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PROFILES IN SUCCESS
The Producers Six high-performing producers give us 10 tips for making the big numbers, growing a successful practice, developing a unique niche—and waking up each day passionate about this business.
One has been in the business almost 40 years, another just crossed the other side of his 40th birthday. One manages a practice with 13 employees, another has just one assistant to help out. One works in the booming Miami metropolitan area, another in a small town in Ohio. What they all have in common, however, is amazing prowess in the difficult field of insurance and financial advising. Each of the six advisors we spoke with has made a mark in the industry, reaching both financial and personal success. But achieving that success does not mean the road has been easy. They all admit to missteps, errors and the woulda-coulda-shouldas that nag us all occasionally. They have taken the time to reflect on their careers and what it takes to be a high-performing producer, and each has a unique take on the business. There were, however, 10 best practices that were evident in each of their careers, and we share them now with you:
Passion for your work is not only important to help you maintain your focus, it also helps you get out of bed in the morning and is the key to attracting loyal clients. As industry veteran Van Mueller, LUTCF, puts it, “I am filled with energy about it, and that’s the way I talk to my customers. I pound on tables; I hug them; I cry; I laugh …” This is what is transmitted to the customer—your conviction about the importance of insurance and a sound financial plan. But your passion should not be diluted. “You can’t want everything equally,” says Micki Hoesly, CLU, ChFC. “One of the problems I see with many producers is that there are so many areas we can go in ... but we just don’t have enough passion for all of them. Recognize that you can’t have everything, but you can have anything you really want. Focus your passion, because it is incredibly powerful on areas you really want.” 2. Have a strong support staff. Would you like to be seeing the 60 to 100 clients and prospects that Marc Silverman, CLU, ChFC, sees each month? Then you need to follow his advice: “In this business, you need to be paid for seeing people, not for trying to get in to see them. You can pay someone to do that.” Delegating responsibilities is not always easy, but when you invest in your staff, on both the professional and personal level, it becomes a whole lot easier. “I am a huge believer in investing in people. If you are looking for one key thing that describes why I am successful, I would say the team of people I have built around me,” says Jennifer Borislow, CLU, who specializes in employee benefits. Her staff of 13 is like a family to her, and she treats them that way. They eat lunch together; she takes them to dinner and the theater; she even paid a law firm to ensure they all had a will, health-care proxy and power of attorney. Her staff returns that loyalty by taking exceptional care of her clients.
3. Do what others are unwilling to do. And from the mouth of an industry icon to your ears (or eyes!) is Marvin Feldman, CLU, ChFC, on his personal nemesis: “I hate to prospect. I know how to prospect, and I do it very well. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I don’t do it. I force myself. The difference between someone who is moderately successful and someone who is very successful is that the successful individual does all the things that the other person doesn’t really want to do. So I send the letters; I make the phone calls; I do all those types of things. I don’t like it, but I do it.”
For his part, Silverman says that it’s hard work that takes you far: “We get paid to make results happen; we don’t get paid to spend time in the office. The goal is we’ve got to make things happen.” And he vocalizes perhaps the foundation of tip No. 3: discipline. “The successful people discipline themselves to do what the unsuccessful people are unwilling to do,” he adds. 4. Have systems in place.
Hoesly learned this lesson early in her career from her mentor. In response to her questions, he would invariably ask another question, “What is your system?” This was the trigger she needed. “He’s said it so many times that frankly I don’t need to talk to him anymore. I know exactly what the question is: What is your system? It has forced me to create systems throughout my practice,” she says. One example of this is writing up an agenda before a client meeting, which she also shares with her client. That way they both know what to expect and are clear that they’ve covered the necessary points. The systems these advisors use also extend to profiling their ideal clients. Andrew Lord, CLU, ChFC, ascribes his success to “absolutely developing the self discipline to be able to walk by business and concentrate and rigidly adhere to my profile. It isn’t easy to do, but it makes all the difference.” And it doesn’t get easier with time. He recently referred a couple with $2.8 million under management to another advisor because “what they needed is not what I do.” 5. Give clients impeccable service. Cultivating a loyal clientele goes back to the 110 percent principle. Give that little extra that differentiates you from the rest. If you do deliver this unerring service and dedication to clients, these producers agree, more will follow. “My whole thing on why we do well is that we provide unbelievable service to our clientele, and the fish start chasing the boat,” says Silverman. “We get two to three referrals a week that we don’t solicit.”
Borislow agrees. She gives her clients the old-fashioned touch. When you call her business, there is no voice mail to greet you; it is one of her staff. Touches such as these prove her dedication. “My clients know that I am committed to the relationship and passionate about helping them,” she says. “So a deep client base and being really involved in your client base lead to referrals. All of our business is on referrals.” 6. Target a very specific niche market.
His system (ah, tip No. 4!) for targeting prospects is no less precise: Target a market you know something about; hone in on that market with very specific marketing plans; and develop a prospecting system and continue to work it. The biggest problem, he says, is starting a prospecting system that works well, and then stopping it once you start working the cases. “It is very important to have a system that works and to work the system consistently,” he stresses. Finding your niche may not be an automatic process. Hoesly, who now works in just the retirement and qualified plans area and active money management, recounts a turning point about six years ago. “I decided there were only a couple things I really, really love to do, and if I could just spend all my time doing those two things, it would make my life much more pleasant,” she says. “And so I made a conscious decision. I wasn’t going to apply any new resources—either time or money—to any other area other than those two. I’d wish I’d done that 20 years earlier.” 7. Don’t be a salesperson; be a relationship builder. When you become a trusted advisor for your clients, they reap the benefits, but so do you. As your business matures, you start to understand what your work means to people. “I’ve been in the business long enough that I’ve seen it go full cycle,” says Feldman. “We are now delivering the death claims, or checks for long-term care or disability, and you see that the planning that you did does, in fact, provide the dignity and security and the peace of mind that you were trying to accomplish in the first place.” 8. Maintain constant activity.
This is a business of activity. Prospecting, networking, calling, mailing … all those “ing” activities keep your business alive and vibrant. Activity is also the key to high production. “There is no secret to getting to Top of the Table,” says Lord. “The average case size [of TOT members] is not that impressive; they’re not writing big-ticket cases with any consistency. What they’re doing is seeing six times as many people in the right market as the basic Round Table qualifier. Instead of 10 factfinds a month, they are getting 10 factfinds a week.” “You’ve got to have the constant activity,” confirms Feldman. “As my wife tells me in the morning as I walk out the door … she doesn’t say, ‘Have a good day.’ She always tells me, ‘Make it a good day.’ It’s the old saying, If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” 9. Find a mentor—or mentors. Silverman credits industry great Sid Friedman with making Top of the Table for the first time. He simply decided to pick up the phone and call him. “[Sid] said come and see me. … We hit it off, and he believed in me,” says Silverman. And although Friedman has died, the important lessons he taught Silverman have stuck. “Sid’s motto, which I have adopted, is: Promise a lot and deliver more,” he adds. Some mentors may play a fleeting role in your life, but change it immeasurably. Lord had one such mini-mentor moment at an MDRT breakfast meeting. The speaker told those in attendance to take a look at their calendar from the last 12 months, jot down a list of favorite cases and look for commonalities in those cases. By realizing that he spent most of his quality time with older clients, Lord made a swift decision. “I systematically eliminated younger people from my marketing process,” he says, “and ‘boom’, that was the first year [that I made] Court of the Table. And then I ratcheted it up again the next year from 45 to 55 and ‘boom,’ that was Top of the Table.” It was through this mini-mentor situation that he found his niche (See tip No. 6.) and became a high-performing producer. 10. Be yourself. For more tips on building your practice from Marvin Feldman, visit "Questions to Ask Clients and Prospects." © Advisor Today 2009. All rights reserved.
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