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A man faces a choice about which road to take

Life Health > Running Your Business > Selling

11 Ways to Avoid Building a High 6-Figure Business

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What You Need to Know

  • Focus on the wrong prospects.
  • Stay ignorant.
  • If something seems to work, stop doing that.

I’ve given some thought on how not to grow a successful financial or insurance business. Here are some ideas about how to do poorly, over the long term.

If you don’t want a high six-figure (or greater) business, follow these guidelines:

1. Spend all your time online in groups with other advisors and agents.

Avoid getting into groups where your ideal clients are and participating in discussions there.

2. Email and message someone because you need a client.

Stay away from asking questions, adding value, and helping to solve prospects’ problems.

3. Follow the 26-year-old advisor crushing it on TikTok and building automated funnels.

Obsess about copying the 26-year-old, even though you’re 50 years old, happily married with kids, don’t really know what TikTok is, and thought a funnel was something you use in the kitchen.

4. Use “spray and pray” as your marketing technique.

Segmenting your market and focusing on the best prospects is for other people.

5. Hold yourself out to be an advisor, without learning to be an advisor.

Don’t master the basic concepts you need to know to help your clients get where they want to go.

6. Do your “best” to grow your business, instead of doing “what it takes.”

Your “best” is good enough, if you want to stay small.

7. Complain and get disillusioned because the world isn’t fair and the game keeps changing.

The world isn’t fair and the game does keep changing. Griping will help you ward off growth!

8. Say you will do something and then not get to it.

Good intentions are not good enough for growth. A failure to follow through can shield you from success.

9. Find something that works and then stop doing it.

So many seasoned advisors tell me something like, “It worked really well. I don’t know why I stopped doing it.”

10. Jump into ads and expensive funnels before you know whether your messages work.

If they don’t work organically, they’re not likely to work with paid traffic. Money down the rat hole!

11. Piece together a whole bunch of different strategies to grow your business.

Frankenstein was a hit movie, but it definitely won’t grow your business.

If you’d rather build your business, take what’s been working for you and embellish, improve, and supplement it. It’s the fastest way to a million-dollar practice.


Sandy SchusselSandy Schussel is a coach and practice development consultant for insurance and financial professionals. He has served as an MDRT Academy trainer, is on the faculty of the InsuranceProShop and is a preferred mentor with InsuranceWebX. He has served as the national sales training director for a broker-dealer and life insurance company. He is the author of two books, The High Diving Board, about overcoming fear and Become A Client Magnet, about attracting and keeping clients. Schussel‘s scheduling calendar is available here.

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(Image: Farizun Amrod Saad/Shutterstock)


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