The Commonalities of Elite Producers | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 314

Welcome back to the Seven Figure Annuity Sales Podcast. It's Caleb north here, and I'm rocking solo today. Chad couldn't, couldn't join me today, and I know it's been a little while since we've had a new episode come out, so I want to say, number one, I appreciate the patience. It's been, it's been a while, actually. A wild fall. This, this winter time, this fall time is there has been a lot going on.

In retirement realized specifically. And that's. I mean, that's at the end of the day, that's largely the reason we haven't recorded new episodes yet, as Chad's been very busy on the production side. And then retirement realized, we've been, I mean, all systems go, all hands on deck. And I hope that that comes across as an encouragement to those of you that are listening, that are active producers in the field, because, I mean, that is indication, like we've talked about for years now, that the fourth quarter does not have to be the slowest quarter. It doesn't need to be the slowest quarter. It. You know, a lot of times I think agents tend to kind of taper out of the year, right? You get into mid November, and then you've got Thanksgiving at the end of November, and then it's like, well, how much do I push at the beginning of December just to have Christmas come around the corner and then New Year's? And so I think it's easy to slow down. And to be fair, for those of you that have hit your goals and hit your targets and you can slow down, props to you. Congratulations on a good year. For those of you who are still, you know, hoping to write business, let that be an encouragement to you that it doesn't need to come to a halt in November and December. Now, we've literally not recorded podcasts because of how busy we've been on the production side of things. So people are still willing to meet, they're still available. So my encouragement to you is if you still have business that you're wanting to write, trying to write, keep the pedal down, keep it moving, clients are still receptive to it, and you can make November, December, they can be one of your best months of the year. And when you look historically, actually, December has been one of Chad's best months consistently over the years. And so anyways, all that to say, that's why it's been a little bit slow for us getting out a new episode. But today I'm excited to talk about some things that I'm pretty passionate about, but quite honestly are more anecdotal.

These are things that you're not going to necessarily read about in a book. There are things that you know, your IMO probably hasn't quite observed or you talk to other agents and they probably haven't quite observed. These are things that I've found are commonalities of elite producers. In other words, these are things that I consistently see the top producers, they're just commonalities. It could be a character thing, it could be a mindset thing. And I've got three things that I'm talking about today. And again, they are purely based on observation. After years of having the privilege of working with some really, really great agents, these are things that I've just seen be present in every single top producer that I've ever known and worked with. And when I look at agents who consistently fail to hit their goals, I tend to see a lack in one of these three areas. And to summarize, the three things are, number one, top producers, elite producers, they're self starters, they have fantastic interpersonal skills. Number two, and then they've got a willingness to spend money. And those three things, if an agent's lacking in one of those three areas, usually you're going to see them not necessarily be a bad producer, they're just not necessarily going to be the best producer. When you look at the top producers, top producers have all three of these things in spades. They are self starters, they have interpersonal skills and they are willing to spend money. And so I'm going to go through and kind of talk through the way that each one of these three things can manifest in your business. Number one, being a self starter. When I see agents who take initiative, I see an agent that is doing research on their own. They're finding resources, they are initiating conversation with the insurance companies. They are, they are in essence grabbing the bull by the horns.

I tend to look at that agent as somebody that has some really, really great potential, even if they're brand new. I work with some new agents out there that are writing really good production already. And consistently, they are self starters. If you're an agent that tends to need your handheld a little bit more, you tend to be a little bit more timid in your approach. You tend to operate from a place of uncertainty, kind of a concern for am I going to mess something up? Am I going to do it wrong? And if that creates kind of a paralysis in the way that you work, that's going to be a tough hurdle to overcome. But it's one that you need to fight to overcome. Quite, quite honestly, you need to be taking initiative. Nobody can want this to be successful for you more than you. In other words, you can't require, you can't expect that your marketer is calling you every week to check in to see, well, what are you working on this week, what have you studied, what have you grown in, what have you learned, what are the things that you've put in place.

You can't be dependent on somebody else to, to be that initiating force, you need to be that initiating force for yourself. You need to want this thing for yourself more than anybody else does. And when I look at top producers, even top producers that have become top producers within a year or two of actually starting in the industry, this is one of the things that they have in spades. They will go grab the bull by the horns, they will do research, they will dig, they will make phone calls, they will call the insurance company, they will ask questions, they will initiate conversation with their IMO marketer. They, all of those types of things are present in those individuals that are, that are self starters. And then the next one you look at, you've got interpersonal skills.

And I'll take this one a step further and say that it's not just being.

Skillful in conversation or communication, it's not just being direct, it's not just being.

You know, capable of articulation and communication. What I typically see amongst top producers are people who actually like interacting with people. They get a, they get enjoyment out of it. If working with people is a drudgery for you, I'm going to challenge you to really try and grow in that because that's going to be a limiting factor for you. That's going to be something that stifles your production and slows you down. If you like working with people, you like talking with people, you like human interaction, you like seeing how your services can better somebody's life, that's going to have positive impact on your production. And it does every single time. When I, when I look at agents who.

Their interpersonal skills are a little bit less developed than others, I tend to see a lower producer. And when I see an agent who has extremely good interpersonal skills, and this is social awareness, being able to read body language, being able to understand what somebody is thinking based on the way that they're communicating both verbally and non verbally, it's the ability to articulate their message clearly. Here's the definition of a good communicator. A Good communicator is somebody who can communicate their message in a way that the intended message is received the intended way. In other words, you can say exactly what you mean, but if it's not received the way that you want it to be received, you haven't communicated it well. So a good communicator not only says what they're trying to say, but says it in a way that it is able to be received the way they want it to be received and understood the way they want it to be understood. In other words, a good communicator.

Creates clarity rather than confusion. If you're creating confusion, it's probably not a good communicator. And that's okay. That's something that you can grow and you can develop. But working on those interpersonal skills is something that I would encourage everybody to do. Even if it's something that comes naturally to you. Right. I know agents, I know people that talking with people and communicating and having a great conversation is something that just comes naturally, but doesn't mean that there's not room to grow and improve. In fact, you can take the pendulum the other direction. And if you have somebody who enjoys talking for the sake of talking, a lot of times they're not going to be direct, they're not going to be pointed, they're not going to be concise. And so just the fact that they enjoy talking can waste somebody's time and end up creating confusion because they tend to reiterate themselves. That's actually, in all candor, the camp that I tend to personally fall in. I enjoy talking. I enjoy having conversation with people which can bode really, really well. It makes me not afraid to pick up the phone and talk to somebody and just initiate conversation. But simultaneously, I have to be careful that I'm not over explaining or re explaining or speaking redundantly, which I've probably just done in my explanation of it.

Because being direct, being concise, number one, it tends to be easier to understand. And number two, it honors people's time better. So that's, that's a piece of interpersonal skill. But you've got to be a good, you've got to be good interpersonally to have a lot of success in this industry. If you're not, it's going to be, it's going to be a rough ride. It's going to be really, really tough. The last one, willingness to spend. At the end of the day, I think that this comes down to a recognition that the greatest expense in our industry is not anything that you pay for. The greatest expense in our industry is not writing business that you could.

So in other words, if you have.

A $200,000 case that falls through because there wasn't enough.

Evidence that you are who you say you are. In other words, maybe you get a lead and you book the appointment, and now all of a sudden that individual starts looking you up online and you have no online presence, you have no website. So now all of a sudden you've missed the opportunity of that because you don't have something. The cost of not having that social presence online, the cost of not having that website is far greater than what it would have cost you to have it. So when I look at top producers, they look at everything that they spend money on as an investment that they expect a return on. So they don't look at a $5,000 website and think, oh, my gosh, that's costing me $5,000. No, they look at the $5,000 website and they go, that's all I have to spend to have a website out there that somebody can look at and see that I am who I am. And. And I do what I say that I do. And then they start looking at, what does that need? What do I need to sell to cover that expense? It's like an 80 or $90,000 annuity. So they think, okay, well, if it saves me.

An 80 or $90,000 annuity, then it's paid for itself. If it allows me to write a 255, 500,000 extra million, 5, 10, whatever it is in production, then the ROI on that is extremely high. And that's the reality of the industry that we're in. The earning potential for a sale is so high that the greatest cost is nothing that can help you close that sale. It's not. Branding is not the greatest cost. Websites are not the greatest cost. Training is not the greatest cost. Leads are not the greatest cost. The greatest cost is always missing opportunity to write business because the earning potential is so high. So if you come into it with this mindset of, I'm going to try and spend as little as possible.

Then it's going to be a long road to success to actually writing what you want to write. If you come into it with the mindset of, I understand that this is going to have startup costs like every business does.

Then you're going to put money where money needs to go to create the opportunity for yourself to write more business. And at the end of the day, you're going to make more by spending more than you would by spending less.

I'll put it this way. If somebody has $60,000 to spend, for them to go turn $60,000 into $600,000.

Is way easier than for somebody to go turn nothing into anything.

In other words, if you're starting with nothing, it's going to take a lot longer to get to where you want to be than it would for somebody that's just shelling out a ton of money at the start for the sake of the production on the back. Because the greatest expense is not anything you can pay for that helps you write business. It is always the cost of missed business. Now, I'll put it this way. Like this year I started a company with my brother. We're in the cattle industry together now. And it was like a $50 or $60,000 startup business as we put into cost us 50 or $60,000 to get started in this. Why? Because we had to build the foundation. We have yet to have any monetary return. Now, I understand that for both of us, this is a side thing, so we can go that amount of time without seeing a monetary return. But the point is, it's starting a business. You can't go just start a business somewhere and not have some kind of startup capital. And the thing that I would encourage every agent to adopt, and maybe this is number four bonus number four of this episode of Commonalities of Elite Producers. Elite producers have a business mindset. They don't look at themselves as salespeople for the insurance company. They look at themselves as a business owner. They create a business and they know that that has startup costs, so they pay those costs and they write business. And if you come into it lacking that business mindset, it's going to affect what you're willing to spend, which will affect the what you're able to earn.

So I hope that this. I don't ever want my tone to sound jaded or chastising or anything like that. That's not my point. But I care so so much about helping you guys write business. Like, I want you guys to write so much business that it blows your mind how much you're able to write, how many people you're able to help, and then in turn, how much you're able to actually make for your family. Because it is immense. We can do better in this industry than just about any other industry in the world. Okay. For just an average person.

So knowing that that's the case, episodes like this are really where we get pretty real about.

What of those three things are you not doing what of those three things are you lacking? And what are those three things? Maybe it's all three, maybe it's all four, maybe it's one. But I guarantee you that as soon as you start to correct any of them that are lacking, you will see your production go up. Guarantee it.

And if I'll challenge you here, if you're like, no, I know where I'm lacking, and you spend time improving in that area and you don't see your production go up, reach out to me directly and I will. I will figure out a way for your production to go up one way or another. Because I am so stinking confident in these. Really. I mean, I guess we made it four things. It was starting at three, but it's really four. Being a self starter, having great interpersonal skills, having the willingness to spend money on what you should be spending money on, and then number four, having a business mindset. If you get to a point where you've improved all four of those and you have not seen your production go up, you reach out to me and I will figure out a way to make it right. Because I am absolutely certain that if you will grow in those four areas, you will see your production increase. So I hope this helps you. I hope that you hear my heart in this. Again, it is always to help you guys write more business. And this is me just purely on observation of what I've seen. Okay? So, you guys, I know it can be tough. It can be a lonely industry for y'. All. You know, you work with your marketer, you work with your lead vendors, and, you know, maybe you've got a staff or whatever, but, you know, largely, it's. It's. It can be a little bit lonely for the producer side. Well, as a guy that's working with hundreds and has worked with multiple, multiple hundreds in different capacities of agents over the years, Guys, these are. These are constant things that I see as common threads between every single top producer that I've ever met. So I hope this helps you have a great, great holidays. And yeah, hope to talk to you guys soon. Happy selling.