This is an issue I have been sensing for quite sometime, especially as a 2nd Generation Insurance Broker who was force fed the mantra of the good old days … “Just Get Out There and Walk Into Businesses”.

Yes, action is critical, massive action is paramount for some.  The fact is now you can no longer – as in the old days  – merely Hang Your Shingle Out There and survive on sheer persistence.  You have to work both Hard and Smart in this economy and IMHO for the last several years.

The Insurance agency model has become much more complex.  Demanding volume commitments to obtain and maintain quality carriers [ for us Independent agents ], Loss Ratio requirements, and now more than ever the tremendous expense of Insurance Specific Technology and Training.

I feel the complexity of owning and running a small to mid-size agency has exponentially increased in the 24 years I’ve been involved in the industry. Staggering really, when I reflect back on our first FAX machine   Our first IBM PC with dual 5.25″ floppy drives.  WOW!

Tying in the timely piece below from Brian Tracy … We can No Longer as agents, expect to remain viable with the age old activities of sending our clients a bill at their annual renewal, and hope to survive.  Excellent service is the expected Norm.  Lightning speed and turnaround, and instant gratification are as well.

With the difficulty we go through just to obtain clients, shouldn’t we do everything we can to RETAIN them?

Is your retention strategy a nice smile, a few kind words, and a billing statement at renewal? If so, you better re-think that strategy, else your carrier field rep might be on his way with a form for you to sign … that you acknowledge you’re being terminated.

Develop a plan and a strategy today! I encourage you to consider the one I deployed.  One that is turnkey, cost effective and can start having an immediate positive impact. The Ultimate Retention and Referral System.

Take Action – Implement!

I wish you all the best,

The Complex Sale Today

By: Brian Tracy

The Sale is More Complex Today

The entire process of selling today is more complex than it has ever been before. It used to be that we would make a single call on a single buyer who would make a single decision on our product or offering. In this simple form of selling, we used the attention/interest/ desire/action (AIDA) model of sales presentation and focused intensely on numerous different ways of closing the sale. Then, once we had made the sale, in many cases we never saw the customer again.

Everything Has Changed

Today, however, everything is different. Today we must make multiple calls, an average of five or six, in order to make the sale. We deal with multiple decision makers in an organization, each of whom can influence the purchase. Much of the sale takes place when we are not present. Sometimes we never even meet the final decision maker who signs the check. And it is not unusual for a sale to be derailed at the last minute by something completely unexpected.

The Competition is Fierce

If that weren’t enough, there is more competition than ever before and it is more determined and resolute than it has ever been in the past. Not only must we compete on the basis of price, quality, services, capabilities, financing and warranties with many other vendors of our product or service, but we must also compete with every other vendor of every other product or service who is striving to get the same customer dollar that we are after. Our competitors are extremely determined, driven the same as we are by tight markets and careful customers. They are committed to starting earlier, working harder, and staying up later thinking of ways to take our customers away from us.

Customers Are Overwhelmed

Our prospective customers are beset on all sides by every conceivable sales offering. Because they are drowning in details, options and choices, they are in no hurry to make up their minds. With markets changing and contracting, the amount of discretionary funds they have available has shrunken and they are more careful today than they have ever had to be in the past.

The Key to Profitability

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. If a business does this in sufficient quantity and with proper cost controls, it will make a profit. The profit is the result of creating and keeping customers efficiently.

Create and Keep Customers

As the president of your own professional sales corporation, your job is to create and keep customers as well. And just as a company must continually restructure and redesign its product and service offerings to satisfy the changing tastes of a demanding and competitive customer marketplace, you as a salesperson must constantly upgrade the quality and sophistication of your sales procedures and approaches if you are going to create customers in sufficient quantity.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, be prepared to make multiple calls on a customer to close a large or complex sale. Plan your sales work systematically so you always have a new reason for calling back. Second, think continually about how you have to change and improve your selling and your offering if you want to succeed in a tough market. Work on yourself every day and never stop getting better.

Brought to you by World Class Sales Trainer - Brian Tracy |  http://www.briantracy.com