3 Habits Elite Insurance Advisors Master Every Week

Welcome back to the Bullpen Sessions podcast. In today's episode, I am going to share three things the top insurance producers nail when it comes to consistency. And normally when I record my episodes, I have created a set of notes, big outline, so I know exactly where I want to go and what I want to talk about today. But I'm going to admit to you, this one's a little. A little rant to riff. And it's because I have seen a level of frustration grow in myself as I look across the insurance landscape and I observe how many insurance producers, young and old, are not hitting their goals right now simply because they are not consistent. And I'm here to tell you what separates the top insurance producers in this industry from everybody else is their level of consistency. It's not knowledge, it's not skill skill. It is the level of consistency that they apply every single week. So in this episode, I'm going to share three P's. They all start with P. Three P's. Three things the top producers are consistently nailing every week. And it's something you can start modeling if you. Not if you know you're not hitting your sales goals right now. And as I sit here and I observe the insurance industry, I get a chance to talk to a lot of producers every week, work with a lot of producers every week. And when. When you're a coach, you get to play good cop, bad cop, and unfortunately, sometimes you got to pay play bad cop. And I think this episode might be a little of me playing bad cop. And if you don't want to hear the truth, you might want to turn this off. But when I coached producers and teams of producers, I'm often the one tasked with being the bad cop. I'm the one who's asked to have the hard conversations with producers when they're not performing. Sometimes conversations their sales director is not even willing to have. And I've had several conversations over the last month or two with producers who've reached out and they're looking for help. You can see that they have a desire to try to get better. But when I have my conversation with them, it becomes very clear to me why they're not winning. They're not consistent. They're making excuses for their lack of consistency. Maybe they're blaming things like their boss or, or the agency they work for, and they're really not holding themselves accountable for their results at all. And when I share with them how we can help them improve their results, these are the producers who will typically end the phone call Leave and I will never hear from them again. Just another sign that they're not willing to commit the consistency it takes to win. And as I have observed this behavior increase in the last year or so, I felt the need to talk about this and because I want to help you win. If you are willing to admit right now that you're not as consistent as you should be, this is going to be a good episode for you and it's going to require you to hear some hard truths. But I want to help you improve at this, at this company, Complete Game Consulting, we are very passionate about helping insurance producers reach their full potential. And sometimes I'm told, andy, you're way too energetic, you got to tone it down. It's just because we are so passionate about helping you win. And then when I see you getting the way in the way of your own success, it fires me up because I want to help you succeed. It's interesting. Just a couple of days ago I threw a text out there to my text community and I asked the community to rate their level of consistency right now with emojis. Smiley face means they're doing well. Kind of that nervous look means and so so. And then I had the emoji of us of the face puking, which means my consistency sucks right now. I was actually surprised how many emojis I received of the face puking people saying I am not consistent right now. And that is what we are here to address. What I'm going to share with you is three things the top insurance producers do every week. Nail consistently every week to make sure they are performing at their best. I want you to take these three Ps and model them so you can have more success. Now the only thing that's going to hold you back from succeeding is you not doing it consistently. But right now I'm watching too many producers just not show up consistently. Make excuses about it, let the dumbest things get in the way of doing what you know you're supposed to be doing and then just completely letting yourself off the hook. That's why you're not winning.

So where does this come from? Well, last fall I held, I held a two day retreat with some peers of mine, insurance producers, all high level producers. Most of them, if not all of them, have books of business north of seven figures. And spending two days with these guys really gave me an appreciation for how the best play in this industry day in and day out. And I saw a level of consistency in different things that really impressed the hell out of me. And When I look at what I observed from those guys over those two days and what I observe right now from some of the best in the industry and unfortunately, I have the opportunity to work with some of them. I want to share them with you because I, if I can give you any kind of clarity and unlock, that's going to help you go, ah, yes, that's something I need to start doing more of. That's what this is all about. You know, when I coach my clients right now, we work with producers who work for agencies and we work for agency owners who are trying to take their business and their agency to the next level. And, and it's interesting. I can definitely see the difference between those who have a large book of business that keeps growing and those who are stalling. Those who are stalling are with the ones I jump on a call with and I ask if they did their homework, if they got their high priorities done for the week. And what I hear right out of the gate is excuses or they let something very trivial get in the way of them actually focusing on the one thing they were supposed to do last week. The high performers. No, they come on the call, they know exactly what they want to work on during that call and they want to just get right after it. And then when they get what they need, they look at me and they say, I'm good. It's time to go execute. That is what I'm talking about. That is the type of producer I want you to be. So let's talk about the first P. The top insurance producers in this industry consistently nail preparation. They are prepared almost to a fault. They plan their weeks every week. They don't go to bed without knowing exactly what they're going to do tomorrow. When it comes to preparing how they're going to perform every day, they exercise consistently. They prepare their meals the night before so they can wake up knowing exactly what they're going to put in their bodies so they can perform at a high level. They don't go into week not knowing what their top priority priorities are. They don't wake up and then figure out what they're going to do that day. No, they're prepared when it comes to finalist presentations. They're spending hours, days before that presentation getting prepared to nail it. I'm reading a book right now, the Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban. Hands down the greatest college football coach ever. As a Badger fan, I'm a little sad. I've got season tickets and he retired and Alabama's coming to Madison next year or this year. So I'm a little disappointed he's not going to be on the sidelines but still the greatest coach ever. He said something the book that I, I take a note of that I absolutely love. His practice routines are something of legend and one thing he pounds into his team is we are going to practice until we can't get it wrong. That's preparation. Are you nailing preparation consistently right now? Are you planning your weeks? Are you planning your days? What are you doing to prepare yourself for the next day? Do you prepare your meals? Do you exercise consistently? Do you have habits and routines that you consistently nail to make sure you're performing at your best? The top producers not even. It's a non negotiable. When I spent these two days with these guys in Indiana, every morning I saw routines. They weren't going to do anything else until those routine routines done. I saw them how they prepare for the day. I saw how they prepared themselves the night before before the next day started and it was impressive. And that's what I'm talking about. You want to improve your performance right now, you've got to be more consistent in how you prepare. When I plan my weeks, I plan them religiously. Every Sunday morning I plan my weeks no matter where I am. I could be here in the office, I could be on vacation, it does not matter. My weekly planning is getting done. I do not go to bed until tomorrow is locked down. I'm going to bed knowing exactly what my top priorities are. I wake up in the morning and I just execute the plan. I do not go to bed until tomorrow's breakfast and lunches are prepared because I don't want to have to think about what I'm going to eat tomorrow. It's already done for me. I do not miss a day without exercising because I know it is going to allow me to perform at my best. No excuses, non negotiable. So what are you doing right now to make sure you are consistently preparing yourself for success? The second P Prospecting. Yeah, I know it sounds basic but the top producers consistently prospect every single week. If you go look at their calendar, there is time blocked for the activities they have to do to make sure they are keeping their pipeline full. Whether that's making calls, sending out emails, networking, LinkedIn activity, it doesn't matter. It is on their calendar usually at the first part of the day because they know in order to make sure that they always have opportunities coming in, they have got to put the daily activity in. It amazes me how many Producers are hired to sell insurance and if you looked at their calendar today, you cannot find any time blocks where there is prospecting activity taking place.

This is why you're not winning, by the way. Picking up the phone and dialing it 50 times, sending out 30 emails, getting on LinkedIn and making 20 connections, or sending out a bunch of messages and making a couple posts. And it's not sexy, it's not fun, it doesn't create an overnight win, but it works. It's what you have to do to create the success you're looking for. And there is not a week that goes by that the top producers are not prospecting. Why? It's become a non negotiable. It's in their calendar. They know on Tuesday mornings they do this, on Wednesday afternoons they do this. On Friday mornings they do this. It's just built into their calendar. So if you want to start having more sales, sales success. I know this is obvious, maybe you should be a little more consistent in actually prospecting. Don't let the inbox, don't let the paper shuffling get in the way. This is where I see producers let the dumbest things get in the way of achieving success simply because you're not doing the things that you're being asked to do, like sell. So number two is you got to be more consistent in prospecting. What does the perfect week look like for you? What are the activities that you're going to hit every week to make sure you're keeping your pipeline full? In a previous episode I talked about the four ways that you can reach out to a prospect. Cold one to one that's cold calling and cold emails, warm one to ones, referrals and networking. We warm one to many. That's the social media, the webinars, the podcast, the public speaking. And then you got the cold one of many, which is paid advertising. What are you doing to make sure you are prospecting across those four channels every single week? This is how you keep a pipeline full. When a pipeline's full, you're going to sell more, but you got to do it consistently. You can't go gangbusters for a week and then take two weeks off. You can't have a successful month where you sold two pieces of business and then you take three months off. That's not how you're going to have success. It's about consistency. And the last P number three.

The top producers in the insurance industry are consistently patient. Yeah, it's not a word I know you want to hear. It's the last of the images sitting behind me here. The top producers in this game play the long game. They know the work they're putting in today may not come to fruition for six, nine months, maybe two years, but they know that the work they put in today sets up a successful tomorrow, but they're not expecting it to succeed tomorrow. You got to be patient. The reason you're not consistent is because you are not patient.

One of the things we spend a lot of time with. With producers on is teaching them how to use a platform like LinkedIn to grow their business. We've seen what it does for our business, We've seen what it does for our clients, and we know it works. So you give it a try. But because of your lack of patience, you do it for two weeks, and then you say it's stupid and you stop.

You try calling cold calls, you try podcasting. You try all these prospecting activities for a couple weeks, but because your lack of patience, you stop.

Patience is about playing the long game. What are you gonna do today to make the 10 the year, the version of you who's 10 years older from now happy you did it? What are you gonna do today that's gonna make you 10 years from now happy you did it? You see, the top producers don't think in terms of days or weeks, not even months. They think in terms of years, possibly decades. They're patient because they know if they put in the work, good things are coming down the road.

Again. I didn't come up, have any outline for today, any. Any detailed script, but I felt this frustration boiling up in me watching so many producers right now just flat out not hit their goals. I see them making excuses, blaming external factors for why they're not succeeding, and just coming up with any way they can to let themselves off the hook. And this is why they're not winning. And if that's you, I hope today's episode wook you up a little bit, maybe lit a fire under your ass. That's my goal. It's my job as coach. But if you want to play like the best are playing right now, you got to apply the three Ps you got to prepare, plan your weeks, plan your days, plan your meals, plan your exercise plan and prepare to nail your discovery calls, your finalist meetings. You've got to practice preparation every single day. Make it your religion. The second P prospect. You want to sell more business, you actually got a prospect. You got to do it every week. Look at your calendar right now. Where do you have time blocks scheduled, recurring Time blocks every week for your prospecting activities. And then number three, be patient. This is a long game. I know you might have a validation date. I know your sales director might be holding your feet to the fire right now. But you have to apply a patient attitude to this because that means you're going to do the right things today that are going to set up a successful tomorrow. This is what the top producers in the industry do. And when I started applying these to my career a few years ago, that's when everything changed for me. I was you. I was not prepared. I wong everything. I thought I could just show up and throw up. Number two, I did not prospect like I should because I was afraid to pick up the phone. I was afraid to go knock on doors, rub elbows and network. I wasn't patient. I didn't want to try something unless it created instant ROI or I didn't want to try something unless I knew the result was guaranteed. That is no way to succeed. That is how you stick in mediocrity. So apply these three P's. If you do, you are going to see more success consistently. And more success leads to more money, leads to more fulfillment. It leads to more joy in your career. And that's what I want for you. We are on a mission to help 25,000 producers in this industry sell their first 250k in this business. And if you're still at that phase in your career, this is the clarity you need. Because you know what happens when you're clear. You're confident. When you're confident, you're consistent. When you're consistent, you become unstoppable. Be good.