Recently, while I was conducting a sales training session, someone asked me, “Ken, can we really learn anything from a bunch of dead guys?”
Although that question might come across as a little bit funny and a whole lot “snarky,” it also reveals an important mindset that’s worth exploring. In a way, the question reveals the thinking—misguided thinking, I might add—of a lot of people in the life insurance business today. That’s the thinking that today we live in such unique times that we face sales challenges that have never been faced before. And that, as sales people, our toolbox needs to be filled with tools that no group of salespeople have ever had to use before. We can’t possibly learn anything from the sales approaches and outlooks of those salespeople who have long been dead and gone, much less actually working in the business, can we?
In my book Sales Lessons from the Masters, I explore and share the sales and motivational principles I have learned from the greatest sales people in our business. And I believe that before it makes sense to discuss those principles, one first needs to understand what a principle actually is.
A principle is an idea that works 100 percent of the time. Another way to say it is that a principle is like a law of nature. For example, with the law of gravity, if I stand on the roof of a building and drop a ball, it will fall to the earth every time. It will never go up. The same consistency of specific results tied to a specific action is true with all principles.
Napoleon Hill wrote his book Think and Grow Rich 80 years ago. That book is based on principles Hill learned from successful business leaders of his generation. To this day, it is still a best-selling book. It obviously continues to have a significant impact on readers, because there are more than 6,000 comments about it on Amazon’s Web-site. I believe that the reason for the Think and Grow Rich continued success is that Hill based his book on principles.
Another example of a book that is based on principles is Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. It was written more than 70 years ago and has more than 650 comments on Amazon’s Website. Again, that’s terrific evidence that it continues to have an impact on readers, no matter its age. The reason for its continued success, I believe, is Bettger’s focus on principles.
Just so you know that I’m not one of those guys who worships the past and believes getting back to our glory days will solve all of our sales problems, let’s look at the case of Amazon which I’ve mentioned a few times already. Jeff Bezos and his management of his company Amazon is actually a great example of applying principles. Although much of the world likes to tout Amazon’s innovation, Bezos actually uses the same principles as Macy’s, Gimbels, and Wanamaker’s department stores used 100 years ago and Sam Walton has used successfully in more recent years.
Consider how Bezos stresses the following principles, and how Amazon implements them:
- Bias toward action.
- Obsess over customers.
- Insist on the highest standards.
- Manage for results.
Just as Bezos applies the principles from the greatest retailers in his management approach for Amazon, we in the insurance business can apply the principles from our industry’s greatest sales people in our sales efforts today.
Sales principles may not be sexy or hi-tech, but they have something exceptionally valuable going for them—they work.
I believe so strongly in this fact that it permeates my sales training approach. In fact, that is one of the things that sets me apart from others who do what I do. I believe this business has become so focused on the products that we’re developing that we have forgotten the basic sales principles that have worked, are currently working for those savvy enough to use them, and always will work. Every time.
These sales principles work with agents and advisors, regional sales people, internal wholesalers, and property/casualty agencies. They can even be applied to one’s personal life.
Here are several quick examples of what I’m talking about:
Stop Selling Insurance. Remember that it’s not about the product, it’s about what the product does. No one wants to buy insurance, but everyone wants to solve a problem. For example, your prospect wants his or her family to stay in their home if anything happens to your prospect. That’s a problem. You solve that problem with life insurance.
How do you uncover problems? You uncover them with questions, and lots of them. I have found that the top agents and advisors ask lots of questions and then present the product as the solution to the questions they’ve raised.
After the agent or advisor understands that we don’t sell insurance but we do solve problems, their perspective on the business starts to totally change.
Sales Process. A management consulting company conducted a survey of sales people. Their study found that 78 percent of the sales people surveyed had no sales process or didn’t use their company’s sales process that was available to them. Is there any wonder why 20 percent of salespeople do 80 percent of the business?
By assisting my clients in developing a sales process, I have been able to have a significant impact on my clients’ sales. In fact, this is one of the areas where I feel like I’ve had some of my greatest impact. I help by breaking down the process to simple steps that are easy to implement. I think back to my days at Mutual of Omaha. One of our offices sold almost as much disability insurance as the other 60 offices combined. The reason is that they had a sales process, and everyone in that office followed the sales process every single time.
Repetition. If you want to change behavior or change an office culture, the way to do so is through repetition.
People in home offices are often challenged by this concept. They believe that all they have to do is tell the agent or advisor to do something and it will just happen.
I am reminded of all the companies that developed individual critical illness plans. They spent a lot of money developing and filing products, and then they expected the agents to sell them. The sales never happened to any degree. When introducing anything new, one must look at the project as a process. Because the critical illness product was a brand new concept for most agents, the first step in the process had to be to help the agent understand the need. The second step in the process was to have the agent purchase the product himself.
Repetition is a crucially important component to any process. I have integrated repetition into my own training in many ways. One way is that I have a goal to say the same thing to an agent ten times, each time in a slightly different way. My ultimate aim is to eventually have the agent call me and say something like, “Ken, I have this great idea!” and then essentially repeat to me what I’ve said to the agent over and over.
I know I’ve succeeded with the agent when I hear my own words coming back to me!
I have attended a lot of training meetings throughout the years. And it is very common to see everyone leaving a meeting and saying things like, “That was the greatest meeting ever!” But then nothing changes.
I know why nothing changes, and it all comes back to a failure to understand, focus on, and implement principles. And to understand, focus on, and implement principles takes time. Certainly it takes more than one meeting. That’s one of the reasons that my own unique training approach integrates the principles I’ve outlined here and provides a follow-up plan for my clients to follow. And because that follow-up plan is both based on sound sales principles and integrates sound sales principles, it’s no surprise that it actually works.
Now, what do you think? Can we really learn anything from a bunch of dead guys?
