25 Reasons Why Agents Fail Part 4 | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 151

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to this week's podcast. We are now doing part four today. And, you know, there's something about Caleb you need to know. He was actually raised on a ranch by hogs.

But okay, I recant that comment because his mom and dad are actually pretty stinking awesome. But you know, when he went out to play, he was raised bahage. So he didn't know how to count. So I think we're up to number. What were we.

So we were going to go into 18, but I. Number 14 last. In the last episode.

That's because you forgot how to count when you were in senior year and they were teaching you how to go to number 20. You couldn't quite get there and you missed 14.

Yes.

Yes. Texas education. No, I.

There's going to be a protest right outside our office with ars.

We have. We are one of the only states in the entire union that has our own hip hop history class that is taught to students. Texas history is a mandatory class that seventh graders take in the state of Texas.

That's not true.

That's how it is true.

The state of Hawaii is like, that.

Was one of the only.

I thought you said the only. And we can go back. And I bet you see, once again, they can be raised on a ranch. You know, I mean, his mom, dad tried the best, but, you know, I.

Was born in a barn.

I bet you were. Okay, so number 14. And then we'll go to 17.

They don't know their product line. This is 25 reasons agents fail. This is number 14. If you don't know your product line.

And this is this. I can't believe you missed this one. Because we talk about this all the time.

It's huge.

It's huge. We get a constant question of what's the best product. I'm like, you don't know. Now, if you're newer to the business, I totally get that. But if you've been doing the business for five, 10 years, you should know what the best product is. But certain marketing organizations, they just don't. Certain marketing organizations, it's whatever their main product they push. They usually have two or three. They push really hard. And I'm. I'm definitely someone who is. I know which products are the best, and I know why, and I know which products are the best. In the variable world, the fixed world, the index world, the immediate world, I know all of them. But the thing I am very careful about is you can't just use one. Well, this one has the highest index over the past 10 years. That means nothing, doesn't mean anything. Which index is it? How long has it been around? How is it calculated? What are the ranges that can go up or down in what's renewal rates like with that? Renewal rates? Absolutely. I call that rate integrity. There are certain companies I know that right now have really good rates, but their rate integrity, in other words, their first, second, third year renewals are horrible. So I just won't use them. And it's funny because I've had somebody go, well, man, you've sold a lot of the same product. Like there's one company right now, I think in 2020, probably 80% of my business at least went through, and it's probably pretty close to the same this year. But the reality is all it takes is them changing the rate, somebody else coming out with a better rate, and they're a good company. I don't care who it is. I don't anybody.

And that's one aspect of a product that's just that we've talked on that for what, a minute and a half, two minutes, and that's just dealing with index stuff.

Correct.

We haven't even gotten into riders stability.

Benef, best customer service, highest pay, our best potential income growth, which riders are the best, what are the stipulations on the rider? What are their fees? I mean, I could go on and on.

Yeah, that's why it's so important. Well, that's why it's so important to know the problem. Got to the fact finder figure out what is the problem, is it going to get solved?

You find the solution, but you know which company is going to be the best at helping with that solution.

That's exactly right.

Okay, now that you've learned how to count again.

Yes.

So now we're up to 17, right?

No, 18.

18. Yeah, 17.

Did you, did you grow up on a ranch?

I wish. Dude, you had the dream job.

This guy was raised on 4,000 acres and I, I mean I, I. River runs first. Yeah, river runs. And I just told him, I said, please tell me you've never taken this for granted. I mean, to me it's not about the money. It's not about, you know, we've got to vacation a lot and do things like that. And now that he's part of her family and has been for, you know, a day. Oh, actually, was it just about four.

And almost four and a half years?

Yeah, you have, but, you know, you always just what he got to grow up on. It's just phenomenal.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that that honestly is total rabbit trail here. But that honestly shaped me.

More than I think I realized, you know?

Well, that's the only reason you got to marry Mariah.

Yeah.

You just hunting.

That was the dowry about Grant.

You got to marry Ariel because he's a diesel mechanic. I mean, come on, I'm no dummy. I know my problem. I know a solution, and I took care of it. There you go.

Well, number 18 says they don't have a proven system.

Yeah. So a lot of people try and wing it in this business.

It's true.

And they try and just get by, and you can't. Well, I can't say you can't, because I did. But I did have some mentors along the way that, you know. One of the people that still to this day I talk to is the founder of Annuity.com. he is just really good at explaining how he's probably one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life.

I've listened to him. He's brilliant.

He's brilliant. I mean, he knows what's going to happen in the industry before it actually happens, and he knows the way it should be taken care of. But his style is completely different than mine. They call him the Hundred Million Dollar Man. He's probably sold 120, 130 million annuities, and now he's in his mid-70s, I think, but he's still. I just talked to him. He wrote a $700,000 annuity from a referral, so he' heavily involved in the industry. But the reality is I had to learn a lot on my own, especially when I was in the mortgage protection business. You know, the guys that were training never could make it on their own. And so they'd teach you how to do this, but then they didn't even know their own products, so they would refer the wrong product to you.

Right.

And I hated that. So, you know, the reality is your system and your process, I have that down to the T. And if somebody says, oh, you never told me about oh, I guarantee you I did. Because I'm very robotic when I'm explaining how the product work. When I'm going through the fact finder, I do not miss steps. And it's because the system and the process, I know what point in the presentation where I need to be, what the next step I'm going to be doing right after that. It's. It's literally, you know, you think of any type of muscle memory type sport, it's the same thing. It's just I know the next move. If you're going to punch this way, I'm going to duck. If you're going to do that, I'm going to do this. It's the same thing when it comes to the this. I do have a system and process that is proven. How is it proven? Because I'm over 210 million, 213 million since 2008 in annuity production, written annuity production. So I know how this works and that's what I help you. So you don't have to go through the long, drawn out process that I had to go through. And man, it was painful and still is at times. I mean, there's, there's certain things in the industry that happen or market conditions. This whole virtual thing could have thrown me for a loop. Fortunately, I only did virtual for two weeks and I had a couple here and there. I said, here's the reality. I use hand sanitizer in my truck, out of my truck, get in the appointment, out of the appointment. I'm always making sure I'm protective. I'm not feeling well, I'm not showing up at your house.

Right.

I mean, and now we found out that the masks don't work. So anyway, that's.

So that was a painful part of the industry. Now, if you're in some of those cities that are still on the crazy lockdowns, that's a painful part of the business and it has been for a while. But a system and process, because I have people tell me, what's the difference between your virtual appointment. You're in home appointment. We do the exact same thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

I love it. Well, this actually kind of ties into 18, but it's number 19. They don't have a mentor.

Yeah. And this one's an easy one. Get a mentor. I mean, it's, it's not on somebody.

That is or has been where you're trying to get to.

Never get advice from someone that's not where you want to be. Yeah, I mean, I've had people I heard that wrote a book on how to make a successful marriage, yet they're on the third marriage. You know, the chances are. And I'm not saying this is always the case because my dad actually got it right marriage wise the third time. Like, he was a really good husband, but God, man, his number one and number two was horrible. My mom horrible. And he got it. But then he kind of lost it on the child side of things, you know, kind of lost a relationship with his kids. So, you know, to me, Success is relationship in all areas. The reality is you need a mentor. You need someone that's where you want to be to mentor you through that.

Yeah, I love it. No, that's so important. Number 20 says they don't have a strong work ethic to me, AKA drive. What's the. What's the internal drive?

How many times do I talk to agents? Hey, how many calls did you make this week? Why I called on this day. How many points appointments do you have? I have one. So you called for two hours through your leads, and you have one appointment.

And you're done calling?

I would be calling and calling. I'd be studying product. I'd be going through education, continuing education. I mean, if I don't have appointments, my job is getting appointments and learning about what I do. If I'm part of the academy, like, I know some people, they pay $1,000 a month for my inner circle or $1,500 a month for my inner circle, depending on what part or what portion they're doing. But let's say they're paying $1,500 a month, and they haven't been on the academy for a month or two. I would be studying like crazy. I mean, If I'm spending $200 a month, if I have a subscription to Netflix, I'm not using. I'm going. I'm not using. I'm not going to keep it. Right. So study like crazy. Study. Just. If you're. If you don't have appointments, your job is getting appointments.

So true, number 21. They don't learn from their mistakes.

I know what that feels like.

This is stubbornness, really, which can be a good thing.

It can be your greatest strength, can be your greatest weakness. So that is true. Stubbornness can definitely harm you.

It's what keeps you getting back up.

But it's exactly. Stubbornness can also be the one. Man, I've been knocked down so many times, and I mean, seven times, as, you know, seven times we're in debt. And I said just one time, it clicked. I'm like, this is not gonna happen again. And we just determined to make sure it worked, and we started budgeting. And so, you know, my mistake was overspending. My mistake was not budgeting. So I made sure that just wasn't gonna happen again. But, man, the problem is, is most mistakes hurt, whether it's you or hurt someone else. And I've just kind of determined in my life that I don't want to hurt myself, and I don't want to hurt Anybody else. So I'm gonna really try not to make mistakes because I don't like seeing other people hurt. I'm a little more tolerant with myself as far as that hurt. You know, I might not. You know, there's stuff physically, definitely some things I do that I'm like, I knew this was gonna hurt, but it was worth it. Yeah, but learn from your mistakes. And I would even say something even farther. I have went to the phase now where I want to learn from other people's mistakes. I don't want to make the new. I don't want to make the same mistakes that they have already overcome, and I don't have to go through it again. If I'm gonna make a mistake, it's gonna be something that's never been done before.

Right.

You know, or pushing forward in an area that's beyond what is expected. You know, I mean, the sound barrier has been broken for a long time, but, man, how many people died and lost their lives to get there? But they learned from their mistakes. So they didn't create a machine they knew was gonna blow up. Right now we can travel. I don't even know what is Mach 4. I think Mach 2.2.4, I think, is the fastest. I'm not 100%. I mean, I know if we go. As long as you're in the atmosphere, if we're outside atmosphere, I know you can go faster. But even with that, people still. I remember back, and I know this a while ago, but the Challenger exploded, and they knew a mistake was made, and they still went ahead and did the launch, and people died for it. And in our industry, you can say, well, people aren't going to die when you make the wrong financial decision. I completely disagree. You can't tell me that if we make a mistake in somebody's retirement, it doesn't cost more stress. And stress causes heart problems, it causes anxiety, it causes all sorts of issues. You can't tell me that that can't happen. So I do treat my cases like it's a life or death situation. I really do.

Make sure you're doing the best thing you can.

And if I make a stupid mistake, it affects my family, it affects people around me. So I just. Just don't want to make mistakes.

Well, the beauty. The beauty of. Of mistakes is that it does tell you where you're off. I mean, there's an old saying. I mean, like you mentioned, I grew up on a ranch, so shooting and stuff. There's an old saying, it says you learn more from A miss than a hit. If I'm shooting at a target and I miss the bullseye, I know now how I need to tweak my optics to hit the bullseye. So when I shoot my second shot, if I hit the bullseye now, I know.

Well, that's what was wrong.

If you hit it.

Yeah.

If you shoot once and you hit the bullseye.

Yeah. And then.

Then you have to shoot a second time to confirm. Was that not a fluke? Was that a fluke? You're left with more.

Seventh or eighth time. Ninth time, you know, so I remember.

Winning a pretty nice dinner over some marksmanship.

One time, the most expensive mistake is 100 yard shot. He had six bullets, I believe. And I said, you. You have to hit that. It was a pistol.

Yeah.

I think 100 yards, he hit two out of six. So, yep, that. That was an expensive dinner.

That was. I got chicken. And you and your wife and my wife, y' all all bought the. The Oscar. It's a market price.

It was a bone in. Bone in?

Oh, you got the bone in.

No, we all did. And I thought it was a Filet Oscar. I don't know. It was expensive either way. Okay.

Number 22, they treat their business as a sprint instead of a marathon.

Yeah. You know, this is a marathon. But I do want to sprint in the beginning. I know that's hard, but I. I'm a person that wants to get things done. Gotta get ramped up quick and get it ramped up. Yeah. So if you're on a boat, you know, you get it up on a plane and it's. The boat's smoother otherwise. Your boat rides like this. I mean, you can trim it out. I'm speaking boat language, but you can trim it out. Bring it down a little bit. But there's still a lot of drag in the water. Once you get it on a plane, then it's just kind of skimming along the surface. And so I try and get up to where I can get my business on a plane first.

That's good.

And now remember, F means you got to be. You know, mistakes are. Have greater consequences. So you need to be very deliberate. And this is once again where we help you with that.

Yeah, that's so good.

Where are we at now?

23. They choose the wrong imo.

I mean, you're dealing with a relationship. It's an alignment. It's a partnership.

I'm gonna choose this carefully because I. We do partner with some really good IMO's. I mean, I know them very well. Trust them with everything I have. I trust them with all my information. You know why? Because I know I can trust them. But there are so many marketing organizations that all they care about. I mean, there's some out there. If you don't do over 5 million, they don't even. You don't have a chance of getting contracted with them. You have marketing organizations where you never hear from your marketer or when you ask them, all different situations and they keep toning the same product. The same product, Same product. Like I said, we do have one right now that it has. Very versatile, well rounded. It is. That's it. It's a very versatile product. But that's not that common. It has been for over a year now, but that's not that common. But you have people that have been, you know, you just don't have the relationship or you feel like you're a number or it takes them multiple days to get back to you. I mean, that's not, that's not a good relationship. If you feel like you have that, you know, reach out to us, we can help you.

I tell agents all the time that the relationship between a marketing organization and an agent should be a partnership. In fact, it is a partnership, but a lot of times it doesn't get operated as if it's a partnership. And what I mean by that is we know a marketing organization becomes more profitable by having this agent working with them. That agent should simultaneously be made more profitable by working with that marketing organization because they are making that marketing organization.

But you also got to make sure you're not one of those agents that. Why, when the top, top, top level, you only wrote too many.

I want, I want leads and IMO level comp. And you could do all my pending business.

I mean, you got to remember, it's a partnership. I want my IMO making money.

Yeah.

Why? When they make money, they're going to be around just like I want my insurance companies making money. Whichever companies I use, I want them making money. So.

Yeah, that's totally true. All right, last two, number 24. They're not organized.

Yeah, I mean, if you look at my desk, I want it nice and neat. Now, I may have papers all over the place, but I know exactly what piles what. And you know, if I'm not organized, think about this. You don't have the right applications in your briefcase. You don't have the right programs in your favorites. When you open up your computer, you're unorganized. You don't have, you know, these large institutions. There are numbers to be able to call and help the clients know what number they need to call to move money. If you're not organized, it's just. It's gonna make you look like you don't know what you're doing. And to me, what is the saying? Slow is smooth, smoothest, fast, and fast is.

I think that's it.

Slow, smoothest, smoothest, smooth, slowest, smooth, smoothest fast. You know, slow, smoothest, smoothest, fast. I know. There's one more to that.

I think you're thinking of Krav maga. No, I think you're thinking of.

On early is on time. No, you're not thinking of that one.

That one has three talks about. You know, it's in martial arts where you practice slow to make it smooth, but then when it's time to move fast, you're. You're very effective and very efficient because you're really thinking things through that you've already done a million times through practice. And then when it comes time to be fast, it just. It just comes to you. So, yeah, that's good.

They're not organized, so get organized, number 25. They don't value their time.

Well, if you don't value your time, you're not valuing other people's time. And I hear this all the time. Oh, they're always late. Oh, they always show up late. I like. No, that's rude. It's disrespectful. You know, if I tell you I'm going to be at a place, unless I have lost a limb or something's going on, on, I'm going to be at that place. Because even when I say I'm going to be at appointment, I almost always shoot 15 minutes early. Why? I never know if there's going to be a car that broke down. There's going to be issues, you know, some sort of traffic reroute. You never know. So I want to be on time, and I want to honor people's time. But that means, you know, it's hard to value and honor other people's time if you don't value and honor your time. And so I have this saying what I say about that.

What about time?

Time early. Early is on time. On time is late, and late is.

Unacceptable, which is an old football coach, and I can't remember who said that. But then I also say what counts?

Oh, seconds count.

Seconds count. I mean, literally a second can make the difference. And you say, well, that's pretty dramatic. No, it's not. Seconds count. Because if you don't value seconds, then you're not going to value minutes. If you don't value minutes, you're not going to value hours. And if you don't value hours, you're not going to value days. And that's really what it comes down to. I'm very deliberate in everything I do and when I'm involved in something, I try and be very engaged on that.

Well, I'm 24, 25 tied together. Because organized makes you more efficient.

Yeah, it does. Absolutely. Well, that's why once again it took me a while to get from my paper calendar to my digital calendar. But why do I have to go to the digital calendar? Why now I have a bunch of companies so my team needs to know where I am and when they can schedule appointments for other companies. So you know, that was more efficiency for me and make sure I was on time to where I didn't oh so and so didn't write this down. So now I missed an appointment. I just won't do that. So I know it took us part four parts to get through.

We were gonna do two parts.

Yeah. Here's the reality. I want to make sure. I mean if we have 25, we're doing two parts in 15 minutes. That means we're going through literally 12 and a half, 15 minutes. That means we're just barely covering it happen. But I, I care about people's time. I care about their, their success enough to where hey, if we need to break it into four, we're gonna break it in four. So I hope this, I hope this what? I hope you appreciate the extra effort. You're right.

And then it helps them. I mean it should just don't do these 25 things.

Yes. Do the opposite of these 25 one. And I'm going to recap in this. If you need another imo, we can help you retirement realize financial. If you're with a really good IMO and you need training then go to retirement realized agents academy. We can help train. We don't require contracts for that. If you are with a good IMO and you have good training but you don't have good brand, reach out to Caleb and we'll help you create a really good brand and we'll make sure it looks really professional and you're up to date.

If you have all of that and you're just a breathing human being, go to theannuitysalescoach.com and download the free documents. Because they're free.

Exactly. Well, I hope this helps you. You guys have a great day and happy selling.