Tips from a $200+ million producer | 7 Figure Annuity Sales Podcast | Ep. 186

On this week's episode, we're going to talk about when to do what others do and when to do what others don't.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode. I am Chad Owen, the annuity sales coach and something about seven figure sales guru.

Whatever.

Um, I do own retirementrealized financial.com and retirement realize agentsacademy.com we are a full blown imo and we are a full blown training center. And no, you don't need to be part of one to be a part of the other. That's just not how we work. We want to try and meet agents in all areas of their life. Whether you're brand new to the business and we can help train or you're a veteran and you need to just go from that 10 million to 15 million, 15 million to 20 million. And yes, I can help people do that.

And you have.

I have. Yep. Multiple times. Many, many times. But I love that because, you know, I tell people this. If you write under, if you write a million to 2 million a year, that pays bills. If you write 3 million to 5 million, that starts to create a lifestyle.

Right.

5 million above creates a legacy. And it's not about the fancy car. I could buy pretty much any car I want right now. I just won't. To me, it's about the legacy. I, I want to help future generations. That's why I put up with this guy from the beginning. I mean, come on, he used to take care of cows and chickens and goats. Wait, you still do that? Yeah.

Coming up on three years working together.

Well, see, I really wanted to work with him because I'm going, you know what, I know he's going to be incredible at this and sure enough, he is. But I waited till it was in the middle of summer and I heard he was doing fence post out in the middle of summer wearing his jeans and his boots and probably a long sleeve shirt, I don't know. But wait until he is sweating and tired. I said, hey, you ever thought of getting out of that business? Sure enough, he works here now.

You would think it'd be hotter in a long sleeve shirt in the summertime in Texas, but it does something. If it's not a heavy long sleeve shirt, when you get sweaty, it, it's like something about that moisture being held.

That's just more of a drip rag for me, man. I just. You don't need any, I don't need any help sweating. Yeah. So let's get on with what we're talking about. Yeah.

So when to do what others do do and when to do what others don't. Basically the idea of should you follow this person's advice or should you not? And there's a few, I guess, qualifying questions that I would always encourage agents to ask. Number one is, is this person currently or have they ever been where you're trying to be, where you're trying to get to?

Are they there talking about like mentorship?

Mentorship. Just anything. I mean, quite honestly, I mean, if it's pertaining to that specific thing, right? Like if you're looking to grow in your annuity sales to $10 million a year, but you're taking advice from somebody that's been in the business for a year and they sold a million last year, is there's no real evidence to suggest they know how to get you there.

I actually follow some of these forums with annuity agents and whatever it is, there's a bunch of them out there and I hear a question asked and then I see the responses. I'm going, this guy's only been licensed for two years and they don't sell that much. And by the way, that's a wrong answer. You know, they give these answers on these forums and I mean, as someone who's been doing it for a while will give the wrong answer, someone who's been doing it for a short time gives the wrong answer. I'm just going, why would you take advice from someone who's to me and the annuity world. Now, I'm going to balance this out, so give me a second here. But if you want true mentorship, they better be writing 15 million plus a year. That's good, hands down. But I am never above hearing advice or ideas from anybody who's even brand new industry because people come up with some really good ideas by talking about true mentorship and learning how to do the business. Minimum, 15 million minimum. It's a good standard. And because they're just, they're going to be usually. Oh, and they don't work for a bank test. I've. I know people that literally. Yeah, they're order takers. I wrote 20 million last year. No, you didn't. You literally filed 20 million worth of applications. You did not write 20 million in business. Right. Or I wrote 20 million last year. No, you wrote 3 million and your sub agents wrote another 17 million and you have 15 sub agents. So that means they just barely did over a million a year.

Right.

I'm telling you, this industry, I mean, I've won top awards with multiple insurance companies and I know some of these people that beat me had multiple agents that write business under them. It was not them that wrote the personal business. And you know, the insurance company. I get where they come from because, like we can't vet everybody. We don't know how many agents they have under. I get that. But I knew one agent that wrote 20 million and they never met the client face to face except the day they were signing the application.

Everybody else did the work and then they.

Everybody else did the work and they signed the application.

I wonder if the other people they had doing the work were licensed, but we're just like W2.

That's very possible. They could be licensed. They could be. I'm drawing a blank on what it's called. But they could also be a part of the organization as a writing agent, but not as the full agent. So there's lots of ways to do that. But no mentorship needs to be by someone who's physically writing 15 plus million a year. Yeah.

I mean, is there evidence to suggest that what they're going to communicate to you actually works?

Yep.

I mean, if it's a toss up, maybe there's no evidence to suggest that it doesn't work.

Yeah.

But there's no evidence in its favor.

Well, make sure you're also following, you know, the lifestyle. I'm a big fan of Facebook and Instagram and things like that. And if you see them posting more about their lifestyle and what they get to do and how they get a. Have, you know, fly this jet and they get a. And I said this before in the last time, it is not about your possessions. It's about what you're able to do for others. Yeah. And you know what? More money is magnified. Money. Definitely. The surplus of money and the lack of money will magnify who you are as a person. Right.

Well. And possessions are great when they're used the right way. I mean, I know that you, you and your wife have, have over the years taken some heat for, you know, the size of your home.

Yeah.

The truck.

You say that like right now. We just had someone ask, hey, you know, I, I need a place to stay for two weeks.

Right.

So we're like, you've got the space for it.

So many other people, friends using the house for their kids, birthday parties.

Yep.

I know that's one of your favorite things. But like those types of things, it's like, can you use the possessions to benefit somebody else? That's the lifestyle we're going for.

We are kind of getting the stage Though, where we're talking about Lee lining or like downsizing a. Downsize a little bit, increase the size of the land, decrease the size. But have the barn, you know, have the entertainment barn. Where people want to do that, they can use that. Of course. Have the welding shop, the glass shop. You know, you got to have that. The wood shop.

All the shops.

Yeah, all the shops. And yeah, the place where we keep the armored vehicles, you got to have that as well. The weapons room. I mean, weapons complex. Sorry. It's complex, but yeah, the home can be smaller. Yeah. Little side trail. It is Brought to you by heavensarmony.com There it is. That is one of my other gun companies, actually. It is. It's the weapons company. You want it? We can get it. Yeah.

The third thing, question, kind of qualifying question. Can you get into alignment or are you in alignment with the other person's morals, values, ethics, all those things, like from. From the most fundamental and important areas of your heart to theirs? Is there congruency? Are you aligned?

Well, it's funny, you know, if you're in a hot tub in Las Vegas with 15 other women and you have drinks in your hand, all that, and you expect that to motivate me. Yeah. That's so dead wrong. You know, to me, it's all about lifestyle with others. You know, if I'm watching you take your wife and your family out on vacation, you're honoring and respect them and loving them. That's what it comes down to. That motivates me. All my significant mentors in life have been definitely dedicated towards family. And that's just my personal thing.

Totally.

But I saw this thing recently. It shows this guy, he's in like. This was on Instagram. He's like, in a hot tub with 15 women. And then right below that is a guy. And they're both very successful from the standpoint of money.

Right.

And there's a guy that is very successful, but he's been married to his same wife for 29 years. They have three kids, and he's still on a private jet. But the family and it's a good relationship. Now, granted. Do we really know what it is?

No.

But hearing this guy talk, you know, what drives him. And it's about. It's about legacy. It's about future generations. And so mentorship has got to be aligned with my personal values and ethics and my dream. What do I want? What do I want to be when I grow up?

Yeah, someday when Chad grows up.

Well, hope if I'm not growing up now, I'm going to live to be like a thousand years old because I had to do a lot of growing up real quick. Yeah.

Well, I've got a, I've got a question for you that I think this first question is going to be fewer things, fewer examples than the question that I will ask here in a minute. But the first question is what are some things, some basic things that maybe quote unquote, most agents do that should also be done by the listeners.

Know your product. Okay. Absolutely. Know your product. Have a good marketing organization, you know because they. You've got to have someone backing you. Okay. Make sure you're full of client first. That's the thing now not client first is they know everything because if they knew everything they wouldn't need you.

Right.

But the client first from the standpoint of find their problem, find a solution. These are things that are non negotiable. That's how you find people. You do what others are doing. A system and a process. This is why we've spent countless number of dollars revamping, rebuilding, redesigning retirement realized Agents Academy over the years. I mean I just showed you my logo from. It was Annuity Agents Academy what five years ago. And we have changed a platform, changed the design, changed everything on that because we consistently are adapting what these market conditions need. So that's important. Making sure that you know you're following with current times. So you're, if you're, if you're trying to do what others do, you need to stay up with modern, modern changes. The whole best interest thing that just came out. If you don't keep up with that in our state you'll lose your license and you'll be in trouble. So I'm always staying on top of that.

That's good.

So good work ethic.

Yeah.

Not being afraid to get up at 6 o' clock in the morning at times and get home at 10 o' clock at night. Now that's not a normal thing. Well, getting up at 6 o' clock in the morning is. But yeah, you know I'm.

That may be on the next. That one may be that. Because the next question I was going to ask is what are some things that agents should do that most agents don't do?

Oh, work ethic and integrity.

And that's. I figured that one probably fell.

It is. That's a really important thing because you have people that like I know someone that they say they will not work past 6:00'. Clock. I mean that's a very common thing. I hear you will probably not be a 20, 30 million dollar producer. Probably right. Because there are definitely people that can do that, especially the ones that have an office and they, they people come in. Yeah, you could definitely do that. But if someone's like a road warrior, if you're not willing to run appointments after 6 o', clock, you are probably not going to do more than 20 million. Yeah. And like I said, it's, I stress that on probably because there are the rare exceptions, but actually recently in the past two years I've had fewer and fewer late night appointments and I don't, I don't know what that is. I'm just getting really good at scheduling and making sure, hey, if this is important to you, you're going to make time for it. And if someone makes time for it by taking off work or something, they're probably pretty interested. So I'm getting better at that.

Trying to book them earlier in the day.

Trying to book them earlier in the day. Another thing that others. How did it. Word.

So yeah, what are some things agents should be doing that probably most agents.

Are being aware of many different product types from the standpoint of multiple insurance companies, multiple products, knowing which one's the best, caring about which one's the best. I would say that would be another thing being. Oh here's a big one. Being willing to do everything that you need to do without the help of a marketing organization or imo. In other words, you need to know how to run the illustrations, you need to know how to get the product brochures, you need to know how to print out the application yourself. You need to know how to put together your own kit. So that's a big thing. Another thing would be being willing to spend money. Yeah, you know you, you need like for example, we have stress and rocking chairs if you want to order. We do have a set box we sold once again, just the last time we talked some more went out and it's we. If you want these, grab them. They're in bulk orders of 50 because honestly I don't know what happens with your printers but everybody gets Covid and then we can't get books printed for a while. So if you want these, grab them because I will not go into my stash for these.

Well, we've got them allocated.

Yeah, well the reason why is because I need to have them for my clients. I've already committed that I've spent the money on those and I know what.

It cost, wrote the book, you should be able to do it.

Exactly. But you know, I Commit to spending money where a lot of agents are not willing to do that.

Your leave behind kit itself is what, 40 or 50 bucks?

I'd say 30 to. Okay. It would be the cost of those. I mean, not including man hours of putting those together. I definitely would say that another one would be, let's see, branding. Branding, that's real important. They want the Bob Smith gmail.com bobsmithahoo.com they don't want to build appropriate website. They don't want to put money into their, their actual brand. You know, it's kind of like the cookie cutter design. I even know agents that don't have websites. I'm like, wait a second.

Well, here's the deal. If you think that you have clients that are in any kind of large proportion not going to your website before they meet with you, that's incorrect.

It's estimated over 80% of people that will allow you to come to their home or will meet with you in their office. We'll check your website out first. Yep. I do that with everything. I mean, doctors, lawyers, if we could just get. One actually knows what they're doing. But that's another thing. And responding back to me when I tell you I want help. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's just, it's crazy what people won't do. They, it just, they wonder why when times get rough, nobody goes to them.

Right.

It's because when they were good, you just treated people like, oh, you'll always be there. They take everybody for granted. And I don't, I don't care if I'm in the best week of my life with annuities. I will not take a client for granted.

Yeah. I would say to the, the company and product literature. You know, we did a poll on LinkedIn. I don't remember the exact statistics, but it was an absolute staggering number of people that take just the illustration.

No product brochures, no brochure, no nothing.

Buyer's guide. I mean, come on, that's bare minimum that. Yeah. So use illustration, use product brochure. Use company brochures if they're out there. And here's the thing that you're really, really good at too, Chad, is you have documents that have pictures. They're. They're graphs, their charts.

They're just do what I like to. I like to read pictures, not words. Yeah.

So you use documents that explain the things you're trying to teach them about and does it in a much more efficient and much more effective way. You use those documents and appointments a.

Lot of people are more visual than they are audible. They'll remember an image more than they will remember the words. And when we're dealing with retirement, I want them remembering everything they can.

Totally.

Yep. Definitely. Another huge one is being willing to spend money on leads. Mm. I mean, it's just being willing to.

Stick lead companies out for at least.

Six months and never turning off the leads ever, no matter how long your vacation is. I would. I mean, if I'm taking a. And I'm planning on hopefully taking a month off this year at one time. The most I've ever done is 23 days one time. But I'm hoping to do a full 30 day month off this year. Just for many reasons I've been pushing really hard for. Man, how long have I been in? 17 plus years I've been doing this. And it's definitely as you get older and granted I have people that are 65 years old. You're not old. No. When you work the hours I work, you age a little quicker. I just have really good skincare that.

I use.

And no, it's dirt, man. Dirt. Blood from deer and dirt. There's my skin gear. There it is. But so being willing to spend money on marketing and advertising, that's a big thing. And then I would say, you know, the ability to just put aside your own. Let's just say benefit. Yeah, I would say, because, you know, I've said this before, there's two ways people sell. They sell the for the cost of someone or the benefit of someone. If you're selling at the cost of something, that means someone, that means you're taking something from them. If you're selling for the benefit of someone, that means you're actually. Your number one purpose is to give to them. And that's really what it comes down to. So, yeah, I think that'd be it.

That's really good. So hopefully there's some things in there that you, you could take away of. What was it? When to do what others do and when to do what others don't.

Yeah. And that's why I can't stress to you enough. If you are 100%, I'm not saying 80%. If you're not 100% committed to your marketing organizations and you think you could do better and you think there's better things out there, go to retirementrealizefinancial.com we're more than happy to have a business development call with you. Let me rephrase that. Caleb is more than happy to have a business development call with you because honestly, you guys know I'm running appointments three days a week. Just like you in the field. Just like you making calls. Right after these get done, I have to start making some calls tonight. And I make my calls till 7:30. So these are today. I know is a long day. Yeah, but. Yep. I hope this helps you guys. You have a great day. And of course, happy selling.

Sam.