3 Things To Start The New Year Off Strong | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 225

On this week's episode, we're going to talk about how to start the new year off strong.

Everyone, welcome. This is Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach. No, I'm not going to say what I own anymore because, you know, you've.

Heard it a hundred times.

I have. But we do have a connection with retirement. Realized financial.

There's some kind of connection.

Sometimes it's not just the shirt either. Could it be our shirt?

Yeah, it could be.

That could be who we're with.

Connection.

But, yeah, we love helping people really achieve numbers that they thought were impossible.

It's true. And we. And we do it. And that's the cool thing is there's. I think there's a lot of times marketing organizations will talk about, you know, this is what we try and do. This is. Well, are you actually accomplishing the thing? Yeah, we're doing it.

We are. We're doing it. Okay.

Three things that you need to have in place before the new year starts so that you can hit the ground running at the new year. Now, I wrote these three things.

I bet you did.

So I want to know if you agree with these three things or if you have things that you would want to add as a mega producer.

Buy a Ford F250 pickup truck.

You could do yourself better and get yourself GMC or Chevrolet.

We want them to like you.

Yeah. That's why they do.

Definitely not your tiny little truck next to mine. Poor little guy. It feels like an electric meet me car. That's why your horn goes meet me. Yep, it's me, me truck. Okay.

All right, number one, a good IMO slash FMO relationship. A team. Pick me.

Pick me.

A team that has your best interest at heart. Your client's best interest at heart.

Check.

My goodness, that's huge. Somebody, you know, an organization that's not just gonna product push on you to product push your clients, but actually help figure out what's best for your clients scenario.

I still get that call all the time. Hey, we have a new proprietary product that nobody else has. And I'm like, on what does it do? And they tell me, I'm going, we've got it. Sorry. You know, it's. It's a constant sales pitch all the time of products that they say nobody else has and a lot of people have. It's not just us. I'm not just saying it's because we have it and others don't. We do have. A product is very. It is proprietary. There's only 37 organizations that have access to that and we're part of one of those organizations. But I will tell you, most the products, almost everybody can get.

Yeah.

That's just a fact.

Yeah.

The marketer's bubble. But that's what it is.

It's true. It's true. At the top of your hierarchies, it's a big melting pot. It looks like a spaghetti bowl of all the organizations that are doing this.

But then again, our lead systems, I don't know many people that have those. The way we use them and the way we coach you on how to use them.

Yeah. And that's the neat thing, is like part of the academy. Right. We're talking about having training. Well, part of the academy is you actually talking about these lead systems and how to use them, how your process works, you know, relative to them. And so you're writing tons of business with them and then teaching agents how to do that.

And I don't know of anybody, and I'm not being biased, I honestly don't know of anybody that has the training we have on indexed annuities, of fixed annuities, annuity sales training in general. Know of anybody that has it? Yeah, I don't even know if. I don't even know of anybody that has a platform. Yeah. I don't even ran into. Have you. I don't know if I've. And I've done a lot of looking.

No.

Yeah.

I can't think of any.

I mean, and we would tell you if there was. I've seen life insurance. I just haven't seen annuities.

Yeah.

And we love annuities.

We love them. I would say, too. You know, you want an organization that's actually going to work with you and create a relationship, not just be a contract house.

Yep.

You know, there's a lot of organizations out there that will recruit and do, you know, the whole. Hey, we'll, we'll. We'll increase your comp or whatever. And then as soon as you need something, you can't actually reasonably expect anything because they're giving you all the extra. It's like, does that really actually set you up to write more business? Nope, it doesn't.

I'll pay more. You know, as you know, I own a real estate company. I'll pay more to have a.

Building.

On a busy street than one that's not. You know, And I know that that land is at a premium.

Yeah.

But I am willing to spend it because I have more exposure.

Yeah.

The way I look at is I'm willing to take. So I Cut into my margins, my profit because I know I might have more volume because I have a better exposure to more people.

Right.

When I look at FMOs or agents that want more compensation.

Generally the agency provides less exposure.

It's true, it's true.

They support. Yes. Less support, less everything. And so I mean I know right now I could easily get more comp with my upline. I know that because I've been offered literally a big part of bonus pool and But I know as well I'm not going to do that because I know what my organization provides for me and I want them to be around.

Yeah.

You know, that's why when we, when we have retirement realized financial, we're so particular on who we partner with to make sure our agents get the most out of that.

Yeah.

And I mean, I don't know, I don't know if you were fully here, but when I did that full spreadsheet of all the different large, large marketing organizations where I was interviewing and I had, I mean it was all these questions I asked the pros and cons of each one. And when someone to offer me a higher comp. But they would cut corners in these other areas, they were immediately eliminated.

Interesting. No, I would. That was before me.

I think it was before you because I interviewed, I, I probably went through 15 different, narrowed it down to six and then redid again what we were going through. When I wanted somebody who was kind of like an icon in the industry, I wanted somebody who's been around a really, really, really long time. Number two, I knew that I wasn't writing a billion plus dollars in annuities that I would need to be with an organization that could do that and we could work together. But most importantly, I wanted someone who is genuine and that's really what it came down to because genuine people genuinely provide true information.

Yeah.

Because they really do want what's best for you.

Right.

So yeah, that's really. When we're talking about why you need to make sure you're setting yourself up. You need to have a really good marketing organization. Yeah.

Well, I agree and I. To go back to the whole comp thing. It's like my, my thought process is would you rather write $1 million at an 8% comp or work with an organization that can help get you to 2 or 3 million at 7% comp?

Well, I mean the thing is, is most organizations you shouldn't need to cut from street anyway. I mean you don't need to. I mean I've even seen these people I have a really good agent that he gets his leads provided for, but he gives up a percentage of his business.

Right.

And I for years have been telling him cut the, cut the cord. Because this guy, if you got him on his own, I mean he's already a big producer. Yeah. But I just have this little gut feeling inside that if he cut the cord and he stopped paying his override, he would, he wouldn't have to sit there and are there going to be leads coming in or not? Or are they going to be consistent or not? He just wouldn't have to worry about that because he would be paying for it directly to the source and he wouldn't have to guess.

So.

Yep, that's good.

Just thought, well that actually leads us into number two, which is your leads and marketing systems. So we're talking about things to have established and in place and operational prior to the start of the new year so that you can hit the new year, hit the ground running. Leads and marketing systems have an infrastructure in place. Plan to get in front of the people that you're going to meet with. Internet leads, plan your seminars. This is a big one. You know, if you're actually using seminars, they will book out in advance. Like if you're using a marketing system or a marketing or some kind of organization that actually is helping you do that, they have like a limited schedule and calendar. So you've got to actually get ahead of that kind of stuff. Even if you're doing it yourself, you're self producing the seminar. I still encourage you get those planned out, put together a plan of action and start working toward those ends.

Yeah, because you've got agents out there that are already preparing for the beginning of next year or the first quarter of next year.

Right.

And they start booking those spots that you normally do your seminars and you're in trouble.

Yeah, it's true. You better get them, get them booked. Another one that I've talked with several agents lately that like, you know, in the thick of aep but here in, you know, I guess actually it's almost over by the time this is coming out. But they intend to at the start of the year go, go back through some of those Medicare leads and Medicare appointments that they've had and start reaching back out to some of those people that answered some of their retirement questions. It's like get those organized it in, in place so you can get started at the new year. Web based marketing, if you're doing some, you know, more organic type things, have those things already systematized and operational prior to. That's why we did this podcast. I guess it's December 5th. Yeah. You've got three weeks left in the year. You do one of these three things every week you're there.

Yeah.

Get your marketing organization in place. Build that relationship. Have your leads and marketing systems. And then the last one here, Chad, is your system and process. Your sales system and process clearly outlined.

Well. And that's where we. We make that so easy.

That's true. We do.

Really? Do we have everything lined up exactly how it needs to go now? Of course you put your personality to it.

Right.

But you don't have to think about how do I go through the fact finder, how do I go through the steps, how do I go through the process? You know, I'm thinking about it. I mean, our system and process is perfected.

Yeah.

And there's not many things I say are perfected. It's not perfect because we always change depending on what the current situations are. And you can't have something that's perfect in all situations. That's why that fact finder.

You still got to be adaptable.

But the whole process is. Is very, very methodical. And it's the same thing every. Every time.

Yeah. Well. And that's. So I talk with agents all the time. I. I talk to agents about like you talk to clients. And it's a lot of different people doing a lot of different things. And I see far too many agents letting the client determine the process.

Yeah.

And the steps that are taken rather than them having a system that they're bringing the client into. But I consistently see the agents that do have a process and they've got a system and they're bringing their client into this and they know the steps that are ahead consistently write more business than those that think they're setting themselves up well by just doing whatever the client wants to do along the way.

Correct.

It's. It's real interesting. But. And then this is a part of your system and process. Loosely. It honestly deserves its own topic in and of itself. But having branding.

It deserves its own topic. It really does.

I mean, the thing is how agents. I can't tell you how many deals I get here from studying saying they went to my website. They've. I mean, my email signature. Everything is really professional.

It is.

Why would you expect them to move hundreds of thousands of dollars if they can't find you online? If you look like you took clip art from Word Word Doc and created your logo.

Right.

You know, I just. It's A weird industry because it's one of the few industries I've ever been in where agents don't understand the importance of branding. And we have phenomenal people that we can help brand. Does it cost some money? Yes. You know, but here's an example. Now this is a totally different scenario, but I know someone right now, they're building this platform, they were going to be quoted $100,000 and we were able to do what they were doing for what, 25, I think it was. And we are better. Way, like, way better. Oh yeah, he's already said way better. I mean, what we do compared to what others do for way more money. I'll put my team up against them all day long. But we keep it affordable. That way you can spend money on leads as well. And I'm not saying it's gonna cost 25 grand. I think our branding package for everything is what, 75, I think. And that includes an amazing amount of stuff.

You're talking about the commission on a hundred thousand dollars. If having branding can't make you.

How many deals do you miss because you didn't have good branding. Oh, it's.

And that's the biggest cost. It's right. It's like, it's like, oh man, I don't want to spend the commission on a hundred thousand dollars to get this stuff. It's like, okay, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of business opportunity are you missing out on? Because you don't. You're paying more to have a worse image.

Yeah.

Even from the people that do business with you.

Agreed. Well, I mean, you know, I still have people, obviously go back to my website and I want everything. I mean, you could go to Eagle shadow life and annuity.com and you can see I have a good looking website. And, and it's because I want my clients to see that they're with a professional, not with a hobbyist.

Yep.

You know, that's really what it comes down to. So, yep.

That's important to have it.

We'll reach out to you. Right. Come on, help them.

Yeah, give me a call. You know what, rather than shoot me an email, why don't you just give me a call? You can call my desk line directly. 512-798-3500. Extension number five.

There you go. Okay. I hope this works out. Well, not hope. If you follow it, it will. Yeah, of course. Happy selling.