Responding to Wins and Losses | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 182

Today we're going to talk about responding to wins and losses.

Hey everyone. Welcome to this week's episode. I am Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach. We still have not come up with a cool name for Caleb yet because, I mean, look what I got to work with. How am I going to come up with a cool name for this Cool.

Name is Tough one.

It is a tough one. I mean Boy Wonder was easy but you know, it's kind of outlived it.

We're past it on the greener pastures.

Yeah. I mean it's 2022 now. We're, we're past the first month. I mean here's the thing. We're going to talk about what to do if you had a successful January, a non successful January. If you're just getting into the business, if you've been doing this for 15 years now, we're going to cover all of it. So I mean, because there's really. I still, I would say December is generally my biggest month. I mean what did I end up in this last December for you?

If you look statistically.

But just for last December, what did.

I do last December?

One point seven.

Yeah. So that was not a good December.

That, that wasn't.

Yeah. Well, but the previous December I only did 888.

Correct.

Yeah. And then the December in 2020. In the December. No. Is that 2019? Yeah, 2019. I did 4.7 million in 2019. I think. Yeah, 4.745. So yeah. The last two Decembers have not been great. But I also took the last two weeks of December off this year.

I will say though, five of the last seven years, your December was the biggest month. Month of the year.

So, so this last year was 2021 was very consistent. I mean I, it was. I had 1, 2, 3, 4 months over 3 million and I had 1.

One month under a million. Yeah. Huh.

Yeah. And a couple of those were in between two and three.

Yeah.

And everything else was over.

I'm so glad I only had 100 million.

Yes.

And that was, that was not good. That was 480,000 but. Oh, you know what, but that was May. I was gone a lot in me.

Compared to 2020 at 3 under. You had three months under 1 million but you had $9 million month.

That like major how I would like to have another nine million dollar month. Yeah, that would be beautiful. Let's just make it February.

Yeah, but it's important. I mean if you get into February, I mean this point in the year, we're one month in we're one twelfth of the way through. And I have no doubt that you had goals. I had no doubt that you probably broke those goals down into monthly goals. I know you don't, but, like, you probably either hit what you were trying to do, far surpassed it, or you didn't. You didn't get it, and we want to encourage you.

Well, that's pretty deep.

Yeah.

You didn't make it. That's. Whoa. The wisdom is just oozing out, right?

You know what's funny is you can generally say kind of silly things in a. In a particular tone of voice that make them sound profound, but, like, I feel like I can't get them past.

If you have a British accent.

That's.

You sound smarter when you have a British accent.

It's true.

It's interesting, though. I talked to someone. I said British and Australian accents. New Zealand, South American, you know, or South Africa. You kind of have that. It's. That sounds a little smarter type accent. And they go, you know what? It's funny. We feel the same about Americans.

That's funny.

Yeah. American accent is perceived as someone who's more intelligent, smarter.

Not Southern accents, though.

No, definitely not Southern. It's like back country. You are. Yeah, you're not smart.

Yeah. Sorry, guys. We got a lot of agents, and.

They'Re all laughing, going, you're right. You're right. That's funny. Oh, I love our southern agents. They're. They're. They are the best.

So if you had northern agents are. Okay. If you had a bust in January, there's kind of three things I want to encourage you, and I want you to hit on these three things or tag on to them. But number one, assess. What was the bust? Like, what? Like, okay, if you had the goal of a million dollars in the month and you didn't hit it, okay, that's the what. But then getting into the. Why did that happen? So now you have to actually give some thought to it. Really? Deliberate.

Deliberate as to why you didn't do what you were trying to do. And then. And then number three is think about, how are you going to solve that for February? I mean, it's not.

Because I just totally mess it up one through three again, what went.

What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? And how is it going to get fixed?

There you go.

I mean, it's. It's three things. And I know that's not super profound. Like, that's. That it really honestly isn't. Like, there's not a whole lot of bad today anyway.

You don't have that high of a bar for being profound.

But, but those three things are what you need to do to get back on track.

It is true.

And quite honestly, if you had a great success, number one, don't get complacent, don't get lost.

There's no such thing as a great success in our industry. I've been doing sales of some sort for 29 years. Let's say I just made 29 years of marriage. So it'd be 30 years now of being in some sort type of sales. And we have been taught from day one, who cares what you did last month? What are you doing now?

It's a new month.

It does not matter. There's never a celebration. And anybody who's worked ret really knows what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

They don't get a blowout month last. It doesn't matter. What are you doing for me this month? Yeah.

Never quite enough.

No, there isn't. And, and honestly it's that internal drive than me that I'm never satisfied. I'm always content.

Yeah.

Like even, even when I had a $500,000 a month and somebody like, well, that's a dream for me, that's not, you know, for me if I have a $4 million a month, that's like wow, that was a really good month. Million dollar month. That's not celebration for me. If I want to do at least 25, 26, 27 million, a 2 million dollar month is just get me to my goal, you know. And that's, that's not a celebratory thing for me. But I'm very content, I'm very grateful and I'm very thankful. Yeah. You know, because I know in our business we can struggle, but in ours it's in my personal goal for sales and helping people, it's not the number. Right. It's did I find a solution to the problem? The side effect of that is the number. So if I have a challenging month, that just means I'm still doing the same thing I did last month. I'm just trying to make sure I'm helping people. But if I have an incredible month, the next month, I'm still trying to help people.

Absolutely.

And so, you know, I think the biggest thing in the three things. Again. Say it again just real quick.

Yeah. So what went wrong? Why did it go wrong and how are you going to fix it?

And most of the time all three of those things have to do with what process? Nope. Your attitude.

Oh, that's there's two things you can control. Your attitude and your effort.

Yeah. Because. Well, your attitude. Yes. I mean, but your effort with the wrong attitude is bad.

It's true. And you're.

I mean, you think about when you correct your kids, if they still do what you want them to do, but they have a junk attitude when they're doing that. That's not. That's still not a win for me.

Right. And vice versa. You can have a great attitude and lousy effort, and you're not getting anywhere either.

So the attitude is how you respond to those three different things. If you want to sit there and pout and mope because you had a bad month, your next month is going to be bad.

It's true.

And I have learned this from appointment to appointment I've had. And anybody who's been in this business for a while, there are some appointments you go into where you just want to scream at the top of your head because you had a dodo client, a rude client, someone who just thought they knew way more than you knew. And nowadays I just go, okay, well, I guess if you know more than I do, you don't need me here anymore. And just, I'll just say that I'm done. And then, I mean, almost every time I say that, and this is rare that that happens, but the wife will sit down, we need you. Shut up. They'll tell the husband, shut up. We need this guy. But there are times where I'm like, hey, if you don't want my help, that's okay. And I do not say that sarcastically or with a bad attitude. I'm just like, hey, if you don't need my help, there's people that need my help, and I'm more than willing to help them. And so if you don't need it, it's okay, I'll just leave.

Yeah.

And I'm serious in that. But your attitude will change those three things that the response. How do I say? Not necessarily the response. Yeah, the response would determine the success of pulling out of those challenging situations.

Yeah. And I think too, it's. It's the exact same if you had a great success. I mean, what I was going to say if you had. Well, and again, I know what you feel about great success. I guess when I think about.

That.

Terminology, I think about somebody that hit. They hit their goal for the month. Like, yes, it's a new month. You've got new things you've got to do. You've got new effort you've got to put in. But if you did what you were trying to do in January. It's still a. What was Right. Why did it go right? And how are you going to make sure that that happens again?

You know, and it's a lot of Dr. Analogies. Right. So you're a surgeon and you're operating on people. Okay. Do you think every time you save someone's life, you should be here? I save someone's life? No, you did your job. Yeah, that's. That's. That's. The low bar is to save their life. You know, that's not the high bar. That's not the celebration that you saved your life. That was your job. Yeah. So your low bar is. Is literally saving someone's life. Now, let's say you're a ER surgeon and you have someone who's coming is completely jacked up.

Yeah.

That's a celebration. Because you look at go. That person should.

Yeah.

They shouldn't have lived in that. But when you're doing surgery, your low bar is to save that person's life.

Right.

When you're doing emergency surgery, then that's like, oh, my gosh, we have a dear friend. They were out in a UTV and the UTV rolled on the side and his arm got stuck outside the UTV and it de. Gloved him. Yeah. So it took the skin from the elbow down to the wrist, and they had to totally clean this out. They spent three hours cleaning out this wound. And the surgeon said they have never had someone that had that much dirt and grime. Not only did they save his arm, it's fully functionable.

That's insane.

Now, that's a celebration.

On the flip side, can I tell you.

But what would have there been? Well, you know what? He died.

I mean, that's probably.

There was to keep him alive.

Yeah.

The celebration was this guy's full mobility in his arm.

Right. That. Yeah. Oh, yeah, totally. Totally.

You take people that are in a retirement situation that you're going, sorry, you're dead.

Right.

But when you can pull someone out of a challenging situation where there have all this volatility, all these crazy variables, all these things going against them, and. And you not only let them live, but they thrive during retirement because you eliminated the variables from the standpoint of they didn't think they could retire and now they can. Celebration.

I'll tell you, that's. It's like the situation warranted an amputation to save his life, but they were.

Able to still have done that. Yeah. And still would have been, quote, unquote, success.

Yeah. But they were like not willing to just skate by. I was going to say, on the flip side, I saw this statistic, Chad. There was a surgeon, and I don't remember how long ago this was, did an amputation and accidentally simultaneously amputated one of the fingers of the assistant. And there was a bystander in the OR that died of shock there in the or. And then later, the amputee and the assistant that both had limbs removed died of sepsis. That surgery had a 300 mortality rate.

That sucks.

That's like. That's the flip side of it, right? Of like just kind of like winging it.

You're not going to retire your kid and your kids. Kids are not going to retire either.

Yeah, it's like just, just like skating by and just winging it or just throwing it all. Kind of just throw it to the wall and see if it's sticks type deal and somebody else ends up getting hurt.

And this doctor, he's like 65, 70 years old, and, and he's real arrogant. He's a heart surgeon. And he goes, chad, I've done over 300 surgeries and I haven't lost a patient yet. I said, huh, that's pretty amazing. He goes, yep, I get them in the or. Once they're out of the or, they're no longer my responsibility. It's a nurse's responsibility to keep him alive. And I said, huh, kind of interesting. So you can get them out, but whether they die later or not, you still consider that a success. He said, yeah. Said, you know What? I have 100% success rate either as well. I've never had a client have a retirement fatality, but not only when they leave my operating room, when they go anywhere for the rest of their life, they stay alive.

Yeah.

And he's like, whoa. I said, it's not just my job to get you out of this appointment, right? It's I'm with you the entire time the rest of your life. That's why you have my cell phone number. And I put you in a product that's literally put you in a retirement bubble to where it doesn't matter what's going on around you, your income is coming in no matter what happens to the market. So not only you will not die of the surgery, you will not die of infection, which are called stocks, bonds and mutual funds are variable annuities. And you will not have any parasites called variable agents that are not looking out for the well benefit of their clients. Those are the parasites. And once again, I'm not knocking variable people. I'm knocking variable people that use variable products to have guaranteed income.

Yeah.

And I've said this so many times. If you're a variable person and you make sure they're protected in their income side and then you have risk, fine. Yeah, that's fine. But ever say you can use stocks, bonds and mutual funds to guarantee income for life which you know you're not legally allowed to say that because of compliance but there's a lot of variable.

People that one ply that implication is huge. It is because it creates a belief.

It does. Well, I can't tell you how many people that when the stock market starts to fall they go, my broker told me I should never have to worry about this. Now I'm down 50%. What do I do? You know, I'm not calling variable people parasites. I'm calling variable people that prey on someone who has an open wound which is called area in their retirement that is not sealed and protected which is called guaranteed income for life. You know, now if you run as someone that makes $9,000 a month in pension, they require $4,000 a month and live off of, is it fine to risk their money? If you're a broker, that's up to the client.

Yeah.

But don't ever use variable products to guarantee income for life. To imply guaranteed income for life and.

The implication on both sides of, I mean even for insurance insurance people. I know a lot of times it can be easy for guys doing, guys and gals doing fixed prices products to imply maybe an inflated rate of return or you know, try and imply that this product will perform at this level and it's like implication is real. Because if I, if I tell you flat out something bold faced, this is it and you believe it, it created a belief in you. If I imply something and you believe that based on my implication, it created a belief in you, well there's the.

Effect is the same. And when you have that perspective, position of authority or perceived authority, people are going to trust you. And that's why, I mean we've talked about this so many times. You know, I own Retirement Realized Agents Academy. I own Retirement Realized Financial. If you knew the money I make off of that compared to what I make off of writing annuities. People constantly ask me why do you even bother with the Retirement Realized Financial Retirement Realized Agents Academy. It's my opportunity to give back is my opportunity to pour into the next generation. It's my opportunity to be able to help people not have to do and go through What I went through to learn this industry and you know, so that's where it comes into play. But I want to make sure that by this whole process and making sure we're having a good attitude that we change the perception of the annuity agent or annuities in general. And, and we're not sitting there trying to base our success off of did we get the sale or not? Once again it goes. Did we find a solution to the problem? Yeah, that's all it comes down to. Did I give people a peace of mind once I left? Did it? Because once again, if I tell someone, hey, I got a safe product, but they don't understand what is, that's still going to stress them out. Right. So I want to make sure they understand what we're talking about. Not in the detail that a surgeon I need to know. I mean you go into surgery, need to know, hey, you're an expert, you can do what you do. I'm not an expert in your area. Otherwise I try and operate myself.

Right.

You know, and the reality is I can't. That's just not a keep up. It's impossible for me to do that.

Yeah.

But I have to trust that surgeon. They need to know that when they come into my financial operating room, I am the expert in that area. And I'm not only going to close up the wound, which is the potential loss of income or outliving income or market volatility, they're not going to get any infection in the future.

Yeah.

And I just. When you use analogies like that and people always say there's two things, you know, that outside of the system, the process that make me really good at what I do. I have a very, I'm good at storytelling and analogies.

Those are the two relate things.

Well, I do because you know, it doesn't matter what I know, it's how they understand it. We've all talked to those people that are so smart, by the time they're done talking, you have no clue what they just said. You knew they were smart, but you didn't understand one word or they just said.

Yeah.

And that's important for us to not only use our intelligence, use our skill set, but make sure our clients know what we're talking about.

Well, I mean it's the mindset. Go into that appointment with the mindset of a teacher. I mean and not from a paternalistic.

Greater than my political viewpoints and platforms and spew my venom everywhere.

No, but, but truly with the heart of education. And I had two Thoughts number one.

Let me wait. I do need to close, clarify. I do a lot of balancing statements. I'm not knocking teachers.

Oh, we love teachers.

I have teachers in my family. I love them to death. It's the political system right now where professors think they have to spew their viewpoint. And that's the class.

It's true.

Knowing from experience and paying for my daughters to go to college.

I have seen that, haven't been there, done that. Not paying for daughters, but going, yeah, it's. It's real.

If you have, hey, you're married to my daughter. You will pay.

I haven't, is what I'm saying. I haven't paid for my daughter's. I don't. You know. So, anyway, we're working on that.

You got to get those grandkids.

Yeah. If you have a bust of a month.

Just did the eye roll.

If you have a bust of a month, we're talking about attitude and effort. It's easy for your attitude to be down and your effort to go up because you feel this pressure. On the flip side, if you have a great success in a month, it's easy for your attitude to be high and your effort to decrease because you feel compressed, complacent. In either situation, it's a. It's a losing formula for the next month. So what we want to encourage you with is regardless of if 20 or January was a bust or if it was a success, keep your attitude up and keep your effort high as well. Consider what was well or what was wrong, why was it well or why was it wrong? And then how are you going to either have that happen again or. Or correct it for February? So that's a quick recap.

We're in an industry where mistakes are not an option. You make the wrong mistake, mistake with the client's money, and it can affect them for the rest of their lives.

It's real.

So. Well, I hope this helps you. Once again, we went a little long, but we're not one of those guys. You can tell I don't wear a watch, and so I do have a timer, but I rarely ever pay attention to it. So you have a great day and happy selling.

Ra.