Why sales skills matter

I want to correct a few misconceptions that people might have about great salespeople. Let me state this emphatically: you cannot become a great insurance and financial professional unless you become a great salesperson first.

Being a great salesperson is a desirable objective. I am proud that I am a professional salesperson and I work to increase and improve my sales skills every day.

Becoming a professional salesperson is vital for success in our business. I know many representatives in our business with magnificent credentials, but success eludes them because they are not in front of enough people or don’t know how to share their knowledge with people. They lack sales skills.

See also: 10 great opening lines from top producers

Our primary responsibility is to inspire people to take action. Can we accomplish this with great products? No — people don’t care what it is. Do people give insurance and financial knowledge high priority in their lives? No — people have many other things to worry about. Can we wow them with our spectacular personalities or our good looks? No — those will not be enough to make them trust you.

We achieve success in our business because we use professional sales skills to inspire people to take action. Then, we follow through to help our clients achieve the successful results they expect from us.

The people in our industry must understand. It is not our products, because we have outstanding products. It is not current events, because our world will always provide challenges. The number one thing preventing our industry from achieving its potential is a lack of professional sales skills possessed by the people who are selling our products.

First, many of the people in our industry believe that explaining and illustrating lots of bad news will inspire our prospects and clients to leap to action. Actually, the opposite occurs. People deny, or even ignore, bad things and terrible news. They shut down and they do nothing.

Sell the opportunity