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Cheryl A. Clausen's Articles in Business

  • If You Do These 3 Things You're Doomed In Sales
    Don't be shocked when you learn the three things you should never do are exactly what you're told to do. These three things are setting you up for failure. It's no wonder over 90% of the people entering the insurance and financial services industries fail in less than three years. You never want to cold call even though that's exactly what you're told to do. Cold calling has never been productive activity, but rather a shot in the dark approach, and with the combination of the current legal ramifications and people's increased intolerance it's an even worse waste of your time.
  • Insurance Sales Success: What Top Producers Understand
    You're stuck being average but you want to be a top producer. Even though you do what you're supposed to be do according to industry experts it isn't working for you in a way that will get you to the top. You don't know what you don't know and you're frustrated and exhausted. If you keep doing what you've been doing you'll stay stuck and frustrated. The success you have now can be the very thing that stifles future growth because the very things that got you where you are will keep you trapped at your current level.
  • Insurance Sales: Are You Recession Proof?
    You have three choices you can make if the forecasted recession becomes a reality. You can sit back and watch it, you can go into survival mode only thinking about how to lessen the impact, or you can develop a plan to grow your business because of the recession. The choice and the result you'll experience is all yours. A top producer will never allow external circumstances to determine their future and neither should you. Identify how you'll be impacted by a recession if you do nothing to protect yourself. Think about how a recession will impact your customers and potential customers if they do nothing to protect themselves, and what you can do to help them to avoid that.
  • Insurance Sales: Discovery or Interrogation
    You realize that questions are a critical part of the sales process, but the questions you ask aren't producing the results you want. The way you structure the questions you ask, and the intent behind them have a dramatic impact on the prospect and your results. Questions are an easy way to establish rapport with the prospect, put them at ease, get them to open up to you, and help them to feel comfortable with you. But your questions must demonstrate your sincere interest in the prospect, or they just don't have the desired impact.
  • Sales Coaching for Prospecting
    You may be surprised to learn that even MDRT members don't like prospecting, but they know it's something they have to do. Instead of dreading prospecting you should be looking forward to it with excited because you have to have prospects to sell. You don't look forward to prospecting because you want to be told "no". A system for prospecting will help you to get good at it. Of course, a system is worthless if you won't consistently implement it. Why you don't like prospecting now, and how you could like prospecting?
  • Sales Coaching Money Objections
    How do you respond when a prospect tells you they don't have any money? What do you do when a prospect tells you they want more money? Do you accept these statements as fact? If you do you're falling into a sales trap that means no sale for you. Even though their statements sound logical you're missing the critical information you need to make a sale. When you hear that someone doesn't have any money you think you should just remove them from your prospecting list or you should wait until they do have money. You're missing a real opportunity, and you aren't even aware of it.
  • Sales Coaching to Get Referrals without being Pushy
    You've been trained to ask for referrals in a pushy, obnoxious, and downright embarrassing manner. When you use the tactics you've been trained to use it's very harmful to your relationship with your customer. Don't try asking ever so clever questions like, who do you golf with. Choke, puke, gag. These tactics are manipulative and you should stop using them right now. Don't stoop to using these high pressure approaches to get the referrals you need.
  • Sales Techniques to Overcome Closing Anxiety
    Perfectly normal people break out in a sweat when it comes time to close the deal. They're afraid to close because they haven't properly handled the earlier steps in the sales process. When it comes time to close it should be nothing more than a natural conclusion to a selling conversation. There are four reasons you're suffering from closing anxiety. The prospect didn't agree to having a selling conversation with you in the first place. The buyer is confused because you presented too many choices. You didn't help the buyer through a thought process that made it easy for them to buy. Or you never got to the emotional reason the prospect should act and act now.
  • Strategic Planning is an Effective Sales Technique
    Strategic planning has nothing to do with sales if you enjoy working hard, and struggling day in and day out to hit your sales targets. If you'd rather make more and work less then strategic planning has everything to do with sales. There are two distinct approaches to sales, and the choice is yours to make. Most sales people follow an approach that focuses on high levels of activity hoping that all that activity will result in sales. Both you and I know people who tried that approach, worked nearly night and day yet they still failed. That contradicts what you're constantly being told by sales managers, broker dealers, underwriters, and others.
  • Time Management Tips: Do You Break it Down into Actions?
    Use this one simple idea to feel less stressed. And make better use of the time you have. You can do this by analyzing the whole project to break it down into individual actions. Realize that a project isn't necessarily some large undertaking that you're involved in at work. Anything that requires more than one action on your part is a project.

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