Why Else?

If you’re trying to wrap up a sale with a new client and the final decision comes down to price, you’ve only got a 50/50 chance of winning the business. If your price is better, you win and if your price is worse, you lose. If you want to increase the odds of closing more sales, you need to up your game a little bit and get the focus away from the price. One way to do that is by asking “why else?”

If a prospect (or client) tells you that they have a proposal from someone else with a similar or better price, don’t get defensive or assume you’ve lost the sale, as price is only one factor in their decision. Instead of throwing in the towel, ask them “if the price was the same, who would you rather do business with and which policy would you rather own?”

There are two ways that this could go. Either they will tell you that they would rather do business with you or they’ll tell you they’d rather do business with your competitor. Whichever way they answer, your next question should be “why is that?”

When they give you a reason why, your first instinct is probably going to be to interject and add your own opinion, but this would be the WRONG approach. This isn’t the time for you to be talking, this is the time for your prospect to be talking. Your job is to keep asking the right question in order to gather enough information to overcome the price as a reason to buy somewhere else. So, your next question should be “why else?”

When they give you an answer, ask them again, “why else?” Repeat this process until they run out of reasons why. If they stated that they would rather work with you if prices were equal, you’ll now have a bunch of reasons why they should work with you even if the prices are NOT the same. For example:

Them: “I’d rather work with you because you’re more knowledgeable.”

You: “Why Else?”

Them: “Your policy has better coverage for…”

You: “Why Else?”

Them: “I like the way your coverage extends to…”

You: “Why Else?”

Them: Your office is closer and you were recommended strongly by my friend, they said you really take care of them well.”

You: “Why Else?”

Them: “That’s it.”

If the prospect gives you 4, 6 or 8 reasons why they would rather do business with you, you now have 4, 6 or 8 reasons why your price SHOULD be higher or why they should move forward even though your price is higher!

If your prospect tells you that if the price was the same they would rather work with your competitor, repeat the same process as above until you have the list of reasons why you’re being beat out by your competition. You now know exactly what needs to be overcome or, worst case scenario, how to improve so that you’re NOT beat out the next time you find yourself in the same situation. You will probably find that the information they have from your competition is somehow flawed or missing important pieces that will help you overcome the price.

You may also find that you’re offering the wrong product all together if there are aspects of the other policy that they prefer over yours. You now have the opportunity to either adjust your offering or recommend something all-together different that meets your prospects needs better.

Knowledge is power and, no matter what you find out when asking your “why else” questions, you’ll now have more knowledge about how to close the sale you’re working on AND how to improve with your next client. 

I Hate January!

I’m a positive, optimistic, upbeat, glass is 1/2 full kind of guy. Not much gets to me or gets me down. Except January! For the last 20 years or so, I’ve hated January.

It’s not the fact that Christmas is over or decorations are coming down (I’m usually ready to get back to normal life). It’s not the cold weather (I like to hit the slopes). It’s not the icy roads or constantly dirty car. It’s not any of those things. I hate January because when I look at my sales board for the year it is full of zeros!

I’m usually celebrating a good year each December - looking back at what worked well, what went right and what the final year end numbers are going to be.  December is also my planning month - setting next year’s goals, planning my marketing and creating my business plan. I love December!

But then January comes around and it’s like all of last year’s hard work never existed. My sales board is empty, and I have a LONG way to go to hit my yearly goals! I try my best to avoid any “stinkin thinkin” but January just has a way of bringing me down. January is my Kryptonite.

When you own your own business or work in a sales environment it helps to look at things and see the possibilities instead of the problems. It’s been scientifically proven that your attitude and outlook are major factors in your success and achievement, so I spent the first week of January researching some of the most successful people around to get some tips, tricks, hacks and productivity tools to get the year kicked off right.

I found so much good info, that I thought I’d share some of my favorites with the hopes that others can use some of it to throw their year into high gear! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get things moving. Last year was a pretty incredible year in my business. But that was then and this is now and my competitive nature is driving me to do more, be better and achieve more than I did in 2015. I always feel like I can work a little bit smarter, reach a little bit higher and get a little bit more done than last year. If you’re wired that way too, perhaps some of the info I found will help you get there.

4 Things The Most Successful People Have In Common:

Just Say No

Warren Buffett once said: The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything. And that’s what gives them the time to accomplish so much. Achievement requires focus. And focus means saying “no” to a lot of distractions.

Know What You Are

In his classic essay Managing Oneself, Pete Drucker is very clear: ignore your weaknesses and keep improving your strengths. In identifying opportunities for improvement, don’t waste time cultivating skill areas where you have little competence. Instead, concentrate on—and build on—your strengths.

This means knowing who you are, what you are and what you are good at. Harvard professor Gautam Mukunda, author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, says this is key for leaders:

More than anything else, “Know thyself.” Know what your type is. …Think about your own personality… For instance, if you are a classic entrepreneur, you can’t work in an organization. Know that.

Create Good Luck

Luck isn’t magical — there’s a science to it. Richard Wiseman studied lucky people for his book Luck Factor, and broke down what they do right.

Certain personality types are luckier because they behave in a way that maximizes the chance for good opportunities. By being more outgoing, open to new ideas, following hunches, and being optimistic, lucky people create possibilities.

Does applying these principles to your life actually work? Wiseman created a “luck school” to test the ideas — and it was a success. Via Luck Factor:

In total, 80 percent of people who attended Luck School said that their luck had increased. On average, these people estimated that their luck had increased by more than 40 percent. You can read the entire article on creating good luck at: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/10/increase-luck/

Have Grit

Intelligence and creativity are great but you can’t quit when the going gets tough if you really want to accomplish anything big. That’s grit. Perseverance. And it’s one of the best predictors of success there is. Researchers have found that grit exists apart from IQ and is more predictive of success than IQ! Howard Gardner studied some of the greatest geniuses of all time. One quality they all had in common sounds an awful lot like grit: “…when they fail, they do not waste much time lamenting; blaming; or, at the extreme, quitting. Instead, regarding the failure as a learning experience, they try to build upon its lessons in their future endeavors. Framing is most succinctly captured in aphorism by French economist and visionary Jean Monnet: “I regard every defeat as an opportunity.”

In addition to things that ultra-successful people have in common, I came across some of their best productivity hacks too. Here are a few to get your year going:

Turn Off Alerts

It's terribly tough to get into your Zen zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets. It's essential you shut these notifications off! Trust me, you'll see efficiency skyrocket once you tell your phone to shut its blabbering mouth.

Even if you’re not able (or comfortable) turning off the alerts for long periods of time, try putting your phone into airplane mode once or twice per day while you work on important issues like marketing your business. Creative time goes a lot further when you hunker down, get rid of the distractions and focus on the task at hand.

Have 30-Minute Meetings

As Jeff Haden notes in an Inc.com article, "whoever invented the one-hour default in calendar software wasted millions of people-hours." The truth is that most meetings never need more than 30 minutes to accomplish their missions. Many really only need 15 minutes. Don't be a calendar-default deadbeat. Try it for a week and see what happens. Book all of your meetings for 30 minutes and see if you still get everything done. Chances are, you’ll not only accomplish everything you needed to in your meetings, but end up with a calendar full of extra free time as well!

Down With To-Dos, In With Scheduling

Have you ever had that to-do item that simply wouldn't disappear? It hovers at the bottom of the list or scratched in the corner, petulantly scowling at you for days, weeks, even months! As more time passes, you feel even less inclined to give it attention.

We've all been there--it's just one of the reasons I'm saying out with the to-do list and in with scheduling. As Eric Barker, a writer for The Week notes in the article "How to Be the Most Productive Person in Your Office--and Still Get Home by 5:30," scheduling requires you to be realistic about what you can get done. It makes you seriously sit down and consider your available time and what specific slots you can designate to completing certain tasks in a given day. To-dos are pipe dreams. Scheduling is a game plan. Studies show that even scheduling free time can be rewarding and can result in better quality of time spent--even if that time spent is playing a game or reading a novel.

If you've got some good ideas for 2016, I'd love to hear about them. Who knows, maybe some other agents out there could really benefit from what you've got to share. Maybe there are some agents out there with the exact right idea you need to grow your business! We're all stuck in this January thing together, let's stick together and help each other get out with some of the best agent ideas ever!

4 Phone Calls To Make Every Day To Grow Your Business

I know that most sales professionals cringe when they think about picking up the phone and cold calling or "dialing-for-dollars" (me included). For some people, the thought of picking up the phone and calling an angry client, an missed sale or even a referral can make their hands clam up and their heart skip a beat.

I get it. When I was first starting out, I used to cold-call for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week and I hated every minute of it. I forced myself to do it because at the time it was my only source of new business, but I hated it the whole time. While I don’t have to cold-call for business any more, there are still 4 phone calls I try to make EVERY DAY in order to grow my business.

The “save-a-deal or client” call. Unfortunately, not every deal goes smoothly and not every client sticks around forever. Clients leave for what they think are greener pastures, buyers try to bail out of buying because some other company is $5 less, etc. Pick one deal or one client that seems like a goner and make a call to see if you can save the deal or the relationship. You’ll be surprised at how many deals are salvageable and how much extra money that one call can add to your bottom line each year. If you make an average of $400 per auto/home insurance client and you can save one client a month or close an extra one deal that would have otherwise gone away, that’s about an extra $10,000 in your pocket every year! If you're making a call to an investment or life insurance client, the numbers could be far bigger. I don't know about you, but one call per day, five days a week for an extra $10,000 seems like a pretty good return on my investment.

The “random check-in or thank you” call. Even your best clients forget about you if they haven’t heard from you in awhile. An easy, personal, and effective way to make sure that people remember you when it really counts (like when someone mentions they need the services you offer and you want them to refer you), is by calling a few clients each day in order to check in on them and let them know you are thinking about them. No selling, just call and see how they are and let them know you appreciate them being your clients. You’ll be amazed at the conversations that come up from a simple phone call. You'll come across clients that are in the process of leaving their jobs and needing to move their 401(k) to an IRA. You'll discover new babies in the house that brings up conversations of more life insurance. Don't bring any of these sales conversations up yourself, but if the client has something to discuss, by all means answer their questions. If something does come up that warrants a follow up conversation and the client doesn't get the conversation started, make a note of it and follow up with them the following week to discuss.

The “happy birthday” call. Your clients deserve to feel special on their birthday. With all of the Facebook, text and email “happy birthdays” these days, a personal call really goes a long way. It will let your folks know they’re important to you and remind them of what a great person you are! Even if you don't reach your client and you just leave them a message, birthday calls are a quick, easy, non-sales type call that will allow your best clients to hear your voice and be reminded of who you are and all you do for them.

The "Let's Do Lunch" call. When was the last time you had lunch with one of your best clients? Most agents like to have lunch with their friends, their colleagues or (a lot of the time) alone. I get the appeal of eating with friends and co-workers but ask yourself this one, very important question - how many opportunities do you have to sell your services and your products to your colleagues? What chance do you have of making a sale while you are sitting alone enjoying lunch? If you're in the business of selling (you are) and you get paid for making more sales (you do), then creating opportunities to have sales conversations with people that can and will actually buy something from you is a REALLY good idea! 

Try calling up a client (or prospect) around 11:00-11:30 each day and let them know you'll be in their area around noon. Tell them you don't like eating alone and you'd like to get to know them better and offer to buy them lunch - no sales, no hidden motives - you just want to get to know them better. One of two things will usually happen when you make this kind of call:

1. Most of the time the person you call will not be available and will not meet you for lunch. That's okay! Even if they don't have lunch with you, they're probably thinking about you. They may even tell someone that they work with that their insurance adviser is a great person who tries to have lunch with them. Your client or prospect will probably even feel like they owe you or should be more loyal to you just because you offered (and even though you didn't actually buy them lunch). If they get this call from you twice per year, they'll think more highly of you and feel like you are taking better care of them even if you never get together!

2. You meet for lunch, get to know them better and have a nice conversation about them - what they've got going on, goals and dreams, family activities, hobbies, etc. Half of the time, something will come up that needs to be discussed further in a business setting but, even if it doesn't, you've created a more loyal client and a longer-lasting relationship. You've increased your retention and given a client another reason to stick around and tell others how great you are. Not a bad deal!

If you took the time to make all 4 calls each day, it would probably take you about 10 minutes per day. But the amount that you can accomplish in those 10 minutes is staggering if you stop and think about it. You'll be increasing your retention, coming across sales opportunities, generating good will, strengthening client relationships, giving people another reason to refer you...the list goes on and on. Ultimately you'll be putting more money in your pocket and making yourself more successful. Not bad for picking up the phone a few times each day!

Achieve More Of Your 2016 Goals With These 2 Simple Tweaks

Do you want to achieve more in 2016 and have your best year ever? Try these 2 little tweaks to your goal setting and see what happens!

For the last 5 years or so I’ve been following the same ritual  almost every day when it comes to my goals - every morning I get out a note card and list my goals for the year as things I hope to achieve during the next 12 months. Then I flip the card over and write down 5-10 things I can do TODAY to move me closer to my goals.

Not a bad system in general, because it’s been proven over and over again that those who take the time to write down their goals daily are FAR more likely to achieve them. But I recently came across some new research that suggests two little tweaks will help trick my brain into achieving more each year. I’ve got some pretty big goals for 2016, and if I can get my brain to think better and work harder towards achieving my goals, I’m all in! Here are the two tweaks, I’d love to hear what you think about them:

1. Write down your goals as if they’re already happening; write them in the present tense instead of the future tense. For example, instead of listing "50 paid life policies” as one of your goals, try writing “I issue 50 life cases per year.” If your goal is to sell more annuities, don't write "$500,000 in annuities" write "I help clients by issuing $500,000 of annuities every year.” Science suggests that when our brain sees and hears things like “I own” and “I do” and those things don’t yet match with your reality, your sub-conscious brain looks for new and more ways to make things match and help you achieve your goals.

2. Write down your goals twice per day instead of once. I know that a lot of people don’t even write their goals down once per day...or week...or month...or maybe not even once per year. When you physically write down your goals, your brain takes them much more seriously. If they’re not written down (with a date for reaching them) your brain considers them more of “dreams” or “wishes” than goals you ACTUALLY WANT TO ACHIEVE. 

The two best times to write down your goals are fist thing in the morning before your day gets going (I was already doing this part) and right before you go to bed at night (this one is new to me).

Writing down my goals first thing in the morning always made sense to me because I had the entire day to think about what I wanted to accomplish and take actions towards achieving my goals. But why bother writing them down again before bed? It’s not like I can do anything about them or for them overnight while I’m sleeping!

It turns out that I was wrong about that. When you write down your goals right before you go to bed, your subconscious actually works on the problem of achieving your goals all night long while you are asleep.

We don’t give our subconscious enough credit (or enough to do) when it comes to helping us achieve our goals. When you go to bed with your goals fresh in your mind, you may find that achieving those goals somehow winds up in your dreams or that you wake up with a fresh idea on how to improve your situation or solve a problem that was holding you back.

By writing your goals twice per day instead of one, your keeping your goals fresh in your mind AND keeping your mind focused on helping you get everything you want for the year. Give it a try and let me know what you think! I'm more excited going into 2016 than I ever have been for a new year in the past. I know that the agents who get creative, focus on the right things and work hard are going to have their best year ever, and I know my name will be on that list of agents.

Let's make 2016 the year ever and share the best agent ideas ever!

2016 - Best Year Ever, Best Agent Ideas Ever!

Believe it or not, Britney Spears has an amazing lesson for you when it comes to growing your business and having the best insurance agency in town!

Before we get to it, let's talk about 2016 real quick. I'm dedicated to making 2016 the best year ever for insurance agents all across the country by providing the best agent ideas ever all throughout the year. Why, you ask?

Because this is OUR year! The year of the agent! The year for professionals to fight back against the 800 #'s and internet insurance companies! I just read an article about the up and coming "Uber" of the insurance industry that is designed and dedicated to driving the local, professional agents out of business. I don't know about you, but that makes me mad. Really mad!!

I come across so many prospects who are currently insured with an 800 # company that have the ABSOLUTE WORST insurance coverage possible for their situation. High net-worth folks with low (and sometimes NO) coverage to protect their families and their assets. Young families starting out that have coverage they don't need because someone on the other end of a phone line a thousand miles away pushed the wrong button on their computer screen.

Consumers NEED professional agents and those of us who are in the front lines representing our clients and protecting families deserve to be paid for the hard work that we do every day. Not only are we fighting for and helping consumers, most of us are small business owners that are also employing people and supporting our community. Our cities, our clients and our country needs professional agents like us to not only stay in business, but to thrive, excel and succeed!

If it sounds like I'm pumped up and looking to change the world (or at least improve our industry), it's because that is EXACTLY what I'm planning to do in 2016. I'd love it if every professional agent form every company in every city across the country came along for the ride. We may work for different companies, but we're in this great industry together and we're definitely stronger together than we are apart. It's time to share better ideas, help each other and our industry grow. It's time to be more successful, and help more people. It's time to stand together and fight back against the big companies that are trying to get rid of us, and Britney Spears knows how to get it done (or one of the main components of getting it done, at least)!

Fortunately, she put it into a song for all of us. I've taken the liberty of highlighting the important parts. Here it is:

Work Work

Britney Spears

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati? You better work b****
You want a Lamborghini? Sippin' martinis?
Look hot in a bikini? You better work b****
You wanna live fancy? Live in a big mansion?
Party in France?
You better work b****, you better work b****
You better work b****, you better work b****
Now get to work b****!
Now get to work b****!

Bring it on, ring the alarm
Don't stop now, just be the champion
Work it hard, like it's your profession
Watch out now, cause here it comes
Here comes the smasher, here comes the master
Here comes the big beat, big beat disaster
No time to quit now, just time to get it now
Pick up what I'm putting down
Pick up what I'm putting down

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati? You better work b****
You want a Lamborghini? Sippin' martinis?
Look hot in a bikini? You better work b****
You wanna live fancy? Live in a big mansion?
Party in France?
You better work b****, you better work b****
You better work b****, you better work b****
Now get to work b****!
Now get to work b****!

Break it off, break it down
See me come and you can hear my sound
Tell somebody in your town
Spread the word, spread the word
Go call the police, go call the governor
I bring the treble, don't mean to trouble ya'
I make the governor, call me the governor
I am the bad b****, the b**** that you'll never know

Hold your head high, fingers to the sky
They gonna try to try ya', but they can't deny ya'
Keep it moving higher, and higher
Keep it building higher, and higher
So hold your head high, fingers to the sky
Now they don't believe ya', but they gonna meet ya'
Keep it moving higher and higher
Keep it moving higher and higher and higher

Work, work, work, work
Work, work, work, work
Work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out
Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out
Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out
Work it out, work it out
You better work b****
You better work b****

Although it does take MORE than just work to be successful and get you want (like working on the right things), there is no substitute for hard work. It's one of the components needed to make 2016 your best year ever. Thanks for the reminder, Britney!