The importance of enthusiasm

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A successful sales career requires study and practice, but it also requires enthusiasm and faith. The most important sale you will ever make in this business is to yourself. You must believe in what you do with every fiber of your being in order to achieve success and inspire clients to take action.

People do not really buy what you say; most of your presentation will be forgotten minutes after you leave their home. Instead, they buy how you say it; they will remember how you made them feel. Few people believe in anything, so coming across an insurance and financial professional who really believes in what they do will make people want to be around you.

Furthermore, your enthusiasm will be contagious. Your prospects and clients are buying your passion as much as they are buying your wisdom. You can know everything about insurance, financial products, taxes, etc., and never even achieve mediocrity if you lack belief and enthusiasm.

Belief and enthusiasm … easy to say, but how do you build a rock-solid belief in what you do? I have three recommendations:

1. If you are a person of faith, you are taught to increase your faith by sharing it with other people. The more you tell people about your belief in life insurance, annuities, long-term care, mutual funds, etc., the stronger your faith will become.
2. Join your local NAIFA organization and ask to serve on the board. They will probably accept your offer with pleasure. Continually surround yourself with people who believe. They will fortify your belief system.
3. Go to the Life Foundation website. Watch one real-life story each day. These stories will help you build, brick by brick, the foundation you need to inspire people to protect themselves and their families, build retirement dignity and create legacies that last for generations.

How do you create an enduring enthusiasm that is always present? More importantly, how do you become enthusiastic if you aren’t? Actually, it can be easy:

• Remember that this is a service industry. We are here to serve our clients. The secret to happiness is not what we get, it is what we give. Giving creates enthusiasm.
• Be around enthusiastic people. Hang around anyone who qualifies for your company’s conventions. Attend local and state NAIFA meetings, and go to the national NAIFA meeting in San Antonio this September. When you qualify (notice I did not say if), attend the annual Million Dollar Round Table meetings.

These meetings inspire me to improve. I just returned from the MDRT meeting in Philadelphia, where I was with 8,000 of my closest friends. Even I need to be recharged and re-energized occasionally, but now my belief is strengthened and my enthusiasm is soaring. So will yours.