What would you ask a top producer?

[Charpress]

I have an opportunity coming up to sit down with somebody who sells multiple tens of millions in annuity premium every year. He is very well known in the industry and probably gets most of his business through seminar sales.

So here's the thing: I need to get my thoughts together and be prepared to ask him some questions about how to build up my business. It isn't all that often that you get a chance to just pick somebody's brain this way.

I have some specific question for him on the way I do seminars, mailings, scheduling, appointments. Those are probably obvious. I was just wondering what others might ask if they had this opportunity.
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From what I've read about him, I already know he does large invitation mailings.

It is a good general question. I would like to pin him down on exactly how he does his mailings, who does them (I think I already know that one) and what he puts in the invitations.

 

[Mark]

I would ask him if I could copy what he was doing. I want to copy all of his materials also.

I would ask him how does he over come most clients objectives in not buying the Annuities.

I always said, don't reinvent the wheel, but copy what other successful agents are doing. Then put your own twist on their ideas.

 

[padthaiforlunch]

Since he probably got to where he was through trial and error, I would ask him about....

1. The changes he thinks are necessary to achieve continued success.

2. The key break-through moments in his career. What does he attribute to his success?

3. How much he would charge to sit-in on one of your seminars, review your process, and help you tweak your program.

4. (probably most important) Understanding the thought process that propelled his success.

 

[Charpress]

Very good questions to ask.

I also have to consider his motivations for taking the time to talk with me. Those have pretty much been disclosed up front. Still, I would suspect there are some "tips" he would not be willing to discuss at this point.

 

[Brokers Alliance]

Very good questions to ask.

I also have to consider his motivations for taking the time to talk with me. Those have pretty much been disclosed up front. Still, I would suspect there are some "tips" he would not be willing to discuss at this point.

Even if his motivation is to sign you up under him, it might not be a bad idea for an opportunity to learn from such a successful person.

 

[somarco]

The first and only real question I would have is this.

May I watch what you do so I can learn as well?

Nothing wrong with talking, asking questions, taking notes. But there is no substitute for actually BEING THERE when it happens.

 

[Charpress]

I'm beginning to suspect that most of his production is from down-line and probably he does not do all that much in the trenches.

Still a good thing to ask for, though.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Egg zaktly. That seems to be all the FMO/marketing orgs these days.

 

[Charpress]

I've been asked to follow up on how the meeting went. Some of what we discussed was very specific to what I do, so probably would not be of much interest. However, he had quite a few good answers and tips to my questions. And, yes, he did share some of his material with me. I hope that either he does not read these forums or that he will not mind me sharing some of his information. There are a couple of things I suspect he would mind, so I'll just not get into those.

My last seminar was less successful than normal, I talk about that in another thread. He critiqued what I did wrong and I think he was dead-on about the major flaw. Although there were other problems, I deliberately left out any information on the envelope like "Complimentary dinner invitations enclosed" with the restaurant logo. I did this on purpose this time because I sent this mailing first class and thought that more people would open a first-class envelope wondering what was inside compared to all the people who are tired of getting seminar invitations and toss without opening when it is yet another obvious seminar invitation. I guess I was wrong and it was an expensive mistake. I think we all make the mistake of thinking others look at things the way we do.

The turnout on that seminar (given two weeks ago) was about half what I usually get. For all seminars, I set $300,000 in annuity premium as the minimum goal for the seminar to be considered a success rather than a failure. I am about there at this point.

We talked about the estate planning portion of my presentation. Mine is probably too complicated. He said he does a real simple "Bad estate planning" and "good estate planning" slide showing the mistakes made with Elvis Presley's estate compared to another famous person's estate. He gave me a few sample slides along those lines. They are much more entertaining than the dry stuff I was using (I didn't think mine were dry, but I see now they are). Everyone can relate to Elvis and his estate was screwed up.

I told him my weak spot was not the seminar so much but the closing. In other words, how to handle the first and second appointments after the seminar. My background is not in sales so I'm still on a learning curve. He offered to send me a CD that shows him doing a closing appointment. That has been sent, but I don't have it yet. The description he gave me of his method is to try and spot where the people need the most help after pretty much listening the first meeting. Then in the second meeting he identifies what is the most broken and says "would you like me to fix it?" which invites a "yes" response instead of "I want to think about it" response. Actually, he said that people always respond in one of two ways: "Yes" or "Yes, how will you do it?" So, he never talks products and he never gives people the impression he is trying to sell something. Start with one thing you can fix and only after people are comfortable with you do you suggest going to something else that may need to be fixed.

This is pretty basic stuff, but still it was helpful to me to have someone go over the basics to reaffirm how things should be done. Probably seeing him do a close will be the most helpful.

As for some of the questions that you suggested in this thread that I ask, yes he will provide some of his materials, like I said. On exactly what products he does best with, he was a bit cagey there and talked in generalities. He just did not directly answer that one. When I pressed and mentioned Aviva just to see if that was one he used, he said that he liked them. So, I guess that is somewhat of an answer. Most of what we talked about involved me describing how I do things and him pointing out what he thought about my methods and what he would do differently.

I hope this is somewhat helpful to some of you. I would be happy to elaborate on anything, but this is probably too long as it is.

 

[somarco]

"would you like me to fix it?"

Ooh . . . that's good.

I might just have to steal that one.