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April 19, 2013 at 01:37 AM
Success in any venture begins with the proper mindset. As a new insurance agent, there are five key “truths” about the insurance industry and your role in it that will help ensure you have the correct mindset and the best chance at success.
Truth #1: You are a salesperson.
In order to be a successful insurance agent over the long haul, you have to accept your role as a salesperson and you need to be good at selling. No, sales does not mean selling someone something they do not need, or otherwise manipulating or taking advantage of someone. When you sell, your objectives are to help people, to be a trusted advisor, and to educate and lead people down the path they need to go. For example, if you are talking to a qualified prospect with a young family and you don’t convince that person to protect the family with life insurance and something bad happens, it’s your fault that person’s family is not protected. You did not do your job as a salesperson. The bottom line is: you need to get great at selling by both making sales a study and by finding out what the most successful agents do, and then doing the same things.
Truth #2: You are running a business.
You are self-employed in your own individual small business. You are your only job security. If you do your job well and generate sales and profit, you will have a job and a business, if you don’t generate enough sales and profit, you will be out of business looking for another job.
As a business, your highest priority is: making a profit and staying in business. There are only three activities that will ultimately make you money: prospecting, closing and servicing accounts. Those three activities are where most of, if not all of, your prime selling time should be spent. If you can’t pay someone to do the other non-profit-generating activities and thus have to do them yourself, you must do them off-hours, not during prime calling time.
Note: While your highest priority is making a profit and staying in business, this is never done at the expense of taking advantage of another person or doing something that is not in their best interest.
Truth #3: You can’t wing it.
This relates to both your activity during the day and your interaction with prospects and customers. You must have a plan to follow every day. It’s imperative that you know how many calls and contacts you need to make in order to get the prospects and the sales you need.
See also: Don’t fear the phone
