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Talented B2B Sales Professional Needed - $78,000+
Anyone familiar with the mortgage broker industry? If you don't think an ad like this gets replies you're ...
Anyone familiar with the mortgage broker industry? If you don't think an ad like this gets replies you're wrong. Basically, you're logged into an auto-dialer all day cold-calling, 10 hours a day for 1.5 deals per day and note that each deal is $200. So it's cold-calling all day for $300 per day.
Anyone want to take a wild stab at the results of being on an auto-dialer all day generating insurance prospects? 2 deals a day....at least.
I had a good independent buddy of mine quit selling insurance in Kansas about 2 years ago. He went to Capital One to do mortgages and take a while shot at what they had him doing 8 hours a day.
Any successful mortgage broker would double or triple their income selling insurance.
Now - I can include myself in this so don't get me wrong. But what exactly is the reason insurance agents aren't on the phones 5 hours a day generating leads and 3 hours a day writing deals.
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Your post is great timing for me because just a few minutes before reading it, I was making a plan for me next week to stop the laziness. I was asking myself the same question. How come even though I know that every 2 hours of b2b will result me at least one sale, I am not doing it for more than 10 hours a week to make five sales?
Whenever I am not making the money I wanted to make by the end of the month, I could not blame the clients, the companies, nor the industry because I know that it was all my fault. Because if I worked even just a full 30 hours a a week which is significantly less than how long most people work for, I can have at least 5 sales a week. I mean 30 hours of actual work put into it because you can be in your office for more than 40 hours a week but just pretend to work. We have a very good industry where you can make good money just by putting in the effort to be an expert in your product, learning how to sell and the hardest part: putting in productive hours.
It all comes down to Al Granum's Rule #1: From 9 to 5 (or whatever hours fit your business), do nothing but see people or fight to see people. In other words, if your doing anything besides meeting with prospects or clients or trying to set meetings, your doing something terribly wrong. Save the paperwork, run quotes, and prepare presentations either before or after Pay Time.
My theory is that our DNA is coded such that we 'require" that each action have a positive re-action or result. All our lives if we did "A" most often we got a result.... usually good. No matter what job we did, if we did something, something happened.
If you cleared the table the table looked good.
If you brought food, people enjoyed eating
If you solved a math problem, you felt good about yourself
If you drove a truck, you made a delivery
If you did surgery, someone lived
If you wrote a report someone read it.
If you read a report you learned something.
If you put bolt X on screw Z, something got built.
But what happens in sales... especially prospecting? It is one of the few activities where you can do something and either nothing happens or most of the time something non-positive happens. Our brains are not coded for that. It is why so many people NEED to listen to motivational tapes and go to meetings. I think that after a while if we don't get our batteries charged up, they run down... and we just become lazy. It is easier for us to AVOID the consequence of sales and prospecting than to face it.
It never ceases to amaze me that the guys and gals who are super-successful in this biz are not the smartest or have degrees from the best schools. Just just DO the work. They have a great work ethic.
Take our own John P. I've talked to John a lot. He is not the smartest man in the world nor does he have a degree from Harvard. But he has about the best work ethic of anyone I've ever known. Maybe it's his military training, but every day he "goes to work." While I'm screwing around with SugarCRM or at Staples looking at printers or doing the 1,001 things that 'fool me' into thinking I'm working... HE is out there actually working.
I'll bet it is the same for Dave F., Rick B., Senior, STI, James, and the others who mentor people here. The do the %$#@ing work. They are "above" their own DNA coding. They've figured out how to 'deal' with it in a way that works for them to keep them going. I'm not there yet, but making improvements all the time.
Earlier in my career, I had a big sign on my desk...."Is what I am doing right now, the best use of my time?" That worked great when I was fighting to make the mortgage every month.
It is different now that I have been around and am established. But, I have a hard time pushing through to the next level. There is no reason I can't make more, it comes down to laziness.
BTW- If you are new and you are reading and posting on this forum during working hours, you are violating the rule above.
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[COLOR=#305050]Yourgreathealthplan.com - Michigan Health Insurance [/COLOR]
What it really boils down to is, are you getting the result that you want.
I never confuse effort with results. That's emotion conquering logic. When you make 26 straight hours worth of cold calls, just poundin' it, you feel good afterward - you were busy, and you're probably tired...but did you get any results?
Here's a golf analogy for anyone that plays; you could stand on the range poundin' balls day after day after day...but if you're not doing the right things to improve, neither will your scoring.
Measure results. It 's the only thing that matters.
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[COLOR=blue]Don't steal - the government hates competition.[/COLOR]
I love that post. Results are results. I know agents who are closing 1 out of 10 shared leads - but get 20 a week.
Is that better than an agent pounding the pavement 40 hours a week and doing 6 deals?
The bottom line for me is a 40 hour work week = "X" pay. If you're working 15 hours a week, putting in 2 deals and making $1,200 that's great.
But if another agents is far less effective and have to work 40 hours to put in three deals the bottom lines is their family has an extra $600 a week.
But we all know the truth - especially with health insurance. If we spent 4 hours a day doing nothing but prospection (pick your type) there's not an agent on this board who wouldn't put in 7 or 8 deals a week.
Our fears are also baseless. When we prospect we fear that we'll be chewed out. Does that happen? No. 99% of the people we cold call on are very pleasant. Heck, I can see the B to B fear since it's personal contact. But what's the fear on the phone? I don't know - you tell me. I'm not a fan of the phone and have to psych myself info it.
But then something stupid happens once I've started making calls and I get into the mode and don't mind it at all. So it's not that I don't like telemarketing - I don't like the games my mind plays before I start.
But it's our avoidance of rejection that's at the root of the problem. Prospecting is like asking 100 girls out on a date and having 90 say no. It's personal to us. When people say no we mistakenly internalize it.
You're cold-calling? Then you're a microscopic blip on the radar of someone's life. The call is 20 seconds, they say "no thank" you and 10 seconds after they hang up the phone they forgot you ever called.
You're cold-calling? Then you're a microscopic blip on the radar of someone's life. The call is 20 seconds, they say "no thank" you and 10 seconds after they hang up the phone they forgot you ever called.
As you said, it is like asking girls out on a date )))
A lot of this comes down to self-esteem and what you think you're worth. If you don't think you're worth six figures and you start tracking six figures you'll push the self destruct button.
If anyone here has been a sales manager before you've met a lot of extremely talented reps who have designed their lives to make sure they're never really successful.
I've seen sales reps make huge commissions and take the next two days off. I've seen sales reps have a huge month then they can't close a deal to save their life the next month.
I saw a lot of that in cars - salesmen who topped the board in June with 32 cars and in July sold 4. Why? They made too much in June. They brought home $8,000 and their bills were only $3,000. So they they can drink coffee on the floor all day until the extra $5,000 is gone before they have to work again.
If somebody is feeling apprehensive about cold calling, conducting presentations or asking somebody out on a date, they need to grow a pair, be a man and face the reality that they need help. THEN, decide what to do once you learn of a problem Saying you have an issue without acting on finding a solution is a cop out, unless you "pro-actively" find out what the issue is and learn alternatives to correcting the issue.
Have a fear or rejection or success?
Are you tired of being nervous before calling?
Do you sweat before a presentation or cold call?
Buy some sales books, think outside the box about "how" and "what" you say to prospects when you're presenting that will differntiate yourself from the competition then Practice, practice, practice..
In addition, take a few psychological test and be honest with yourself when you take the test. I have taken a few tests and it became quickly apparent where I needed improvement and what areas I was comfortable with. Visit these places and spend a few hundred dollars.
Anybody who is interested in attending the Fear-Free Prospecting Workshop PM me so I can work on getting us discount if we can guarantee a few attendees.
They have a course coming up in the April and another TBD. $600 plus food, travel and transportation is a good deal. The company also has satellite offices similar to Sandler, but I want to meet the authors and visit Dallas, so I'll be going to Texas.
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[COLOR=#000066]"Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand." Confucius
I don't know if I agree with that or not. If you really have a fear of contacting people chances are you'll never do well in sales. You'll either do "ok" for a while and eventually get out of the field or you'll quit quickly.
I don't have a fear of cold-calling. I simply don't like the mental games I play with myself before I cold-call. Once I'm on the phone or once I'm in the field every thing's fine and I'm very effective.
But I've trained hundreds of reps to go B to B and if even once you're out there you don't like it it's over. Save your money on the books. Same with the phones. If after you're all warmed up and making calls you're thinking "I hate this" then you'll never do it.
Same with car sales - I've trained newbies there also. I dragged one guy around with me for 2 days and after that I pointed to a customer getting out of their car and said "ok, you're up." His reply? "That's ok, I'd rather spend another day with you." Done - over. We started a pool. I had him quitting after a week. I lost - he bagged it 2 days later.
Books might teach you some skills but they don't give you a pair. You either have a pair or you don't.
I don't know if I agree with that or not. If you really have a fear of contacting people chances are you'll never do well in sales. You'll either do "ok" for a while and eventually get out of the field or you'll quit quickly.
We've had the nature (hereditary) vs. nurture conversation many times in the past. People can overcome fear because fear is partly related to evolution and part related social and environment conditions. People have a natural aversion to snakes, spiders, etc. because we've been conditioned throughout time to know that snakes can kill us and that is reinforced by our environment. We're taught has children here in the good ole US to be weary or fear strangers from out parents. That conditioning continues with us into adulthood and prevents some people from being out-going. There are many others issues involved, but that is just one example.
We're not born knowing that fire or heat from a stove can hurt or kills us until we're conditioned from our parents, peers, etc. the at fire/heat is dangerous. Much of what we feel as adults is correlated to our childhood. Some may agree based on other theories and/or empirical research.
I don't have a fear of cold-calling. I simply don't like the mental games I play with myself before I cold-call. Once I'm on the phone or once I'm in the field every thing's fine and I'm very effective.
Yes, but you have experience, knowledge and ambition to know that about yourself. Behavioral and/or cognitive conditioning can help with that, but it's not the end all cure we're all searching for. If there wasn't "something" preventing you from having to play mental games before cold calling you wouldn't have to psyche yourself up.
But I've trained hundreds of reps to go B to B and if even once you're out there you don't like it it's over. Save your money on the books. Same with the phones. If after you're all warmed up and making calls you're thinking "I hate this" then you'll never do it.
That is purely a subjective perspective and it's not definitive. What doesn't the rep like about cold calling or going to B2B? How does the rep feel when a prospect says no? Are they confident and can they project confidence?
Rejection hurts no matter who you are because we are conditioned, primarily through evolution, to seek out support from other people, while being cautious and protecting ourselves from that need.
Same with car sales - I've trained newbies there also. I dragged one guy around with me for 2 days and after that I pointed to a customer getting out of their car and said "ok, you're up." His reply? "That's ok, I'd rather spend another day with you." Done - over. We started a pool. I had him quitting after a week. I lost - he bagged it 2 days later.
What was the criteria used to hire new employees? Nothing is 100% effective, but you have to look at it objectively and maximize your time. If you had faith and trust in a test, combined with your sales experience and knowledge regarding sales and interviewing, would spending $100 on a test be considered a bad investment? That depends on how you look at.
If you make $2000 a week and work 40 hours you're bringing in $50 an hour so you can either take 2 hours of your time and pay for the test yourself and allocate another 1 hour for whatever other questions you would like answered, as well as a discussion.
But what if you had a potential hire and he or she paid for the test (Multiple signs there) and you only need to spend an hour with the person. You have effectively made $250 ($50 x 2 hours out of 3 total hours + $100 for test) with 1/3 the time to help you reach the decision to hire the person or not. That's a nice 5:1 return.
When I sold merchant services to small business owners the regional sales manager had one question for me after I went through the 2 previous interviews.
"J.R., do you have a problem with going up to a woman on the dance floor and asking her to dance."
"No, I don't, would you like to go test that out and compare notes?" We didn't do that initially, but two weeks after we met and I got flown out to Ohio for training we had some fun comparing notes and working the room.
Books might teach you some skills but they don't give you a pair. You either have a pair or you don't.
I disagree. You can learn to grow a pair with proper support, knowledge and "inner" game. Inner game being the most important IMHO.
In addition to what was said above, I think most people want structure. Many are not born leaders and need someone holding their hand to show them what to do. John had the perfect example with the car "salesman" who did not want the up (or lead, depending on what sales you are in).
So, they come to the insurance field, get some attention from an IMO, then are thrown to the field where they fail since there is no one there to tell them what to do.
They funny thing is that people know what to do. Everyone knows that eating right and exercise will keep you healthy, but look at all the overweight people out there (probably calling you for insurance).
There are 2 types of people in this world:
People who know what to do
People who do it
Disclaimer: I am not trying to blow my own horn since I am not as successful as I should be, because I am not practicing what I am preaching. So, time to kick my own a**...
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"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan
here are 2 types of people in this world:
People who know what to do
People who do it
I assert there are three types of people:
People who know what to do
People who do it
People that do it sometimes
I asseverate that there are actually 5 types of people.
People who know what to do
People who do it
People that do it sometimes
People that don't care
And people who are trying to figure out what they need to do
Why are we so lazy?
)))
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