Selling Annuities In The Summertime | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 301

Well, a lot of people think that the summertime is inherently a slowdown for annuity production, but I'm here to tell you some good news. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way. Welcome back to the seven Figure Annuity Sales Podcast. Caleb north here with Chad, and we're talking about selling annuities in the summertime. And this is actually one of those topics, Chad, that historically I've always kind of been on the side of. Oh yeah, the summertime slump or this, you know, the summertime blues or whatever. It's like things tend to slow down.

Well, that's because you're, you have a Monday slump, a Tuesday slump, a Wednesday slump, a Thursday slump, at Friday slump. I mean, so you're just thinking, you know, that's my normal slump and just because it's the summertime. But I could say, you know, you might have a spring slump, a winter slump, a fall slump. You know, you may have a little burst of energy here and there, depending on how many cups of coffee you have.

But working on one right now.

I.

Mean, it finished my, you know, I stopped. I'm down to one energy drink a day.

That's good.

And yeah, I mean, you know, with the little heart things I have going on, I probably should not be feeding it, you know, nitrous.

Yes. 300 milligrams of caffeine in a 30 minute time period. Probably not great for it.

You know what I've noticed though? You know, you always say this is Caleb north and then you go, and there's Chad.

No, I say this is Caleb north with Chad Owen.

No, you didn't. Guaranteed. This is the beauty of podcasts is we can go back and check. We can, we go back 100 bucks right now. You just said this is Chad.

Come on, let's check it.

So is that a hundred dollar bet?

That's a hundred dollar bet. I'll make that bet.

Okay, we got thou. No editing with John.

We got thousands of witnesses right now, so deal. You're right, though. Summertime it is. People think it's a slowdown and it's, it's really more. It's not business slowdown. I think, I think it's more Agent slowdown.

Exactly.

Yeah. You see, agents cut back on their leads and you know me, man, I just keep the, I keep that wide open all the time.

Right.

And you know, or they're taking vacations and rightfully so, man, if you're having a summertime slump because you're spending more time with your family, go for it. You Know, have some fun. But you know, if you're thinking it's summertime slump because of lack of business, I disagree with that 100%. Because there's less agents you're competing against.

Yeah.

You know, if you have more agents that are taking vacation, you're not. And I'm, I mean, you guys know this. I'm not anti vacation. I love traveling, I love taking time off. I mean, you know, but if that's the perception, it slows down. That's not true.

Right. Well. And okay, so I've always been of the idea that the summertime's a slump. You slow down, whatever. And partially because I look at your numbers and I see the numbers that I see. And when you look at the numbers, I can tell you five of the last 10 years, the summer quarter. So Q3 has been the lowest quarter of the year. I can tell you that 2 of the last 10 years, it's been the second lowest. So that means that 7 out of the last 10, the summer quarter has been the lowest production by quarter than any other quarter of the year or the second lowest by. By production. And two have been the best quarter of the entire year. And so then it's like, well, wait a second, this doesn't necessarily make sense. Right. It's like seven have been the worst or the second best. And, and two, which are. Is about the theoretical percentage that you would expect have been the best. And I started realizing it's not because summertime is inherently a worse time to produce, it's that historically Chad's taken vacations in the summertime.

Yeah. So it's like, you got to think about it when we're going on trips, man. I mean, there's a lot of places we can go in the summer. I mean, Alaska, you know, Northern Europe. These are places we choose to go in the summer.

Right.

And so when I look at that, Yeah, I mean, I am taking more time off. And then the kids used to have school off, you know, that's when their college would stop and we could go and do trips. So, yeah, that would be. But now, I mean, I spread my vacations out throughout the year. This year so far, I haven't taken as many vacations. But I don't know, I'd be curious to see how many days I've actually taken off because I'll just, you know, it's Thursday. I'm gonna go do something with the family.

Sure.

You know, so I, I don't know day wise, but it, I bet if you cross referenced the actual Number of days I was working it with the summertime, it wouldn't be because I think August 2022 was my best year ever. But August of 22, I. It was a zero month, right?

Yeah.

But why was it a zero month?

You were gone all month.

I was gone the entire month. I mean, I think that's when we did our Alaska troop or for three weeks where we were gone on with an rv and then we took another week where we had another event and. Yeah. So, I mean, I was, I was literally not working that entire month.

Right. And that's one of those. Yeah. And that's. That to me is, Is, you know, the point entirely. Obviously, from a production standpoint, it's a little bit easier for me to look at your production than any other agents production, because I'm not necessarily tracking that for, you know, dozens and dozens of agents out there. But if you're tracking your own and you're noticing a trend of summertime slowdown and it's discouraging for you. Coming up on the Summertime, so we'll examine the why that's happening, because I would be will willing to bet that it's not just because the summer is somehow a worse time for you to produce. I bet you there are other things going on. If you're a. If you're a family individual, you've got a family and you've got children and they're out of school or out of college and they're around. I guarantee you that is impacting the amount of time that's spent working. Whether it's realized or not. If you're traveling and taking vacations, it's obviously going to impact it. And then. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's not. It's not crazy. Clients take vacations too, and summertime is the most universally vacationed time of the year. But I would argue too, that if somebody, you know, becomes a lead, it's not. It's not so that they can then immediately go take time off. They're. They're becoming a lead so that they can actually get help with this. So if you've got leads, keep working them well. And especially if you're in the state of Colorado, keep working them well, because you might just catch Chad on a vacation week.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay. Under the bus back. Yeah.

I mean, I want all these agents to do good.

Oh, yeah, of course. That's. That's an absolute. I mean, we've always been that way. We. We definitely want agents to do well. But one of the things I Think about is, you know.

If you can take that time off. If you do, let's just put it this way, if you do really well during the rest of the year and you have a bad summer because you're taking time off, I mean, why is that bad? You know, I. Now I don't recommend taking a month off.

That's.

And I mean that with all my heart. I mean, that's. That's for professionals only. And the reason, if you're really good at what you're doing, you know, then you can do that. But, man, even with me taking that month off in 2022, boy, it took me a while to get that engine revved back up again.

Right.

I think my. I think that month was still really good, though. I think what, what would been August. So September. Let's see that September after I said 3.9 million after that. So it did. It was kind of built up.

Come back to a stack of leads and yes, there's going to be lead rot. And I think that's one of the challenges. You know, if you're, if you're not a super producer, one of the challenges is the amount that's being spent on leads and then the rot that occurs with those. And the skill set to be able to work past the lead rot may not all be there. Whereas somebody that's an extreme producer, a super producer, they're going to have a little bit more skill set to be able to handle the lead route. Well, they've got more disposable to be able to afford the cost of leads in that. But I would also say that, you know, Chad, one of the things we train agents, don't. Don't turn the leads off. So if you're going to take a week or two, obviously, yes, a month is hard to do, but if you're going to take a week or two, don't turn it off. Come back to a stack of leads and work them to the best of your ability.

Well, the psyche just behind a lead that's a month old, it messes with you. You know, you're like, come on. They're not really interested. So therefore, when you're talking to them, it could feel like you're not working it as well. And I know people, I mean, I can personally, I can work a lead that's a year old the same way I can work a lead that came in today. You know, I treat it the same. I just know how I don't have any psychological barrier there. And, you know, even if I call five People in a row, that is a lead that's a year old, it's not going to mess with my mind. That's just part of the game. That's why I can get 10 brand new leads and sometimes book seven appointments out of those 10. Or I could get 10 brand new leads and not get in touch with one. So, you know, it's, it's the same thing to me. So I think, I think the important thing to understand is these slumps, the, the serious slumps come in not based off of the time of year. It often comes in based off of your mindset. So if you're thinking summer, I'm just gonna be lazy and not do as much. Once again, if it's, it's a purpose driven laziness, that's okay. You know, if you have a reason to rest, then that's okay. But if you're just in your mind, you're already gone. Yeah, you know, it's summertime, I'm not gonna do good. Guess what? You're not going to do good.

I literally have a note on my, my note sheet, Chad, that says, so what's actually going on here in the summertime? And I have a few things noted out which we've already talked about vacations, talked about sometimes clients, travel. And then the third one was that for whatever reason, for some reason people get into this psychological vacation where it's just this mental thing that they just think that it's worse or they're disconnected or whatever it is. You know. One of the things that I think too, this is just kind of a practical thought is the location impact of the summertime slump. It's like, you could probably take an agent in Minnesota and they would say, yeah, for some reason, man, the summertime is, is really, really great, but the wintertime is terrible. And then you take somebody in Florida and they're like, yeah, for some reason the summertime slows down, but the winter is great. It's probably because of snowbirds. Yeah, if you think about it. So like your, your region could actually impact based on population of who's there in that season, could actually impact the lead flow and the availability of individuals locationally.

It could be, but it's also the standpoint of, you know, if I'm looking up at the mountains and I see that there's clear skies and you know, I'm going to be like, you know what, maybe I want to go do some photography, maybe I want to go fishing, you know, versus if I look outside and it's gloomy. And there's raining. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just make my calls and make them very intentional, you know, so it. Yeah, it does. It's environmental as well. Slumps can also be. You know, you're just tired. You know, you. You pushed really hard. And. Because first quarter and last quarter can be really. It can be a lot of work. I mean, sure, once you start to get around tax season, you can run into some people that are constantly, I'll call you after taxes, or I want to get my taxes done. But you think about it. First quarter and second or first quarter and fourth quarter. There's not a lot of excuses. You know, I mean, people. All kids are in school. You can. During Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, you can get some people that are kind of, you know, making some reasons why they don't want to meet. But then the ones that do want to meet are almost always way bigger. So, you know, I think a slump is definitely more mindset than anything. I mean, I mean, if you're shutting your leads off during the holiday or if you're shutting your leads down or slowing them down in the summer, that already tells you where your mind is.

Yep. I mean, exactly.

That's really what it comes down to. So if your mind is already there and you choose to make calls, do you think you're going to be as driven and focused? Probably not. That's why I'm telling you the number one thing for success is the why you do what you're doing. You know, it's not how, it's not what, it's why. And so if I realize I can help people protect their money any time of the year, I can give them peace of mind during retirement. That's my why. So it doesn't matter what time of year it is. So therefore, there is no such thing as a slump for me.

Yeah. I love that. I love that. I would encourage you as agents. If you're listening, look at Q3. Look at Summertime as an opportunity to make it the best quarter rather than the opportunity for it to be the worst. Right. It's like when you look at. And again, I'll go back to Chad's numbers, because that's what I've got. And the volume is more than a small sample size. It's a. It's a significant sample size. Two out of the last 10, the Q. Yeah. Q3 has been his best quarter of the year. Okay, so that's all. I mean, if you think of 10 divided by 4, that's 25%. So the theoretical percentage would be that 25% of the time. Q3 would be the best. And that's what the expectation would be. Well, that's about the theoretical percentage. And then when you look at the years that it wasn't the best, you look at the years it was the worst or the second worst, it's like, well, there's a logical explanation for it, but. And it's not client based. It's based on his vacation schedule. So if you're an agent watching this, thinking you're coming into the worst time of the year, I just want to encourage you, it doesn't have to be that. If you'll go into it with the mindset that it can be the best time of the year and actually put in the work and the time, the energy, the effort to make it that.

Yeah. So remember why we do things. I mean, I'm going to hit that again so many times. And this is training specific to what do you do, how do you do it? What do you do, how do you do it? I've seen people from stage, what do you do? How do you do it? It's like, no, why do you do it? Because if you, if you focus on that, the what will determine the how. Because how am I going to do it? I'm going to study my tail off. I'm going to know the best products that are available out there. I'm going to have a good lead system. That's what I'm going to do. How am I going to do that? I'm. Same thing to me. The what and the how is often the same. You know, what you do, how you do it. But why, man, that's, that's, that. That's the determining factor in a slump.

It, it can be understated. I wear this hat. This is my brand. North Brothers Cattle Company, by the way, Chad, we're, we're going to get the lease. So it's something we're, we're headed into. My brother and I are going to start raising cows together.

Well, that. Just so you know, that's not your brand. That's your secondary brand. Your first brand is retirement realized financial, just to be clear.

Yeah, that's why I got him out there. So he can do the day work and I can be the brains.

So you're calling him. Oh, so he's your indentured servant. I'll let Tanner know that.

Where I was going with that was we've already had conversations and discussions and not necessarily been entirely on the same page. And I'm realizing part of it is because we haven't determined why we are doing what we're doing. And something as simple as raising cows together, it's like the why is necessary if it's. If it's essential in that area, it is.

Exuberantly more essential for you guys writing annuities and selling these policies to clients. You've got to know your why.

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's. I use that nursing mother scenario all the time. You know, a nursing mother. What are you going to do? I have to nurse my baby. Well, how well you get taught that why is what gets you up in the night. No. You know, I mean, you have to, or that baby will die. You know, so the why should be the determining factor in all we do. And I'm telling you, the why is a slump killer. It just.

That's so good.

Yeah.

It's fuel, man.

People said that, you know, for years. They. I've heard this for many, many years is, Chad, how do you keep doing what you're doing in the. In the capacity and the drive that you have? And it's why. It's always the why. I mean, why did I hire someone who was literally a ranch hand.

Because, you know, had no knowledge in this? The why was. I saw the drive, the determination, the work ethic, the integrity, and I knew, man, if you could put some. An area where you could make a lot of money, he's going to kill it. And that's what Caleb literally is. So now what I find funny is he now is in a capacity and done so well that now he can literally go back and have his brother be his boy.

Who's Woodrow now? Who's Woodrow? You'll never, never debate that ever again.

That's hilarious.

It's. But it's a passion project for me now.

But now it can be another stream of income because we talk about in our industry, one of the things is if you can get. If you can do really well in this industry, then you want to start other streams of income.

Yeah.

And that's a mistake I have made for years, is I've built some businesses, and fortunately, they've all done pretty well now. But I've had some. I've let go and, you know, I bought some commercial real estate. That is not. It's just sucking money out. And I'm like, I.