How to Start Your Day

Your client might be in their pajamas having coffee. Your call lets them know you are already dressed and at work. That’s the kind of agent or advisor they want working on their behalf.

4. Clip and mail some articles.

Your compliance manager might have an opinion, but if you cut the entire article and mail the clipping, not a copy, they may let you do it. You include a handwritten note: “Thought you might find this interesting.” You do this with several articles, mailed to various clients.

Surface mail is a novelty today. It gets attention. The original clipping implies there was only one. Your client thinks “Of all the people he could send this to, he chose me.” They feel you are keeping up with news and thinking about them.

5. Prospect.

The office has come to life. As a good producer, you prospect every day. At least you intend to prospect! Get it out of the way early! Business owners might be at their desks. A new day is like a blank canvas. Nothing has happened to spoil it yet. You catch people while they are still in a good mood. Your early morning enthusiasm comes across.

People realize you are an early riser. You must be disciplined.

6. Ring the cash register.

Make those high priority business calls on the daily plan you prepared before you left last night. Getting some business in (or moving prospects closer to becoming clients) takes some pressure out of your day.

If you get your major business done in the morning, it frees up time for business lunches and sales calls in the afternoon.

You’ve seen firsthand how sales meetings, lunch and learns, paperwork crises and clients calling about service issues can consume time. These are important activities, but getting an early start means you will have made progress on developing future business and ringing the cash register.

— Read 10 Ways to Tactfully Get Your Point Across, on ThinkAdvisor.