Help Solve The Problem | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 140

Hello, everyone. Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach and welcome to this week's podcast. Today I'm going to be sipping from my. What is this, a cappuccino or.

It's kind of like a latte.

Yeah. There's a. What do they work? Brevi. I think Leilani said it's like a breve.

Yeah.

So I don't know. We just bought this espresso machine. Espresso. It's an espresso. Espresso machine. It is an s. A while ago and boy, we are getting our fill. I'll tell you that we probably work's.

Never been done fast of dollars in.

Coffee, but the productivity has increased. Increased a lot. But yeah. Okay, what are we talking about today?

We're gonna.

As I sip my coffee.

Yes. Well, we are going to talk about solving.

Up to you.

Okay.

I was just looking at pictures of Spain.

Yes.

And the coffee shops next to this built in. It's like shopping into Iraq. So I'm. We are broadcasting from Spain right now. There will be a day we'll be able to do that. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure we're gonna talk about solving the problem. And right now the problem is that we're not in Spain, but we should be. So let's fix that problem. No, I'm kidding.

But we are actually start to travel internationally.

I know, it's gonna be fun.

We're going. We. Well, we got our Hawaii trip coming up to the big island. I'm actually gonna be gone for three weeks and that's part of it. I mean, I take trips about every month and a half. Month to month and a half. And I'll tell you what, I start to feel it. I use the analogy that I'm kind of like a drag race car where I literally sprint down and give it my all. I get to them, they got to tow me in. They got rebuild my engine again. That's what vacation stood me. That's my time away.

Your quote about how being a public success and a private failure is still failure. You know, you could go out and you can sell 25, 30, $35 million in annuity premium a year. If you don't take time to spend that with your wife and your family.

There's hanging out with my wife and my family. Well, most of my family.

Yeah, most of us.

I like.

He especially likes when I'm around.

I like the one that you're attached to. You on the other hand, you just. Yeah.

Take. Take me or leave me.

You're my penance. Yeah.

All right, well, we're going to solve the problem today, Chad. And what I want to talk about is this whole idea of actually solution selling, not product pushing. We talk about that a lot. But the whole essence of solution selling is actually solving the problem, having a solution to the problem. I mean, realistically, if you think about it, practically, clients aren't reaching out so that they can make a new friend, you know, an agent friend. They're reaching out because they have some type of question, some type of concern.

There's always a reason.

There's always a reason.

So I have people that say that. They'll say, well, I'm happy where I'm at. Then why'd you reach out to me?

Why'd you.

I mean, it doesn't make sense.

Sense.

Why would you ever reach out to me if you're totally happy with where you are? It doesn't make sense.

Absolutely.

They obviously have a problem, so we need to find the solution.

To find. Yep.

Yeah.

Pinpoint the problem, find the solution. Now, one of the terms that, you know, we throw around sometimes is this idea of, you know, marketing organizations with their agents or agents doing this with their business, kind of throwing it all to the wall and see what sticks.

That all the time.

Oh, absolutely, because it happens all the time. I mean, it's a, it's a frequent thing.

I have marketing as, as you know, when you write 20, 25, 26, 27 million a year, you got marketing organizations all the time reaching out to you. And I've told some of these people for the past 10 years, I'm not moving. I'm not moving. Why? I'm not going to take the organization that helped me get to where I am and move away from that. Now we've created our own as well. But that's because I literally have a different style of training agents because I' still in the field. I still run appointments. And that's something you just do not find anymore. You don't find principals out running appointments. And it's. I, you know, how long will I do that? I don't know. It could be 10 years, it could be 20 years, it could be two years. But I can tell you there's gonna have to be something dramatic before I'd ever stop running appointments. And honestly, it has. Doesn't have a lot to do with the actual selling annuity.

Right.

Has due. I have two, three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday, that I get to have my drive time, my quiet time, my podcast time, my worship music time. The Bible time, all just driving. So I mean, that's very valuable to me.

Very valuable.

That's a problem is I don't have enough alone time. So then I'm driving and I do have alone time. Now the benefit of that is I'm selling crazy amount of annuities. True. So that's very true. What are we solving today?

Well, the whole essence of throw it all to the wall and see what sticks. What. How does actually solving affect what sticks?

You know, I guess I could relate that to fact Finder. I mean, you're. You have a whole bunch of questions you're throwing out there. Which one sticks? What is important to them? I mean, that's a whole thing with a fact finder, right? What sticks to them? What's important to them? What do you need to address? What do you need to take away? So let's use an example. So what's sticking is I'm. My money's in market volatility right now. I'm at risk. I have no idea how much income I can pull out because there's no guarantees whatsoever. So what's sticking to them is the concern about the uncertainty. Right. So what do I need to take away from them?

The concern, the uncertainty. You need to provide certain.

Correct. So I'm finding a solution to their problem. And so if they have a concern, market volatility, they have a concern about living their income. My solution to their problem is finding a product that doesn't have that built into it.

You're nailing it. It's almost like you're. You're taking this straight from my notes. Because that's literally what I had down was this idea that the fact finder, better yet, the fact finders, because use a mini fact finder on the, on the phone. And then you go into the appointment, use a full fact finder. It all is getting you information, but it's all showing you what the problem is.

Which is interesting because, you know, you've had your office by me for what, two. How long have you been working with me? I lose.

I lose track.

Therapy keeps telling me.

It'S like two years. It's. I forget what year I started.

But every time they say, don't live in the past, don't live in the past. I'm like, yeah, but he's right next.

To me all the time, constantly haunting.

It's been about two years, hasn't it? Yeah. And so you're right next to me. It's funny because we don't talk about what we're going over in these podcasts, he just comes up with the material, asks questions, but that shows what he's picked up off of me, you know, that is, if he's newer to the industry. When I say newer, two years. He still picks up that level of. This is what's important, I can tell you. It's because I say it all the time. It's very robotic. Every phone call is the same thing. From the standpoint, I'm finding a problem, finding a solution, they had to reach out to me for a reason. What I do find odd, though, is when I pay $350 for a lead and I call them within, let's say, an hour, and, oh, I've already found a solution to that problem or I already got it taken care of. What?

How do you handle that?

So if somebody does that, I say, oh, so you must have got this product with this bonus, with this guarantee.

Throw out what you kind of whatever.

The best is at the time. And, oh, no, I didn't get that. Oh, okay. Well, what is that? Well, let me share with you what that is. So, you know, it's always, what did they get? Oh, so you obviously don't have any more market volatility. No, I do. Okay. But I thought you wanted to protect your money. Why do. Then why'd you pick a product that doesn't provide what you wanted it to do?

Right?

Huh?

Oh, yeah.

You know, I mean, it's so. It's. It is what sticks. You got to find out what sticks them, what's important to them. And it's kind of interesting because it should have a double stickiness. In other words, it sticks to them. So it sticks to you because what sticks to them sticks to you if you get close enough. How do you tell when you get close enough is when it sticks to you. In other words, what's their problem now becomes your problem. And your job is to find the solution.

That's right. That's right. Well, and I love it. Fact finder is how you figure out what the problem is. The fact finder will tell you what is the problem. But then you use your expertise.

Yep.

And a little bit of case design.

Yep.

And you figure out, how am I going to solve this problem.

Yep.

And you go into it and you present how that problem is going to be solved. Here's what I love about problem solving. I want to think about it from a client standpoint. Client reaches out. Maybe they have a very specific thing that they're reaching out for information about. Maybe they've Heard something from a friend and they're reaching out kind of arbitrarily. Don't know a whole lot. Maybe they're. Whatever. They're sick and tired of volatility, risk, whatever they reach out, if that client then gets a hold of an agent or an agent gets a hold of them and the agent doesn't do their due diligence to figure out, where's this client at? Mentally, where's this client at in their retirement situation? Actually, do the agents due diligence to see where is this client at? What is the problem? What's the client going to be thinking? They just want to sell. Yeah, they just want to sell.

Well, would you ever go fishing without a fishing rod? No. Would you ever go hunting without a gun? Oh, yeah, possibly. I mean, you could use a spear. You can use a knife, you can.

Use a bow and arrow without some type of.

Yeah, but you've brought a means.

Right.

So it's not that we're trying to hunt or fish, but we are always fishing. Sure. We're trying to find out what's. Again, I always call it what's the hook. In other words, what's their hook. What will catch them from the standpoint of, you know, what catches them by what you're talking about. And if it goes, it catches their interest. Oh, okay. So they've got to be concerned about that.

Right.

And that's. Once again, people will call it bait, but it's.

I hate using sales language. I mean, I've been doing sales since I was 18 years old. So that was back when I had to sell my tools to cavemen. Back in the day. I mean, a long time ago. Yeah. But, you know, it's always been finding. Even when I was. I used to be in the jewelry business. So the jewelry business I love because it was. Anytime you sell a piece of jewelry, it's for happy occasion. So what am I trying to do? What's the happy occasion about? What's your budget? What are you willing to spend? And then we would find the thing that suited that person's desires. In other words, this is what they like, this is what they want. And then they look in and go, man, this is pretty. Well, now we're just selling financial jewelry.

Right?

Which one has the best look for them? Which one do they like the. The most? And we're just fishing for what's important to them. That's all it comes into. It's not fishing for the sale. It's not. It's what's important to them. That's it, it's that simple.

Well, the way I think about selling in general, and you know, this may or may not be the reality for some people, but when I think about the essence of sales or I think about a salesman, I'm thinking about somebody.

Who actually we have to say salesperson.

Salesperson, yes. Well, and salesman used to mean either, but it did.

It's like a waiter used to be a waitress or a stewardess used to be stewardess. I don't know.

I guess anyways, salesperson, whatever that may be, I think about somebody that is in front of somebody else that has some level of interest, but they're really just trying to put them in what they want to put them in.

That's what I'm trying to convince salesperson looks like.

Right. I'm trying to convince you that this is what, what you need. But yeah, what we're talking about here is acknowledging what a client is saying they need and then figuring out what best fits that need.

Well, I think about this, it's crazy because if you think of salesperson, if you just say that, it's already got a negative.

Oh absolutely.

And so that's why I hate it when some out tell client, well, you're just trying to sell me this. No, I could give a rip. You buy this or don't buy this, it doesn't change my retirement at all. It's your decision. This is not my money. It's your money. What you decide here affects your retirement way more than affects mine. I'm not trying to sell you anything. You gave me a problem. I'm telling you the solution.

Right.

You decide and I'll go straight into that because. And then they go, oh, I didn't mean it that way. No, you did initially. Till you realize I don't care if I get this deal or not.

Right.

And I genuinely don't. If someone wants to be a challenge for a client, I don't care if they're going to now I'm going to get a 3 million dollar annuity. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to help a challenging client if they're not going to appreciate what I can do and how I can bring value to their retirement, then that's okay. Find someone that will do that. That's where you get a lot of these brokers and annuity people just stumbling, trying to do everything. Yes, master. Yes, master. Yes, master. I'll do whatever you want me to do. No, here's the problem, here's the solution. I have. Do you Want it. Not trying to sell you anything, you know, and you could technically. I mean, I don't even know what the definition of sale is other than providing. Yeah, let's. Let's. Actually, that's kind of curious.

What is the benefits of having a computer.

Right. Let's try that. What does sale mean?

The exchange of a commodity for money. The action of selling something. Don't you love when they use the word definitions?

There's a good decade.

Sale is when. Yeah, when you sell something. Of course it is. Yeah. So the exchange of a commodity for money.

Okay, what is the second one?

There's a period during which a retailer sells a good.

Like my wife is finding sales, definitely. So, I mean, it's funny because there. It just goes to show you the action of a person has created a definition that has some sort of negative condensation to it.

Negative connotation.

Condensation. That's what's on Coca Cola can. Oh, man. It's time for a break. It really is. I try. You know what? It's funny because I'll. I'll run appointments all day and. Yeah, that definitely will work. I do podcasts. I do webinars and training. It kicks my tail.

It's crazy. Yeah.

Yeah, it is. Because. Well, because there's so much writing on this. So if I meet it with a client, I'm generally going to affect that client. And yes, I take a lot of weight to that. But if I say the wrong thing to an agent.

Sure.

And they go, that can affect thousands of clients.

Right.

So I do have hundreds of agents. Oh, I do. I do bear that weight because everything I say, I check it and recheck it. And I'm constantly. If you've ever met me in person, you know, I'm. I need to have filters, you know, and my filters, as I'm doing something on the spot where I don't know what we're talking about, my filter is just kicking in like crazy. No, don't say that. Don't say it. Whoa. So that's part of the struggle, really.

That's good, though, solution. Selling. And I. I really man the products. A lot of times, yes, objections will arise, but it is the solution.

If you go back to our previous.

Podcast, we talk about how to overcome objections before they arise. But the reality is, I hate the term a product sells itself because you've got to have somebody to actually be the intermediary. You've got to have somebody to explain it. You've got to have somebody that can actually articulate what it does and how it benefits the client, how it accomplishes the solution. But if you do those things, you're, you don't need to be a salesman or a sales woman. It's, it's their money.

Unless you use the true definition of just exchange. Yeah, it's just an exchange. That's true. You don't have to convince someone to do that. I mean, if I have someone who's hungry, I don't have to sell them food.

Right.

They want the food. If we have someone that's concerned about market volatility, we don't have to sell them anything they want to eat. They want the product that will help them.

Absolutely.

So if we look at it that way, and that's why if I have somebody who's stuffed and they want you, all the sugar coated stuff, which is the brokers talking, well, they're not going to be that hungry and they're probably gonna have an upset stomach, you know, I mean, if you, if you sell something that's all sugar coated, clients are going to naturally get this tendency to feel sick to their stomach and they know that this, the sugar rush is going to wear off.

Right.

And that's a high market. We are in a market high right now and it's sugar rush and it will eventually wear off, I assure you.

Absolutely.

Boy, that's a great analogy.

It is a great analogy. That's why we try and keep it organic and real.

Yes, exactly.

I want to know.

And that's the thing I don't like. You know, you see a lot of podcasts, they're absolutely staged and the questions are pre rehearsed and. Right. Hi, Bob, would you like to buy an annuity today? Oh, well, gee, I would love. It's like, come on, it never happens. And so I want to keep it as real as possible.

Absolutely. I do want to encourage agents real quick. If your closing ratio is poor, if you're noticing that a lot of policies are being canceled during the free look period.

Really encourage you consider, are you solving a problem?

No, because.

Because realistically, if the problem is solved, you're not going to run into those types of situations.

So if you solve the, what their, their problem is and you found a solution, but a lot of times the problem is who's helping them with their current financial. It's true financials.

Right.

And so when you look at that, you know, part of that solution sometimes is removing that restriction. Person, that gambler, that bookie.

Sure.

You know, and like I said, I don't mean to give People a hard time if you also sell variable products. Because I do like variable people. If they realize the number one thing is making sure they're safe first in certain areas.

Right.

Then you can gamble other money. But if you've got. I have, I know people that are.

Registered investment advisors, you know, they, they take really good care of making sure the immediate need of the income and the safety is taken care of. But then if the market does fall, they're still the hero because they had the main thing taken care of. And they can risk other things because they had everything taken care of initially.

And if the market does awesome, they're a hero two times.

Exactly. And then when it falls, they still have the original money that's protected.

That's exactly right.

Yep.

I love it.

Is that it?

Well, I'll add one more thing. We talk about if your closing ratio is poor, you know, consider are you solving a problem? We talk about if you're seeing a lot of free looked policies, examine whether or not you're solving a problem. Here's another one that I think gets overlooked a lot of times if you're coming up against like an absurd amount of objections. Some clients will throw out objections. Yes, that's normal. But if you feel like it's this constant thing you have to bulldoze through, you also need to consider, am I finding a solution to the problem? Because more than likely that's the client trying to hint at the fact that, that, hey, I don't, I don't want to do this with you, or I don't want to do it with what you've figured out here. But they're being passive aggressive about it.

Right.

So then just go back and am I solving the problem? Am I finding the issue and then finding the solution? And if you do those two things, you'll be sitting much use that with phone calls.

Right. I call, I get a lot of leads, but I don't get a lot of appointments. Or I get a lot of appointments, but I don't get a lot of sales. You're missing something somewhere.

Right?

You know, well, this lead system doesn't work. No, it's the same list system I use.

So it's.

It has to be you because I'm getting them closing. I get the same things everybody else does. I mean, Internet leads, scrubbed Internet leads, all different sources. So obviously something isn't quite going right.

Right.

So find a solution to the problem.

Absolutely. Every time.

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