Mastering Sales Conversations 📞

All right, let's get into the art of sales, baby. That's what it comes down to. There are so many things to talk about with the art of sales that you can do things really how you want as long as your intentions are correct. You have to have the ultimate goal in mind and how you get there is going to be a little different sometimes depending on the person. Or you can do things a little differently than I do them and you still have great success. You can be a little more friendly. I start with the phone calls not sounding like I'm really excited to talk to them, which is. I don't know if that's a great thing, but it at least leaves me with. It at least leaves me in the position where it doesn't sound like I'm trying to sell them something. I'm fake. Hey, please buy from me right away. Like I'm real excited because I, I like we both know neither of us really want to talk to each other unless it's something worth talking about, right. So I'm going to get into an example here and I'm going to go through a couple examples, decipher them and then I'm going to decipher and I'm going to go into recap of why I do this stuff, why these people are doing stuff, the videos I'm watching here and so on and so on. So I think, I think two big things that have really key to my success in sales and I'm not the best salesman out there. I'm not killer, but I am pretty dang good. And you know, I, I really am yet to find somebody who kills mid sales. I mean on the cold calls. So that's on Eagle Tisco. But like I, I do pretty dang well in door knocking and cold calling. So here's how I always thought about it when I, when I went door knocking first time, it was, I was right out of high school, not very good at talking to people. It's why I like sales so much because I really wanted to get good at building relationships, talking to people. When I started door knocking right away, middle of summer, I was door knocking home and auto and I'd walk around with a sheet and I was shaking my first house because I didn't even know the first thing about truth. I know deductibles were. I didn't even know what an umbrella was. My dad was telling me get the agency set up. And he's like, all right, you go door knocking. I'll get, I'll kind of hold down the fort for a couple months here, and. And then I'll. I'll get out of here and go do construction. So. I don't know. Door knocked. Got probably one in four people that answered. Probably one of five people that answered the door to say yes. And, you know, I used to have this little sheet, and I'd go around saying, hey, I'm. I'm asking a survey. I'm taking a survey on insurance. And it was questions about what? Like, how many vehicles they had and how happy they were with their insurance. And then it got into the point of, like, do you think you're overpaying? If you're overpaying, would you be open to an agent calling you? And then I. I'd call, and I realized it didn't work out very well just because it said it was a survey. Really, it's getting about a quote. People are always kind of weirded out about it, and, you know, it's all. I mean, the first thing I realized is, okay, I need to adapt. When. When it comes down to sales, it is always your fault. Always, always, always, always, always, always your fault. Okay? It doesn't matter if the other agent badmouths you, and they really shouldn't. I've had that happen multiple times where I lost a deal because the agent said something totally untrue and it cost me the dealer. And it's like, what am I supposed to do about that? I presented my quote. They took the quote back to the incumbent, and then I lost the deal because they were making some BS up because they can't write business, so I got to keep everything they can by lying, or sometimes they resort to lying. And so it's always your fault. Every time you get a no, you need to sit and think, why did I get the no? It's. It's not because this guy. This guy's had a bad day, and you're calling him and he's taken out on you. Sometimes that is the case, but you need to adapt. And how do you settle them down? How do you keep on the phone? Just come. It's longer to get him to say yes. And I shouldn't. I should. I shouldn't even get him to say yes because you don't want everybody to say yes. You want a real answer, though. Okay, What I'm saying is you don't want to maybe let me talk to my parent, my mom, my wife, my dog. I'll get back to you. Send me an email. Send me something in the mail. Okay? That is the worst Thing that can happen. The best thing that happens is you get an actual no, not a B.S. like, no, I'm fine where I'm at. Whatever. It's no, I genuinely am happy. My current agent, I genuinely have been with Great west for 30 years. I haven't taken a rate increase of 15 years and the claims have been paid out in minutes. It's phenomenal. Okay, that's a no. Yes is yes. I'm genuinely interested. Here's my pain point. Here is what I want you to solve, and I'm going to give you the opportunity to do that. Okay? So first rule of thumb here is it's always your fault. And how do you always improve every single call that goes poorly? It should be okay. How do I improve this? If you get a no, I'm genuinely happy. I appreciate the call. That's not a. That's not a you did something wrong. That's. You got an answer out of them and you need to congratulate yourself on that. Okay, So I want to start doing on. And I realized, okay, I said, survey, it's not a bad idea. Then I'd go out and just saying, hey, I was wondering if I can ask a couple questions about your insurance. And then I get. And then some people say yes. And then I get to the end of the deal, like, n. I'm happy where I'm at. I'm happy where I'm at. So I get through the questions, like five, five, six questions. I'd say, if you could save money and I age you, reach out to you, would you be open to that? They'd say no. And then I was like, okay, so now I'm getting one of four people say yes. Okay. And by the end of the summer, I was getting three out of four people say yes to my quotes. And so the next thing I realize is, okay, what can I say if somebody just says no, started asking why? And it was just, well, I just don't have time for it. Just, you know, when people are at the door, they can't just hang up the phone on you. Some very rarely. I get the door slammed on me. It was probably twice out of the whole door knocking summer. And so it's kind of tough. It was really. I was getting honest answers. Now I just want time. Just not interested, you know, I. I don't want you blowing up my phone. So I adapted to it. And a lot of people are just like, I don't want to be hounded for insurance. I. I don't. I don't know If I'm really going to get a best rate, what that means is it's certainty. There's. They're saying, they're not saying, they're saying no because they don't know what's to come. Okay, so no, I know my phone being blown up. No, I feel like I've got pretty good prices right now. No, this and that and I did get some. No, no. It's like I'm a nationwide and they paid out claim like, oh, right away. And I feel like I deserve to stay with them. That is, that's awesome. That's a client you want and that's a client that you don't want to try to pull away. Because if they're really happy with the rat, you somehow sucker them into get and say yes. I mean, come on, that's. That you gotta, you gotta really deliver the world and everything that goes wrong. And now they're gonna be on you. So that's somebody that should be fine staying where they're at. But then I started saying, you know, hey, here's, here's the deal. So I started creating the certainty. Here's, here's what this information is going to do. If you say yes to this, I'm going to send you an email. And I don't care what you do with that email. You can, I'm going to, I'm going to send you the quote, you can look at it and you can go, wow, I'm getting really good rates right now. And now you know for a fact you don't need to shop around for insurance for a little bit because I've got a lot of companies if I'm coming in a lot cheaper, you know that you've been at your current insurance provider for too long and you're overpaying because you haven't looked at this. I am just giving that opportunity to provide some certainty on if you're getting a good deal on your insurance or not. That right there, I said what I'm going to do and I'm not going to blow up your phone. And I'm just asking for the opportunity. I'm not saying, please let me switch, please or please, please switch, please give me a call. I'm going to call you a million times. I'm just saying, let me just send you an email, okay? I'm just going to send you an email. I'm going to ask your phone number. That way if I don't get an answer from you, if you like, if you are overpaying or if you're not overpaying then I will leave you be. And so that's the certainty. And it ended up getting me. Three out of four people say yes. Now granted not everybody I called after that was picking up the phone and some sort of stuff like that. So I'll get into that here later. But at least I was getting that opportunity. It was my fault and I adapted. And then I would start creating conversations with these guys. And some of my best clients come from door knocking. I had really good conversations with them. I was gal named Jackie ekstrom who's a 1.5 million dollar home. She had kids with, with athlete accidents and it was really tough to insure her. And I went in there and I chat with her for a couple minutes and it was really just, I felt like she was just easy to talk to and we had a decent conversation and I ended up coming back saving her money and it went really, really well because. And now, now she, now Grant. I don't like people calling me myself but she calls myself and I chat. She goes hey Hunter, how's summer going for you? How's work going? You're staying busy, blah blah blah. She wanted to come in and meet me. She, you know, I'll chat with her about what she's doing. Her kids are just, I mean it just is awesome to be able to build the relationship with somebody like that. I know, I know what her husband does. I know all of her kids names. I know where all them go to school. She tells me about them all. Her, her kid and my buddy used to play baseball together. I mean just really a good deal. And so that's awesome when you get to build relationship with people that's really the ultimate goal there. But going back to the point of the door knock and it just comes down to creating certainty. Not making it sound like a sale, you know, not making us like a sale. You're talking on their level and you just, are you just, you're providing that ease that you're not gonna blow up their phone, try to suck them into something. So a couple things go along with that is the best salesman don't sound like salesmen. It's not a, it's not a doc knock on the door saying hey I'm a Nelson Insurance. I was just wondering if I can get you a coin your home in auto. I want to put some money back in your pocket and I, I feel like I can do that. Let me get your, let me, let me. Stop it. I'm going to get you guys some quotes Right now, like that's, that's a sale. That's, that's a sale. Shove it down their throat. And they're just uneasy about the thing. It should be almost like it's their opinion. Okay, so creating the certainty, how you create the certainty is asking the right questions. It's adapting to the situation, it's rolling with the punches, it's letting them do more talking than they're doing. And asking these right, right questions is really what get it gets it done. And the tonality that you do it is what makes it feel like it's not a sale. Okay, so I'm just looking at a list here. The things that we're going to cover are mirroring, labeling, tone, simple. The straight line, certainty, you're ambitious. Whole hold accountable, wording, how you word stuff. The two minutes prep, good questions to ask and the right and driving the wedge. So let's get into a couple of these here. So if I'm gonna go cold call. Okay. The first thing that's gonna come across the board is the first thing to be noticed is your tone of voice. If you are peeing your pants with excitement, saying peeing your pants with excitement, or you are very monotone, like you're reading from a script and you're using too many words, it's not going to come off as real. If I call my buddy, I'm going to say, weston, hey, how are you doing? You know, like, hey, Weston, what's up, Weston? Like that's my buddy's name. Like, hey, how are you doing? Okay, I'm not going. Good afternoon, Lee, this is Hunter with Nelson Insurance. How are you today? That sounds so salesy. It drives me nuts. If I was getting a cold call, you were getting a cold call, how would you. How like when think about what would you want to hear and how are you going to react to people hearing what? The way. How are you going to react to people with the way they're talking to you? So big difference between. Mr. Lee, this is Hunchwood Nelson, Insurance. How are you doing today? That is. It's a lot of words. A lot of words. I'm already, my eyes are glazing over. I don't wanna, I don't wanna hear from you. I'm about ready to click that and call button. Okay. But if I say, hey, this is Hunter with Nelson Insurance Agency. How are you doing? I say it not like I'm so excited. I got the pauses and it sounds real. Hey, this is Hunter with Nellis from insurance. How are you doing? It sounds real, right? It sounds like I'm calling somebody I don't know. And it sounds like I'm like, it sounds like I'm calling somebody I don't know and they're gonna say, I'm fine. Great. I'm gonna say. All right, well, just. I'm just gonna get straight to the point here. I'm not saying. Okay, well, just getting straight to the point. His. I'm calling from Nelson Insurance Agency. That's not, that's not how she sounded. So. All right, well, I'm just gonna get straight to the point because it might say that like. All right, well, I'm just gonna get straight to the point. When I say it like that, it sounds like it sounds like it's. I'm not a salesman. All right, well, I'm just gonna get straight to the point. I'm with. Not like I said, with Nelson Insurance Agency here in South Dakota. And I work with a lot of clients just like yours. I'm calling to see how things are currently sitting with your. With your truck insurance right now. They're gonna say, well, it's fine. And this is where the Wedge comes in. The Wedge is a book that everybody here is reading right now. And if you're watching this after we've read the Wedge, I recommend you read it. Everybody's going to put up what Jordan Beaufort calls smoke screens. The Wedge calls them little white lies. They're always, they're always doing great until you really get down to the real problems. Because people are going to say, ah, things are fantastic. Because I don't want to quote from you and I want you to leave me the hell alone. Okay? So, ah, my age, my things are. Things are fine. My current, My current insurance is good. And some people just gonna hang up. I'm fine. I don't need insurance. Click. That might be it. If they stay on the phone for a little bit here, they're. They're gonna say, I'm fine. Okay, well, here's the thing is now you're gonna start finding a pain point because we know it's not fine. People really might have a good experience with their, with their insurance. Nobody is happy with insurance, though. Nobody's like, ah, insurance is an investment. I want to pay it. I'm excited to pay it. Let's go, baby. I love progressive. I want them to have my money. Nobody says that. I genuinely, like, I genuinely believe insurance is an investment. If somebody were to call me though, I could still. I still have pain points. I'm not going to Say I have pain points off the bat because I don't know who they are. And you're going to offer a dang good option for me to give my insurance to somebody else. Now actually, I have. I've had somebody else quote my E and O insurance because they do E O. That's all they do is E O for lawyers, insurance agencies, blah, blah, blah. Lot of insurance agencies use this insurance agent that I like, call my, you know, insurance, because he's considered an expert. And why did I go to him? Because I am certain, I am certain that this guy knows how to do, you know, I know he's got more markets than I do. I know it's all he does. I've written like three, you know, policies my life. So he probably, he probably knows those forms. And I got to do a lot of work to know this stuff and I got to do a lot of research. I maybe got, Create a lot of relationships to bring on the markets, to put myself in my position that he's in. So I already have started going into that, into that situation with him. And so what I'm getting at here is. Oh, I think, yeah, I'm just, I'm just backing up. We're talking about certainty. Let me pause and think. We're all out here. Yeah. So people, people really, they're going to tell these little white lies because, you know, there's so many people that call and kind of run for the rest of us. But like, a lot of guys that can call probably don't have good options. They probably haven't shopped a lot. And they maybe just don't think that. They think that you're just going to be like everybody else that you have. You're not going to save money and you're not going to do a lot of those with options. But what it comes down to is find that pain point and then tell them why you can sell that pain point. Okay, so like I was saying, nobody's happy to pay insurance because, yeah, my insurance is fine. Okay, well, now it comes to the good questions. You're going to ask good questions to get them to talk, and you want them to do more talking than you. This is not me going in. Well, yeah, it's fine. Okay, well, I've got a 247 certificate portal. I've got all sorts of insurance carriers. I'm. I'm a trucking insurance specialist. We're trucking insurance specialist, agency, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's going to listen to you after the second word because you're not asking the questions. This is him. I'm not telling him. He's certain. I'm going to ask the questions that create the certainty or create the curiosity to answer those questions. So I'm going to say, okay, so it looks like you're with Great west right now, blah, blah, blah. You've been with him for three years. When was the last time you did your due diligence on your insurance? Well, what do you mean by that? Well, you've been with them for three years. Market changes a lot. I don't know if you've taken any rate increases and maybe your current rate is higher and there's new opportunities out there to save some money. And again, you're not selling on price on every chance you get. I'm sure your business has changed a little bit here in the last three years. I don't know, the last time that you've reviewed your policy, maybe there's a couple coverages missing here. And again, I mean, I know really what it comes down to for insurance is price, but the last thing is it comes down to price till it's claim time. And so maybe I could save you some money and put. And make sure that you're covered in a claim because I've talked to multiple people who weren't aware of some policy language that was. That was on there or their business had changed and they didn't realize they need to tell their insurance agent about it. Or you know, maybe insurance really can be an investment. And when was the last time you just had reviewed things and make sure this was sitting good or it was really just an opportunity out there. That's a very broad statement. Right. Another probably a better way to do this. That's for a very large business. Right. You're not gonna be saying when's last we did due diligence on a one unit account because really nothing's freaking changing unless he goes from reefer to hazmat and he didn't think you need to tell his insurance agent. Right? That's not very common. You gotta drive the wedge. It's asking the questions to drive the wedge. Okay, so if I know Progressive policy forms. If somebody is a reefer and they're hauling refrigerated goods and I go, okay, well, I'm calling because you're with Progressive right now. Do you know Progressive's protocol when it comes to claims time on a reefer claim? Well, no, I do not. MO 99.9 people do not though. You're not all that. Okay, let me Ask you this, what do you do? How often do you check your reefer unit? Well, I check it once a week. You check it once a week. And then how often is somebody certified to. I'm forgetting the word certified check on the reefer unit? Once a quarter. Okay, what if I told you that tomorrow your reefer gave out, your refrigerated unit gave out, yet $100,000 worth of grapes in there? Because I've had the situation happen and they're gonna ask for documentation that you check it every 12 hours and somebody certified checks it once every 30 days. Progressives rule or policy forms say that this must happen for them to pay on a reefer claim. And a reefer claim I know can be anywhere from 50 to $100,000. Were you aware of that? No, I was not. Okay, have you has your aid? I'm guessing your age should never talk to you about that. I again, I'm not going to sit here and say your agent should have told you this sounds like a scumbag. I'm saying. So your agent really has never asked you about that? No, he's not. Okay, well, that's progressives. That's progressive rules. Claims reporting. You must submit documentation this and this happened. And if you're not doing that, you're going to be covering a claim. I know multiple other insurance companies, they're a little more lax on it and it's not going to be quite as strict in that scenario and are going to offer broader coverage. So. And then you could, you could just let them sit, don't say a thing, and let them sit on that. And they're gonna, they're gonna start building that curiosity and that certainty right there. You could even just dig deeper. Now finding a pain point is like finding a wound and sticking your finger into it and really making them feel it because they're not gonna realize that that pain until you point it out and you know, make them aware it's there. Most people don't even know this stuff is going wrong until it goes wrong and then they're going to go find somebody, the first guy to see in Google and go switch insurance. Okay. You could even just dive deeper into it. Now you can say, okay. You ever, you ever had a concern that one of your drivers might set the temperature wrong? Well, yeah, yeah, I did it last year. Look, I caught it. Blah, blah, blah. Okay? You ever heard of Driver Arizona Mission? No, I'm not. Okay, well, this is one thing that we offer to all of our insurer, all of our insurance, all in reefer is that a driver setting the temperature. The wrong send the reefer to the wrong temperature is an errors of omission claim that is not covered on a reefer breakdown. It's not a breakdown. This is a very inexpensive policy that is going to cover you if anybody accidentally sends the wrong temp. This is going to save you a ton of money because of I. Because you can bring up a claim example. I had a guy six months ago who had to throw up $40,000 worth of grape and caramel because his driver sent it to the wrong temp. It was not covered for him. You know, I've actually had that happen twice. So what they were previous agents. And so that's a very big thing. The other big thing too is you just find a wedge. Right. Another example. And this is all just reef like this is just one example. You know. What are you hauling? I'm hauling ice cream. And get to know their business. I'm hauling ice cream. I'm doing this and this. Okay. Do you know that if ice cream, you know, if you get an accident, it melts or anything on those lines that ice cream melts against the ground. It's going to be pollution cleanup. If it gets into a water source like a stream or really just anything gets in the source like that is a pollution cleanup claim. Those. We had a guy I know, I know a claim example where somebody's hauling hot water. And I really don't know if it was just straight up water what the deal was. But it's hauling hot water. Got into an accident. The hot water fell down the. Fell down the hill, got into a stream. It was a cold stream with trout net. This was in New York and it killed a ton of fish and ended up being a $276,000 claim. So pollution would come into play there. It's just even something as simple as that. So you could just dive in. You got to find a pain point. A lot of times it's price. You don't want it to be priced because you gotta remember the work that you throw into this is me. The work that another agent does to get a switch to. So if you're just talking about price and a leave for price now that can be a conversation starter. That could be anything on those lines. It really could be the only pain point. But you're going to have to find a reason to get to stay then. So it's all about finding a pain point and creating the certainty. You do this by asking good questions. One is somebody just had A renewal. Really? How the renewal process go? Your agent gets you any claim or gets you any other quotes? Did he wait last second to get you your policy? How did that process go? Those are anything wrong that really should not have been wrong? No. Okay. Are you getting certificates of insurance? Quick, blah, blah, blah. Right. And the other thing you got to remember here too is the incumbent. The incumbent is the current agent. They are always part of the conversation whether you're talking to them or not. Because if you just go in here again, just sell price. For example, I literally lost multiple deals doing this. I had a guy with Northland, he's paying 18,000 a year. I came in way cheaper with Progressive and presented progressive quote. Didn't hear from him for about a week. So I call him again. He goes, why just call my other. I call my current agent. He just switched me Progressive. Well, shoot. Right. You, why, why did that happen? You know, I mean, he. Because I didn't provide anything that he, his other current agent could have done. So, you know, if I'm coming with Progressive, I got to create more than just a. Oh, let me shop around and see what's available for you here. Because they could just go, their current agent, their current agent could just say, oh, this is a bait and switch. Oh, I know these guys. Guys, this guy suck. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. You know, so if I'm presenting the quote, I really should say, you know, this is progressive. Progressive got a hundred thousand agents. I don't know frankly why you were with them before. Before. But here's the thing. I think this is what comes down to is you haven't been shopped out in a while. I'm going to shop you out every single year. Every single year that there's a. That there's a better deal. There's a better, not a better deal. There's a better option for you, truly better option. I'm going to move you now. I'm not saying I'm going to. I'm going to shop you every time somebody's $500 cheaper because that's going to end up hurting you in the long run. But if there is something as significant savings as this Progressive vers Northland, I am going to shop you out. And this is where coverage comes into play. Progressive has worse forms than Northland. I really shouldn't just be taking somebody from Northland and place them with Progressive. I should be making sure that the cargo is still having this. Still, it still has a good policy form. Right? Because that way if he goes oh, my other agents got Progressive. Okay, well he doesn't have this. I'm saving him money. With Progressive and the cargo, which is most important, the important part of the policy has much better coverage. Even Northland, I'm getting you better coverage and a better price. That's two areas. Now if I say this right, but did your agent failed you at okay, that's how you drive the wedge. So it's by good questions. It's not telling, it's asking the right questions. Get something that's easy, that's hard to think. It's not are you interested in a quote? No, they're not interested in a quote because if they're interested they call you or they call somebody else. Right. It's asking the good questions that make them think it can't just be are you happy they're current agent? Yes, I am happy. Great conversation over. You just shot yourself in the foot. It's good questions that is maybe no oriented or it's going to be a short answer for the answer. Okay, good questions are going to do that. Drive the wedge and the incumbent is always there. Don't bash the incumbent, but ask questions that make them downplay the incumbent in their mind. Okay, so there's that good wording. Good wording comes across the board anywhere in a sale. From the cold call to the sale to the in between, it's there. You should always be using the words, well, hey, I appreciate your business, I appreciate your time on the phone. I appreciate the opportunity to work with you. Opportunity is another big word I like. Would you give me the opportunity to just look at this. It's not. Well, what do you say? Would you let me quote you? Will you give me the opportunity to go to work for you? Will you give me the opportunity to earn your business? You know, earn is another going on. How do I earn your business? It's not. Give me your business. How do I put, you know, like somebody said this to me one time, I reached out to Zywave. Zywave is a third party company that like gives technology to insurance agencies. Send me an email. I was kind of curious on it, so I was like, shoot, why don't I just schedule a meeting, just see what it's about. And she calls me two, calls me the 29th, I don't know what month, and she goes, hey, me and my manager really want to get the sale. They want to get the sale before the end of the month. You think we can make that happen? I mean that is just awful. That's what you think of me as is a sale. I immediately, every time she called me, I deny her call. I never emailed her back up. It just really left a bad taste in my mouth. The best salesman don't sound like salesmen. It's if she goes, hunter, I haven't heard from you. What's it going to take to earn your business? Earn? That would really set the whole. I probably would have called her after that. She said, how can I earn your business? Well, lady, I don't know what her name was. This is what it's going to take for me to earn your business. And some. I'm, I'm a very flat out person. I'll just tell them, if you want my business, this is what it's going to take. The phone system, if you're working here now, everybody knows the crappy phone system I got suckered into. I said, brandon, here's how you're going to earn my business. I want this, this and this. I'm telling him right there's my pain points and this is what I absolutely have to have for a sale. You can't do it. I don't want to switch. He lied to me and granted I switched because he lied and ended up, ended up canceling with him. So don't be a scumbag. You know, that's, that's pretty obvious. I don't feel like I need to talk about that during, during a sales call or during a sales little seminar here. But the opportunity to earn your business, it shows that you work for them, you're humble, you're going to work for them, you're trying to earn their business to be looked at as like an accountant, like a realtor, like a tax person, whatever the case is. Insurance agents should be hired like a lawyer. We are not an insurance vendor. We're not some online. Get a call from GEICO real quick, I'm going to put money back in your pocket. 15 minutes can save you 15%. We are a business partner to these guys. Like a lawyer is, you know, people don't go into their lawyer and say, hey, you're charging me 275 an hour. How do I get this down to 115 or 215? People don't do that. If they do, you know what the lawyer says, come go find the next lawyer. I'm not doing it for you. So we should be looked at as those guys, not like a vendor for selling the cheapest product down the street because everybody cares about price or people only care about price until it's claims time. And the other thing I want you to think about here too is when you're selling this garbage, if you're selling garbage, I want you to think about the fact that you're going to get that call when something's not covered. I've had those calls multiple times. Not because I sold something that was garbage, because they either thought something should have been covered and it's not even insurable, it's not even something that's insurable or because, for example, State Auto was really slow on a claim. Those calls suck. It's. You sit there for 15 minutes and they're belittling you. It's your fault. They're hoping your family burns. It is. It's a brutal call. And if it's truly something that's your fault, it's gonna suck 10 times worth worse. So don't sell somebody garbage and don't. And I want you to always think about that call. If you're gonna sell somebody something, is this something that I truly believe they're gonna be happy with? Because also claims are a big thing too. If somebody has a good claim experience, they're going to refer the world to you. If they have a bad claims experience, going to tell everybody they know that Nelson Insurance sucks. And it was, it was such and such some of his policy. And now I'm screwed. I'm going out of business because I'm not covered. So don't, don't ever get that situation stooped down to that level. You know, kind of your attitude going into this stuff. You know, I believe, I believe salespeople are born. It's not even like sales people. I just believe leaders are born. I believe it just. There's just something you're born with that gives you that drive, right? So kind of tell a story about this. I went to a business seminar. I went to a business, I don't know, seminar, conference, whatever you want to call it in Florida and guy who runs it's worth about $7 billion. Just truly a kind of a crazy deal. I mean the Dog the Bounty Hunter was there. The CEO of Lululemon was there. Chairman of Chick Fil A was there, sat next to people, sat next to a guy who pulled out $200,000 of cash. Just like, just a crazy deal. And I'm sitting there and they. He goes, you know, all you guys are business owners and I want to share a story about how I handle my employees and how I. And how I hire my employees. So he goes, my training process is actually pretty or my. My hiring process, actually pretty simple. I don't have a whole lot of questions, but when somebody calls him for. Sends an application or calls in to be. Get an interview, all of my people at hire hang up on him the first call. So I get about three minutes into the call, when they feel it's necessary, they just hang up on them. He goes, it's crazy. 90% of people will not call back, and they'll just say something that really shouldn't even be led to hanging up on him on get to get the interviewee to be hung up on. And he goes, it's kind of crazy. About 9% of people never call back, you know, and then if they do call back, I hang up with them a second time. They call back a third time, they're hired. Now, granted, it's not quite that simple, right? If they're. If you're an idiot and you fail, you flunked the interview, you're not gonna be hired. But he goes, yet to call back twice to be hired. And I think that's. You know, I'm not saying that's what I'm gonna start doing, but it's. It's a good story in the sense of those guys don't take a no for an answer, and they just don't like being disrespective. They don't let people walk over them. I truly do think that's a. That's a good. That's a good thing. You know, I don't have lancer. I don't have erie, but I've got a meeting with lancer in about two weeks here, and lance is about one of the hardest insurance companies in the nation to get appointed with. And, you know, I reached out to him probably five times. They all. They said every single time. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not appointing new agencies. We're not interested. Not appointing till 2028. And I have everybody tell me that. And I fully believe that, that. That they tell everybody this. And the people who don't give up are the ones they appoint, you know, because I truly have some. Some appointments that my agency really should not have. I should not be in a conversation to get lancer. I'm not big enough. We're too new. Just not big enough to get in the conversation for lancer. Like, I called them multiple times, said, hang up on me. They'd say, I'm not appointing. And then one time I emailed them and I said, aaron, I want to get a point with lancer. She goes, I'm not appointing. That was it. No High Hunter. Thanks for the. Thanks for reaching out. She goes, I'm not appointing, Hunter. I go, aaron, you said this for the last seven or you said this for the last year. And I don't know when you guys are appointing. I'm not asking for you guys to appoint me tomorrow. All I want is a conversation and what is it going to take to get appointed? And she goes, and once you fill out this application, sends me the application. I go, okay, filled out the application, sent it in. I don't hear anything. So I kept calling, I kept calling. Finally get a hold of somebody, I go, hey, send him an application a couple months ago. What's gonna take? What I want to. I want to call with the rep. Yeah, that'd be Chris. And I had to email Chris about three times. I finally set up a meeting a set up a meeting. And you know, they're not, they're not quick and easy. They're not gonna say, okay, perfect, you're appointed. They wanted to really know about me, grilled me for a while. And then we're set up a second meeting here about two weeks. And I truly believe that my ambition is what's getting me disappointment because I even I, you know, I, I kind of hesitated on a Lancer. I go, I don't see them a whole lot. I wonder if it's them or just because they truly don't have a lot of appointments. I threw in a group chat of 800 trucking agents. I go, guys, Lance really worth it. I don't see him a whole lot. Like I got the opportunity for appointment. All 15 comments were 14 to 15 comments were if you don't want them, I want them. I can't get them. How on earth did you get a conversation? Please call me. How did you get a conversation with Lancer? And then one guy goes, yeah, I've got Lancer. If you can get him, that'd be great. So I truly believe that's the ambition with it. That's what ambition does for you. It's just what you're born with. Not taking no. I'm not saying somebody hangs up on you. They said no, and you should call them back 10 times that day. It's not I'm saying, but I'm saying the not taking no within a reason, right? Don't. Don't piss somebody off, but show them that you're going to work hard and don't take no for an answer. Couple of opt. A couple of quick, quick examples of this is Eerie Insurance. The lady, the rep literally hung up on me, and I. I called her back, and I go, this is. This is Erica. Is it? She goes, yeah. I go, erica, I'm Hunter with Nelson Insurance, and I want to talk to you about your insurance. You got a second? She goes, yeah. I go, did you hang up with me before? She goes, yeah, I did. I go, well, please don't. I'd like to just talk to you for a couple minutes. Is that all right? She goes, yeah. And we had a good conversation. And ultimately, I didn't want to bring out. I didn't want to bring him on because I'm not in their state, and it really was not a good option, but at least got that opportunity to talk to him. So, you know, that is one thing that really makes a salesperson. Don't be afraid to call people back, follow up with them a lot, and. And they're not gonna be reaching out to you. You can't take no for an answer. To an extent. Right. I'm not saying somebody's with Great west and. And they truly are happy. Don't. Don't say no to that. But if they're gonna give you a bunch of bs, yeah, I'm gonna follow up with you once a week. I'm gonna get you until you say something or until we get something scheduled. It kind of leads into my next deal here is holding people accountable. So, you know, this has always been a big problem. People always say, shoot me an email. Shoot an email. You know, send me something in the mail, blah, blah, blah. When you cold call them, that's just the quickest way to get you off the phone. I think the most important thing there is hold them accountable so you can ask him a question. I almost kind of like trap them and say, okay, yeah, I'll send you an email. I'd say, you know, Johnny, once the time this week, you think you'll be free? Oh, you know, probably Friday, right. I don't really have much going on. Okay. Do you mind if I shoot you call back on Friday. I could probably have some quotes done by them, but I know I'm going to have some really good options. I don't want to know more about your business. Once I send that email, it'll provide with the questions I still have. It'll be a really quick call, and I want to get to know your business so I can go ahead and. And make it pretty for underwriting. Market your account, get negotiate, negotiating power, whatever the word is that you use to to get this in call. So if they're big, schedule a zoom meeting with them. Stop it in person, depending on the size, if they're local. If they're local, go stop in anybody. If they're small, schedule a call with them, but don't let them just say, I'm gonna send you an email. This kind of goes back to saying no. Like they're, they're saying, I'm gonna send you an email. That's, that's saying 90% of them are saying, I'm not ever going to talk to you again. This is my way of never talking to you. Getting off the phone because they don't want to hang up on you, which because they got some common decency. So some people truly will send you. Some people truly will send you the information. But, you know, you gotta hold people accountable. Okay, well, you're gonna send me an email, be fine with saying it's okay to just ask them, like flat out, you know, let me ask you something. Are you, is this something that truly interests you? Do you truly feel like I can. I like that you truly feel like there is something that can be improved on in your insurance, or is this just a way to get me off the phone? You know, you can just, you can just find. I ask that. And some people be like, oh, well, yeah, I'm generally interested. Okay, well, you think I. Okay, well, I'll keep an eye out for that email. If I don't hear from you by Friday, do you think it's time to shoot your call back then? Perfect, I'll chat with you Friday. If I don't see an email, I will talk to you Friday. I. And you can even just say something like if, if you can really just make it like a schedule or they got in the back of their mind that they committed to something, they're going to be more apt to do it. So I'm going to say, okay, perfect. Well, I got to know, I got, I got you my schedule here. I'm going to call you Friday, probably around noon. But I got you my schedule. If I don't see an email, otherwise, if I get that email, I'll get quotes rolling and then shoot your call back with those numbers. Perfect. So that creates a little more accountability for the client instead of just saying, yeah, shoot me an email. Okay, perfect. I'll keep an eye out for it. And then. And we both know that we're never gonna talk to each other again. So that sounds good, you know, so hold them accountable. Okay, Tone of voice. Be real you know, I mean the tone of voice command, everything saying, all right, perfect. Well, I appreciate your business. I'll chat to you later. We both, we both know you don't care. You don't, you don't give two flying Fs about their business. You're just saying that. You say, well, John, I really do appreciate business. I'm looking forward to working with you here. Please let me know if you need anything that sounds a lot more genuine, you know, say thanks for your business. You know, I'm really, really looking forward to working with like the over the over. Overly being nice is, come on, it's, it's exaggerated. Let's be real here. So tone of voice, very important. Asking the curiosity, like, you know, when, when was the last time you've been shopped out? When is the last time you've been shopped around? Or you know, just out of curiosity, like how, how did that renewal go? Oh, yeah, okay, okay. You know, so the tone of voice versus it was, well, last time, when was the last time you've been shopped out? Or you know, when was, was the last time you got shopped out? The tone of voice means, means a lot, right? If they're all excited, sure, you can be excited. They're all like, but I don't, I'm a real, real slow talking guy. I don't really want to talk to you. You know, I just don't. Same tone of voice. It'll kind of match that, right? You know, let's kind of go back into the accountability side here. If you're going to meet with somebody, you ever got a call scheduled or you got anything along those lines, you're gonna meet with a big client. David Crothers always talks about doing the extra two minutes, go in there for two minutes and get to know their business. Doing the extra two minutes before a call, before a meeting, getting to know their business is really what sets you apart. If they, if they know that you're, that you know what you're talking about, if they can see that you went to work for them and really went in there instead of asking a million questions where, if they looked in your website, they could have just seen something or like you're asking questions that just outrageous or just kind of obvious, it's gonna really put you down below and, and you want to be perceived as an expert because that creates certainty and that it all comes just down to certainty, you know, and, and you, but at the same time, you can't be afraid to say, hey, I gotta know about your operations. What are you guys doing for safety? What are you guys doing for this? So you want to know that stuff? But, yeah, I mean, that's really. That's really how it goes there. Keep the state straight line, create the certainty. And. Yeah, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna do. We're gonna do two quick calls here. I'm gonna show you guys some examples of live selling. I'm gonna talk over it, say why they're doing as good and what they're doing. And then, yeah, there'll be. Right there. They're right there. So real quick, you always, I mean, you just get. You got to carry yourself well, right? If you're going in there stumbling and, you know, you get your. You're all hunched over and you're stumbling over your words. It's, it's. You're just gonna create it us, like an uneasy feeling. It's going to show that you're uncertain, right? So you always stand. You always stand up when you talk to people. You always have a firm handshake. You look in the eyes you match, you know, even just mirroring what they're doing. If they're sitting with their leg cross, you sit with their leg cross. If they're, if they're up, you know, I don't. You guys can see this real well. But if they're on the table sitting like this, you're sitting like this. If they're real laid back, oh, you're. You're matching what they're doing. So matching their tone. Their body language is also very, very good, Ken. And then he gets right into a point. He's just gonna quick, little, hey, here's what we're gonna do here. A little bit about us. And then he's gonna go, what's your biggest problem? That's the certain. That's the pain point right there. He's not going in, telling him, well, let me just tell you exactly what I'm gonna do for you here. You don't know what you're gonna do for him because you don't know what they want. What's your biggest problem? This is how I'm going to handle that problem for you real quick. He is just sitting and listening. He's showing he's interested the way he's asking the question. He's asking good questions here. It's not yes or no. It's explanation questions. Tell me more about your situation. Really finding out how he can help this guy. So again, he just keeps asking about these pain points. And really, he's really just getting to know the business so he can understand how he can really come into play here. I've watched this whole video, but let's see at the end here, I can't remember if there's anything too crazy. It.