Deck the Halls (with Boughs of Prospects)!

To bring some levity to a time of year that should be relaxing for insurance agents, but is often overshadowed by one prevailing thought: Am I going to hit my end-of-year revenue target?

I’d like to take creative liberty with a holiday favorite — tackling a lyrical parody of a Christmas carol that everyone should know…

Deck the halls with boughs of prospects,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to hit your targets,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Don ye now a well-crafted policy for each client,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
But beware you have all the correct endorsements as ye write them,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Mind your insureds’ value curve,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
And strike a chord with a VIP client event,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Don’t strip down coverages to bare bones yet,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Q4 isn’t over and you’ve still got time,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Set a goal to stop cold calling and generate referrals,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Attraction strategies will help you do so,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Sing we joyous, all together,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Because year-end’s here and you’ve hit your number!
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA, LA LA!

With just a few days left before the calendar turns over to a new year, I wish you and your family all the best this holiday season — and may 2014 be the year that all of your biggest sales dreams come true!

Keep your pipeline full

It's not uncommon to lose focus on your pipeline - or funnel - and consistently filling it with new opportunities can be challenging. Insurance agents often spend too much time on a few opportunities that are on the verge of closing at the bottom of the funnel, and don't seek out new leads to fill the funnel. This creates a roller coaster ride in terms of performance and results in the eyes of a sales team leader, and commissions in the pockets of a field rep. Without enough opportunities, a field rep runs the risk of missing their quota and their commissions.

The key rule for determining if you have enough opportunity to achieve your quota is to measure the size of your pipeline. Successful field reps maintain a minimum of 3 times their quota in their pipeline at all times. For example, a $10,000 per month sales quota should mean you maintain a pipeline value of $30,000 per month.

Combined with a disciplined sales process and consistent prospecting, a pipeline 3 times your quota will ensure a continuous flow of new leads and new opportunities closing.

So how do successful insurance agents do it? The following topics should be considered as we develop the 2014 agency goal of ‘Finding New Customers’ and how to maintain a healthy pipeline.

Disciplined Sales process

Focus on the follow-up process. Most sales reps make the initial contact and close the easy deals. What distinguishes the top reps from the rest are those who follow-up when the appointment isn't immediate.I think an open mind in the sales process is key - really listening to the customer and their struggles and customizing a solution for them based on their needs.

Don't lose site of the smaller sales. The problem with field reps today is they lose sight of their customers that give them smaller sales throughout the year. They get lost in the shuffle of larger sales (since we love those big elephants). It's the small sale that gets us through those rough periods. While this is elementary, it is difficult to keep track when you have over 1,000 clients you deal with year round.

Be memorable. Make a hard commitment in each discussion for the next deliverable and meet it. Personally, I set most immediate action items to be done within 24 hours and deliver on it every time. Both the need and impression left are still active in the prospect's mind. Delivering on the next step quickly makes a difference and sets an impression.

Consistent Prospecting

I think that discipline at the beginning of the sales cycle is key - cold calls, prospecting, networking, and reading. All of that requires discipline, motivation and enthusiasm.

Ask for referrals. Set a goal for yourself to secure a specific number of referrals each month. Dig deeper and penetrate your customer base.

Look for alternative contacts who can serve as inside coaches for you and connect with them quarterly.  

Watch and read the news so you can use new ideas as a way to get attention. Get creative information to approach prospects and customers with a new idea.

Set weekly objectives for the number of new referrals, prospects, meetings, and proposals. New lead generation matters. Existing customers are critical but don't lose focus on a weekly objective of meeting new qualified leads. They represent the future.

How closely do these tips align with your strategies?

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Ways to Avoid the Year-End Panic

It’s almost here. The end of another year.

The visits, calls and emails I’ve been receiving from agents in a panic have sky-rocketed.

I realize it’s late in the year, but despite how little time is left, there is still no reason to panic.

If you panic, you will most likely find yourself making decisions you will regret — maybe not immediately, but certainly sometime early next year.

Here is my list of 5 ways to avoid the year-end panic:

1. Hold firm on coverage protection.

As tempting as it might be to offer stripped coverage right now to make a sale, doing so can create huge issues if you expect to get any cross-sell business from them next year.

Stripping coverage ‘bare’ to discount rates can send a message not only to your customers, but also to your prospects. As soon as you become known for that, you’re in trouble.

2. Double-check your carrier’s ability to underwrite policies.

Nothing will create more panic for an agent than getting the year-end application, only to find your carrier unable to process it.

3. Monitor your customer’s hours/days of operations.

Don’t allow yourself to suddenly find the customer to whom you’re looking to get a signed application from, closed for the holidays. Every year I hear from agents in January who are complaining about how their previous year’s production goals were missed because applications they had submitted were never underwritten and/or commissions paid before year-end.

4. Keep working the phones, contacting your customers and prospects.

Now more than ever is a phone call the right approach. Emails can and will get lost. If you’re chasing business, then people need to know you’re out there and making things happen.

5. Finally, be ready for surprises.

Yes, the phone will ring, and the last thing you want to do is not answer the call or be too slow to respond to a customer looking for the last minute policy before coverage cancels.

Since you’re in the insurance business, this can be huge because many of your competitors may shut down for a few days and you want to be the one to pick up their business.

Use this time of year as a sales gift to you and your company.

While competitors start slacking off for the holidays, you can be the one to pick up their business and make customers happy.

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Dumbfound Your Competition: Get a HUGE Jumpstart on 2014

When I was in personal production I would acquire more new prospects and generate more new policies in the month of January (many times within the first two weeks) than 99% of insurance agents did ALL YEAR.

How did I do it?

Those are the sneaky details I will give you in this article.

I am often asked for the fastest, most reliable pathway to success. Let me give you a formula that will guide you forevermore and lead you to extraordinary riches.

Ready?

Observe what most everyone else is doing—and do the opposite.

Think about it.

Most everyone else is unsuccessful.
Doing the opposite gives you the opposite result: success. Simple.

That formula describes what Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and most every other super-achiever you can think of used.
If everyone else is zigging—zag.

Now then, what do most people do during the month of December?

Are people more focused and more productive or more distracted and lackadaisical? Are people working hard or hardly working? You already know the answer.

That’s why you want to do the opposite.

This is when you can get ahead, WAY AHEAD and can take advantage of the mood of the season, rather than the mood of the season taking advantage of you.

I’ll explain.

Three December strategies to CRUSH IT in January

ONE. In insurance, the market dies in December. It’s the holidays and people are too busy buying Christmas gifts to think about buying insurance policies.

They don’t even have the time or interest to even meet with an agent in December. This kind of scenario might be true for you in your business too. So what do you do?

Here’s the secret…

Spend the entire month booking your appointment calendar for January. They don’t want to meet with you now, but they are even more apt to book an appointment with you for January, which is ALL-THE-WAY in next year—appointment-booking resistance is low.

By the time 8 a.m. Jan. 2 would come around I was booked solid, wall-to-wall, flat out, the entire month. Those who just started to rub the sleep out of their eyes and just began to make appointments the first week in January were so far behind they didn’t know what had hit them by January 15.

No one could ever figure out how I did so much business in January of each year. It had nothing to do with what I did that January; the game had been decided by what I did in December of the previous year.

For you – that’s RIGHT NOW.

So, strategy one is while maybe no one wants what you are selling during the holiday lag time, use this month to book yourself silly in January.

TWO. The year is ending. There are lots of businesses that run their fiscal year on the annual calendar and even lots of individuals who for tax reasons need to make some speedy decisions and spend some money quickly.

Completely reprioritize your prospecting list to those types of clients that have these year-end closing challenges and opportunities.

If you have a generalized book-of-business, focus your product or service offerings to meet those needs. Adjust your marketing messaging to communicate to those needs.

Strategy two is reprioritize WHO you focus on, WHAT you focus on marketing to them and connect a timely and purposeful MESSAGE to those needs.

You could significantly jump your revenue in the final two-minute drill of the year.

THREE. Stack your cash. I think it was Stephen Covey who defined relationships as emotional bank accounts. During any exchange, or transaction, you are either depositing money or you are withdrawing it. What we know for sure is, just like a real bank account, you cannot withdraw any money if there is NO money in the account.

The month of December is a great time to make large deposits into lots of relationship accounts. The goal is to walk into the New Year flush with cash.

The way to do this is to give, give, give in December.

Strategy number three is to spend the month of December building your important relationships and making lots of emotional deposits.

OK, I hope one of these ideas lit a spark in you and that I have made a sizable deposit into our relationship account.

Now go out and get your big jump on the competition… they will be dumbfounded by your success and momentum by January 31, 2014.
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6 Things to Do Now for a Strong 2014

2014 is less than a month away. How prepared are you?

Here is a quick checklist of things you can do now:

1. Identify your best 5 clients and what you can do to increase your level of business with them next year.

Take the time to develop the plan. Start with the people with whom you need to develop a better relationship and follow that by focusing on the outcomes they are desiring.

Doing these two things will put you in position to be able to serve these clients at an even higher level than you’re currently doing.

2. Identify 5 new large clients that will take a several months of prospecting work to put you in a position to sell to them.

You want to start this process as early in the year as possible to ensure you can close them well before the end of the year

3. Identify 3 new products or services you can leverage hard with both your existing customer base and with new clients.

Key is to not be focused on the actual product or service, but to be focused on the outcome and benefit the client will gain from using it.

4. Identify the 2 big things you know if you change in your sales process will make a significant difference in your results.

Break these items down into small pieces you can begin working on immediately. If the items are big, you will never attack them, but by going after them in small chunks they become very doable.

Just as with the large prospects you intend to go after right away, you want to start on these too without delay.

5. Identify 3 clients/prospects you need to walk away from.

That’s right! You need to purge your list. It sounds counter-intuitive, but there are people you’re spending time with who are doing nothing but taking up your valuable time.

They might be clients or prospects or both. Either way you have to get rid of them. Doing so will give you more time to spend on the other clients/prospects you identified that are going to bring you the business you need.

6. Assess your attitude/motivation and allocation of time.

In the end, it comes down to you. Take some time to list out how you spend your time and what factors in your life either contribute positively or negatively to it.

What adjustments do you need to make? Who is going to hold you accountable?

As I’ve said many times before, top performers are those who are 100% responsible for their own actions and are not willing to allow the environment around them to impact them negatively.

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6 Things NOT to Do When Leaving a Voicemail

Voicemail messages are a powerful tool if done right!

There are 6 things you should definitely not do when leaving a voicemail message, regardless of whether it is a prospecting voicemail or a message for your best customer.

Definitely DON’T:

1. Speak with a bland voice.

It’s amazing the number of voicemail messages I hear where the person leaving the message has zero energy and a totally bland voice.

2. Drone on without any real purpose to the message.

If in doubt as to what you’re going to say, then write it out ahead of time.

3. State your phone number so fast the other person has to listen to the message twice.

When giving your phone number, do it slowly and distinctly, regardless of whether you expect the person to return the call or not.

4. Make the call while you’re standing in the middle of a wind tunnel or highway.

If the person you’re calling is important, then doesn’t it make sense to make sure they can hear your message? Remember, audio quality is going to be lost anyway just by the mere fact the other person is listening to a recording of it.

Don’t make the quality any worse by being in a location where there is background noise.

5. State how you will call them back in a couple of minutes.

If that’s the case, then why are you leaving them a message to begin with? Saying you will call them back means the message you’re leaving them now is a waste of your time and theirs.

6. Not leave your name and who you are.

Surprising the number of messages that get left where the person leaving it doesn’t leave both their first and last name. Just because you know who you’re calling doesn’t mean they know who you are.

Voicemail messages are an effective tool if used properly and it starts by not doing the stupid stuff.

 

Holiday Party Conversation Starters

With holiday parties just around the corner, now is the perfect time to master our holiday party conversation starters so we can answer the most common question: “What do you do for a living?”

In the September 23, 2013 Investment News issue asked a variety of advisors how they respond to the question: “What do you do for a living?”

Out of the eight that were quoted, two began with: “I am a CFP®” and “I am a professional”. Three began with: “We are, We believe or We help.” And only one began by asking if he could first ask a question.

So what are the most effective elevator speeches or holiday party conversation starters? The first step is to be clear on who you serve (your ideal client), why you serve them and what value you provide. Next you need to create starters to ensure your message resonates with the person you are talking with. For example, if you are talking with a retired couple and you specialize in working with this niche by creating a plan for them that ensures a bright financial future, you need a conversation starter.

In this case, when asked: “What to do you do for a living?” you could respond by asking: “Do you know how retired couples are faced with a variety of decisions on what to do to ensure their financial future is bright and that they don’t outlive their money? I help them design a plan to ensure they make the best choices for a bright future.”

So why is this approach more powerful than “I am” or “We believe”? First, when we begin with “I am” or “We believe”, the other person either tunes us out or puts their defenses up because they think they will be sold, persuaded or convinced to do something. Instead, when we ask a question, we engage the prospective client and encourage them to participate and tune into a conversation with us. We dramatically increase our odds of continuing the conversation which allows us to learn more about them and determine if a follow up meeting makes sense.

So before you get your party attire on, take a minute and write out your new holiday party conversation starters and then practice them. Master your starters until you have a winning dialogue that will engage prospects in a conversation. This will dramatically increase your odds of getting to know your prospective clients, as well as provide an opportunity to continue your conversation discussing what you do and the value you provide