Keep Swinging

How is the old prospect file doing? Getting a little light? If you have prospects that you have been working for a long time, maybe it’s time for a house cleaning and a fresh start. How about a new motto? “A prospect a day keeps the bill collectors away.” Or better yet, “Two prospects a day makes Momma very happy.”

Think of prospecting like a baseball player, at bat. Except in our world of insurance, there is no limit to the number of strikes you get. You can swing at every pitch if you like. What’s the likelihood that you get a single, double, triple or even a home run? Activity creates wealth in the insurance business. How consistently do you prospect? Every day?

A recent conversation with a young salesperson revealed a startling reality. I was told that people don’t like to be sold insurance. “It’s a new world. People are very resistant to salespeople.” He thought the situation was some kind of paradigm shift. I’ve got news for this young salesperson. It’s always been that way. People have always resisted salespeople. That’s nothing new. What’s new is a significantly more whiny sales force, salespeople who have “drunk the Kool-Aid” and decided that people are far more resistant today than years ago.

I started selling back in 1971, 40 years ago, for a printing company. I was only 20 years old and knew very little more than to just walk through a large number of doors every day. While driving down a major highway, a sign on a business attracted my attention. I stopped in to discuss printing and discovered a gold mine. The owner, John Bryan, was offering all the best recordings of the era for an annual rental fee of $150. I could hear Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie and dozens of other sales trainers and motivators. These were thousands of dollars worth of recordings. I immediately signed up and was back at the store almost every day for months, devouring the material.

I then took a Dale Carnegie Sales Training course. Then I joined the Jaycees to learn how to communicate with other young business people. Then I joined Toastmasters to learn how to speak in public. I went to every trainer and motivator of my time.