I recently had the opportunity to spend three days with some extremely talented high school students, and they completely blew me away with their abilities, focus, presence, and drive.

Kevin has talked about recruiting a new generation into the insurance industry and based on what I saw, the talent is readily available, anxious to get started, and extremely well prepared to come in and shake up the traditional way of doing business.

Making it happen

My daughter is in the DECA club and they’ve been faced with nothing but obstacles this year. Having lost both their marketing class and their advisor, they took it on themselves to form a club, find a stand-in advisor, get ASB support, study business principles, bring in outside coaches to help, get registered for competition, and send 12 students to the state competition!

While this might sound like a nice story about high school students, think about what that kind of drive and determination looks like in your own agency. Do you have people on your team that feel so passionately about what they’re doing that they blaze right through all the “I’m sorry, we can’t do that” answers in order to make it happen?

If you don’t, you should find them. People like this transform not only companies, but also entire industries.

However, it can only happen if:

• You’ve got the vision (a few of these kids has been to the competition before and were determined to go back)
• You’ve got the right team (the few returning kids recruited friends to join who were just as determined and enthusiastic because they “saw” the vision)
• You really believe it’s the right thing to be doing (at the opening ceremonies, the girl leading the team told the others passionately “This is going to CHANGE YOUR LIFE.”)

But wait, there’s more.

It wasn’t just getting there that impressed me. It was also the student presentations.

As former business partners, my fellow parent chaperone and I were really intrigued with the whole DECA experience, and quite unexpectedly, we found ourselves judging at the competition. It was an incredible experience that I would encourage every businessperson to try. You’ll find a whole new way of looking at “I can’t” excuses from yourself and your team.

The competition

The students entered the competition hall with only their nametags.  They were given a role-play scenario and 10 minutes to prepare their ideas, notes, and presentation materials with only the paper and pencils provided on the tables.

I saw detailed notes pages. I saw 6 page presentations with agendas, talking points, charts, graphs, and business cards.  I saw professional dress and professional level poise and presentation. I heard cohesive and well thought-through ideas. I heard discussions about the principles of HR management and how effectively managing employees can improve the overall productivity of the company, improve relations with customers, and attract better employees.

All prepared in 10 minutes. And delivered in a competitive setting to a judge they’d never met.

Impressive? I certainly think so.

Practicing can be intimidating because you feel like you’re being judged. These kids actually were being judged. We had to give them scores and feedback. Yikes.

Now think about practicing your own presentations in front of a mirror, or in your office with the door closed, with a partner, or even with your sales team. In comparison, it seems like a cakewalk, doesn’t it?

If these teenagers can put together a presentation and impress the hell out of me in 10 minutes, just think what proper preparation and practice can do for you and your producers in front of your clients. It’s worth every minute you put into it. Trust me.

And if you want to start judging and scoring your practice sessions, just let me know and I’ll make up a scoring sheet for you!

@wendykeneipp

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Each year, we have an overriding theme on which we focus throughout the year.  Last year it was “Execution & Implementation.”  This year we will be focusing on the ideas of “Teach, Tailor and Control.”

While these aren’t new ideas for us or our members, we wanted to highlight these ideas as we see them being critical for the continued evolution of the broker model.  Additionally, we see now being the time that producers/agencies need to make sure they are mastering each of these ideas.

We felt particularly validated when these same principles appeared in a series of recent articles published by Harvard Business Review.  These articles were based on the book “The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, which shares the results of a recent study on selling performance.

The authors explain the study they conducted on over 6,000 sales reps where they grouped salespeople into five basic categories based on similarities of behavior attributes: Relationship, Hard Worker, Lone Wolf, Problem Solver and Challenger.  With the possible exception of the title category, most are self-explanatory.

Their study went on to show that while there is a fairly even representation of each category amongst salespeople, the distribution skews significantly when you start searching for the “high performers.”

In a so-called “typical sale,” the percentages of high performers are broken out as follows:

• Relationship Builders (7%)
• Hard Workers (17%)
• Lone Wolf (25%)
• Reactive Problem Solver (12%)
• Challenger (39%)

The results get even more interesting when you look for the high performers in a “complex sale” environment (which I would argue applies to you):

• Relationship Builders (4%)
• Hard Workers (10%)
• Lone Wolf (25%)
• Reactive Problem Solver (7%)
• Challenger (54%)

Clearly, regardless of your natural style, it is worth the effort to become as much of a Challenger as you can.  So, what is a Challenger?  Challengers commit to understanding the business of their customer at such a deep level they are able to push the prospect or client’s thinking and take control of the sales conversation.  Challengers makes their audience think in ways they haven’t before.  They’re confident enough in the value they can bring that they are not afraid to share even potentially controversial views and assume an assertive position to move the prospect forward.

As interesting as the findings of the study were to us, what we found even more interesting were the three traits that the authors used to describe what it is that makes a Challenger so effective.  You may have guessed, it’s the same three principles that we have made the centerpiece of the approach we use within Benefits Growth Network and on which we are focusing this year – Teaching, Tailoring and Controlling.

Let’s explore why we see these areas as critical to the future success of brokers.

Teach

If you are going to continually bring value to a client, you have to embrace the responsibility of always bringing them new ideas and educating them on ways you can help them improve their performance.  The most important time to assume the role of teacher is during the sales process.  Rather than trying to demonstrate your value by providing the same spreadsheet as everyone else, prove your value by helping them better understand their own situation.  Most employers can clearly see the challenges they are currently facing.  However, far fewer have the vision to see the challenges that are out there on the horizon.  This is the “lesson” you need to be bringing to the table.  This is your opportunity to bring a conversation they likely aren’t getting from anyone else.

A couple of areas where they need your vision:

Turnover – Between retiring baby boomers and dissatisfied employees, employers are facing unprecedented levels of turnover.  And, because of the “jobless recovery,” very few see it coming.  You need to educate them on why this will be the reality and challenge them to be honest about how prepared they truly are.

Communication – Communication impacts virtually every aspect of an organizations operation, but let’s just look at its impact on benefits spending.  A recent study by The McKinsey Quarterly shows that benefits costs can be reduced by 20 percent through more effective communication.  You need to educate employers as to what effective communication truly looks like, explain to them the challenges that stand between where they are and what their goal should be, and show them how to make effective communication their reality.

Tailor

Rather than trying to impress the prospect with your list of value-added services or manipulate their situation to fit your “solution,” you need to tailor your solution to fit their situation.  Not only that, the way in which you communicate your recommendation needs to be tailored to your audience.

A couple of ways the message needs to be tailored:

Tailoring to their situation – Assume that your competition has the same solutions to offer that you do.  If by chance they don’t today, they will tomorrow.  Rather than try to sell the prospect all of your solutions, focus on learning where they truly have needs and then align your solutions with those identified needs.  After learning of needs they didn’t realize they had, the prospect will find much more value in your solutions and be much more compelled to hire you to fix their newly discovered problems.

Tailoring to the audience – You make presentations to all types of roles—Director of HR, CFO and CEO are the most frequent.  You need to have a clear understanding of the driving objectives that come with each role.  If your presentation doesn’t address these varied objectives, not only do you miss out on an opportunity to pick up a supporter, you run the risk of unintentionally creating an adversary.

Control

Perhaps the only thing worse than an empty prospect pipeline for a producer is one that is filled with stagnant prospects.  I argue that this is worse because you have someone who is actively wasting your time and giving you a false sense of security.  The stagnation is the direct result of a producer who has ceded control of the process to the prospect.  Instead of establishing a peer level engagement with the prospect, the producer has assumed a subservient role.  While we don’t condone that the producer take an aggressive role, we do recognize the need to be assertive in moving the prospect forward.

A couple of things necessary to establish and maintain control:

A full pipeline – If you don’t keep your pipeline full, you will irrationally hold on to every prospect you have.  Without a full pipeline, you will rarely walk away from an “opportunity.”

Belief in the value you can deliver – Until you are passionate about your ability to help a client, you will lack the confidence required to take control.  It is that confidence that will allow you to challenge and push the prospect to look at their situation in new ways, to even push the prospect out of their comfort zone for the purpose of finding their catalyst to change.

So, as the book pointed out, there are five ways to be an average salesperson, but one clear way to be exceptional.  Being exceptional starts with challenging your prospects to think in new ways.  You won’t be able to challenge them until you challenge yourself.

My challenge to you: how badly do you want to be exceptional?

Photo by Jacob Bøtter.

@kevintrokey

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If I told you that a 12% increase in your sales effort could result in a 50% increase in your end of the year production, would you be interested?

I’m a runner and, of course, there are days I feel especially strong and others when it’s a real challenge to push myself out the door.  Despite the ease or challenge of getting started, I run a pretty consistent pace. However, I have noticed that there are runs when my pace is significantly faster. It’s the days when someone is watching.  Or, to be more specific, when I’m running where there are other runners around.

I’m competitive and just the presence of another runner - doesn’t even have to be a race - makes me run faster. This faster pace caught my attention and I decided to compare my paces to see just how much faster I was running because of the “competition.” Turns out that running with other runners around improved my pace by about a minute per mile, around 12% faster.

Pick up your pace

As producers, we are naturally competitive. Unfortunately, we are more often competing against our own previous performances rather than against the other “runners.” I know that most of you have other producers in your agency, but, if you’re being honest, there are no real competitions going on. You’re all running around a track, but it’s your own private one. That needs to change. I think you should ask another runner to step out on the track with you. I would just about guarantee that it would cause you both to pick up your pace. Imagine what would happen if you improved your “pace” by 12%?

Let’s say that your typical pace is $60,000 per year. Of course, you could look at the final result, increase it by 12% and see that already that would result in a new pace of $72,000. But, I think you can do even better if you start competing at each stage of the race.

Compete at each stage of the race

Let’s break the race down: Assume that during your last race (last production year), you wrote that $60,000 with 6 new accounts averaging $10,000/account. Let’s also assume you had a close ratio of 20% on the 30 opportunities you worked on during the year. Now let’s look at what would happen if you made each of those stages its own race, one in which you could improve your performance by 12 percent.

It all starts with opportunities. Instead of having 30 opportunities to work on, you now have 34. (I’m taking advantage of the rounding here.)

Your improved close ratio will now move from 20% to 22.4%, which means, with 34 opportunities, you will now write 8 new accounts (again, that rounding thing).

You certainly can’t allow your competition to work on larger opportunities than you are, and you now find that the average revenue per new account you write has also increased by 12%. You have to love $11,200 accounts at least 12% more than $10,000 accounts.

So now, at the end of the race, you have written 8 new accounts averaging $11,200, each for a new pace of $90,000 ($89,600 to be exact, but runners always exaggerate their pace – at least a little bit).

You gotta love the “new math!” A 12% increase, compounded at each stage of the race, results in an overall increase of 50%! And don’t tell me you don’t have another 12% in your tank!

And, you know what? On those days when I am running on the track with someone else, I have a lot more fun, it doesn’t feel like I work nearly as hard, and I definitely step off the track with more energy and a greater sense of pride. Not a bad bonus.  As if the 50 percent increase in new revenue wasn’t enough.

Once you run this race, look up ahead; there’s another runner for you to track down. You just have to ask yourself, “How badly do I want to catch them?”

Photo by Bill C.

@kevintrokey

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As a sales leader in your organization, one of the most critical functions you perform is to help young producers learn and refine their sales skills.  And, yes, selling is a skill, not a personality trait. 

Sure, there is a lot to be said for how personality influences a person’s ability to sell, but personality alone is just a start.  It’s like most other things - you may be born with the potential, but to realize that potential takes a lot of hard work and practice. 

So, as that sales leader, it’s critical for you to understand how to help your team realize their potential and become the most effective salesperson their potential allows.

There are four critical steps.

Tell

An effective sales process is one that can be replicated.  I don’t mean that it is cookie cutter, but it does need to be one in which there are clearly identified steps.  Take the time to explain:

• each step in detail,
• what it is meant to accomplish,
• and (most importantly) WHY it is necessary.

(As you think about your process, if you don’t have clearly defined steps in the process, I encourage you to rethink how you have your people selling.)

Show

As the teacher in this process, it is critical for you to demonstrate for your student how to execute the sales process.  This is the first step in moving beyond theory and putting the process into practice.  And, since no two sales situations are the same, it is important that you show them the process in various settings.   Show them in the safe environment of the office and then show them how it works in front of a prospect.

Watch

Now it’s their turn.  You watching them practice is the only way you will be able to offer them the constructive criticism that is necessary for them to get it right.  It is important that they are allowed the time to build their confidence.  Watch them execute in the safety of the office, but also go along to watch them perform in front of a real prospect.  Not only will it allow for that constructive criticism afterwards, they will be more confident for having you along.

Allow

Follow the first three steps and you will know for sure when they are ready to go out and perform on their own.  However, to truly stay sharp, you need to take them back to the previous steps from time to time. Going through this process with experienced producers offers a few important opportunities:

• make sure that bad habits don’t slip in
• start introducing additional sales skills
• continue refining them into more and more effective salespeople

As you read this, I hope that it all seems obvious.  All too often the middle two steps are skipped because we think of an ability to sell as more of a personality trait than a skill set.  Therefore, we simply tell them what to do, and then send them out in the field to perform.

To be able to follow this formula, two things have to happen.

1. You have to develop a well-defined and repeatable sales process.
2. As the sales leader, you have to develop the skill yourself to effectively execute the middle two steps.

There’s an old saying that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.  If you’re skipping the two middle steps, this likely describes you.  Commit to all four steps and you become one of the most valuable resources in your organization.

Photo by wooleywonderworks.

@kevintrokey

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One of the most difficult hires for any agency to make is to hire a new producer that will produce on par with your most successful producers.  While I’m not suggesting giving up on that effort, I would encourage to make sure you are reviewing your current production team and constantly rehiring the successful producers you already have.

Huh?!  -  Well, not necessarily in the literal sense.

Time to prospect

Think of your most successful producer.  When she first came on board all she had was time.  Time to prospect, time to make sales presentations, time to close deals.  Wasn’t that an exciting time for everyone?!  Well, with that success has come other demands on her time.  Now she is spending more and more time taking care of that book of business she has built and less and less time on prospecting, presentations, and closings.  It is quite likely that she is now spending no more than 10% to 20% of her time on sales activities.

Obviously the agency needs to keep growing, so you go looking for someone else just like her.  Someone who can prospect, present, and close on par with what she was doing a few years ago.  The problem is, those people are hard to find.  Success at that level is hard to replicate.  So instead of hiring her “sales replacement”, hire her “service replacement”.

After all, it is the service issues that are taking time away from her ability to keep prospecting, presenting, and closing.

Time to rehire

Take inventory of all of the demands on her time.  Wherever you find demands that don’t have to do with prospecting, presenting, and closing (okay, throw in some renewal responsibilities, but only at a strategic, relationship level) package them together to create a job description for the person you want to hire.

This will still be a very high level hire, probably even a relatively expensive one.  However, it is one that is much easier to do with predictable success and will free up a proven talent to go out and (you got it) prospect, present, and close deals.  What she can do if you re-hire the 80% - 90% of her time that has been taken up with non-sales issues (even if you can only recapture 50% of that time) will be a huge return on the investment of “rehiring”!

Photo by Ben Tesch.

@kevintrokey

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Don, a friend of mine, recently hit one of those mile marker ages.  You know, one of those that require a trip to the doctor for a checkup.

Actually, he wasn’t all that concerned about it.  After all, he takes decent care of himself, has always considered himself healthy, and other than some fatigue, felt really good.  So in he goes to see his family doctor, Phil.  Phil had been the family doctor long enough that they really were on a first name basis.

So Phil tells Don, “Overall, you’re in good shape.  Sure you could lose a few pounds and a little more activity wouldn’t hurt.  However, the results of your tests are just a little off.  I really don’t think its anything, but I have a colleague who is a cardiac specialist I would like you to see.  Really, I don’t think its anything at all.  It would just make me feel better.”

Not overly concerned, off Don goes to see the specialist, Dr. Ting.  Dr. Ting asks a whole bunch of questions (some that Don wasn’t able to answer in the way he would have liked; maybe he does have some warning signs), runs a whole bunch of tests, and is much more concerned about Don’s health than was Phil.

The diagnosis

Dr. Ting, “Well, I’m sure this will come as a shock, but you came to see me just in the nick of time.  We’re going to have to install a pacemaker.  It wasn’t easy to detect, but you have an arrhythmia that we need to control.”

After getting over the initial shock and feeling a little anxious about the surgery and thought of a pacemaker, Don was still very relieved to have found out sooner than later.

The solution

Dr. Ting explained that, although there are several pacemaker manufacturers, there are only 2 or 3 that are likely to be the right device for him.  Dr. Ting assured Don that he would meet with the manufacturer reps, explain Don’s circumstances, and pick the right one.  After meeting with Joe, one of the manufacturer’s reps, Dr. Ting knew he had the right device.

Just a week later, Dr. Ting performed the surgery and it was a complete success.  Just a few days later, Don realized that he felt better than he had in 20 years.  Obviously, he hadn’t been as healthy as he had thought.  Good thing he went in for that physical.

Who are you in the diagnosis process?

Okay, so you might be thinking that I’m writing this to encourage you to go get a physical.  Even though that’s a great idea, that’s not my point.  What I want you to consider is which of the three individuals who played a part in Don’s medical situation are most similar to your business model?

Are you Phil, a generalist who can provide a decent amount of help in many different areas, but no depth in any one?

Are you Joe, a vendor whose contribution was to provide the right product?

Or, are you Dr. Ting, a specialist who truly diagnosed the problem and then installed the right solution?

Of course, each of the three played a significant role, but their contributions definitely were not equal.  While you’re thinking about your model, also think about:

• Who was paid the most for their services?
• Who provided the most value for what they were paid?
• To whom do you think Don was the least concerned about paying a large sum of money?

Obviously, the answer to each question is the specialist.  You can identify the problem and even the right solution, but if you don’t ensure that the solution is installed/implemented properly, nothing positive happens.

Photo by Erich Ferdinand.

@kevintrokey

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Have you ever thought about how exhausting it is to be mediocre?  That may seem like a crazy question at first.  After all, almost by definition, doesn't mediocre mean that you are putting forth very little effort?  And shouldn’t less of an effort require less energy to be exerted?

Well, I guess if you are talking about pure physical effort, then maybe mediocrity is easier.  But, as I look at it, total effort is only about 20% physical and 80% mental.  It’s the mental exhaustion that comes with mediocrity that is truly exhausting.

In sales, mediocre prospecting makes every prospect you do have irrationally important.

You become so worried about not making them upset in some way that you leave no opportunity to truly impress them.  You become so afraid of losing the prospect that you cede control of the sales process to the prospect.  Trying to direct a process without maintaining control is going to suck the energy right out of you, leaving you totally exhausted.  Trying to control 5 prospects who are all wandering in different directions is significantly more exhausting than you controlling 20 whom you are directing down a single path – yours.  I don’t mean identical solutions for each, but I do mean an identical process.

Mediocre service leaves you no margin for error.

Mediocre service only means that you are capable of reacting to situations your clients throw at you.  By the time they throw it your way, they are upset and expect something to be done immediately.  And, even when you hit that expectation, you don’t really get any credit because doing so actually is their minimum expectation of you.  How exhausting is it to have countless clients who may be throwing you something urgent at any moment knowing you have to catch every single one?  Instead, take control.

On your terms, proactively deal with the issues that eventually result in client problems.  They will be much more appreciative of you preventing problems than they are of you fixing them.

Mediocre leaders only stay a single step ahead of their team and exhaust the entire team in the process.

Remaining one step ahead may be fine for some of the tactical issues, but it’s insufficient for hitting strategic goals/objectives.  Now, compare that to a leader who paints an extremely clear picture of where the team is going, where they will be 5 steps from now, how they will get there, and the contributions expected from each team member.  When every step is perceived as the destination, you operate in constant panic mode and it feels like you run the race countless times over. 

However, when the course is laid out in front of us, we can run the race with more confidence.  A confidence that leads to a much more comfortable pace, one that is much less exhausting.

Yes, mediocrity is exhausting for everyone.

If you are a mediocre performer, the stress that comes with knowing you’re likely to be outperformed at any moment is exhausting.  The stress that comes with knowing your mediocre performance leaves no margin for error is overwhelming.  The stress that comes from not ever being able to take control will wear you out. 

And, if you are on the receiving end, the frustration that comes with mediocrity is just as exhausting.  After all, it will always require more effort on your part to work with someone who is simply adequate. 

Not only is it less exhausting to be excellent, excellence actually generates its own energy.

Just look around you at someone who is consistently excellent.  I would just about guarantee that you will also find someone who consistently has more energy for what he/she does.  Don’t fool yourself, its not the energy that creates the excellence, it’s the excellence that creates the energy.

Photo by Evil Erin.

@kevintrokey

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As we move into the Fall season, it's feels so natural that we're also moving into the planning season. The two just go hand-in-hand. We're definitely in that planning mode here, distributing new guidebooks to member agencies for Producer Annual Planning and Sales Team Development to help get geared up for the coming year.

So, in light of the season, we felt it was a good time to bring out a couple of our past posts we've done regarding producer and agency planning to help you get in the planning mode, as well!

This was originally published July 22, 2010.

===========================

As I coach producers, I see one common theme that really seems to hold them back: a lack of planning and accountability.  It’s a shame really, and completely unnecessary.

For whatever reason, producers within agencies seem to be off limits when it comes to setting expectations and monitoring (the right) results.  I always hear, “As a producer, I have the ultimate accountability because I am paid on commissions.”  I get that, but by the time you can measure production, it’s too late.  Production results (versus behavioral results) are a lagging indicator and only tell you what has (or hasn’t) already happened. 

If you hope to have an opportunity to make adjustments, you have to identify the behaviors (leading indicators) that drive the production results.

To make matters worse, many of the same personality traits that make producers successful, at a certain level, also become an impediment to even greater success.  Producers tend to approach their days, weeks, even the year in too random a fashion.  They wander into the day or the week and just wait to see what finds them now.  While the good producer will stay busy, and probably even hit their sales goal, they will miss an opportunity to become a great producer because they aren’t purposeful enough about how they are spending their time.

The answer is really simple, or at least part of the answer.  If, as a producer, you would take time at the beginning of the week, plan for those critical “have tos” you need to accomplish for the week, and then make yourself accountable, you will become that great producer.  If you will do the following for four straight weeks, you will see the results (behavioral and production) I mean.

• Before the week starts, identify the top 2 accomplishments you need for the week in the following areas.

• Sales Development (example - develop a new 30 second commercial, role play my presentation, or attend a seminar to further my business acumen)
• Prospecting (example – schedule 5 new opportunities, make X# of cold calls, or ask for X# of referrals)
• Clients (example – have a Healthcare Reform overview meeting with 2 clients or take a referral to your best client)
• Centers of Influence – COIN -(example – set up a lunch with a potential COIN or take a list of targeted prospects to a specific COIN)

• Now, share your list with someone who can/will help hold you accountable (your support team, your sales manager/leader, other producers, etc.).  Tell them that you want them to “ambush” you from time to time and ask about your progress.  You’ll do this if you really want to move from being a good producer to a great producer.

• As you share your to-do list for the next week, also report the success/failures you had from the following week (reporting your success/failures from the previous week can be as simple as “did it” or “missed it”).

This does not have to be super detailed and it doesn’t have to be time consuming.  In fact, once you have done this for a couple of weeks, you should be able to do your week’s planning and the prior week’s reporting in less than 15 minutes.

The bottom line is if you plan for your week once and then spend the week executing on your commitments, the week, and you, will be a success.

What kind of planning is most effective for you?  Daily, weekly?  Do you have an accountability partner to keep you on track?


Photo by koyochi.

The purpose of the military is to be so intimidating that the enemy dare not attack. – Sun Tzu

This is one of my all time favorite quotes.  However, it has become obvious to me that not everyone shares in this belief.  As I watch and observe agencies and producers, some of the actions and inactions I see, seemingly driven by paranoia, concern me a bit.

It ranges from not wanting to include relevant and important information on websites (e.g. list of employees and backgrounds) to not taking a visible role in social media.  Regardless of its various forms, it all originates with one concern - that the information would some how be used to hurt them.  Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand and agree that there are certain secrets we want to protect, but that is a rather short list most of the time and should mainly be comprised of “how” we do what we do rather than “what” we do.

Besides, in today’s electronic world your ability to completely hide any information is difficult at best.  If someone really wants the information, chances are they will find it anyway.  Isn’t it better for you to control the flow of the information in the first place?

If you’re guilty of some level of paranoia, I challenge you to write down two things.  First, describe the worst thing that could happen if that information is shared.  Secondly, write down what’s the best thing that could happen.  If after making this comparison and the scales tip in favor of shrouded secrets, then, by all means, lock it away.

Sharing the names/backgrounds of your employees

Worst that can happen – Your competitors will try to hire them away.  Guess what?  If they are worth stealing, your competitors already know who they are and will contact them anyway.  Just make sure you are taking good care of them and this shouldn’t even be a concern.

Best that can happen – Your prospects get a much better picture of the depth of expertise and talent you have and feel more secure in moving their business to you.

Not boasting about what you do that is unique (e.g. hiding your business model)

Worst that can happen – The competition will try to copy it.  In that case, just make sure that what you do is not easily replicated.  Think about it - any time you introduce your model to a prospect who doesn’t become a client, you have to know that the information is likely going to be shared with your competition anyway.

Best that can happen – If you make it very clear how effective you are at what you do, the competition will realize that they can’t compete with you and will take their prospecting elsewhere.  Additionally, prospects that are looking for what you offer, now understand they should be working with you.

Being visible in the world of social media

Worst that can happen – I’m not really sure what bad could happen as long as you are careful what you write.  (Some are paranoid about connecting with clients on LinkedIn for fear that those clients would become easily identified and targeted by your competition.  If that’s you, don’t connect with your competition and use the setting that only allows your connections to see your other connections. )

Best that can happen – Your prospects and clients are able to learn what it is that you have to offer.  By using social media to enhance and communicate your personal brand, you will give yourself a running head start against your paranoid competitors.

Like Sun Tzu said, if you are the biggest, scariest competitor out there, the bullies will pick fights elsewhere.  Similarly, for those future clients who need the protection that you have to offer, be sure they know where to seek shelter.

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In fast-changing benefits field, "not losing" won't be good enough

How are you playing the game? Are you playing to win or are you playing to not lose? As hard as it may be to believe at first, a strategy of playing to not lose has produced pretty good results, at least up to this point. However, benefits producers whose continued goal is to avoid losing will find they are facing certain defeat.

Let's start out by discussing what it means to play not to lose, as opposed to playing to win. Don't get me wrong, playing not to lose doesn't mean that the players aren't good. However, it does mean that they play defensively and most likely don't go out with an exceptional performance.

Playing not to lose

Playing not to lose is actually the result of having successfully played to win at one point. Producers build up a nice book of business, generate a nice income, enjoy a great lifestyle, and achieve an enviable work/life balance. When they realize they have more than they ever really expected to have, a switch is flipped and a level of complacency sets in. Instead of continuing to do the hard things that resulted in all of their wins, they start focusing on protecting what they have. And, up to a certain point, that actually works pretty well.

Instead of continuing to be aggressive, they become defensive. Instead of looking to give reasons for new clients to say "yes" to them, they become much more concerned about not giving their current clients a reason to say "no" with the hopes that no one else comes along and gives that same client a reason to say "yes" to them.

The primary reasons that the same strategy has worked reasonably well for so long is two-fold.

First, at the risk of offending a few, I believe that the financial reward for mediocrity in this industry has been ridiculously high and has perpetuated a game that has too many players playing to not lose. Why play harder than you have to when a fairly simple game has generated such unbelievable financial rewards?

Second, the rules of the game have remained fairly static. Yes, the game has been threatened at times. Hillary brought the threat of nationalized health care, Spitzer threatened their contingency income, the Internet and direct writers even threatened to take them out of the game. However, those threats largely passed with glancing blows and no real damage.

So, there producers sat, going into the sales equivalent of the "prevent defense." They wrapped their arms around what they had accumulated and even fooled themselves into thinking they were playing to win as their revenue and income continued to grow, but only because premiums on what they already had continued to rise. Well, the circumstances that have allowed that to be a successful strategy have changed. The old saying, "What got you here will keep you here," is a saying whose time has come and gone. What got you here in the world of benefits will now take you back to where you once were. For many, a place they haven't visited in a long time.

Before it's too late, benefits producers would be wise to take a lesson from our friends on the P-C side of the fence. They have been in a soft market for years. If they successfully retain every account they have but don't go out and generate new business, they are slipping backwards 15%-20% every year. While the words "soft market" don't even exist in the benefits dictionary, the changes to compensation coming from health care reform are starting to drive the same results. It is for that reason that playing to not lose on the benefits side of the field is a game plan that assures the players' defeat.

So, let's look at some critical areas and the difference between playing to win and playing to not lose.

Delivering the right solution

For quite some time, competing for benefits business has largely been focused on a list of value-added services that benefits brokers' attempts to use in order to differentiate themselves. The reality is that the services brokers have acquired in an attempt to be seen as innovative have quickly become commodities themselves.

Brokers who are playing to not lose will focus on the needs of the clients that happen to fit the solutions they have available. Those playing to not lose will open conversations that could lead only to solutions they already have.

That may seem pretty reasonable, until you contrast that to a producer who is playing to win. When you play to win, the focus is on filling the most urgent needs of a prospect, even if it's a solution you don't currently possess. Those playing to win are willing to create a solution if that's what it takes to win the game. A perfect example is an agency that went into the game competing for the benefits of a very large company. One of the greatest needs of this particular company was some help with sales training. Determined to win, this agency took its internal sales process, turned it into a solution for the prospect who not only turned into a new benefits client, but who also engaged the agency for help with a sales training program. Not a bad win, huh?

Lesson: Don't manipulate the client's problem to fit your solution; adjust (or create) a solution to fit their need.

Question your results

It is true that producers playing to not lose understand the need to learn from their failure. When they lose out on an opportunity, they debrief with their team and review the "game film" to learn what went wrong. Sometimes, they even get brave enough to go and ask the former prospect why they didn't win.

Producers playing to win go one step further. They aren't just satisfied with learning why they lost or even satisfied with getting a win. No, the exceptional producers want to learn why they won. They will go through the same team debriefing, the same reviewing of game film and will always ask their new client why it was that they were chosen.

Lesson: Having complete clarity about what led to a win is the only way that you can ensure a repeat performance.

First impressions count more than ever

In case you haven't noticed, we work in a fairly conservative industry. We don't necessarily embrace change easily. Not many accuse our industry of being on the cutting edge. However, that doesn't mean that your clients aren't on the cutting edge and have similar expectations of those with whom they work, or at least favor those they happen to find who are on the cutting edge. Social media is a glaring example of what I mean.

We all know the need to make a strong first impression. Those who are determined to not lose will do their research, put on their best suit, look the prospect in the eyes, give a firm handshake and be confident that they haven't done anything to hurt themselves as they make this critical first impression.

Now, contrast that to the producers who are determined to win. These producers have created an online presence through their blog, LinkedIn, their Twitter content, and Google ranking. They have used that presence to communicate their expertise. Knowing that their new prospects will be doing their own research on them as well as their competition, they have used that presence to create an advantage and ensure their victory.

Lesson: The first impression is no longer made face to face. It is now made by what the prospect learns, or doesn't learn, about you online.

Never make a statement when you could be asking a question

Those producers who are determined to not lose make sure they are able to make a strong presentation. They make sure they tell their prospect and client absolutely everything about themselves. They want to ensure that they can never be accused of not having told the prospect absolutely everything about them and their agency.

Now contrast that to the producers determined to win. Sure, they communicate the critical information about themselves, but they spend much more time learning about their prospects. They ask probing questions and then, not yet satisfied, they follow up with more questions. Then when they start to get a sense that their prospect/client may have a need, they drill down into the detail with even more questions.

Lesson: Leaving your prospect/client exhausted from answering your questions about them is a much more aggressive strategy than leaving them bored to tears from listening to stories about you.

This is a time in the evolution of the benefits industry that the professional players will be separated from the weekend warriors. This is no longer a game for the casual player. The spoils of victory are about to become greater than they have ever been before. However, if you don't create an aggressive game plan, sharpen your skills and take the field with a fierce determination to win, you'll be much better off on the sidelines.

The game is about to get bloody.

Originally published in Rough Notes magazine June 2011.

Photo by David Goehring.

@kevintrokey

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