Can you make a sale any time or every day if you want to? Absolutely.
Let me clarify: Making a "sale" is not only about a new customer or a new policy. A sale is so much more than commissions: It's also about winning. Business, like sports, is a game, and sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's not.
Professional athletes practice basic activities and drills every day. In football, not every play is designed to score a touchdown. In baseball, not every swing is meant to hit a home run. In basketball, every shot taken is not a 3-pointer. While serving in the Army I learned that every tactical operation was not designed to "win the war," but to achieve a smaller objective. So, does every sale have to result in a high-revenue result to be worth your time and effort?
Most definitions of the word "sale" say something like "the activity or business of selling products or services." My focus is not on the transaction—the key word is activity. Together with cross-selling, this formed the basis for my own sales success and was the foundation for my producers' sales management during more than five decades in the insurance business.
How often do you contact a customer (the activity) to say hello and tell him you just saw the recent audit (sales, payroll, etc.) and you're glad to see that his business is growing so well? Prior to contacting the customer, you checked his coverage and realized that the business personal property limits were still only $200,000. When you ask him if that's still sufficient, the customer replies: "I'm so glad you called! My inventory is averaging over $400,000 so we should increase the insurance limits."
Isn't that a sale? The customer and you both feel good and revenue and victory—a win—were achieved. Just think about the dozens of opportunities that can be created.
Just like professional athletes, producers need a special attitude, a mindset to pursue sales and a commitment to honing their skills. That's what drives success. The activity of doing the right things guarantees results and, if followed, will guarantee a sale every time or every day.
Early in our agency's development we created so much qualified sales activity that we stopped advertising because we couldn't handle responses. By focusing on the right activities you benefit by the great feeling of making a sale, any sale, especially if you're in a slump. It helps maintain a positive mindset. It feels good. It is stimulating and motivating to be a winner. You get an adrenaline rush. And if you don't, then get out of sales.
The activities to focus on in order to guarantee a sale every day are easy to create. Using your client base, create a sales sheet of cross-selling and account-rounding opportunities for commercial and personal customers—like a shopping list. Use it as a tool and keep it handy for reference until using it becomes a habit. It could look something like this sample TOP (Take the Opportunity to Produce) sheet (below).
Seems basic, doesn't it? But that is what the pro teams and players do every day: Practice the basics and perform the right activities to achieve success and win.
You can create your own TOP sheet and tailor it to the type of products/services you sell based on level of experience or areas of specialization.
If what gets measured gets done, how easy is this for a sales manager to ask a producer "How many TOPs have you made this month? Who were they and what were the results?" The customer will benefit in many ways, like having increased limits, a broader scope of coverage, and gaps that have been eliminated. He's glad you took an interest in him and not just at renewal time.
The bottom line is: Be proactive, not just an order-taker. Get out and make a sale. You will be busier than a one-armed paper-hanger.
Remember: Nothing happens until something gets sold.
Barry Seigerman (bmseigerman@gmail.com) founded The Seigerman Agency in 1975 in Long Island, N.Y., as a full-service, multi-line agency and served as chairman and CEO of Seigerman-Mulvey Co. Inc. until Bank of Smithtown (N.Y.) Insurance Agents and Brokers Inc. acquired the agency in 2004—and he stayed on as president and CEO through 2007. That group, in turn, was acquired by People's United Bank in 2010. Now he's a producer for People's United Insurance Agency, the latest chapter in a very long book of business he's built through the simple power of cultivating relationships.
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