how much road noise you can hear.
• Taste: Smart car lots have snacks and refreshments in the showroom. They don’t do this to be nice to their customers. They know that if you enjoy a snack while you are there, your perception of your experience increases dramatically and it puts you in a good mood to buy.

All we are selling in the VB arena is a promise.  I used to say we sold paper with a promise written on it. But now most carriers deliver their policies electronically via email. The customer has to use their own paper.

If it is true that all we sell is a promise, then how important is it that the customer believes the person making the promise? It is critical! The real challenge we face is that oftentimes we have to meet, build report, gain trust, make the sale, and fill out the necessary applications and forms all within a 15-30 minute time frame. So how are we going to do that?  I think there are 8 things that, if you do right, can offset the lack of a tangible product for our customer to interact with. As you read these 8 techniques, notice how little presenting you should be doing. Remember, the more they talk… the smarter you are and the more they like you!

• Ask them questions about their life – Do they have kids? Are they saving for a house? Have they recently gotten married? What kind of health issues are they concerned about?
• Ask them questions about their financial health – If they got sick or hurt and couldn’t work, how long would it be before that affected their family?
• Ask them about their history – Have they ever had anyone in their life that has been affected by cancer? What did that look like for that person and their family financially?
• Ask them about their future – How are they going to help put their kids through college if something bad happens?
• Tell them a story (or two) – My favorite adage in this business is, “Benefits tell, stories sell.” If they are on the fence, tell them another story. Don’t overwhelm them with more product information. Illustrate the need for your product by telling a story about a claimant that had your program and how it helped them.
• BRIEFLY show them the brochure – Now is the time to BRIEFLY explain how the policy works. By BRIEFLY covering the features in the brochure you can anchor the story you just told to the printed materials you are showing them. Did I mention to keep if BRIEF?
• Reduce to the ridiculous – It is important that they understand how affordable your coverage is.  Even the highest level of coverage you carry is probably less than the cost of going to Starbucks a few times a week.
• Ask them to buy – I’m not sure I should share my “super-secret, proprietary, devastatingly effective” closing line. I mean it took me years of hard work to perfect. To just give it away seems a little foolish, but I’ll do it anyway. You have to promise me though that you will do something nice for me. If you like this technique and find that it works for you, would you please subscribe to my podcast on iTunes and rate it? O.K. I think I have built it up enough.  Here it is: “Are you comfortable with that?”  Maybe it is too subtle for you.  Let me say it again, “Are you comfortable with that?”  If they say they are comfortable, shut up, stop selling, and start filling out the application. If they hem and haw about it, tell them another story, perhaps back them down to a lower level of coverage, show them the new price and ask them my other “super-secret, proprietary, devastatingly effective” closing line, “Is that a little more comfortable for you?”

Conclusion:
If you want to get people to buy your promise, they have to buy you!

Question:
The procedure above only gets 2 senses involved in the sale (sight and sound). How might you get the other 3 senses involved? Comment below!

Selling in the voluntary benefits arena is incredibly simple.  So simple in fact that many agents mistake it for easy.  Unfortunately, this mistake often leads to the demise of their career. So what is the difference between simple and easy?  If something is simple, it should be easy….. right?  Not exactly!

Let me explain it this way.  If you have a library card, you are in the VAST MINORITY.  According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, only 16% of adult Americans had visited a library in the previous year.

Simple:

Is it simple to get a library card?  I’d argue that it’s very simple.  Remember back to the last time you got a library card.  Did you:

• Have to take a test?
• Give a blood or urine sample?
• Consent to a body cavity search?

Easy:

Is it easy to get a library card?  STOP!  Really think about it.  Here’s the thing, the last time you got a library card it was so simple, you “miss-remember” the process and think it was easy.  I’d argue that it wasn’t easy. (I must enjoy arguing….) Think back, did you:

• Call up the library and have them mail you a card?
• Order a pizza and then ask the Dominos driver to pick up a library card on the way to your house?
• Go online and have them email you a pdf version you could print?

Of course not!  You had to get your lazy butt off the couch and go down to the library.  Then you had to show them your ID and prove to them that you lived in their district.  After filling out the appropriate paperwork, they probably gave you your card right on the spot.  To keep the privileges that came with that card you had to return the items you checked out in a timely fashion or pay the fines for turning them in late.  See what I mean?  It was simple, but it wasn’t easy.  Why wasn’t it easy?  Getting a library card took a little initiative and effort.  Sound familiar?  Sales takes initiative and effort.

I think you can already see the connection between getting a library card and selling voluntary benefits.  Hopefully this will cement it for you.

• If you put an ad in the yellow pages or online and expect your phone to ring off the hook; you are confusing simple with easy. (For those under 25, the yellow pages were like a paper version of Google.)
• If you think that attending 20 networking events a week and passing out your card to hundreds of people will drive your sales; you are confusing simple with easy.
• If you have every considered mailing out letters to business and actually expected the business owner to read what you sent them; you are confusing simple with easy.
• If you think that there is any way to build your business that doesn’t include rejection and hard work; you are confusing simple with easy.
• If you think that once you get an account that your competition isn’t going to make a run at them; you are confusing simple with easy.

Let’s return to the library card analogy.  Almost 16 years ago my mentor told me this, “Tim, we often try to complicate this business. To make a bunch of money selling insurance here is very simple.  All you have to do is three things:

1. Talk to a whole bunch of people.
2. Treat them real nice.
3. Ask them to buy.”

How simple is that?  He was right then and it still holds true.  If we try to shortcut any of those three steps we are setting ourselves up for failure. So why do we do it?  Why do we try to take shortcuts?  Because all three of these things take hard work.  If you do the work the rewards are enormous.  If you don’t, your failure is almost guaranteed.

Conclusion:

This business takes hard work.  It IS simple, but it isn’t easy.  The good news?  It’s worth it!

Question:

Are you going to bear down and do the work this week?  Or are you going to delude yourself that you have a “new way” to be successful? (Tweetable)

When I first started in this industry, I HATED objections! Every time a business owner showed any resistance, I folded up shop, ran away, hid in the corner, and cried like a little girl…… Well, maybe I’m being a little dramatic.  Most of the time I didn’t actually cry….

The reason objections had such control over me was that I didn’t understand that objections were my friend.  For lots of reasons! On today’s podcast (The Five Set Sales) I broke down the difference between a stall, an objection, and a condition. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to listen yet here’s a quick recap:

Stall – A prospect uses a stall when they are too polite (or too chicken) to say no. They don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they would rather politely lie to you. Maybe these sound familiar?

• Oh, I’d love to meet with you but I am soooo busy right now. Give me a call me back in a couple of weeks.
• I didn’t get a chance to talk to my husband yet.
• We have a broker that handles all of that for us.
• I’d be happy to put together a list of referrals for you. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll email it over to you.
• That sounds interesting, could you send me some information or email me some information.

Objection – An objection is actually a buying sign. By giving you an objection the prospect is really saying, “I’m interested, but I need just a little more information before I can tell you yes.” To the untrained salesperson, objections sound like conditions.  Too often the salesperson either A) Accepts the objection and walks away too easily or B) Becomes argumentative and pushy.  Either way, they are going down in flames.  Here are some common objections you might hear:

• My employees can’t afford it.
• You don’t know my guys. There is no way they are going to want to have anything come out of their check.
• I don’t know how we would get everybody together for a meeting.
• Before I’d let you get in front of my employees, I’d want to see your rates.
• Let me ask around/poll my employees and see if anyone is interested. (This is better know as “The Kiss of Death.”)
• This looks great to me but I have to run it past my partner/the owner/the Doctor/my accountant/(insert higher authority here).

Condition – A condition is a real problem, that is going to prevent you from doing business together, that you can’t solve.  As I said before, sometimes we have a challenge distinguishing the difference between an objection (solvable) and a condition (unsolvable).  Below are some obvious conditions. Most of the time they won’t be quite this clear:

• I’m not sure we are going to be in business much longer. In fact, I just met with my lawyer to discuss bankruptcy.
• We are in our busiest season of the year. I’m already paying my people overtime every week right now. There is no way I am paying them additional overtime to meet with you.
• Our HR director is out on maternity leave for the next 8 weeks.
• My brother-in-law works for your largest competitor and is our agent. If I want to stay married, there is no way I can kick him out and bring you in.

Do you know what each of the above statements has in common? I have heard them all, verbatim, multiple times in my career. If you stick around for any length of time, you will too. So you might want to learn to identify which type of sales resistance you just experienced. Was it a stall, an objection or a condition?

1. If it’s truly a condition, that’s easy: There’s not much you can do for them.
2. You also need to know you can’t “overcome” stalls. You just have to plow through them by developing trust. Trust that is earned by bringing a clearcut value proposition that captures their imagination.
3. Objections, on the other hand, are fun and exciting! I want to stress to you how important it is to get ALL of their objections on the table. The reality is, you can’t overcome something you don’t know exists. Quite frankly it’s not the prospect’s job to tell you about all of their objections. It’s your job to discover them.

Whenever you are experiencing a true objection from a prospect, I want you to think “Go Fish”. Do you remember playing the card game as a child?  Part of the object of the game is to get the cards you need from your opponents. You do this by asking them, for example, “Do you have any 2’s?”   If that person has 2’s, they have to give them to you.  If you don’t ask them for the 2’s, they’re not going to just hand them to you.  It’s not their job.  You, after all, are the one that needs those 2’s to win.

It’s much the same for us when we are meeting with our potential client.  As long as they are holding on to those 2’s (their objections) you can’t win.  So how are we going to discover their true objection(s)?  We have to ask them.  One of my favorite phrases for this is to ask them this, “Other than that, is there any reason you can think of that we shouldn’t move forward?”  Often times they are going to confirm that there really is only one remaining concern. Sometimes though, they will raise other concerns as well. Believe it or not, this is great news!  They have just done you a HUGE favor.  They have just admitted that they are interested in your product or service. Interested enough to give you the feedback you need to close the sale.  In other words, they just handed you their 2’s.  Now it’s your job to take those 2’s and put together your winning hand.

On Saturday we will take a deep dive into what I call “Tim’s Super Spectacular Objection Handling Formula.”  We will break down exactly what to say and when to say it.  With this formula, you will be able to overcome 95% of the objections you are ever going to get.

The only way to receive my Saturday content is to subscribe to my newsletter.  It is where I share my absolute best thinking and the secrets that have helped me hire and train over 2,000 voluntary benefits specialists over the last 16+ years. I promise you that you will not want to miss an issue.  Did I mention it’s free?  And I promise to never sell your information to anyone….EVER!

Recap: If you didn’t get any objections during your sales process, you didn’t sell ANYTHING. You just took their order. (Tweetable)

Question: Do you have a formula for handling objections? Or do you just double down on trying to convince why they should do business with you?

Leave me your thoughts down below.  I promise to respond to every single one!

Let’s be honest, most people have a less than favorable view of the sales profession and salespeople.  You throw in insurance sales on top of that… YIKES!!!   Truthfully I told my buddy from church when he first tried to recruit me, that there was no way I was EVER going into sales.  I will be forever thankful that he persisted.  He literally changed my life!

I think that there are three reasons so many people have such a poor assessment of salespeople:

• We have all had “that guy” try to sell us something.  You know him.  The guy in the loud sports coat that won’t leave you alone on the car lot.  The one that after you get done talking to him, you feel like you need a bath.  Has this guy never heard of a breath mint?  And WOW, you didn’t know Costco sold Old Spice in 55-gallon barrels.
• Hollywood hasn’t done our profession any favors.  Think Alec Baldwin in Glenngary Glen Ross or Ben Affleck in The Boiler Room.  If you haven’t ever watched these movies, I’ll warn you that the language is atrocious.  I’ll admit that sometimes as a sales manager, especially when the team isn’t exactly blowing out their sales plan, I have daydreamed about giving my team those speeches……  But I realize that is not the way to motivate ANYONE long-term.
• Many people think that salespeople have to win and the customer has to lose in order for the salesperson to make a living.  Again, we have all worked with salespeople that you can practically see the dollar signs in their eyes when they are talking to you.

Here’s what I firmly believe about what we do in this honorable profession of voluntary benefits sales.  We get people to do what they should do anyway, but wouldn’t do if we didn’t come along.  Let me repeat that one more time:  We get people to do what they should do anyway, but wouldn’t do if we didn’t come along.  I mean this in EVERY aspect of this business:

• Employers:  I hope you truly believe that what you have to offer the business owner is worth his/her time.  By strengthening their benefits plan, you will help them attract and retain better employees, stay out of the loan business, limit fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, look like a hero to their employees, and perhaps even save them some money in payroll taxes.  But here’s the catch: They are NEVER going to call you and ask for your help.  You have to (persistently) come along.
• Employees:  Often times we are literally the only thing standing between our clients and financial devastation.  Our products are affordable, powerful, and incredibly necessary!  This is a quote from a claimant letter that I received this summer, “If it wasn’t for this check, I don’t know how we would have been able to send our daughter back to college this fall.”  Later she said, “When I first sat down with you, I did it reluctantly because my boss said I had to.  My entire family is so thankful that I had the opportunity to work with you to pick the insurance programs we needed.”  Guess what?  She showed up because she HAD to.  Do you think she would have EVER sought out our coverage on her own?  Of course not!  I had to come along.
• Recruiting:  You have someone in your life right now that would be great in this business, but you are hesitant to talk to them.  Maybe you already tried to recruit them into some crazy multi-level-marketing scheme.  Or maybe you haven’t yet made as much money in this business as they make at their current job and you are worried that they might not take you seriously.  Or maybe you just don’t care about them…… WHAT?!?!?  Did Tim just accuse me of not caring about my friend or family member?!?!?  Listen, if you really care about that person, how could you let them continue to go to a job that caps their income?  That asks them to trade their time for money.  That offers them the illusion of security, but could layoff half their workforce tomorrow. “Did you know that the Pilgrims did not come to America for a 9-5 with benefits?”~Tim Martin (Tweet That)  If you don’t come along and show them there is a better way, who will?  You may change their life!  Again, I am thankful my buddy cared enough about me to MAKE me sit down with him at Starbucks to show me how we change people’s lives.  I am thankful he came along!

Conclusion: Tim’s definition of sales (for what we do):  We get people to do what they should do anyway, but wouldn’t do, if we didn’t come along.

Closing Thought:  Are you coming along often enough?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!