Jim Ruta's Blog
August 11, 2010
Is this just “some antics with semantics”? Really, can it just be a “word” that’s killing productivity in the financial services business? It can be, when that word changed the way people in the business work and how they are viewed by consumers. This change has happened incrementally over the past 30 years. It is time to change back…
Salespeople in the life insurance and money businesses used to be called “agents”. Of course that made some of them queasy, not quite as queasy as being called salespeople mind you, but still queasy. Rather than be proud of their assistant buyer role with their clients, they searched for a new word that made them feel better.
Of course, it wasn’t that there was a huge uprising from consumers about what they called the people who sold them insurance and savings plans. The media wasn’t clamouring for a name change. This was a self-initiated change. We were “embarrassed” by the title and the hunt began…
Estate planner, insurance adviser, financial planner, financial adviser, financial consultant, financial security adviser… the list grew and grew. Everyone in the business was called something different yet everyone did about the same thing. Do you think that’s confusing? Consumers do.
Then, the “new name” camp decide to create their own designations around their particular favourite name and we had a whole raft of new “certified this” and “registered that’s” on the market. Associations renamed themselves to fall in line. Companies, once certain of what their sales people had to have on their cards were lost and started making up their own titles. Printers were delighted. It just got worse for consumers.
The confusion grew. Clients particularly didn’t know who they were dealing with anymore or what they did. This did not help them get more help. Salespeople lost track of their role too.
Productivity has been dropping ever since. Check it out.
I think the reason is surprisingly simple and it’s all in the semantics of one word – “agent”. Think about it. “Agent” is defined as: “Something that causes an effect, the means by which a result is produced, somebody who provides a service for another”. This sounds perfect to me – “Someone whose service is getting results for another”. Nothing’s missing here.
“Planner or Adviser” on the other hand leaves us with “Somebody who plans something or someone who gives advice”. Pretty bland and nondescript to me… and I bet to tons of consumers out there who don’t really know why you showed up in the first place. It’s this word “Planner” (And its partner “adviser”) that’s killing productivity.
To make a plan? To give advice? That’s it? Is that all? Aren’t we missing something? Ah yes… Implementation. Implementation or “getting results” for a client is the missing piece but it isn’t part of the definition of the new approach to the business. The lack of implementation is hurting clients too.
We’re all apparently planners now. We advise people. “Plans and advice”, and nothing about action. So, fewer people actually buy anything meaning fewer people in this business are productive.
And, it’s in large part because of one word – “Planner” that’s taken over.
I heard about a study the other day from my friend Don Hart who said researchers followed a number of sales interviews. At the end, they asked the potential clients how many times the adviser asked them to buy. The average answer was none - Zero times. Then, they asked the advisers how many times they had asked the prospect to buy. They said three.
Three to none, it wasn’t even close. So, apparently what adviser/planners think is asking for an order doesn’t sound like it to a potential buyer. Maybe advisers think prospects are supposed to close themselves?
I remember my thirtysomething MBA, high tech neighbour telling me recently that the reason he never had any life insurance was because “no one ever asked him to buy any”. Lots of advice, no action.
I think advisers are taking their adviser/planner role too literally. It’s not just about advice or a plan. It’s about “causing the effect” of insurance ownership. Even savings ownership. It’s about doing something for people who won’t likely do it for themselves. It’s being an agent of change. It’s helping consumers help themselves.
All of this without considering that, at least in this jurisdiction (and I imagine many others), salespeople are obliged to hold themselves out to the public as they are licensed. Here it is as a “Life Insurance Agent”. Whatever happened to following that rule? Is it the rule compliance missed?
So, think about it. Take an active title, live up to it and you really can improve your productivity. Be an Agent of change for consumers and help them use your advice and implement their plans.
It’s time to be an “agent” again.
I’m Jim Ruta and that’s just the way it is.
August 11, 2010
(
Read More)
August 03, 2010
You’ve probably have prospecting figured all wrong. It’s a simple mistake really and I bet you got it wrong right from the very beginning of your career. Likely, when you started, someone told you that prospecting was the activity to find new prospects for business. You prospect to find prospects. That sounds simple enough, but it’s still wrong. And, that’s why you hate prospecting. But, you can change that in a second…
Prospecting is not about finding buyers. Prospecting is about eliminating non-buyers. This may sound like a subtle difference but it makes all the difference.
Here’s what I mean. If you are working hard to find the one prospect that “falls out” of a list of 100 suspects, then you have much more failure than you have success. When your target is that one, then you have a lot of failure before you achieve your goal. This is depressing and very hard work.
Nobody likes that much failure. That’s probably why the old proverb makes so much sense: “Your degree of success is determined by the amount of failure you will take before you quit.” They are directly related.
If you will only absorb a little bit of failure before you give up, you will only achieve a limited amount of success. If you will accept a great deal of failure before you quit, your potential rewards are dramatically greater.
OK, it’s a subtle difference but your perspective on your work is substantially different when you look at prospecting as eliminating the non-buyers. Then, you “win” every time you cross off another name as someone who isn’t right for what you are selling. Cross off enough of them and you really win because you’re that much closer to a buyer. You’ll also be in a better mood when you do.
If you can see prospecting as getting past the non-buyers to uncover the buyers, your attitude is better and that just helps you along. Focusing on finding buyers makes the role much more tedious. You just have the wrong perspective.
Think of prospecting like panning for gold. The key there is to move as much sand through the pan or the sluice so that you make the reality of the number of gold nuggets in the sand work for you. Sure, you could find a gold nugget in the first pan or shovel full of sand and sometimes you do.
But that would be more luck than reality. The truth is that you have to move a lot of sand to find a nugget. On balance, you also have to move a lot of non-buyers to find a buyer -- Just like you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find Royalty.
When you focus on the sand you get a much better understanding of the job at hand and are not as likely to be depressed when it takes time to find your gold. You know it takes work to be successful.
You might think this idea counter-intuitive, but one of the ways to separate the gold from the sand is to remember that people have to “qualify” to work with you. So many of us look at prospecting as finding someone we can qualify to work with yet the opposite is more true than you might believe.
Yes, prospects have to qualify. Despite what you might think, not everyone out there is golden for your business. Some are just sand.
I remember O. Alfred Granum’s words on this topic in his book, “The Art and the Science of Building a Life Insurance Clientele”. What he said then is still true today and applies to all of us.
To paraphrase, he said that potential consumers of life insurance had to qualify on three criteria to deal with an agent.
1. They had to have sufficient intelligence to understand the nature of the discussion. If they didn’t (or wouldn’t) appreciate that the loss of human life value equaled a loss of financial value, then, you didn’t have someone to talk to.
2. The second was a “deep sense of responsibility”. If this potential financial loss to them or their family or business didn’t matter to them, then they weren’t a candidate for the product.
3. Finally, they had to have a strong belief in their own economic potential. If all that mattered to them was attending to next weekend’s adult beverage requirements, they weren’t for you. If they were just hoping to get by, you were on the wrong trail for this product. Prospects have to have dreams.
Take this new perspective and rethink prospecting. Realize that it is work for everyone. Remember that prospects have to qualify to work with you as much as you do with them. Mostly, remember that you are “sifting and winnowing” as Granum said, through the chaff to find the wheat. Eliminate non-buyers and you’ll understand prospecting for what it is. And then, you’ll find many more buyers than you imagined.
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is.
August 3, 2010
(
Read More)
July 28, 2010
Only 2% of all financial advisers in the world qualify for the Million Dollar Round Table – the premier associations of financial professionals in the world. But there is another way. You don’t have to be a part of that hotshot outfit. It’s only 2% and obviously they aren’t like most people anyway. If you don’t want to join this sliver of humanity that produces at the top levels of the business, you don’t have to. If you don’t want any part of them and their fancy meetings, you’re in luck. Here is how you can avoid them altogether and stay out of their “fancy badges club”…
First of all, make sure that you wait until you know absolutely everything about the business before you go out and talk to anyone. Knowing definitely precedes doing. This applies whether you are new to the business or established. No sense chancing someone asking you a question you have to research before you can respond. People expect perfect answers from you all the time. Don’t strain your ego by taking unnecessary chances talking to strangers and building relationships.
Second, be sure to run a one-stop shop for financial products. You must be sure to sell every product you can by virtue of your licenses. That’s why all those products are attached to them in the first place right? If you weren’t supposed to sell them, they wouldn’t be available to you on that license. That just makes sense. If you don’t sell everything you can, then of course you are letting people down. You are doing less than you could and that even sounds bad. I don’t care how heavy that tool kit gets, keep adding tools. Even if you can’t tote it around anymore, that’s the price of staying out of MDRT. Be a jack-of-all-trades. Don’t leave any change on the table (or behind the seat cushions either).
Third, don’t waste any time with anyone other than the best possible potential clients, ever. Make it “High net worth” or nothing. Unless they are wealthy and interested, stay away. Have strict standards for clients and never waver. Only bet on sure things. That’s how you make the big money, right? Make sure it’s only “big fish” for you.
Next, be sure to use the same complicated language you learned in your licensing exams and in the technical manuals. That way your prospects and clients will be sure to know that you read all that stuff. Plus, big words prove you have a big vocabulary and that really matters to the average consumer. When you can mesmerize your clients with fancy language they are more likely to buy what you are selling. Throw in a lot of statistics too. They always help.
Then, always go for quality not quantity when making sales. Why help a couple hundred average people who need your help each year when you can help just a couple dozen bigger clients and make the same money? The big cases are always so much more fun anyway. Don’t wear yourself out with all that extra prospecting and meetings big numbers take. That’s a sucker’s game. See number three above.
Finally, remember, when you have the credentials and the education, consumers will seek you out. Marketing, prospecting and promotion are an unnecessary expense when you know what you are doing. When you get the right education, people just know it and they come to you. “If you build it they will come”… that came from a movie didn’t it? Movies never lie. The key is to fill up your noggin with knowledge and then wait. It’s like fishing that way. You go out in the boat. Find the right spot and then wait for the fish to jump into the boat. I say that on TV once too. Just wait. They will come. Remember the movie.
Follow these rules and I guarantee you’ll never have to wear one of those goofy badges at an Annual Meeting. You’ll never have to clutter up your business cards with a membership shield. You’ll never have to worry about paying your membership dues. You’ll never have to hang around with that 2% and catch whatever they’ve got. Never. I promise.
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is. Keep smiling…
July 20, 2010
(
Read More)
July 20, 2010
Actually, it’s only when you know the details that you avoid the devil… This is why “planning is not enough”. We had lapel buttons made 25 years ago: “P.I.N.E”. – planning is not enough. And it isn’t. Planning is only part of the process of helping consumers. If you are just a planner, you’re coming up short every day. You need to execute. Do you have a solid grip of the details in your business so you can execute with confidence? Or, are you just one of those “big picture” types? That can lead to all sorts of trouble, especially today…
You need to know the details – be competent -- if you expect to execute with confidence. Unless you have that competence, you will never have the confidence. Without confidence, you will never build the relationships you need nor attract the business you want.
Execution of a plan means making sure it works. That takes intimate knowledge of the relevant details of both the plan and the person. There is a lot to know to be able to execute as required. You really have to know your stuff and know who you’re stuffing before you can “stuff” them.
The big picture is for marketing. Your “story” is important. It’s just not enough to guarantee your results. It’s the view from 30,000 feet of the best delivery benefits you have. And, that’s all well and good, but close up, you have to be able to bring that plan in for a landing too, to provide a compelling client benefit.
Details are for delivery -- to bring a project in for a landing. When you want to be known for what you know, you have to know what you know. What’s more, details are not just data. Data isn’t information. Information isn’t knowledge. Knowledge isn’t wisdom.
Clients need interpretation not information and context, not content. This is wisdom. They need your wisdom to make the proper decisions to enhance their lives. It’s your job to distill relevant information into wisdom people can use with confidence.
It’s in the “essential details” of your work.
In the life insurance business, the details are in getting the policy issued and delivered so that it is not only “in force” (they’re collecting premiums) it’s also “in effect” (they’ll pay the claim). Sounds like a subtle and insignificant distinction. But it isn’t when you need the benefits.
“Avoiding the devil” means getting all the essential details from the very beginning. “Interview” your client as a TV journalist might. Probe for the important information that ultimately protects and benefits clients. Get the necessary facts to ensure benefit delivery.
Remember the axiom: “No job’s done until the paperwork is completed?” That’s true so long as you have the right paperwork, done the right way. That takes expertise and experience to get all the answers out and into the system. (OK, and I know it isn’t always “paper” work anymore, but you get my drift…)
This is why I am all over the idea of expertise. Unless you really understand the nature of your work, you will never get all the essential details necessary. It takes focused expertise and experience in one area.
As Malcolm Gladwell says in “The Outliers”, it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert in any one subject area. That’s 10 years for him. I agree. Imagine the expertise you would have if you had 10 years of experience in one aspect of your business. That’s what Top of the Table MDRT producers usually have.
I was intrigued about a recent discussion in ForAdvisorsOnly.com, the Canadian Internet discussion board for financial advisors. It was all about what it really takes to be sure that an insurance policy is properly underwritten. Check it out.
For instance, today we really require “hyper-disclosure” about personal and medical questions: “Medications” include over the counter preparations like vitamins and analgesics. You can’t properly get a non-medical statement of health completed on a husband and wife when they are in the same room. Yep, you have to give them privacy so they can be comfortable to say everything they need to say.
Honestly, no one did this 20 years ago. Today, everyone must. Just another simple but powerful example of another essential detail you only know when you are an “expert”.
Knowing the “essential details” of your business is how clients and the media separate “dabblers” from “dazzlers” in business. “Dabblers” – those with a superficial interest and involvement in an area of business always think that the details are for someone else. The “Dazzlers” – those who have focused their energy and expertise to create experience in a particular niche, know that it’s the details that make all the difference in the final result. It also makes the difference in loyalty and referrals. Knowing the details makes you referable and trustworthy.
Want to be trusted? Know the details in your key expertise area. Consumers and the media expect it.
Here’s the deal though. No one can know all the details to everything. You’ll only ever know them where you “want to”. So, pick your spots. Focus. Specialize and be authoritative.
These are the advisors the industry needs today. If we all have at least an arguable authority, we have a shot at rebuilding consumer trust. Guessing at details is not good enough today. It never was. As client needs and the numbers around us escalate, there is no room for “good enough” anymore.
Everyone expects excellence. That’s where the excellence comes from… and how you can avoid the devil.
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is.
July 20, 2010
(
Read More)
June 30, 2010
This is the scariest time of the year to be a financial adviser. Over the next two months, someone, somewhere is bound to ask you “the question”. You really hope is doesn’t come up. But it will. Your manager (if you have one) could pop the question. It could be your spouse. It might even be one of your kids -- which only makes it worse. It doesn’t matter who really, it will always be a very hard question to answer. Interestingly though, the right answer can dramatically increase your productivity and performance. Do you know what it is?
It was June 1984 and I was leading a large life insurance agency. We were always looking for ways to promote more business. Campaigns were always useful and I decided we needed a summer campaign.
But, I put a twist on it. To qualify for the campaign, you had to tell me what 3 weeks over the summer you were going to have your summer vacation. The top prize was having me pick up the adviser first thing in the morning in my new Mercedes be chauffeur for the whole day. Advisers wanted to see me work…
But, you’d think I’d asked for a human sacrifice. So many advisers were totally unprepared to tell me when they would be taking time off. Some were OK with it. But at least half had to be cajoled to set a date – for their own family vacation.
“Jim, I can’t decide now. I have to wait till later.”
Wait till later, when? It was already early June. When was “later”?
It was already later.
It still amazes me how many advisers squirm when I ask when their last vacation was. “Hmmm… let’s see. I didn’t make any money the last couple of weeks. I guess I was off!” that doesn’t work. You can’t decide you were on vacation in retrospect. You miss all the advantages of a vacation. So does your family.
I appreciate that not taking vacations is like a badge of honor to some people. “I haven’t had a day off in five year!” they’ll state as though they’d won the Nobel Peace Prize.
It’s actually pathetic.
Hey, I was part of the brigade that pushed for this over the years. I was dead wrong. So are you, if you think that working without time off helps you produce more.
It actually does the opposite.
I learned this from my old friend Ray Van more than 30 years ago. Just never caught on until later… When I started, Ray seemed to always be off on vacation. One quarter it was Whistler. The next it was his cottage. Then Palm Springs…
I told him he was a setting bad example for new guys like me.
“Au contraire” he said. He told me that he had plotted his production over a few years and discovered that regardless of what he did, his production always tailed off every 10 to 12 weeks. Finally he decided, if he wasn’t going to produce, he might as well go on vacation. So, every quarter, away he went.
Instead I sat around trying to force production. It never worked.
I’ve since tested this out hundreds of times can have some lessons you have to know if you want to be more productive:
1. Slumps are the natural consequence of working too long without a re-energizing break. What’s worse, they are demoralizing and self fulfilling. Slumps tend to get much worse, before they get better. That’s hell.
2. “Sickness is God’s way to tell you to slow down”. There is no need to test this proverb.
3. You must set at least a one week vacation every quarter. Anyone in a performance business has to refresh or they get stale. Sales is one of those businesses. So is TV and Radio. Do you know any of your favorite personalities who are on EVERY show EVERY day? Never. The same applies to you. You need a break, emotionally and physically.
4. Set vacations a year in advance. Each quarter needs at least a week. Make sure that your family knows the dates. Anticipation is more than half the fun and value of a vacation. Don’t pop a vacation on your kids. Let them savor the waiting for it to come. You too.
5. And, even if you can’t make it a big deal, take the time anyway. Do day trips. Loose the Blackberry for a while. Don’t check in for messages. Take a chance on yourself and your family. Sure, tell people you’re gone and make back up arrangements, but go. Trade the back-up time with a colleague for their vacation.
6. Just setting a vacation date begins the natural process of increasing your productivity in anticipation of going away. (And, booking a flight or a vacation makes it that that much more real and effective.) You know you have things to do before you go. You know you want to have the money to go. It is part of the “vacation slingshot”. Production accelerates to the last work day and then snaps back to form when you return because you now have to catch up and pay for the time off. Do not underestimate the power of this process. It is the essence of Principle 5 “Make reality work for you”.
7. The upshot is that even though you take 2 weeks off, you actually produce more before and after a vacation than you would have had you stayed plugging away. In the process, you are more relaxed and rejuvenated and prepared to help more people.
8. Vacations have a way of giving perspective to what’s important in life. My good friend Father Peter Watters always says, “Never trade what matters least for what matters most.” Your health and your family always matters most. As I write this, I’m looking at a note my daughter Abigail brought home from school. We all have to remember it:
“One hundred years from now… it will not matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in or the kind of car you drove… but the world may be a different place because you were important in the life of a child.”
I say that writer was talking about your children. Be important to them. Take time regularly to be with them. Summer vacation is the perfect time.
What’s more, you’ll be dramatically more productive because of it. Vacations are the easiest way to be more productive. Don’t make the mistakes I made.
So, contrary to what you may have heard, taking more time off is the best way to get more done. Set up a year’s worth of vacations and your production will increase… almost immediately.
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is.
June 30, 2010
(
Read More)
June 24, 2010
Business development as you’ve known it for the last fifty years is over. We have crested the hill and we are now speeding to a new world of performance. The jury is in and the die has been cast. You can either embrace this brave new world or it will scoot right by you. It isn’t that it looks like we are in for change. It’s enveloped us. The battle is over. Are you prepared for it?
More than 912,000 Canadians joined Facebook in May, just a fraction of the 30 million new members world-wide that month, according to a report in the Canadian Press.
If you think that you can avoid being swept away in the rush, think again. Hard.
Stopping that flow will prove tougher than capping that deep water blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It would be like putting the ketchup back in the bottle -- messy and miserable. 47.9 percent of Canadians (more than 16 million of them) were already on Facebook two months ago. Today, if you are not one of them, you may already be in the minority.
This exponential growth means some very interesting changes in the financial services business and every other one too. I’ve seen a few personally. While I am no social media expert, (I haven’t been called a geek since before they invented the word…) I can read the tea leaves and am here to wake you up so you don’t flail around worse than that poor BP CEO.
Here’s what I mean:
Social media is the ultimate in “permission marketing”. You build a network and then you have almost unrestricted access to it. Because of the inter-relatedness of everyone in the network, people are loathe to disconnect from any part of it so your influence can only grow.
It’s insidious, but it will work to the advantage of business and consumers. Here are a few ways you can use social media to your advantage.
If you are not on LinkedIn.com yet, get on it. LinkedIn is a business networking site that allows you to connect with all the business people you know. More than that, make anyone who could be a Center of Influence for you part of your network.
Then, every time you update your information on your site, everyone in your network gets the update. Sure they can turn these updates down, but people don’t because they wonder if it’s a good idea. Meanwhile, you get to tell your story to an every growing network all the time.
How’s that for “prospecting and promotion” Al Granum? Who’d have ever thought?
The question you have to answer is” “Do you have a good, CLEAR story to tell?” Is it focused? Is it compelling? If it is, you will attract business. LinkedIn will work for you.
Sure Facebook sounds like a kids’ site but it can do so much more. Case in point. I know someone who is going through pre-contract work to join the life insurance business. Market Surveys are required. Traditional wisdom has this person calling ten people she knows, ten referrals and then ten referrals from referrals. This all takes some time the old way.
But, rather than do it the slow way, instead, she posts a message on her Facebook page asking for help from her nearly 1,000 friends to complete it. In 20 minutes she gets 30 phone numbers. A few days later she’s done and has five generations of referrals.
Game. Set. Match. We have to rethink this stuff…
Imagine… 1,000 friends on Facebook. How’s that for a “rolodex”? (I know, I know… What’s a “rolodex”?)
Then, we wonder how to tell our “story” most effectively. How about you use YouTube.com? It has growing value for promotion, education, training and customer support.
I picked this up from my friend Terry Zavitz, Chair of Advocis who tells how they use YouTube video to help explain parts of the underwriting process to her medical clients. All of this with a $250 HD camera and free uploading to the site.
I’m doing the same thing now with my “JimClassTV” channel on Youtube. Check it out.
The question for you is, “What can you do with the technology?” Introduce yourself in a 3 minute video? Make a pitch for referrals? Explain the process you use? Talk about the benefits of working with you? Post a few testimonials? Imagine the possibilities…
All of this costs peanuts and it’s the future of business development. Are you thinking about it?
There’s more but you get the point. Business has changed. And really, with these changes, we won’t have to worry about “Do Not Call” or “Do Not Spam” legislation. We’ll already be in.
Do not call? Do not Spam? Who cares?
Yes, we have to make a few changes to our business approach (emails are much more valuable to you than phone numbers today, for instance…) but it’s all good. There are ways to make it work together too. And, it all leads to more face-to-face meetings.
Some things don’t change
I’m Jim Ruta, and that’s just the way it is.
(
Read More)
