My accident was another huge life test again for me, never again did I ever thought that such an accident would ever happen to me and not another major accident in life, although not life threatening, it’s impact-ful and big, learning to manage another crisis in my life again. At this junction in life, ever since embarking on the route of self-learning, personal development, motivational, inspirational and listening to world renowned speakers in these fields, the route to recovery from a crisis was much easier than the crisis before, probably age and life experiences played a significant component too.

During the rest, recovery and rehabilitation period, I basically took the time off the blogsphere, twitter, facebook and instant messenger, a.k.a MIA for about 2 weeks. There were friends who spotted me MIA and asked about what really happened to me, took me a while to reply though. Over this period and still counting, I slowly climbed my way out of the pit bottom of my current stage in life, applying my knowledge and skills in personal development and change into my recovery process along with the support of family, relatives, close friends, colleagues and friends from different sectors.

Reading through books and magazines, I read about Nelson Mandela, his legacy and contributions, Scott Neeson, who founded CCF – Cambodian Children’s Fund to help the children there. It dawned upon me that I can and we all around the world can make a contribution and make a difference to the life of other fellow world citizens out there who are less well off.

Finishing up (finally) my book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, to help me get back on track from this crisis, my life and goal setting. The single most powerful investment we can ever make in our life is – to invest in ourselves and we must do it for ourselves. The 7th Habit – Sharpen the Saw ~ Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal, renewing the 4 dimensions of our nature

- Physical ~ Exercise, Stress management

- Social / Emotional ~ Service, Intrinsic Security

- Spiritual ~ Study & Mediation

- Mental ~ Reading, Planning

When ever you are at the bottom of anything or anywhere, the only way back is UP ONLY ! Be pro-active in the renewal process that would empower you to move up and back high again in a upward spiral of growth, change and continuous improvement. Remember – Learn, Commit and Do.

I strongly encourage all my readers to own and read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, to read and fully understand the principles written and summarised in my blog post, that would help you tremendously in your personal life and career.

Let’s all find for ourselves the meaning and purpose in our life.

An objection would be a reason for not doing something. The prospects are not saying “No” and they are telling us, as best as they can, that they need more information, challenging us to tell them more. “I want to think it over” really means “I am not yet convinced”. We have to probe beneath the objection to find the true question, which the prospect may not even know themselves. Once we have exposed the prospect’s real question or fear, we can then move on to a logical conclusion.

Look into the prospect’s wants and leave the needs behind. Needs are basic, enough for the mortgage, food, schooling, the essentials of life. Wants are about much more than these. They are about a standard of living, a way of life. What is needed are the essentials of living. What is wanted is the maintainence of a world created by the breadwinner. If a prospect cares for their family, what they want for them will be far more than their basic needs. If we talk more about our client’s wants and less about their needs, we will find the sums assured will be bigger.

It does not cost the prospect to buy the premium, it only costs the prospect the use of the premium. The cost is only the interest the prospect would have earned on the premium. That is the proper way to buy insurance. Nobody ever wants a cheap alternative, not when they can do something properly. Everything has a correct price and buying a cheap, temporary alternative does not solve the problem, other than temporarily. No one does not believe in life insuracne, it is paying premiums that people do not believe in.

If a prospect needs to discuss with their spouse, we still have to remind them of reality. They cannot expect their spouse, or anybody else for that matter, to make the decision for them. It is their own liefe insurance. If we say it with a smile, they will understand the point and accept it.

If prospect can not afford the premiums, we need to emphasised that we understand that money is not easy to find, the problem is not the prospect finding the money needed a month out of their salary. The problem is the prospect’s family having to find the extra money a month when they do not have the prospect’s salary. The premium is not the problem, the premium is the solution to the problem. Life insurance is not some luxury to be taken when they can afford it. Life insurance is a necessity to be taken because the prospect’s family cannot afford to be without it.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 9: Practice Makes Perfect by Tony Gordon)

It is important to keep our presentations simple as out clients do not buy because they understand the product, they buy because they feel understood. Knowledge is needed but it is not to impress the prospect. Knowledge is important for the power it conveys through the self confidence it gives us. Being professional, trained and qualified, a confidence which comes from understanding that our advice is not probably right, it is absolutely, accurately, specifically the best thing for our client. The hardest thing about having knowledge is to know when to use it. Understanding this is the greatest advantage confidence brings.

We can make no progress when listening to ourselves, we are only moving forward when listening to our prospects. It does not matter what form of words are used, it is the spirit of the question which counts. If we are going to successfully sell to and serve the business and professional market place, we have to understand what our prospects are trying to achieve. When we fail to sell to a business owner, it is invariably because he sees the premiums competing with their own future plans. When we know exactly what they want to achieve and can show them how we can help them to reach their goals more quickly and more securely, then they will pay any premiums we ask.

The key to making a sale does not lie in what we say. The key is in what our prospects tell us. The most important information is not the specifics, the hard facts. The most important information is how they feel about their family, their business or their social responsibilities. These are known as feeling facts (often called soft facts), help us build an emotional picture of the prospect. Our job is to essentially help them understand for themselves what their priorities are. Life insurance is bought by people who care. It is not a case of the amount it costs but of the amount you care for those the prospects love. People buy insurance when they care enough to want to protect someone or something.

Human nature makes it hard to picture themselves growing old. It is harder for them to picture the virile character they see in the mirror being disabled and incapable of living and working in a full life and impossible for us to picture ourselves dying prematurely. Our job is to remind our prospects of their mortality. We need to find out how our prospects feel about those people and things which are important to them and then remind them of their own mortality. Outline in a way which cannot be misunderstoodm precisely what the financial impact of their mortality will be on those they care about, we can motivate them to take action.

If the prospect has a need for protection, it should be the number one priority with investment needs being secondary. It is our responsibility to tell our clients what they should be doing and remind them of their responsibilities. However, our responsibilities end there. The choice is their, as to whether or not they take our advice. As long as we have fulfiled our responsibility and tell them what we think they should do, the money is theirs and they have a right to choose how they want to spend their money. They have a right to set their own priorities.

Sales presentations should be modular. We should know exactly how we will present a specific plan. Our function is not to educate the prospects. No prospect remembers us for our knowledge. They remember us if they become our clients. Our job is to show them easily understood solutions to their problems and then motivate them to make decisions and another part of our job is to help and encourage our prospects in making decisions.

Our presentation needs to be planned, a pre-thought out sequence of words and sentences which will logically lead our prospect to a decision. We need to check at each step of the presentation that our client has understood. We must also be continually looking for affirmation before moving on to the next step and most importantly, we should be looking for commitment. We should also be trying to get some sort of financial commitment before actually presenting our recommendations. The earlier we get a commitment to an actual amount of premium, the better. Without a financial commitment, we can never close the sale.

Our prospects do not buy because they understand the product, they buy because they feel understood. It is the benefit we want, not the system of providing it. Many of us who may not be mechanically minded do not even care how it works, we only care that it works. It is the same with our service. Our prospect is only concerned that it does work and will solve their problems and be profitable for them.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 8: Face to Face by Tony Gordon)

The corporate market is different, it is more complex, more difficult. However, face to face, with simple presentations on a plain sheet of paper is the way to tackle this market. The corporate owner is no different to any other prospect. They are easier to deal with because they are used to making business decisions. Bigger does not mean more complicated, it just means bigger. The best way to deal with a large case is to treat it like a small one. Only in our minds is there a difference.

As we build a clientle, prospecting becomes easier. Many of our clients will do business many times. If we develop and service a business client base, some of them will become successful. Just by servicing our small clients as they grow bigger, so we will grow also.

However, real growth only happens when we continue to stretch ourselves. We must always ensure new prospects are being fed into the system, as some clients will be lost, some fail, some are wooed away by poachers of our business, some retire and die – which is what our business is about. New prospects are needed because they challenge us. They keep our minds active and help us stay up to date technically. It can become too easy, too comfortable just servicing our existing clients. We have to introduce a discipline, 25% of the new business from new clients. We lose percentage of those names and bit every appointment is there. The time should be concentrated on the remaining percentage of prospects that will keep the appointment and are willing to listen and whereby two-thirds of whom will be clients.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 7: Who to See by Tony Gordon)

It is no good being the world’s greatest closer if we do not have the discipline to make the calls. If we cannot control next week’s activity, then we have given up control of our future. It is not easy to face rejection. It is important for us to remember prospects are not rejecting us, they are rejecting their own problems. We may feel the brunt of it but it is their own responsibilities that they reject. Those of us who are the most sensitive to rejection are the best equipped to achieve the greatest and most lasting success.

We are left behind to struggle on to deal with rejection. The very sensitivity that makes rejection hurt is the same sensitivity that we need if we are to truly understand what our prospects are telling us. The sensitivity which makes rejection hurt is the same sensitivity which, if tuned in to what our clients are saying, will carry us on to the greatness we seek. The price of living on a high hill is learning to face the high winds which blow from time to time. 

Our success is the result of a simple equation:

Appointments X %closed X average sale = Productivity

Our average sale and the percentage closed are factors which improve with practice. Better quality referrals will produce larger sales more easily. However, these transitions take time. The number of appointments we make is something we can change now. The sooner we increase our number of appointments, the quicker our closing percentage will increase and the larger our sales will become.

However much we increase our activity, the increase in our results will always be greater.

Making the appointments is our responsibility. It is part of the sales process and should only rarely be delegated. Referrals are too valuable to allow them to be wasted by a non salesperson. Another important factor to consider is the relationship between salesperson and prospect, the finely balanced duet, commences with the first call. We cannot and should not delegate this essential part of the sales process. The most important appointment we ever make is the appointment with ourselves to fill our diaries for the following week, we need time set aside just for prospecting.

Do not forget the frequent use of both his and the referror’s name. The sweetest sound a man ever hears is the sound of his own name. Whatever our prospect say, our response must be followed by a close. The purpose of the call is not to try to educate them, it is not for advertising or public relations purposes, it is not to sell a product or a service. It is to make an appointment. The more times we have the courage to close, the greater will be our success in making appointments. Do not fear about the ten minutes spent with the prospect, once we start asking questions, showing interest in them and in their business, they will give us all the time we need or we decide ten minutes is enough.

Where should the appointment take place? Our office or the client’s home or place of business? The most important point is not where the appointment is held, but that it is held, in a situation where the prospect feels comfortable and not under threat or pressure. If the prospect runs their own business, we should go to them and we can learn about a business just by seeing the owner in their own environment. In their own environment, they will be relaxed and tell us more than if they are uptight and nervous.

If the prospect is retired, with capital to invest, always hold the appointment in my office and it gives people confidence in our company when they can see and touch our place of business. It is not possible for every appointment to be kept but we can do our best to ensure the minimum are lost. Other ideas for keeping the blown out appointments to a minimum is simply to phone and remind them a couple of hours prior to each meeting.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 6: Hello George by Tony Gordon)

The simplest method is to ensure that every client understands that their responsibility is to provide us with referrals. Once the referral process is running, we will never need to see a cold prospect again. The referred prospect rarely, if ever, checks back with the referror, the very fact of the referring process seems to remove the trust barrier. This allowing us a dramtically improved series of percentages throughout the sales cycle. Fewer calls to obtain the desired number of appointments, fewer cancelled meetings, a higher closing average, a larger case size and more referrals to restart the process over again.

During the initial interview, if we have done our job correctly, we will have asked questions and our prospect will have done the talking. If we listened to all of the answers, we will know a great deal about them. Most importantly, we will know about their business or their job, how they arrived where they are now and where they want to be in the future. The information obtained will be filed away for later use, can give all kinds of clues when looking for introductions.

We should try to picture our client in the centre of a spider’s web with threads going out and back to people who influence them or are influenced by them. No business survives in isolation. See, in the mind’s eye, the client at the centre of their web. Picture all the trades and professions with whom they must come into contact on a regular basis.

Our prospects should be told at the earliest opportunity that we only take on as clients people or businesses to whom we are personally introduced, personally recommended, in the same way that they have been recommended to us.

The great debate is when to ask. It is too easy to put off asking for names and we feel it is demeaning. We have to suggest, after solving his complex financial problems, that we too have problem. Our problem is that we do not have enough people to see. It is not so demeaning as what follows when we have no names to call on.

There is one correct time – at the point of sale. The sooner we grasp the nettle the better. Moreover, we have enormous influence at the point of sale. There is no better time to start training our clients to expect to have a name for us whenever we call. Clients who always have an introduction for us invariably are the ones who first gave us a referral at the point of sale. We have trained them well to do the above task. Clients who never have a name for us are usually the ones who were not asked at the point of sale. They do not appreciate that we expect it from them. Salespeople often tell me they prefer to wait until they deliver the policy to ask for names. This will be much too late.

When we do not get a favourable response, it is not because our client cannot think of a name. They know hundreds of people. It is because he cannot focus on their mind on one name. It is like a revolving index of contacts going around in their mind. We have to slow it down so that they can extract the names we want.

Sometimes obtaining introductions is as difficult as making the sale and it is as important to make the sale. When we have a name – the first essential step in the cycle. Next, we need an appointment. We should call the referral as soon as possible. Referrals are not like good wine, they do not improve with age. They are more like fish, they go off if not used when fresh. Do not store them for future use.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 5: What’s In a Name ?by Tony Gordon)

The sales process is a continuous cycle with no beginning and no end. It is not complex but we need to work at our skills on each of the stages. It all starts with a name, from the name, we make an appointment. The appointment will hopefully become a meeting, the meeting should result in a sales presentation which logically should produce a sale. The last step is to elicit a name to keep the cycle moving.

However, we will lose a percentage at each stage, not every name becomes an appointment and not every appointment is kept. Not every meeting gives us the opportunity to present and every presentation does not automatically result in a sale. However hard we may try, every client does not automatically refer us. The percentage we lose at each stage will vary from salesperson to salesperson.

It is essential that we see the sales cycle as a wheel – easy to keep moving once it has momentum. If we stop working at any section of the cycle, it becomes like driving on a flat tyre or on a wheel which is not round. We will lose momentum and grind inexorably to a halt. Cutting out any one of these steps in the wheel and watch progress come to a standstill.

The successful people in our business understand it takes more energy, both physical and mental, to restart than to keep the cycle moving along. Successful people are consistent. We can never be our most productive if we have inconsistent activity. Consistent activity is the hallmark of the true professional. Consistency of activity always produce consistency of results.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 4: The Wheel of Fortune by Tony Gordon)

In order to find out if we are working productively, the following mental exercise can be used:

(1) Imagine that you are going to form a new business, to sell insurance.

(2) Hire a life insurance salesman for the above job.

(3) Draw up a job description for this imaginary employee with the following expectations:

- How many appointments a week do you expect him to make?

- What hours do you want him to work?

- How many calls will you want him to make?

- How much time do you expect to be wasted on administration when he should be making calls and seeing prospects?

- What will his reward be if he attains the goals?

- How will you discipline him if he fails to achieve the numbers set for him?

- How badly will he have to perform, in activity terms, to get fired?

(4) Now the exercise is done, put yourself in the job and ask the following questions:

- As the boss, are you pleased with you as your employee? 

- Do you meet up to the standards you have just set?

- Would you demand more of you as the employee?

- Is your employee wasting his time and your money?

- Would you fire him?

In doing this mental exercise, if you were pleased with your employee, then your activity is right. If you were not happy with your employee’s performance then you know what to do about it.

We all get bored from time to time but the boredom is usually because of our lack of activity not the activity itself. The elation and satisfaction of regularly making sales does not allow for boredom.

Goals are our direction. Without a goal, we are merely drifting along. Our goals are the route to success. A ship does not arrive at its destination by accident. A course is carefully charted and meticulously followed, allowing for every change in current, tide and wind. This should also be applied to our careers, We should define our destination with absolute clarity and commitment and we must have our route planned out, broken down to its component parts. It is not that so many people fail to reach their goal, it is that sadly, they have no goals to reach.

Breaking down the goal to its smallest component parts give us a sense of urgency to do each day what needed to be done. Success, or failure, is something we practice on a daily basis. Having a daily goal we have to focus all our energies on what is needed to be done that day. It gives us a snes of purpose, a sense of focus on the tasks needed to achieve the goals. The subconscious mind seems to prioritise our tasks but it only works if we start afresh each day with our minds absolutely focused on what must be achieved within the day. Daily goals create a sense of urgency – to do what needs to be done today. All our hopes, our aspirations, all our ambitions are but wishful thinking until we break them down into daily tasks. By focusing on daily taks, daily goals, production can be doubled. It is amazing what a new sense of urgency does for our closing average.

Setting daily goals is hard – it means facing failure every day. It is much easier to just have a goal for the year, in this way, we only have to face failure once, at the end of the year. If we have the courage to set daily goals then we will succeed more often than we fail. It does not really matter what the daily goal is, as long as it is something which causes us to focus with a sense of urgency. When we commit ourselves to a goal, it becomes much harder to fall short if we have shared the commitment with people close to us.

Ordinary people achieved extraordinary goals and they have one underlying, all pervading factor – the belief they all shared in the ability to achieve their goals and in the service provided to their clients. The following words of wisdom must always be inside us, “We can achieve anything we want to achieve if only we have the courage to believe we can achieve it.”

Everyone of us has potential we have never recognised. Potential we have never realised is within us. The single most important fundamental for personal growth is the belief in our own ability. It is not easy to break out of the mould which society, or we, have created for ourselves. There has to be mediocrity in this world, we should not decry it because it lets the stars shine through. If we were all great, then great would be mediocre and there would be no excellence. We can break out of the category society has placed us in and we can excel however ordinary our background or our education, we ca achieve the extraordinary. However ordinary we may be – we can achieve extraordinary goals. But first, we must first believe ourselves capable of greater achievement.

We first have to believe it is possible – we have to see ourselves reaching our goals – then and only then will it happen. Mediocrity is more comfortable, part of a big crowd, annoymous. Mediocrity carries none of the responsibility of leadership which comes with success. Mediocrity carries none of the satisfaction of achievement. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big dreams, we need to be able to picture in our minds not just the achievement of our goals but everything that goes with it. The more vivid the mental picture we create, and the more often we visit our dream, the easier it will be for our subconscious minds to help us find the way to achieve our goals. Once we develop the courage to believe in ourselves then success ceases to be a matter of chane. Succss becomes a matter of choice.

 The real success of the business comes increasd production. Increasd production comes first from increased activity and only secondly from increased sales size. Production comes first from the number of cases and mastering a higher skill level makes it easy to go on to increasing the average size of each case. 

In the first instance, do not look out for big cases, just look after the bread and butter clients. By being active and out there looking for business everyday, we will get our fair share of big cases. The security in our business lies not in the size of our cases but in the number of them. Our income are a function of activity multiplied by our closing average, times the average case size. With enough activity, we can guarantee our incomes regardless of how bad we may be at closing or how small our average sale is.

A house cannot be built on unsteady foundations. The foundations for us are not knowledge, not closing techniques, not clever methods of communication, not the need nor greed of our prospects. The foundation of success for us is a determination to consistently make appointments, however hard it may be. Activity is the foundation on which our success is built. Successful people discipline themselves to do the things that mediocre people do not like to do. Successful people discipline themselves to do those things that mediocre people do not enjoy.

The job itself is not difficult, it is making ourselves do the job which is hard. The discipline to do what is needed to succeed everyday is the basic difference between success and mediocrity. This can also be applied not just to our business but to our life as well. If we control today, we are in control of our lives and our futures. If we want to control over our futuresm we must be first be able to exercise control over what we do today.

Expertise in our business is not everything and caring counts for far more. Therefore, we need to learn to see the position from the prospect’s viewpoint. Our business should not be a difficult business. When we break it down to its component parts, there is nothing inherently difficult.When we go to work, we work, when we go to play, we play.

The job may not be hard – it is making ourselves do the job that is hard. It is disciplining ourselves ourselves to face rejection on a daily basis that is difficult – and yet is is what we are paid to do. Dealing with rejection is not easy but, all the success, all the future rewards, only come as a result of accepting prospect and client rejection as part of our daily lives. It is the price of success and success do not come cheap. Rejection is the price which must be paid to achieve our goals. We need to develop disciplines so that what is difficult becomes routine. If we can find a simple system for dealing with the routine, it becomes easier to control.

If we cannot control our time next week, then we cannot control our time next month or next year. If our lives are out of control then we are leaving our futures to chance. If we can control and discipline our time, we can pre-determine our success.

Asking for referrals is not some afterthought and it is not something to be relegated to policy delivery time. It is an essential part of the whole sales process and it requires a presentation in its own right, the sooner the prospect understand we will requir introductions from them, the better.

Success comes when we have learned to lose the hard-fought battles and have the courage to come back and fight again. It is not where we are that will determine our success, it is who we are. It is also not the place we live or the company we work for. It is our courage and our determination. It is our character and not our contacts that will determine our success.

The one great factor which separates our profession from all others is the willingness of successful people to share their secrets with others and also an understanding that one of the prerequisities of achieving success is that we must be willing to give in order to receive.

(Adapted from “It Can Only Get Better – Tony Gordon’s Route to Sale Success”, Chapter 1: In the Beginning by Tony Gordon)