Keys to Becoming Indispensable at Work

There are times when every business is going through a restructure. Some companies seem to do this every few years, some every year, and some seem to be undergoing one eternal restructure!

Have you ever noticed that some people are restructure proof? Fear does not grip their body at the mention of that word. They never leave. They never get demoted. They are important to the company.

This reminds me of a story. Please excuse me; I am an insurance agent, so there is always a story.

A big corporation hired several cannibals. "You are all part of our team now," said the HR manager during the welcome briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any of the other employees."

The cannibals promised they would not.

A few weeks later, the cannibals' boss remarked, "You're all working very hard, and I'm satisfied with you. However, one of our customer service representatives has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?" The cannibals all shook their heads, "No," they said.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others angrily, "Alright, which one of you idiots ate the customer service representative?" A hand rose hesitantly in admission. "You fool!" said the leader. "For weeks, we've been eating managers and no one noticed anything, but noooooo, you had to go and eat someone important!"

Are you someone important to your company? Would they miss you if you were no longer there?

When most people hear that dreaded word ‘restructure,' fear fills their mind and the thought arises: “Am I going to be made redundant?” This is generally followed by a blubbering cry of, “Who will hire me? I have a mortgage to pay, car payments, and I need money to wash the dog!” (FYI: I do wash my own dog)

How can we make sure that we are someone important? What can we do to be in the best position to remain in the company? How can we be one of those people that are indispensable?

In my preparation for writing this blog, I decided to get some wisdom from people I respect — senior managers who work for other companies. These people have walked the walk; they have been bulletproof when it comes to restructure.

These are their 5 Keys to Becoming Indispensable at Work:

1. Hold the mindset that change provides opportunity. 

There is an ancient wisdom etched into Chinese vocabulary. The Chinese ideogram for crisis consists of two separate characters. One means danger; the other means opportunity. The proper translation is that a crisis is a dangerous opportunity. When confronted with a crisis, you need to recognize both the danger and the opportunity. Often the danger is more readily apparent, while the opportunity can be deftly concealed. The thing to keep in mind is to look for the opportunity as well as the danger. Crisis holds the potential for both.

In studying many famous people, whether politicians, sportspeople, business people, or spiritual leaders, I have found that crisis comes to every person in some way. Those who rise in the midst of crisis and see it as an opportunity to change and grow become greater and more powerful. They reach heights that they would never have attained had they never experienced that crisis. As masterful innovator Walt Disney put it, “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth might be the best thing in the world for you.”

When change is imminent, hold the mindset that change provides opportunity, remain positive, and don’t dwell on the danger but dwell on the opportunity.

2. Do not over focus on the next job position but rather on the skills to be developed. 

I think that most people today are aware that the company does not have the same amount of loyalty to you that they used to a few years ago. There was a time the company would have a track for your life. You could go and meet with your manager and they could tell you where you are going and when you will get there.

Today, you are your manager and you need to plan out your own career path to your dream job. Therefore, it is important that you are not focused on the job position, but rather on the skills required.

I like to say it like this: “You have to do the job before you get the title.” In other words, if you want to be the COO, then you need to develop the hard and soft skills required for a COO; you need the education of a COO, you need to start dressing like a COO, acting like a COO, speaking like a COO, and then one day, when you have had the right amount of experience, someone is going to say, “I think Molly would make a great COO!”

3. Building relationships with key decision makers.

It’s not only what you know but whom you know. I have seen people scoot all the way up the ladder of a company through being connected closely with key decision makers.

Think of football coaches: they build their team and work with players for years, and then they get headhunted to another club as head coach, and what is the first thing they do? They try to get their key players to move to the new club, as well. They are like a positive cliché. Where one goes, they all go. Some coaches and key players move together all the way through their playing life.

Why? Because just as the players think that the coach has made them succeed, the coach thinks that the players have helped him or her succeed. They are a powerful team, and they feel powerful together. Sir Edmund Hillary needed Tenzing Norgay to climb Everest. We all need to find an “internal coach” whom we can work with and who would support us to climb our Everest.

4. Exhibit the ability to get ‘stuff’ done. 

How do you build these key relationships? You build them by working on projects with key stakeholders, complimenting their skills, and making them look good.

As one senior manager put it to me, “Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work for some great ‘blue sky’ leaders, but they couldn’t project-manage their way out of a lunch bag. While I’ve probably not been the best at brainstorming new and creative ideas, in many situations I’ve been able to take their ‘kernel’ of an idea, pour some fertilizer on it, and make it grow and flourish into a great program and actually implement it.”

In projects, there are two key parts--the front end and the back end, people and tasks, marketing and operations, talkers and doers. If the key stakeholder is a talker, then you need to be a doer. If you are the key doer to the key stakeholder, then you aren’t going nowhere fast! They need you to keep making their projects succeed.

5. Treat everyone with genuine respect.

It’s not just about managing well, but also about how you treat your peers, team members, and vendors alike. You never know who you may be working for or with some day, so treat everyone as you’d want to be treated and keep confidences when someone confides in you and wants some advice. As one senior manager in a local company put it to me, “I believe in creating good karma with those you interact with.”

Along with the other things I have mentioned, this will stand you in good stead with decision makers and bring you allies and supporters in the organization. When business takes a turn for the worse and they’re considering who to cut, you often won’t make the list if you have built those relationships and have shown the ability to deliver with quality over and over again.

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LTCi “To buy or not to buy" close

Here's a great technique for advancing the sale of long-term care (LTC) insurance with your clients. Once you have identified the need for LTC planning and have presented options to your client, try using this strategy.

"Mrs. Client, with this insurance you can make one of two miscalculations..

1.     You can purchase the coverage, pay premiums throught the years, live a good long life.. and then die without needing the care. Actually, this is not so bad. Except you've lost out on the opportunity cost of the capital (premiums that could have been invested elsewhere)... OR

2.     You don't plan for LTC (you don't purchase a policy) and you end up needing care services. In this scenario, I see many families face real emotional and financial hardships because they have not planned for a care event. They do what they can, but there's no easy solutions.. and assets can be drained down.

So I guess this really comes down to: which one of these scenarios would you consider more painful?"

·         If your client chooses the second option, sale complete.

·         If your client should happen to choose the first option, then it's time to consider flipping over to a hybrid life/LTC solution

Six Secrets to Sell More in Less Time

Do you know there are 6 things top-performing salespeople do to sell more in less time?

The beautiful thing is anyone can do them. You don’t need special skills, but rather the discipline to make it happen.

Here’s the list:

Secret #1: Never end today until tomorrow is planned.
Don’t allow yourself to start the day still trying to figure out who you need to call and what you need to do.

If you do wait until the morning, you’ll waste valuable time that could have been spent selling. Key is before the current day ends, always layout the next day specifically with who you’re going to call and what you are going to do.

Secret #2: Don’t sell to non-motivated buyers.
This sounds basic, but far too much time is spent dealing with customers who have little intention to buy. With each call you make on a prospect, you must find a reason to call on the person again. If not, move them to your marketing list.

Secret #3: “5 After 5” / Optimizing Mondays and Fridays.

Just because it’s Friday afternoon, don’t think there aren’t sales to be made. Same can be said for Mondays.

Regardless of what you might think, there are always opportunities to be selling, and that is why top performers love to do “5 after 5.” This means making 5 more sales calls after 5 PM.

Secret #4: Close on every sale call.
There is no such thing as a “fact-finding” call or an “introductory” call. Every call deserves to be a “closing” call.

Great salespeople never miss the opportunity to close on every sale, if for no other reason than to gain agreement about a reason to move forward.

Secret #5: Listen more and talk less.
Selling faster does not mean talking faster. In fact, it usually means just the opposite. It means talking less to allow the customer to talk more.

There’s no way we will ever know what the customer is looking for unless they’re given the opportunity to talk. The key is to make sure when you are talking you’re not preaching, but rather asking great questions.

Secret #6: Believing in themselves and what they sell.
How can we ever expect a customer to believe what we’re saying if we don’t believe in ourselves?

What this means with regard to selling faster is simple: It means great salespeople don’t experience slumps and periods of low productivity; rather, they’re always game on making it happen. They believe in themselves and their product/service and their price.

There you have it: Six Secrets to Sell More in Less Time. You’re right — the list is not rocket science. It is made up of 6 things anyone can do.

Now ask yourself, “What’s holding me back from speeding up my sales?”

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This Ain't Your Father's Retirement

This Ain't Your Father's Retirement
By Peter "Coach Pete" D'Arruda

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi

I was a "honeymoon baby." That is, I was a souvenir of my parent's honeymoon. I was born exactly nine months to the day from when it started. My arrival was a mixed blessing at best. My father, a full time student working on his Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Physics, and my mother, also a college student, needed an addition to the family like they needed a hole in the head.

To say that I grew up in a family of modest means is an understatement. But we never went hungry. One of my earliest memories is that of a large metal can on the kitchen counter stenciled with the words, "peanut butter," in bold, government-style letters. Sitting next to it was a plain box marked "cheese" in the same stark lettering. I would learn later that it was something called "government surplus," a precursor to food stamps. It was free, but you had to be poor to qualify for it.

Wants versus needs

Things got a little better as I grew older, but not much. There was little money in the house. What there was went to pay for necessities like nourishment and shelter. Those were needs. As I remember it, there was never a problem in our home making a distinction between needs and wants. Needs, I came to conclude, are absolute and gnawingly apparent. Wants are arbitrary and usually frivolous.

It troubles me that today's society, especially in wealthy countries like the United States, is defined by its craving for instancy. Baby boomers started the push button era sometime in the 1950s and soon, consumers were hooked on instant coffee, instant tea, frozen TV dinners and so many labor-saving devices that kitchens couldn't contain them all. Now, we are addicts, and we have passed the habit on to our kids. The line of distinction between wants and needs always seems to blur when there is plenty, but usually comes back into sharp focus during hard times.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project, Americans are rethinking what they can and cannot live without. It used to be that most folks saw such things as microwave ovens, home air conditioning and TVs as luxuries; now, more people see them as necessities. Do you have a cell phone? Could you part with it? Half of those polled said they viewed cell phones and personal computers as necessities. Food is a necessity. You can't eat a computer. Would you go hungry to keep your cell phone? That is the true test, I suppose.

Economic recession has a way of teaching us priorities. Since the era of abundance in the 1990s, the television, the most sacrosanct of all luxury items, is now considered a necessity for only 52 percent of those surveyed -- down from 64 percent. The media bombards us daily with things that are attractive and appealing. Advertising moguls are paid millions to find new ways of making us want the things they dangle before us. Credit cards make them easy to purchase. It is no wonder that some think there is a giant conspiracy out there, the purpose of which is to prevent anyone from saving anything! I know my mother would see it that way. "It's a game," she used to say. "And it goes like this: You have money in your pocket, and everyone around you is trying to get it out."

Those words still come back to me every time I leave a Best Buy store with some new gadget that I felt sure I could not live another day without. I get that little tingle of conscience they call "buyer's remorse."

 

Debt versus savings

These days, America is addicted to credit the way drug addicts are hooked on narcotics. The actual number is hard to nail down, but one source recently stated that the United States owes more than $2.5 trillion in consumer debt. Even if it's off a billion or two, that's a lot! How much is a trillion?

·         Our standard nine-digit calculator can't display it. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

·         A trillion one-dollar bills, laid end to end, would reach the sun.

·         A trillion dollars amounts to $3,333 for each of America's 300 million people.

David Schwartz, a children's book author, says in his book, "How Much Is a Million?,"

·         "One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days."

·          "A billion seconds is 32 years."

·         "And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years."

With that in mind, here are a couple of staggering statistics. As of this writing, the United States federal deficit stands at $1.7 trillion. The national debt stands at over $15 trillion. The debt is incurred when the government spends more than it takes in. It is the debt that creates the operating deficit that resets annually. These deficits are paid for by the government selling interest-bearing Treasury securities.

This is where you gulp and swallow hard. If the federal government were ever to default on its promise to pay periodic interest payments or to repay the debt at maturity, the economy would spin into chaos and collapse. It is the interest on the national debt that gives the shivers to those who track this and understand what it means.

That's why the question is often asked, "Will Medicare and Social Security be around when I retire?" The answer is yes, if you retire before 2024. The answer is maybe if you retire after that. According to the trustees who report on those programs annually, Medicare's trust fund will run dry by 2024, and the Social Security will dry up in 2033. We say maybe those programs will still be here because steps will probably be taken to preserve Medicare and Social Security.But it remains to be seen what form those measures will take, and how the face of Medicare and Social Security will change as a result.

Sparse savings

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, about 60 percent of American workers say their household savings and investments total less than $25,000. According to the book, "The Narcissism Epidemic," published in 2009, average credit card debt in the United States exceeds $11,000 -- triple what it was in 1990. That's just credit card debt, and doesn't include what we owe on our houses, boats, cars, etc.

How much are Americans saving for retirement? Not nearly enough. The average American worker spends 94 percent of disposable income. The EBRI's report breaks down by age group the retirement savings of America as follows:

·         Under 35: $6,306

·         35 - 44: $22,460

·         45 - 54: $43,797

·         55 - 64: $69,127

·         65 - 75: $56,212

It's all a matter of priorities. I do not recall ever going out to eat as a kid. Even after our belts were a little looser and we no longer ate government cheese, my father and mother were both too conscious of laying a foundation for our family's future to waste money on something as frivolous as ordering from a menu. To this day, regardless of my financial situation, my eyes still go to the right side of the menu first, where the prices are listed. I can't help it. It is a habit I learned from my frugal parents, who knew the value of a dime, and even more so the value of a dollar. Any surplus was to be used as a foundation for our future, not wasted.

Today, when I see young people eating out in a fancy restaurant, I can't help but wonder if they have taken care of the necessities of life first. If not, then they are eating on borrowed money that will eventually have to be paid back by someone. I don't mean to sound like the curmudgeon who resents seeing others experience joy. It just makes me wonder if we are perhaps headed in the wrong direction as a people -- a pampered society, not one of industry and thrift.

Could it be that retracing our steps back to those taken by an earlier generation might be the best way to move forward to the rich lives we all envision for ourselves?

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Peter J. "Coach Pete" D'Arruda has 21 Years experience in the financial arena. Author of 4 books. Co-author of 3 books. Investment Advisor. Registered Financial Consultant (RFC). Certified Financial Educator (CFEd). Host of nationally syndicated FINANCIAL SAFARI Radio & TV shows. Numerous guest appearances on CNBC, BNN, & Fox Business Channels. Quoted in Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Kipplinger, AARP Magazine, and many others.

Getting New Business from Old Clients

Getting New Business from Old Clients

By Tom Hopkins

There are a lot of people who think that studying history is a waste of time. I mean, what does the War of 1812 have to do with you reaching your goal of closing a certain number of sales this month? Or, even this year? I can appreciate the point of people who think that way, but would suggest that they not drop the subject of history in its entirety.

As a sales trainer and businessman, I rely on history quite heavily—my own personal history. When students at my seminars pose questions about particular selling situations, I review my personal selling history to come up with solutions they can use today. So, when it comes to the subject of history, I will ask you to keep good and accurate records of your own history, including as much information as you can possibly gather from every client you meet. Forming such a habit will make a powerful, positive impact on your production in the long run.

Right now, ask yourself these two questions: 

1) Are you happy with your production so far this year?

2) In reviewing the business you have conducted just this year, what would you have done differently, if you could go back and do it over? 

Since business is not like a kids’ game where you can request a do-over, you must plan for improvement based on what your answers are to those two questions—your recent business history. When you know how you would have handled past situations differently, you’ve already learned how to improve your future from what you did in the past.

Increasing production tends to be the most common goal of sales pros, yet I have not found many who can tell me how they’re getting new business from old clients. In other words, few are working their client files properly. They’re not receiving maximum benefit from the hard work they’ve done in the past.

One of the major areas is money left on the table with past clients. Sure, you handled their needs professionally once. You may even have sent them thank you notes or an occasional reminder that you’re willing to serve their needs again. Maybe you gave them a note pad or pen with your name on it. But, how well are you actually serving them? How good you are depends on how much information you keep on your clients.

During my real estate career, I gathered so much information about my clients that I could always find a reason to contact them. I knew their names, their kids’ names, whether or not they had pets, where they worked, and what their interests were. I always had something topical to discuss with them. I had a plan to get in front of them a minimum of six times each year. That way, when they thought about real estate, they thought about me. Even better, when the competition contacted them, they thought about me. They loved me for remembering them, making them feel important, and treating them like family. They loved me so much that by my third year in the business, my business was 98% referral-based.

As a side note, a great strategy if you sell to consumers is to find out the date of their wedding anniversary and send them a note or card early. My little note has saved many spouses from forgetting the date themselves!

Just like your relationships with friends and family members, developing long-term relationships with clients takes some time and effort. You need to work at having them equate your name and face with any and all of their needs that your product handles. If you offer several products, keep your mind open for opportunities to re-sell or upsell existing clients. They already like and trust you, don’t they? For existing clients  who may not be thinking of making a purchase right now, why not nudge them a bit into action, or at least into considering options where your services come into play?

Be there to answer questions for all of your clients. These days, business situations are dynamic. Your product that didn’t work for a client last month, might be perfect for them today. Your life is constantly evolving – so are their needs. Work that to your advantage. Keep yourself in the back of their minds as an industry expert. Become their go-to guy or gal.

If you haven’t been staying in touch with past clients, start reconnecting with them now. It could very well be that they’re in the market for your service and you’ll show up just in time to take care of them.
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Tom Hopkins is world-renowned as America’s #1 sales trainer. For over 30 years, millions of sales professionals around the world have learned how to serve more people with his proven-effective selling skills. His books have sold in the millions and hundreds of thousands of people benefit from his recorded audio and video programs every day. Contact Tom Hopkins International by calling (800) 528-0446 or at www.tomhopkins.com or info@tomhopkins.com.

Ultimate insurance profit secret: reactive vs. proactive

Wasted potential.

Excuses.

Whining.

Anger, Bitterness, Resentment.

So many insurance professionals succumb to these debilitating activities and beliefs for one very simple reason - they react instead of proact.

Yes, proact is actually a word - yet it's hardly even in our vocabulary at all.

Daily we find ourselves re-acting to all the issues around us.  Complaining clients, new regulations, the latest about Obamacare, a new lead, a sick child, a spouse unhappy with their work, and on and on and on.

All of these are completely under our control in terms of how we react and more importantly how we proact before any of them ever happen.

Being and thinking in a proactive way is the single most significant mindset strategy to achieving high levels of success financially or in any other area of your life.

Reaction can only yield a solution after the problem has occurred.  In other words, you are forced to deal with and experience the problem, challenge or obstacle in the first place.

Proaction, however, prevents the problem from happening in the first place.  

Consider a simple example of dental care.  We go to the dentist twice a year for a cleaning and check-up.  The purpose of this is primarily to proactively prevent any serious issues from developing.  There are examples or proactive prevention all around us in the healthcare industry.

Yet, in our own businesses, it's day after day of responding, playing catch up, explaining what went wrong, damage control with a client, and just plain reaction.

To truly achieve the success you want, you must adopt and commit to a new way of thinking about your business, your time, your energy, your money.  You must think in proactive terms.

Ask yourself, "How can I prevent this problem from occurring again?"  "What can I do now to conserve my time, money and energy later?"  "What coverage protection recommendations make sense in order to avoid the challenges and obstacles that my competitors will be facing in the future?"

In other words, think ahead.  THINK ahead.  Consider more than the problems of the day and determine a set strategy to prevent them from happening tomorrow.

Yes, it's easy to blame our lack of success on the environment around us - our clients, the economy, government regulations, the 'tough' competition, etc. 

But such blame is also merely a reaction to your own lack of success. 

Sometimes, you must react, and there's nothing wrong with that so long as you continue to think in proactive terms, and do everything you can to prevent problems and challenges from occurring in the first place.

Ultimately, there are no more worthwhile questions you can ask yourself about your life and business than proactive ones.

Today, add the word 'proact' into your vocabulary and use it often!

Always the best!

Last, Best Valentine's Day Gift

Another Valentine’s Day has passed. If you’re like me, you looked high and low for what to get your spouse or loved one for Valentine’s Day which tells them how much you care about them. 

I want to add this to your thoughts before the next Valentine’s Day: Often the best thing we can do for a spouse is proper long-term care Medicaid planning.  Consider it the last, best Valentine’s gift ever!

We look out for and care for our partners throughout life, but many people neglect planning for the day when they might be incapacitated and need long-term care. The lack of planning can be disastrous to a spouse.

Medicaid planning isn’t about taking advantage of the system or helping the super-rich preserve inheritances. At the heart of it, Medicaid Planning is about helping people who are in crisis or might face a crisis provide for their loved ones. 

The reason I’m so passionate about Medicaid planning is that without it, often a spouse will enter a nursing home and drain most of the family resources … leaving the healthy spouse to go broke. Most community spouses do not adequately understand the Medicaid spend-down. That lack of knowledge causes them to spend far more money on their spouse’s care than the law requires.

As insurance agents, we need to focus on the human side of Medicaid planning. Leaving a loved one to exhaust all retirement resources for long-term care is not how we want to treated a spouse, but the lack of planning can put them in a situation that makes them feel like all of their financial security is at stake. This can lead to sleepless nights and anxiety that nobody would wish on their Valentine.

The role of the Medicaid knowledgeable insurance agent is to help guide the healthy spouse through one of the most complex government benefits systems ever imagined and make sure that they don’t spend one dollar more than the law requires. The Spousal Impoverishment rules are there to help protect the community spouse, but the average person gets a headache just trying to understand the basics of how the system works let alone the planning opportunities available to them.

The work necessary to attain Medicaid eligibility when a spouse has immediate long-term care is known as crisis planning. But crisis planning is only half of the equation. While people are still healthy enough to explore their options, planning ahead for long-term care Medicaid can give both spouses the peace of mind that their loved one will be cared for if they all of a sudden start running up an $8,000-a-month nursing home bill.

Planning ahead for long-term care Medicaid says “I LOVE YOU” in a whole new way and makes sure when a healthcare crisis strikes, their Valentine won’t be left in financial crisis, too.

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