(If this article resonates for the challenges you have in your agency, be sure to check into the Small Business Sales Manager Coaching Program) In coaching hundreds of insurance agents over the years, I've become aware of a challenge that has arisen for many of them. As they've added additional products and services to their mix, their sales processes have become jumbled and muddled. They don't sell a few straightforward insurance products anymore. Instead they are now insurance providers, financial planners, health-care agents, and wealth managers that offer a wide-range of financial products to their customers. It can be … [Read more...]
The Sales and Marketing Alignment Program You Need to Know: This is How You Get Them Working Together
When the topic of "sales and marketing alignment" comes up in a room there tends to be one of a few reactions by the sales and marketing leaders who are present. The "sure sure, yeah yeah" head bob. - "Of course creating alignment is important in this customer-first, connected environment! We must do everything we can to bring sales and marketing together"... and then they go back and things continue as usual "We're just not ready for making this kind of shift." There's agreement that a change needs to be made, but it's not a crisis so it gets no organizational attention. "This is just some BS that people talk about on that … [Read more...]
3 Science-Backed Reasons You Need to Post on LinkedIn
The image that most professionals have about posting on social media isn't too positive. In fact, it's usually downright horrible. When you picture "posting on social media", what image comes up: Teenagers sprawled on their beds and posting Instagram selfies on their phone? The hipster taking a picture of their food at a restaurant for Facebook. Your friend who can't seem to stop posting their every thought to Twitter? If that's how you view social media engagement, it's easy to blow it off. It doesn't seem connected to the goal of winning more business. But what if I told you that there was actually science behind why you … [Read more...]
What to Do When You Feel Like a Fraud in Sales
An early mentor once described sales as a "transfer of confidence from you to your potential client". So what should you do when you can't find your confidence? Even worse, what if deep down you think that you're a fraud and that everyone is just about to figure that out? Feeling Like a Fraud When Selling At its core, impostor syndrome reflects a lack of confidence in yourself and your abilities. It's the impulse to look at our inadequacies and failures as the defining feature of us, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. It's important to understand that all of us have doubts and fears about our capabilities, but what … [Read more...]
Smartphones Don’t Cause Evolution: How Misunderstanding Technology Can Hurt Your Professional Network
There's an awful lie that I see tossed around by social selling "gurus", technology ninjas, and futurists. They love to suggest that technology has caused humans to evolve. For them, technology is driving a fundamental and permanent shift in the way we communicate, engage, and even think. They think that Facebook and other social media platforms are changing how we relate to each other. Or the fact that we can look up that "one actor in that one movie" on Google (instead of putting brain power into remembering) demonstrates that our memories now work differently. The argument goes that changing technology leads to changing people. In … [Read more...]
Why Understanding the On-Demand World Will Make You A More Successful Salesperson
The on-demand world has fundamentally changed how we consume information and content. And if you want to stay relevant in sales, you ned to understand how this changes what prospects and customers want and need from you. Remember when you could only watch your favorite television show at a specific time and on a specific day? Now, because of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and online platforms like Youtube, we can watch shows whenever we want. Our TV has become "on-demand" and we expect to be entertained whenever we want to be. The internet has fundamentally changed more than just how people watch television. Buying is … [Read more...]
How Watching Netflix Will Make You a Better Salesperson
It's a Friday night. It's been a long week, but you're finally at home and ready to unwind. You sit in front of the TV, open up Netflix (or Amazon Prime, Hulu, or your favorite streaming option), and BAM...all of a sudden you are faced with a massive number of choices. Lists and lists of movies, TV shows, documentaries, shorts...they keep coming. There are so many options that you might spend all of your time going through them and trying to pick one. I call it the Netflix Hole, where you spend your down-time looking through all the entertainment options instead of being entertained by one of them. If you've spent any time there, … [Read more...]
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