Archive for the ‘Width and Depth’ Category
I think most people do not understand what to say when they talk to new agents on the phone, so they end up asking one sentence questions like, “How are you doing?” Then, they take whatever the agent says at face value. They don’t pry, they don’t delve, they don’t dive, they don’t go deeper, and they don’t peel the onion layers off. When you talk to an existing agent, you need to get to know their situation. You need to find out what’s going on in their life.
So, the questions may start with, “How are you doing?” Then, you might ask, “Well, how many phone calls did you make?” You have to listen to what the agent is saying. If he says, “Well, I’m doing something with the children,” then you ask, “How many children do you have? How old are they? Do they plan on going to college? Do you have plenty of money for them if something happens to you and your health?”
You are looking for the agent’s “why”. You are looking for the agent’s “reason”. You are looking for the agent’s motivation. It is your job to turn that back around and ask, “Well then, don’t you think you need to make some more phone calls right now?” So, you ask questions until the agent is doing what they need to be doing.
It’s the same scenario with a client. You just don’t take the client’s word for it when he says he doesn’t need any insurance. You start talking about his family, or what does his house look like? What does his dream home look like? What does his dream vacation look like? Just like with a client, you ask questions, and then you dive into getting the action that you need from the agent. You see if you can speak to the spouse, if you can find out his parent’s history, or if you can find out anything interesting about this new agent. You should make notes in your contact manager, in your notebook, in your thought notebook, or on a scrap sheet of paper. You need to find out what motivates this agent.
Eventually, you will be like some of us, and you will be able to have one conversation with a new agent and that will be enough to understand them. You will always know what motivates that agent, and you can always bring that subject back to the forefront. You can put that subject back on the table. Then, you can say things like, “What happened to the people on the phone when you called them? Did you book the appointment? Why not?” You can refer back to what fires up the agent, and you can encourage him to use that motivation when he is on the phone with other people. Once you find out a person’s hot button or what motivates a person, you can use that to help that person succeed in life. That is why you spend more than just one or two or three minutes up on the phone when you chat with a new agent!
AA
Tags: insurance, insurance leads, life insurance
Posted May 27th, 2010 by Andy Albright
Categories: Width and Depth
Comments: No Comments »
The goal is to break down the elements that a person needs to do into baby-steps or tiny bites.
You have heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? …One bite at a time!” Well, if you can carve up the elephant in tiny, bite sized amounts and lay it out on a buffet to a new person, they can bite and eat, bite and eat, so that at least you are not the crimp in the pipeline. However, if you give a person a baby elephant to eat all at one time, you have created the crimp. If you can chop it into tiny little pieces and they pick and choose what to eat real fast, you can rock and roll.
So, for example, if I am getting started with you, and you are not licensed, and you are a friend of mine, I might say “Hey, do you have internet service?” See how quickly and how simply I broke that down? “Do you have Internet access? Go to the computer, sit down, log on, here’s a web address. Get your credit card out, sign up for your licensing for life and health.”
Do you see how I am breaking it down into tiny bits of bites? Now, do not get me wrong, I am going to keep throwing more out there. I will tell you to make a list of people that you know that we might call, or I might say it like this, “I really need some help in Orlando, Florida, or Houston, Texas. Do you know someone out there that’s pretty sharp? Someone that might want to make some money? Somebody that might be interested that we can call?”
You see, I do not say things like, “Make me a list of people I might call for you,” and don’t try to make it sound like some glamorous thing. I try to make it so simple and dumb that they will say, no duh. No kidding, no joke. I can do that! Then, they just reach out and grab each of these bites. Maybe they say, “Great!” and they log in on the computer, and they name two people that they know in Houston, Texas. Or, they know two people that you should call, and now you are helping them take the bites of elephant. You are walking them through as fast as you can, and then when they get bogged down, that is your signal to go to talk to somebody else about baby snacks, about baby bites.
YOU might need to take baby bites or baby steps. Ask yourself, “What will I need to do next to get a new person that I can start feeding?” Maybe you need to brainstorm your list. Maybe you need to get out a sheet of paper and just start writing down sharp people that you have not called yet. Maybe you need to take a different look at it and say, “Okay, who do I give my money to? My banker, my insurance agent, my P&C agent.” Since you are a life guy, you probably give money to a P&C agent. Start listing people you give money to. Your realtor, your landlord, or the guy who does the utilities at your house. See, I am breaking it down in smaller bites rather than telling you go get another agent. I am trying to back up and even break it down for you.
The key is breaking it down in baby steps, but not taking forever to feed each bite to the baby. Lay it out on a buffet.
Hurry, let’s go!
AA
Tags: insurance, insurance leads, life insurance
Posted March 16th, 2010 by Andy Albright
Categories: Width and Depth
Comments: 1 Comment »
Many times I hear experienced agents or experienced recruiters make a comment to their people like, “You must plug in, you must submit, you must use your upline…” and I want to walk up to this “experienced manager” and say “What does that mean?!” If I am a new person, I do not know what you are talking about!
I want to explain to managers that they just need to get down to brass tacks, get down to the basics of what they want the people to do. So, for example, at an opportunity meeting, when you are asked to explain to a person or to the audience what they should do next, it should not be to “plug in” or submit or use your upline manager. It should be things like:
1. “You need to get your license and you need to complete that course.”
2. “You need to fill out contracting paperwork and try to get appointed with our carriers.”
3. “You should find out where the next event is and you should get signed up for that event. You should mark it in your calendar, and if you are already a licensed insurance agent, then you should get back with the person that you are chatting with at this opportunity meeting. Then, fill out paperwork and see if you can get appointed with our carriers. After that, you should come to the next event that we have scheduled.”
I know these sound like very basic simple things that anybody should know, but it is like gripping a golf club for the first time. You do not know whether the left hand is on top or the right hand is on top. You do not know if your hands should be together or three inches apart. It is the basics. It is like in basketball. If you have never played before, you do not know who gets the ball first. You do not know which side of the foul line you stand on. You know nothing! As a coach of new players, you do not just start talking big terms like it is time for tip off. You know you have to jump high in the tip off. Nobody new to the game would know what you are talking about! You have to speak in plain, simple, down to earth language. It is being deliberate and simple with the expectations or directions that a person needs to take next.
Do not make it so dramatic, it is SIMPLE what we do! The ability to take the complex and break it down into the simplistic may be more amazing than to take something that is simple and make it complex. If it is complex, you do not get people duplicating the system. For people to duplicate you, you must be able to communicate deliberate and simple steps that anyone can follow. If you get one person copying you, you have doubled. If they get a person next week and you get a new person, you have doubled again. Now, you are four times bigger, with everyone repeating deliberate and simple steps, and you have exponential growth, which is what you want!
Go get ‘em!
AA
Tags: insurance, insurance leads, life insurance
Posted March 9th, 2010 by Andy Albright
Categories: Networking, Width and Depth
Comments: 2 Comments »
Hey guys,
Look here, this is YOUR business. People worry about “Well, Fred did this, my upline did this, my great granddaddy was a mean person…” Hey look, everybody has something they had to deal with. You’ve got to create your own deal, your own success. Yes, it would be nice if you were born to rich people. Yes, it would be nice if your upline would build your depth. Yes, it would be nice if your boss gave you a promotion. Yes, it would be nice if your plant manager wasn’t a tyrant. Yes, it would be nice if I picked the Powerball numbers in the lottery today. That would solve a lot of my problems. It wouldn’t solve ALL my problems, but it would be nice.
You see, everybody has to bloom where they are planted, and the way you bloom is you establish roots. Notice that roots go down, not up. So, your concerns about the upward problems, the person that hired you, I don’t now what to tell you about that. You’ve got to figure that out. The WAY to figure it out is to grow roots; get deep and get wide. A tree that looks down and sees concrete — let’s say a seedling –, well he’s got a problem. But looking up is not a problem. Matter of fact, a seed will find a way to go up. It will go around something, it will go through something, it will go between something. But if it’s on concrete, you can’t go down.
If you can’t recruit down, if you don’t have fertilizer below you, now that’s a real problem. Above you, you know who has got a problem? The person above you has a problem. If a seed gets under the road, the road is going to have a problem, not the seed, because the seed is going to come up through there. Does that make sense? It comes up. Establishing roots — look if you hire people and you build your massive business and you get wealthy, nobody can stop you. That’s right, the downward side, the group underneath you, the one YOU create. Yes, it would be nice if your upline would create it, but the one you create, there is the one that you LIVE on top of. THAT is the direction that you can grow.
Hope that helps you a little bit on dealing with your growth and business.
Okay, so your upline is working down in your group, and he is a good guy, and your downline is a good guy. They’re both good people saying the right things. Okay, so you don’t HAVE to be friends with this person in depth, but you DO need to coordinate with your upline that is working in your depth.
Let’s say your upline is rather harsh in depth and tough on your person. Well, that’s good, if they are teaching the right things. It’s good, but let’s say his personality rubs people a little bit wrong. There is nothing wrong with you being in depth talking to that same person, saying, “Hey Kyle, chill out. Chill out. I know David came in, and he’s real hard on you, but he’s hard on you for a reason. He’s right about your persistency. He’s right about your placement. He’s right. And the goal is to win.” So don’t let any personality conflicts get in the way of success, assuming there is a personality conflict.
Let’s say that your upline, David, goes down in your depth and he’s working hard, helping out. You can go up to your upline and say, “Hey man, you know my downline has good width, but he’s got 17 other people he didn’t tell you about. So Kyle didn’t explain everything to you, David. He didn’t share with you all the things that are going on. I don’t think he’s a great communicator. So just be aware, David, when you’re in my depth, that Kyle is not a great communicator.” So, even if your upline is working in your depth in your one big leg, you can still be in contact, setting the example and communicating with this person. It is critical that you coordinate with your upline, David in this example, and Kyle in depth, and make sure that you are intertwined. Make sure that you understand what is happening, and make sure that you kind of pour gas on the fire, that you add to what’s going on.
Now, let’s say you are in the middle here, and David is working down in depth with Kyle, and you are a bad example: you skip convention, you don’t write annuities, you don’t follow the team player steps. Maybe you need to back away a little more, and let that person “take over” your depth until you are ready to come back strong. But, if you are doing the eight steps, and you are a great example, you should be involved, but keep in mind if it’s your only leg, and your upline is working down in it, he kind of has the power. He kind of has the say so. He is “the man” because you haven’t proven that you can have two tap roots, three tap roots, four tap roots, five tap roots. See that is the point of our MVP. That’s the point of our recognition. That’s why we point out who has multiple, big, growing organizations, because that is kind of the proof is in the pudding. That’s kind of he’s “been there done that”, so we listen to him.
See, our culture is a culture of success, not a culture of should-be’s, want-to-be’s, might-be’s. Ours is: he puts the puck in the net, he gets in the red zone and scores. Therefore, we let those people do the teaching. We don’t get the losers, the mediocre people, the will-be’s, and want-to-be’s and should-be’s. It’s the people that did it. Alright?
I hope that helps you a tad bit in depth.
AA
Posted January 5th, 2010 by Andy Albright
Categories: Width and Depth
Comments: 3 Comments »
Okay, recruiting is NOT an interview. It is not a sales job. It is a recruit. Like the Army.
In the Army, they say “Be all you can be.” Also, “We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day.” Okay, let me tell you something. They’re not saying “Come over here, everything will be wonderful, we love you…” What they are saying is, “I’ve got a challenge for you, and the challenge is tough, but the end result is worth it. Are you worthy of the challenge, are you up for the challenge, do you have what it takes?”
It is a challenge they are putting out there. You know why? Because the military does not want to tell people how easy it is going to be because it would be the BIGGEST lie in the world. So, if YOU are out there telling people that we are the greatest team in the world, it has got to be because we work hard, because we are disciplined, because we strive to be the best. We are not looking for anchors, and we are not looking for negative people or for people who are going to help us lose. We are looking for people to make us stretch.
So, now the questions you ask them are (and these are not arrogant questions) “What can you do for us? Why should we hire you? Why should we allow you on the team? What have you done in the past that makes us think you’re worthy?” But it cannot come across as arrogant. It has got to come across as that challenge, like the military. “You will be more than you thought you were. You will make more money than you thought you could earn, but you do have to get up early. You do have to run hard.”
So, therefore, I tell people, we are “expensive” to work with. Kind of like if you go to work at Notre Dame, or if you go to work with the Chicago Bulls. If you wake up in the morning and you go to work and you’re playing on Brett Favre’s team, and he’s a quarterback, he expects you to win. He expects you to work and focus. If you don’t, you pull down the team. We can not have you complaining about practices Day One. That is going to be no fun at all! Now, are we going to get a big championship ring and are people going to come up to us and ask us for autographs? ABSOLUTELY that is going to happen! Who would NOT want to join that team?
See, that’s the recruiting talk. Of course, there is the guy that is out there pulling people into the team, hiring everybody, telling them it’s wonderful and we have the greatest this and the greatest that and we love on you and rub on you and rub on you. Put you in a warm spot. Yeah, you recruit them. But what’s Day Two look like? Looks like some kind of churning wheel where they are making butter or something. As in, they just go around and around making butter. What do you have? Butter. Well, you don’t have anything. You don’t have anything of substance. You don’t have any players. You don’t have a backbone, you don’t have a team. It’s recruiting with the right mentality so that Day Two it shows up as something real.
Hope that helps you on putting in width whether it be in depth working under somebody or whether it be in your width. The key is putting in strong players.
Make 2010 your year.
AA
Posted December 30th, 2009 by Andy Albright
Categories: Width and Depth
Comments: 9 Comments »
The key here is: the upline person wanted me to TEACH them how to MAKE someone else do something! You see, the question they asked me was wrong. If I had even attempted to answer the wrong question, we would be condemned to failure! The question they should have asked is: “How do I get this organization moving?” Now the answer to THAT question, I can give!
The answer is: Find a winner worth your time, and YOU go help them get 12 wide ASAP, and then you pick the best of those twelve people and YOU again help THAT person get wide!
You can’t MAKE anyone do anything, but you can help a winner win!
YOU do the calls to friends, and YOU do the interviews!! YOU then help the NEWEST, deepest person get started. You teach, not on a conference call, but in person. The LEADER leads and YOU are one. Now go get you some people to lead!!
AA
www.naaleads.com
Posted December 8th, 2009 by Editor
Categories: Width and Depth
Comments: No Comments »
Just got off the phone with one of our agents and they were asking about how they can get one of their people to work with some of their downline. This is a common mistake people make. YOU are responsible for your own depth! You can’t wait on your downline to work with people below them. You’ve got to get down there in the bottom of your organization and help the people get started correctly!
Any of your people can work on their own width. But by HELPING them with their depth, you are securing your OWN depth, and locking everyone in above them. And if your upline wants to get in your depth, by all means get out of their way, and don’t forget to thank them!
All the top guys in our organization do this CONSISTENTLY! Building depth means building permanent, residual income, and everyone wins!
AA
www.naaleads.com
Posted December 5th, 2009 by Andy Albright
Categories: Networking, Width and Depth
Comments: No Comments »
In some companies they say ‘drive depth’. They say ‘depth is security’.
Here is the more traditional comment. “You need to network with the right people”.
The deal is they are both the same comment. The key to building a business is networking or driving depth with the correct directions. For this article depth will be the term used from here on out. The depth levels you drive down in need to be done with purpose and direction. The quality of your driving will determine the effectiveness of your efforts. Just like in driving to a vacation destination, if you make all the right turns you will get there faster, safer and cheaper. You get a quicker ROI and much better ROI for your family because you arrive at the destination quicker and start to enjoy your investment of time.
Here I want to start to provide improved decision making skills & directions for more effective driving depth. As always your ability to ask questions is the key to evaluating turns you make. To learn better question skills I suggest BOOK: The Aladdin Factor, by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen. The next step is to learn to keep you antenna up and looking for opportunity and know what you are looking for. It is NEVER a mistake to look for the sharpest 3 people one contact knows. An example is if you know an attorney, the question needs to eventually be; who is the sharpest attorney you know? If he gives you someone, then you know a sharper attorney according to his or her criteria. So the key is to ask the right questions of the person you are dealing with. Another example is if you are…
Posted August 25th, 2009 by Andy Albright
Categories: Decision Making Skills, Networking, ROI, Width and Depth
Comments: 2 Comments »
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