25 Reasons Why Agents Fail Part 2 | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 149

Okay, everyone, welcome back to this week's podcast. We are now into part two of why 25, why 98, 25 reasons why 90% of people fail in the first two years. And we just really, like I said, this may be drawn out to three, four or five. We don't know yet. But I want to make sure I'm not rushing this. And it's very important to understand why we do this and how to do this. I've been doing this for 17 years. And I remember I was talking to someone just recently. They were asking me business advice, and then they said, you know, I just want to get an opinion from someone who does business. And then they said they're going to go and talk to so. And so I said, okay, so you're going to go online, you're going to talk to this guy that is in business but is not a family person. And I own 10 businesses. I've been doing this for 17 years. And like, oh, you do? Yeah. One of my companies actually is a division that's all about starting companies. And so I want to help people. You know, we have a company called Increase you, and it's a business incubation and acceleration company. So what we actually do is help people that have existing business or starting businesses. We can help you with social media, we can help you with your branding. We can help you with everything. I mean, it's literally from beginning to end. And we know why we went through this. I would say just a couple times, you know, but, you know, with 10 businesses and helping, I've lost count how many businesses I've helped people start. It's. I know what works and what doesn't, and I know how to get them started. I know what it takes to do it. And sometimes, actually most of the time, it is not easy. There's definitely some challenges. You do have your days where you feel like you can coast a little bit, but it is not often. So what are we at now? Number.

We're on number seven. But the beauty of this, you know, think about it like, well, Chad, Caleb, why are y' all talking about 25 reasons agents fail? I want to hear about that. Well, it kind of gives you, for lack of better terms, a sandbox. It's like, hey, don't go over here. Don't do this. So if you know what not to do, you can reasonably gather what to do. And if you avoid the things you shouldn't do and you do the things you should, you're going to expedite success.

Well, if you do it right. You know, the sand keeps getting dumped in your sandbox, and then you have no boundaries and no borders. It depends on how much sand is dumped in your box. So if you do it right the first time, you won't even need to have borders. Just let the sand keep pouring out and all of a sudden you're in the middle of a oasis, in the middle of a desert. Just keeps expanding, expanding. So where are we at now?

So number seven is they don't keep track of their business.

So we've been very, very deliberate. Like, if you follow me on LinkedIn, I am very deliberate on tracking my numbers and always have been. Why I need to know how much each lead truly costs me. Because just because I spent 300 or $350 lead, that's not what. Because if I have 10 leads, I actually sit on three. And let's say the 10 leads are 35,000. So 350 times 10 is 3,500. So if I divide that by the three, we're looking at about $1,000, $1,100, $1,150 a lead. Because why? That's what that cost me. I mean, I know for a fact I'm not going to be able to meet with everybody. I know for a fact I'm not going to be able to get in touch with everybody.

Right.

So. So the cost of my lead isn't $350 a lead. The cost of my lead is who did I actually get to meet with then out of the ones I actually met with, who bought? So I mean, we could keep going on and on where leads truly end up costing 2,000 to $3,000 a lead. But if you're writing an average of 300, what, 340,000 a sale, I think you'll spend 3 to $4,000 on a lead to write that kind of business. And so it's all perspective. It's like, what does it cost for a billboard? Well, let's say on a decent highway, it's going to run you $4,500 a month. On decent highway, not anything extravagant. And it obviously depends where you live. But there's a lot of people that pass by that billboard that will never call in.

Right.

You still pay that 4,500 per month, no matter what. So you've got to track which systems work, you've got to track your profitability, you've got to track how much you're spending on leads. Yeah. And you've got to track your numbers.

Well, and I'LL say too, just for time's sake. Practically, if you want to get kind of an idea of what you should be tracking, shoot me an email. Caleb North, C A L E B N O R t h@retirementrealize.com and I will literally map out for you what you should be tracking on a. On a weekly and monthly basis. So you have those metrics.

If they're with our fmo though, don't. We'll do that.

We'll do that for them. If they request it.

Yeah.

You know, it takes time on our.

And you've got to do your part.

To send.

A week hunting down.

No.

To try and do their tracking.

Specifically told him. Because if you're not going to send it in, it's not important to you. So why would we track it? Because when we send you the numbers anyway, you're not going to look at them. So it's very important that you be very deliberate in sending those numbers in. And we can help. We can help.

Yeah.

That's one of the things where we're different than most other marketing organizations I know is since I'm still in the field every single week, I know what it takes to make this happen. I mean this with utmost respect. I'm not slamming any marketers or anything, but when you're not in the field, it's really hard for you to know what's going on. It really is. And I'm meeting with the clients every single week. I know what it needs for what I need to do to track. And it's just important. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Love it. Now, number eight says they treat. Well, it was funny last episode we did. We talked about this a little bit. But they treat it as a hobby instead of a business.

Yeah. And that goes back into a hobby treated like a business will become a business. A business treated like a hobby will become a hobby. And that's why I think the IRS says and don't quote me on this, but I think it's five years of negative returns. I believe they considered a hobby. Now I don't know what they do. I don't know if they go and get rid of all those deductions or they just say, hey, you're not making in this. You can no longer deduct. I have no idea. I'm not a tax guy. Never will be. I know a lot about taxes, but I'm not going to be an accountant. That is not my thing. Yeah, but you've got to be very deliberate. And can a hobby and a business be fun Absolutely. But you know what hobbies, most people, they don't feel like doing their hobby. They just don't do it. When you have a business, you don't have that luxury of. I just don't feel like coming in now, remember, I own my own company. You know, I have people that can run my other businesses when I'm not there. But does that mean I don't come in anymore? No, I still come in, so. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well.

And I'll say, too. You know, it's one of the things I've seen is less about a hobby, more about this mindset of. I'm an insurance salesman. I'm just. I'm just a salesman for this company. Almost like you're an employee. No, you're a business owner.

Well, that's where it can be hard. If you're captive.

Yeah, well, that's captive.

You're. You're making everybody else rich.

Yeah, it's true.

I mean, if you're a really good agent and you're working captive. I did that when I worked for the jewelry business. You know, I was making them tons of money with the amount I was writing, and I never once had any ownership of the company, so. Yeah. Okay, continue. You were actually on a. Oh, well, I just say.

I mean, the mindset has to be that it's. It's a business. You have to treat it that way. You're not just a salesman for some insurance company. You have a business. Not a practice, either. We're not practicing.

That is interesting. You're practicing law.

Yeah. You're practicing or you're a. You're a nurse practitioner or.

Yeah, I know there's a bunch of doctor practitioners.

I am not a practitioner. I am.

You go get a lot of it. Here's a. Here's a little one for clients. You go get a lot of feedback from a practitioner when you go to the doctor, don't you? Let me tell you, I'm not a practitioner. I am an expert.

I don't need to guess what the solution is and stick you in a lab and try to poke you with 50 different needles and hopefully one of these works. You get jabbed with enough, enough things, hopefully one of them is gonna work.

But it's a good little nugget.

Yeah. That is.

Number nine. Says they focus on goals more than growth.

Yeah. So here's the thing. If I have a goal of doing 5 million a year, but my expenses are 6 million a year, what's more important? You know, the. Your goal is 5 million, but you forgot Totally about your budgeting. You forgot totally about your telling your money what to do. Or it tells you what to do. Your goal means nothing. You hit the goal, but you still weren't profitable.

Right.

You hit the goal, but did you accomplish what you want to have done? And so goals to me often as well. If I'm growing every single year we went from, in 2020, we went from seven people to 17, I think, or 16 people. And you know, the reality is that growth blew my goals away.

Right.

You know, so I, I'm always focused on growth.

Yeah.

Yeah. Except in my waistline.

There were, there's the, the goal. That, that is a goal oriented, not a growth oriented. But the way I think about it too is like if you're lined up for 100 meter dash, your goal is get to that, that line first. Okay. How are you going to practically do that? You're gonna have to grow. Yeah. You're the steps you take and the speed at which you take them is the growth quote, unquote growth that you're taking to actually get to that point. Now what happens when you get there and you came across first? Do you have more gas? Can you keep going? Can you actually accomplish further than what.

You were going to do? Absolutely. I could not. Well, I can do 100 yard dash.

We do a company 100 meter. 100 meter dash sometime. Everybody line up and raise.

I think, I think the. What Abram would probably beat us all.

Short legs. I'm just kidding.

He's our podcast guy. He's produces the podcast. So he's listening to this.

Yeah.

As we record.

Of course he'd have to slick his hair back because that would definitely get caught in the wind. His head might work back like that.

Okay. Number 10, they fail to know their competition.

And John, with this hood, he would never be able to.

It would be like a sail pulling on the other one.

John is our marketing guru. And his head, he always wears his hoodie, so you'd have to take that down. In other words, that slow him down too. Absolutely.

So 10, they fail to know their competition.

Actually, Josh would be the same way too.

I'm knowing my competition right now. Okay. So I could, I could make sure everybody loses. Josh has his hair up and he has skinny jeans, so he's no blood flow and his legs would catch on fire.

Okay, go ahead.

Number 10 is they fail to know their competition. What is the competition and why do you need to know it?

I don't have competition.

Okay.

I have people that try and sell products over What I do, okay. You know, to me, my competition is with myself. This actually, I learned in the retail business because we were in a mall, and with the jewelry business, I mean, I think in the malls I normally worked in, we had 10 to 15 other jewelry stores. Never looked at them as competition. I just had to be better than what they were at what they did. And then I always came out ahead. So what I did, for example, there's one store that always had kind of yellow lighting. You know, it was a little bit darker yellow. So the diamonds never showed the yellow color in their diamonds. But then you brought them in the bright white light. You could see the yellow in the diamonds. So when I did that, I was going, you know, see that store over there? See how they kind of have yellow lighting? That's so you can't see the yellow in their diamonds. It just looks like it's in their lighting. So I went around every store and I knew what each store did. Now, there were some other good stores in there.

But you studied your competition.

I studied my competition. And then we had a mall open up. Man, it wasn't even five miles away, and it was a very nice new mall. And, you know, the. Everybody is trying to. They're even lowering our goals, saying this mall was going to destroy the mall we were in. And I said, no way. Said, I will set a standard that people will still want to come here for this reason. And so the competition was with myself. And how can I be better? I mean, if you think about it, how many other agents? I mean, I think there's 750,000 licensed insurance agents. There's 1.3 million realtors in the United States, approximately. There's 1 million homes for sale at any given time.

Right.

So is it studying your competition or is it knowing that you are better in what you do? This is where our leave behind kit comes in. This is where my book. And like I said, if it's not your book, you just say, this is what my met, one of my mentors. He wrote this book to help explain annuities in English, not financial lease. And anybody can order that book. If you go on stressandrockingchurch.com you'll see there's bulk orders available. But if you don't leave behind a book, then what sets you apart from everybody else?

Right.

And so knowing your competition, I know when I'm going up to the against the fidelities, the Schwab's, all these big companies, they really do have incredible brochures and incredible pamphlets and Incredible documents, right. So I have to set my standard, at least at their level. But how does it get higher? Because I'm a much more personal touch. There you go. Like, you got my cell phone number. If you have any questions, you call me. I'll be more than happy to help you. So I know my competition. I know what will set me higher than them as far as standards and integrity. And I mean, we're not cookie cutter. I even all the agents I'm training, I'm going, hey, don't be like me at all. Be like you. Use the system and the process, but don't sell like me.

That's good.

You know, you've got to have your own personality put into that.

That's so good. So good.

And that's also where you have the biggest, the big cookie cutter companies, you know. Okay, I am a life insurance agent. Would you like to buy life insurance? Because you have a mortgage and you need to have insurance on a mortgage instead of going, wait a second, you have a mortgage, but you also don't have anything else to cover, so you've covered the mortgage, but what do you have to pay for? You know, if I passed away, my wife has always been a stay at home mom. So, man, if I pass away, I need to make sure she's really well taken care of, not just the mortgage.

Right. So yeah, that's so good. Yeah. Well, I mean, think back even to when you were doing mortgage protection insurance and you broke the company record. The VP or executive, whatever. I don't even know, CEO.

He was a regional vp. Yeah.

He comes down and he just tells everybody else in your office, be more like this guy.

Yeah, he's like, be more like Chad. You need to be more like Chad. And I raised my hand, I'm like, who's Chad? And he got all puzzled. He's like, aren't you? And I said, no, who's Chad? You know, isn't your name Chad? I said, yeah, my name's Chad. But you don't know who I am. You don't know how I'm getting those deals. I could be some scumbag, you know, just pushing product, bait, switch, whatever. You don't even know who I am. But you're sitting here belittling everybody else in the room saying, you need to be like me. No, you need to be who you are, do what you do, and once again, know how you can be better than anybody else around you.

Yeah, that's so good.

So, yeah, I think this actually wraps up this one. Like, I said. We are. This may be breaking into four or five, but I don't want to cut on this because throughout the years, I think I created this document three years ago and we haven't went over it in quite a while. I've had a huge, A lot of great feedback on this document. So we'll be breaking this into part three. And until next time, happy selling.