1. Know What You Want

Know yourself and exactly what you want and expect out of your business. So many people enter into business and spend years in that business environment without having any idea of what they want, or what is possible to get out of their business. And it’s no different in the insurance profession.

In fact, most business owners are working so hard in their businesses that they don’t have time to work on them. As a result, they’ve become slaves to their business. They’ve got things backwards. They’re working for their business rather than their business working for them.

Take the time to carefully analyze where you’ve come from, where you are now, and what you want to accomplish in your business, your job or your career. Then begin to set some meaningful goals to help you accomplish your objectives. You see, if you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll have no idea of what to do in order to get there.

Meaningful goals are an essential requirement for success in business. With goals, you have a target to aim for, a purpose for being, and a direction to travel. Without goals, it’s easy to wander aimlessly, getting sidetracked with any little thing that comes along.

When you set your goals, think of the word, “SMART.” You should have SMART goals. That is, your goals should be:

• Specific,
• Measurable,
• Attainable,
• Realistic, and
• Time-bound

It is important for your goals to be Specific, so you will know exactly what you’re shooting for. Your goal should be clearly defined and identified so you not only know what you are trying to accomplish, you’ll also know when you achieve it.

Just to say you want to sell more products, merchandise or services or reduce the number of contacts to close a sale isn’t enough. You need to clearly specify your goal. Is it 12 more sales per month? An extra $100,000 in monthly sales? How about a certain amount of certain types of products or services? How much – specifically?

Whatever your goal, there should be no doubt about what you wish to accomplish.

Your goals should be Measurable. That is, there should be a system, or method of determining how you are progressing in your efforts for attainment. By clearly defining your goals as discussed in the previous step, you will be more able to measure them. It’s important for you to be able to see your current status, as well as progression towards your goals.

Next, your goals should be Attainable. If your goal is too high… if there’s no hope for you to reach it, it won’t take long for you to become discouraged, and you will either lose concentration and the drive necessary to pursue your goal, or you will abandon it altogether.

Your goal should be something you can reach with just a little extra effort.

An insurance agency owner I’m acquainted with had a large fire and casualty agency. In order to promote the sale of life insurance to his on-board customers, the agency owner introduced a contest for his agents. The agent who sold the most life insurance would win a trip to Hawaii.

One of the agents who worked for the agency but who had never sold much life insurance, decided he wanted to try and win the trip. The qualifications to earn the trip were tough, and were based entirely on the sale of life insurance.

Very few agents in this agency ever earned these types of trips by working the entire year for them, but this particular agent put his mind to it and qualified in only four months.

Considering the agent’s past performance with regards to life insurance production, it’s questionable whether the goal should have been attainable for him. However, the agent found a motivation within that changed the odds to his favor, and he was able to accomplish in a four month period, what most agents weren’t able to do in an entire year.

In your business operation, you need to make sure your goals are not only attainable, but are also…

Realistic. If your goal isn’t realistic, that is, if it’s not something within your realm of achievement, it’s just a matter of time before you’ll become frustrated and give up. And that can have a negative effect on you as you begin to think of yourself as a failure, or not being good at setting goals.

Then, because of your negative image of yourself relative to setting goals, you will likely give up setting goals in the future. It’s a self-feeding mechanism.

The key to being good at setting and achieving goals, is to be realistic in your expectations. Set attainable and realistic goals that can be reached with a small amount of effort.

That builds a success image, and enhances your self confidence in a positive way. Then, the next time, set a little higher goal. Not much higher, just a little higher. Again, one that you know you can achieve. And that adds on to, and builds your confidence, that much more.

The next step is to make your goals, Time-bound. That is, you should set a time limit for their attainment. This helps you keep on target, not be distracted, and encourages you to complete something you’ve started. Not only will this help you to realize success at a predesignated time, but you will enhance your self image by accomplishing your goal.

If, for instance, your goal is to sell a certain number of a certain type of product or service, or a pre-determined dollar amount of sales this year, break that number down into months, weeks, and even days, if necessary.

A large goal becomes much more manageable in small pieces. The key is to break your goals into bite-size pieces, and place a time deadline on them, for their accomplishment.

2. The Ability to Focus

The second quality is the ability to focus. Many people hesitate to go into business because they think they lack the talents and abilities necessary to succeed. They look at others who are successful and think that they must have unique talents or capabilities. But after getting to know that person, they find them to really be quite average.

The main difference is that the successful person has developed the ability to focus. A person of average intelligence who is focused on a clearly identified and specific goal, will consistently outperform the brightest people who are not focused on anything specific.

3. Determine the Price You’ll Pay

You must determine the price you’ll have to pay to be successful. For everything in life, there is a price. And it must be paid before you can realize the rewards. In many instances, it takes sacrifice.

A few years ago, in an effort to get a little exercise and help relieve stress, a friend of mine bought him and his wife matching bicycles. He had fun for awhile, but then a group of experienced riders flew by him one day on their fast, shiny, obviously high-priced racing bikes.

Always a competitive person, he decided he would try to catch them and ride with them. But, try as he might, it was to no avail. Nothing he did would allow him to catch up to them. That ate on him for about a week, and it wasn’t long before he found himself back in the bike shop getting the specifications and prices of one of those “fast, shiny, obviously high-priced” bikes.

$2,500 later, he was back on the road just waiting for those riders to catch me so he could ride with them. He was decked out in cycling shorts and jersey, special shoes, helmet and his new 16-speed racer.

Then, one day it happened. The group of riders came up on him from behind, and he was determined to keep up with them. But a quarter of a mile later, try as he might, he was “off the back.” They were gone, never to be seen again. That really irritated him.

So he bought several books, obtained some video tapes, and sought out the help of a neighbor who was a pretty good rider. he worked hard trying to develop his cycling abilities. He rode every morning from 4:30 to 7:30, while his family was still asleep.

He encountered motorists who didn’t like cyclists. Some have even gone so far as to run him off the road and have bottles thrown at him. He’s ridden in the rain and cold weather, and in the 120 degree heat. He worked hard and eventually hired a cycling coach to help him develop his skills.

Then he entered a local race, and to his surprise he won! This encouraged him so much that he entered another. Then another. And another. And he kept winning.

With the new skills and confidence he was developing, he entered the state and national championships, placing very high in both. The riders who used to pass him were now coming to him for help and advice. They wondered how he could consistently beat them when he hadn’t been riding for nearly as long as they had.

What they didn’t understand, was that it wasn’t how long he had been training, as much as what he had put into his training. It wasn’t what he did during the race, that counted as much as it was what hedid during the long, lonely, solitary hours of training. It was the sacrifices he made that made the difference between being a social rider, or the national champion he eventually became.

The same concept of sacrifice applies to operating a successful business. If you want to reap the great and abundant rewards your business can provide you, you’re going to have to do some not-soglamorous things at some not-so-convenient times.

You’re going to have to do what Earl Nightingale said… you’ll have to do “…the things that unsuccessful business owners don’t want to do.”

That may mean, depending on the type of business you have or operate, that you’ll have to leave the comfort of your store or office to visit with people about their needs in their homes or businesses at inconvenient times.

If you have a family, this may prove to be a hardship on you, but if you are just starting out in business, or want to increase your existing business or achieve some new goals, you may have to make that sacrifice. If you are not willing to make the necessary sacrifices, then you can’t expect to be as successful in business as someone who is willing to make those sacrifices.

4. Self Responsibility

You are totally responsible for the success of your business and your life. There are no excuses. There may be set-backs or economic down-turns, or problems that affect your business. Your suppliers or vendors may discontinue making or providing your favorite products or services, change the way they do business with you or even merge with another company. Economies change, corporate policies change, and prospects don’t buy from you, and the weather is too hot or too cold.

While those things definitely have an impact on you, the way you do business and the sales you make, it is important to realize that those things are beyond your control, and it’s up to you, and you alone, to accept responsibility for the success of your business.

No matter how bad you might have it, no matter what difficulties or challenges you might encounter, let me assure you that there are many people who have had difficulties and challenges far greater than any you are ever likely to encounter, and somehow, they manage to pull through. And you can do the same. Here’s a little credo that can help you. It contains just ten, two-letter words:

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

That simple one line sentence says it all. It places the responsibility exactly where it should be... directly on your shoulders.

“If you are always willing to do more than
what you get paid for, the day will come when
you will be paid for more than what you actually do.”
 

Robert Cialdini, in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, discusses what he calls the Law of Reciprocity. Basically, it says that when you do something for someone else there’s an unstated obligation for them to want to do something for you in return.

So, when you go the extra mile for your customers or clients, you’ve just set the stage for that law to take effect. But it’s only on that “extra mile” that this works. When you give what might be considered “normal” service, or “adequate” service or – even “good” service, you haven’t earned the right to expect that law to work for you.

In fact, even performing “knock-out” service often isn’t enough to gain you an advantage. We’ve all come to expect that from any number of businesses. You’ve really got to do something special in order to gain an advantage in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Then, and only then, can you expect to create that nearly compelling desire in your customer to want to reciprocate. This simple truth says it all:

“There’s no traffic jam on the extra mile.”

7. Control Your Time

The seventh quality is that you must master and take control of your time. Time is an expendable commodity. Each one of us has the same 24 hours in each day. When those hours are gone, they cannot be replaced. They are gone forever, never to be recaptured.

You must treat your time as precious, and guard it wisely and selfishly. Don’t let anyone disrupt you or take you away from the focus you have on your goals. People who don’t have goals are used by people who do. If you let others draw you away from your goals, you are simply saying that their goals are more important than your own. If you are serious about business success – really serious, then this is one of the most important and critical areas to defend.

8. Persistence and Determination

Number eight, is to develop persistence and determination. From time to time you will encounter set-backs or reach plateaus where it seems like nothing is going right.

Your competitors’ lower prices, run massive ad campaigns and your customers and clients begin doing business with them. Business is walking out the back door faster than it’s coming in the front door. Your volume is beginning to drop, and you become concerned. You seem to be spending more time in a defensive posture than you do in servicing your existing customers, and you’re losing.

Now is not the time to give up. Now is the time to dig in and begin to play offensively. To be determined not to lose your good customers

– the ones you worked so hard to get. Your strategy should be to keep in touch with them and continue providing exceptional service.

Nearly every business is cyclical. Eventually things will change. While you can’t be competitive on price all the time, you can be competitive on the service you give, and the empathy you have for your customers and their problems.

We’ll talk more about how to do that in a later report, but for now, just resolve in advance; that no matter what, you’ll never give up.

1. Effective Communication

First, is the ability to communicate effectively with others. You must be able to interact with other people on their level, so they understand you and the points you are trying to get across to them.

Remember that everyone is different. Each of us have different communication and behavior styles, and you need to be versatile enough to relate to each person according to their individual style. Be careful that you speak language that they are familiar with and can relate to, and that you don’t overuse “buzz words,” or industry jargon.

2. Stay On Target

This is the ability for you to quickly make midstream corrections. Each one of us is human, and are subject to the frailties that accompany this mortal life. From time to time, we all make mistakes or errors in judgment.

Making the mistake or the error is not the problem – the first time. It’s when we keep making the same mistakes over and over again, without learning from them, or that we fail to quickly recover and make the necessary corrections to avoid total calamity, that we run into problems.

3. Develop Foresight

The ability to spot and analyze trends. To be able to look at the past as well as what is happening today, and predict what might happen in the future, can have a significant impact on your business success. Another word for this skill is “foresight.”

In a recent interview, the president of a very large meat company told how just a few years ago, their largest selling items were canned hams. But today, with more women working, and less time to spend in the kitchen, they sell very few canned hams.

Today their mainstay is precooked dinners. Without foresight, or the ability to look ahead and predict with reasonable accuracy what may happen in the near future, a company could lose its competitive position and find itself in serious trouble.

As a business owner, you should give serious thought to keeping abreast of industry changes, new laws, tax laws, buying trends, and other factors that could affect your customers either positively or negatively. Then take whatever steps are necessary to prepare yourself to address those changes, as well as posture yourself in the minds of your customers as the expert they’ve come to know and depend on.

4. Demonstrate Leadership

The fourth ability or skill to develop for outstanding success, is that of leadership. Leadership is the ability to take charge and move others to action.

When you are working with a prospect, client or customer, and have identified and analyzed their needs, it is up to you to prepare and recommend a good, workable plan or proposal that will help satisfy those needs; a plan that’s right for their situation and that fits their budget.

It’s not up to the customer to tell you what they want. You are the professional. They have come to you for help and advice. You’ve got a lot more experience, knowledge and understanding of your products and services and what they can do for them than they do. It is up to you to take charge and assume responsibility for the satisfaction and solving of their problems, needs and wants.

And if you approach it with the right mix of professionalism, knowledge and confidence you’ll be amazed at how many people will take your advice and follow your leadership.

5. Persuasive Selling Skills

The ability to sell well. It’s surprising how little most people in business know about professional selling. Selling is one of the most important skills you as a professional business person can possess.

Many of your prospects and your existing customers know just enough about what your products or services can do for them to be dangerous. They have talked to other people, read a few articles in some magazines, may even have seen a program or two on television, checked things out on the Internet, and they think they know exactly what they need. In some cases, they may be close.

But in other cases, they’re far from the mark. You owe it to your customers to be as effective a salesperson as you can be. By doing that, you’ll end up giving them better solutions and better value, saving them both time and money, and helping them have greater piece of mind knowing they have the products or services that are best for them.

They will also feel good about their choice of a place of business, knowing that they have just dealt with real professionals who really care about them.

You will be a beneficiary of that effort, too. You will feel good about yourself and the job you have just done for your customer, and that will cause you to be more effective and professional in your next interview or sale. Not only that, but your customer, being satisfied with what you have done for him or her, will be more inclined to tell others of their experience.

Believe me, people respond to the personal experiences of people they respect. And they’ll respond to you, because a real professional and caring person or business is hard to find, these days.

6. Action

The sixth ability to develop is that of action. All the things we’ve discussed in this report will do you, nor anyone else (your customers, for instance) any good if you don’t take action and do something about them.

Remember, action is the key. As we discussed earlier, it’s not what you know, it’s not what you talk about, it’s what you do. True success in business, or in life, is an ongoing process. As Joel Weldon says,

“The Road to Success is Always Under Construction.”

Some people say that knowledge is power. But it isn’t. Knowledge is not power unless it’s applied. This report has supplied you with some vital knowledge necessary to be successful in business. You now have the knowledge – now it’s up to you to put that knowledge into action.