25 Reasons Why Agents Fail Part 3 | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 150

Hey, everyone. Welcome back. I tried to catch you when you.

Yeah, you did. You got me. I'm over here looking at my computer.

So we are now into part three. As you can see, this time we actually get to wear the same shirts and everything because we're just breaking it into as many parts as we have to get through. 25 reasons why 98% of agents fail in the first two years and why am I. So I don't care what our other stuff is right now, getting through this the right way is because I don't want. I mean, think about this. If 98% of people fail in the first two years, that means 98% of people, even if you wrote one policy, that means that person now no longer has an agent because they failed. Yep. And I just, I don't want our industry to be known as, hey, you know what? They probably won't be around in two years. And I say that. I say, you know what? Most these agents that are helping you, if they haven't been in the business more than two years, 98% of them will be gone in the first two years. That's just statistic reality. And, you know, that helps because I've been doing it for 17 years, so obviously I'm going to be around a long time as long as I stay alive. That's a whole nother thing. But, you know, let's go right into it. What are we at now?

We're on number 11. But real quick, I mean, even if you've been in the industry for one or two years and you hear that statistic and you're like, oh, no, I hope I'm not one of the 98. That's why we're doing this. So you don't do these 25 realized.

Financial or retirement Realized Agents Academy and get mentored by us. And you will see. And when I say us, this is probably the first time I've said us, because I now, starting today, at whatever time it is, I trust Caleb just now. Of course, you've already married my daughter for over four years now. And I don't know if I would have said trust before that. It took you a little while to get your.

I. I've got some. I've got some stories that I can. I can share with them about trust.

Yeah. Better not be with me.

No, you. You invited me for breakfast.

Yeah, well, that's because I trust you those years ago. Now it's 100 trust now. But no, I hear him. I hear him talk. No, I'll really trust you at 95.

Okay.

When we get a grandkid, then it'll be a hundred percent and it cannot pass till 100 until we have a grandkid.

Okay? Yeah, understood.

Okay. Anyway, yeah, number 11.

Why? 25 reasons. This is the 11th one they don't have or fund an effective lead system.

Yeah, I came up with this number and this we actually do talk a fair amount about.

We do talk about leads a lot.

You know, I somehow these numbers just worked.1% of your goal. So if you want to do 10 million, you need to set 100,000 aside for leads. Want to do 20 million, you set 200,000. And that's why I think it's funny when somebody tells me that they're going to beat me and they're spending 50,000 a year in leads. Unless there's something, you know, that I don't know, they get a 30 million dollar deal. Now that could happen, you know, I mean, I have an opportunity coming up where I could get a really big deal. But the thing that comes down to I've been doing it for 17 years. I've had a $4 million deal, a 3.7 million dollar deal, quite a few 2 million dollar deals, but these big, big ones are so rare now. We have been seeing more and more million dollar plus opportunities. Why everybody knows the market's real high right now and even the biggest people are going, you know what, man, I just don't want to deal with this again. I don't care if they have 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 million, $100 million. They just don't want to deal with the market volatility again. So.

Yeah, well, this one, I mean, they don't have or fund an effective lead system. It actually ties into what we talked about in the last couple of episodes about. It's viewed as a hobby, not a business. Yeah, you, you don't, I mean if you need fuel for your car, you go to the gas station and you put it in, you need leads, you need some type of marketing system, something to get in front of people.

You don't drink water, you need water. It's all fuel for your system and leads are the fuel for the system. You don't do that, you will not make it in this business.

You're not going to build this business on 100 bucks a month, 200 bucks a month. You need, you need to put in some money, get in front of people, but be an expert before you do and have a system and a process to actually bring them into, I mean, real Realistically.

So make sure you find your leads.

Number 12 is they're under capitalized.

Yeah. So this is an interesting scenario. There's. This is one of the few industries people go into that think they can get started for nothing. That's not true. You need to have a good brand. You need to have a good logo. You know, like I said, I think it was last when I talked about increase you. If you go to www.increaseyou.com you can see I also own a branding company. Why you cannot make it unless you have a good website, a good logo, good business card. You just got to have that stuff. Because nowadays if you don't, it is looked at as a hobby, obviously. Reach out to Caleb because Caleb is one that actually interacts with our other company. Increase you to help you get started. So you need to have a presence. You need to be known as. Not bobmail.com or bobahoo.com youm need to have a domain name where they know they can go and look you up. And if you go to eslifeandannuity.com that's my website and you can see I have videos on there. People know who I am as my Better Business Bureau rating, as my National Ethics Association. I don't have chadyahoo.com. i have my domain name. I mean, this is just a very small surface of what you need to do. And all that takes money, right? If you don't have leads, that takes money. I mean, you've got to be deliberate in spending money to make money. It doesn't mean you need to blow money stupid and in a way that's not effective or we help you with that. Totally.

Well, that's the thing. Put money in, make money, save money. Don't come right out of the gate after you've written a couple of deals and jack your cost of living up through the roof because you've closed some things. You talk about building up to at least 100,000 in the bank for that company should you ever need to pull on that or draw on that. So you're building up to have a surplus then in time the cost of living can go up and that kind of thing.

Well, I have minimum reserves I keep on my bank accounts. And like I said, you know, I don't take draws from companies just to take draws. I take. I'm very deliberate in what I draw. But you've got to be capitalized and I like having money set aside. So like in 2020, when a lot of agents were dropping like flies, I was able to Dump more money into my marketing, more money into my system. And. And I had the best year I've ever had during a pandemic by what, 3 million? Almost 3 million. And, you know.

During a pandemic, why? Because I put more money into the system. So. Yeah, that's so good.

Number 13, as you say, they don't stay current on technology.

Yeah. So my little cell phone and my laptop. I mean, about every two to three years, I buy a new laptop if I need it or not. Why? They're faster, they're better, they're more efficient. Buy. I buy a new phone every year. Why? I went, like, right Now, I have 5G. They're still working out the bugs.

Yeah, they are.

Because 5G. I still.

It is.

Sometimes I'm like, how does it make it to LTE? Because the 5G just slows down. And my LTE would have went faster. But there's some times where I've been on 5G. I mean, it's faster than my Internet. It's crazy. And I have a thousand gigabyte. Internet, Internet. But sometimes, just literally, I click it and boom, it's there. And so. But the technology, I can do almost anything on that phone right now. I even go as far to carry a tablet or a computer with me because I have my phone, which has a hotspot where if I need to do something, I can actually log in and use. Use the hotspot to get onto all the websites. But I'm using my computer because I do a fair amount of apps now, and I've got to have the technology to keep that going. I make sure my GPS is up to date. I don't use my truck gps. I use a app gps. Why? They're more reliable and they tell me where traffic's gonna be, and they automatically reroute me. You know, it's all things like that. And that's all technology. Yeah.

Stay up to date.

I mean, all of our calculators and our illustrators and how we compare all companies on one shot, that's all technology.

Well, and I've thought about too just. I mean, between your desktop, your phone, your tablet, your laptop, is there any one of those four that you couldn't reasonably run your business off of?

No, I could do it off of all of them. Yep.

So regardless of where you are, what you've got, you can do your business. Yeah, right there.

Well, see, you're staying up to date. We had this last time when we were doing webinars. This was a few weeks ago. And Our Internet just kept giving us a hard time. So this next time I'm going to leave my phone out there and I'm going to go, hey, if we run into issues, just jump onto my hotspot and then we won't have that issue anymore. There you go. You know, because I want to make sure we don't run into those. I can't rely on other people's technology so much so that I have to have a double in a triple backup system to make sure if that one system fails I have another system that will kick right in.

That's why you use a hotspot is so if you have to run another illustration in an appointment, you don't have to rely on their wi fi to try and do it. It's yeah.

And sometimes out in the middle of nowhere and a turtle can move faster than.

So they're on the.

They still use dialogue man. It's been a long time since I've been up to dial up. Yeah. But I don't know if it still exists. But when a turtle runs faster and can get the message that are quicker than the dial up.

Messenger turtle messenger crayons out that actually might work. Messenger turtle. All right, number 15 is the product push instead of solution cell.

Yeah. So you know this is problem with a lot of these cookie cutter competitor IMO's where they're sitting there saying oh we use every product, every company but they don't. Now I have one product and one company I've used consistently for the past year.

It's consistently been the best for your clients.

And then before that there was one that was consistently the best for about three years. Now was it number one? No, because I do everything off of financial stability. Best benefits, best customer service, highest payout or highest index potential. And now I really, really like so they really knock these out. I like my favorites are the income. If it's for an income purpose, I like the income riders that have a really good index potential on it. The days of using just a straight highest income, I don't like that because your index in 17 to 20 years will be gone. And the thing is when that was only option, I absolutely let my clients right 17 to 20 years your death benefit will be gone, but your income will never run out. Well nowadays there's products out there where you don't have to do that. Not only can you get good income, you can get increasing income if the market does pretty well. And you also have a pretty good chance for a death benefit. So if I go into Appointment, I know for a fact I'm not going to be beat.

Right.

And so I find the problem, then find the solution. And, and that's what it comes down. I'm not trying to sell. And when somebody tells me why I'm not here to be sold, it's like, fine, I'm not here to sell to you. I'm going to educate you. And if this makes sense to you, then you decide to do it. I mean, who's more likely to be confident about what their deals, the salesperson that told them that's what they want or the person who got the education and they decided they made their way. Yeah, right. That's how I.

That's how you mitigate buyer's remorse, which simultaneously means you mitigate free looks, you mitigate surrenders.

I rarely, I mean, I maybe have one free look a year. And every single time, every single time it was because something I could not help. Somebody decided to get a divorce. Something happened where one of their kids ended up in a real bad situation. And they needed not only all their emergency funds, they needed some of the annuity.

Right.

So there are always things I can't control. I can't think of any free look I've ever had. Because somebody changed their mind.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah. Because they didn't. Their situation changed. That's so good.

And that can, that can hit you. And I mean that, that's what I tell people all the time. You don't know what's going to happen.

Right.

I mean, now I. Most my clients, I mean, it would take something really bad for them to have to get into the annuity because I always make sure they have plenty of emergency funds and savings. So I find a solution to the problem. I'm not just selling.

Right. Well, and that's the thing is I've heard agents, processes before, and a lot of times agents get so fixated on the product and the product features and the way that their product works that now they are literally maybe even trying to get an appointment. And they're selling the product because the.

Problem hasn't been selling the appointment, trying to get in front of them. But what they don't realize is, are giving away everything about the product without explanations of how it works, which is.

That'S just the solution.

Feature, feature, feature. You're not talking about the benefits, how this helps you.

Right. The product is merely the means to the end. The end is the solution. If you focus on the means, you may not get to the end, but if you focus on the end Then the means is up to your discretion. Does that make sense? If the end is the solution, that's what you're trying to get to. Your product is just the means to that. You don't sell them on the end by trying to sell them on the means.

Yeah, that sounds about 5% accurate.

It is. Literally, it's. It's a Caleb way of saying don't product push solution cell actually makes sense.

Once my brain caught up to the gerbils running in your head, I was like, oh, wait a second, what is he really trying to say? Okay, yeah, that makes sense. That does make sense. See, this is why you're still at 95% trust.

There it is. All right, 16. They live beyond their means.

That happens.

Oh, it's so common.

How many people that are trying to talk to people about protecting the retirement, saving money for retirement, but they themselves don't have any retirement accounts. They don't have anything set up. They don't have enough savings. They can't even afford $1,000 in leads.

Right.

Because they've set themselves up in a situation where they require acquire every penny they have. And I'm telling you, man, my wife and I, we went with one car for five or six years. Let's see. Wow. It's probably longer than that. I don't think we had. I think we had. I can't remember exactly. I think it was until we moved to Colorado. So I think it was five or six years where we had one car. Leilani would know exactly.

She remembers, she knows that, she knows what the car was.

Yeah. But we went a long time and we didn't buy a house till probably our sixth or seventh year of marriage. And it's just why, I mean, we knew what it took. Like, I mean, most of you know this. My wife has always been a stay at home mom. So we didn't have double incomes.

Right.

And we knew we just could not live beyond that. Now the reality is we were in debt seven times because a lot of times we. Even with what I made, I mean, you have four kids, your wife's a stay at home mom, you're working retail. It's hard to get ahead there. That being said, in our industry, I mean, you write 2 or 3 million a year in annuities, you shouldn't have a problem getting by. And most of the guys I talk to, their wife works, or if it's a lady that's working in the insurance business, her husband works. And it's just having the nicest, newest car, having this Big house. And I'm like, why don't you get reserve set up first and then worry about the nicest newest cars and the big house? You know, it's just good. All that stuff is so temporal. Because even if you have the nicest newest car two to three years down the road, it is not the nicest newest car. You know, we've been in our house now for seven years. And it's not that it's a nice house, but it's not the newest. I mean, five grand in the last two weeks can tell you it's not the newest. I mean, we're. Things are breaking right and left and it costs me to do that. But, you know, if you're always chasing the next, you never enjoy.

Well, and when do you ever hold it? Because the next is ever evolving. It's always changing.

You know, in Austin, everybody's all excited because the home prices are going up.

Like, are you.

What if you sell your home? Unless you're moving to some, you know, Podunkville, wherever. Right.

You know, you still gotta pay the high market price.

Big cities are going up like crazy in price.

So true. Well, good. Well, number 17 says they aren't, well, branded or identified.

Yeah, this goes back into the increase you. And goes back into what retirement realized financial does. We are all about helping people get branded and not just. I mean, my team is phenomenal. I am not being biased at all. We have people that we help with social media. We have big clients. And all of them, every single one of us says, man, you've taken us to a level that we've never seen. And we don't do it with the 15, $20,000 cameras. I mean, we do it with the $5,000 setups. Now, granted, we have two of them, but we still have raw talent. We have raw talent. We have incredible. I have a guy on my creative team. His name is Caleb. Lucas.

Not this Caleb.

Yeah, no, definitely not that Caleb.

The chicken design you made was actually kind of cool. But, you know, he's just phenomenal. He's a natural. And when he doesn't know how to do something, he figures it out.

Everything is figured out.

And it's amazing. When they were trying to change my branding, they're like, hey, this color is kind of outdated. I'm like, but I like that color. It's kind of outdated.

It was the three dimensional you had going, Chad. There's nothing wrong with the 3D Metallic 3D. It was very Chad.

But okay.

What. It looked like something you would.

Okay, is. Is an eagle with really cool looking eyes and you know, anyway, so they just even know down to the colors what's the popular color. And it's funny because they pick these colors for Increase youe and if you go on the website, you'll see it's a gold color. And it turns out that was the number one color for 2020. I'm like, I didn't know that. I mean, I still like the black. I started the first academy, if you go way back four years ago is black, red and silver.

I have no doubt.

And we were trying to get like a tougher look and they're like, that's so 2000.

And I'm like three dimensional metallic.

Oh, I know which one you're okay. Yes, it was. Yeah, totally was. But yeah, you got to have a good brand. You really do. You got to be well known. So I think this wraps it up for us right here, guys. We will be moving on to four. I actually think we will get it done.

We'll get it done in part four.

And if not, we'll go a little longer to make sure we do get it done. Done in part four. So appreciate your time. You have a great day and happy selling.