Accelerate Your Success

Start by focusing on the six areas mentioned by these high-profile NAIFA members.

By Mark Briscoe

During NAIFA’s Performance +Purpose Conference last year, NAIFA members Kathleen Owings, Taylor Sledge, and Corey Anderson offered attendees six key focus areas that have helped them succeed in the financialservices industry. Here are the six areas of focus:

Business Development . According to Anderson, a key to developing and growing his business has been simple persistency. For every yes he gets from a client or prospect, he receives six or seven no’s from others. Financial professionals who are not persistent in the face of rejection will never get to the yes. “No is not forever,” Anderson said. “You need to be pleasantly persistent.”

It is also important to delegate tasks to others. “So many advisors don’t want to delegate to their staffs,” Anderson added. “We’re all control freaks in this business.” Allowing associates to do the jobs they are the best qualified for frees you up to keep a balance to ensure you always have new appointments and opportunities for new business in the pipeline.

It’s also a good idea to leverage technology to work more efficiently and help build your practice. “Many appointments don’t need to be face-to-face,” Anderson said. “Phone appointments are often better for time management and provide clients with flexibility.”

Team Building. Financial professionals should build two teams: one for growth and another for support, Sledge said. Growing the business and bringing new clients are both vital, but so is performing the tasks that keep the practice running.

Different team members may serve in different roles, including:

• Relationship management

• Workflow

• Economics

• Administration

Sledge acknowledged that not everyone can hire staff, especially in young practices, but there are always resources available. Company connections, for example, can provide support. But spending money on good staff is worthwhile. “A human being is never an expense,” Sledge said. “A human being is an investment. This is not gas money; this is your future. It’s about doing for your client what you’ve said you will do for them.”

Podcasts also help to build a personal brand and to reach consumers on devices that go with them wherever they go.

Professional Development . Owings said she is always testing herself, and constant challenges keep her moving forward. She believes that you should never become complacent just because you’ve achieved a high level of success.

Coaching has also been a big part of her professional development. In her career, coaches have kept her motivated and on track. She is also a firm believer in annual goal planning, constant monitoring of goals, and keeping objectives top of mind. If you don’t commit to ongoing professional development, it becomes “too easy to fall into the trap of just going through the motions,” she said.

Maintaining Balance. How do you keep a good balance in your life? For Anderson, one step is keeping a good calendar and using it to ensure that you don’t miss appointments. This calendar should not just include business engagements, but also personal and family ones. For him, family comes first, and it is just as important to keep his family and personal calendar appointments as it is to keep business appointments.

Everyone faces struggles that can threaten to throw them off balance. Anderson’s key to working through his struggles is to create goals and follow through on doing what is needed to achieve them.

Referrals and Marketing. Sledge noted that as long as human beings make decisions based on emotion, insurance and financial professionals will have career opportunities. Even as some parts of the insurance industry become more automated, many clients still need a personal touch. Producers can reach them by understanding the human condition and gearing their marketing activities to address clients’ specific needs.

Sledge offered the following marketing equation: shared experiences + constant communication = great relationships. Marketing today consists of being on social media and convincing others to speak well of you and your business.

Sledge presented what he calls “The Board Model,” which he uses to get influencers invested in helping him succeed. “I am treating you like a board member of my company. I share struggles and successes,” he said. “They become the greatest advocates for your business, and they will bring you more business than you need.”

Podcasts also help build a personal brand and reach consumers on devices that go with them wherever they go. To steer clear of compliance problems, Sledge develops personal branding that doesn’t talk about business, finance or products.

In his podcasts, he interviews entrepreneurs — asking them how they found success, how they struggled, and how they grew their business. He then broadcasts the interviews on social media. “The podcasts give people a reason to want to talk to me about business,” he said. “I’m giving them something they can use, not just something that serves my own business.”

Community Service. To get the most out of their community service endeavors, Owings said, insurance and financial professionals need to “go in” with a truly giving mindset. “Don’t take volunteer positions asking what you are going to get out of them for yourself,” she said. Instead, approaching the positions with a focus on service has given her better opportunities for “building relationships with professionals like me — like-minded professionals who are not asking what’s in it for them. You’ll be more relevant if you are passionate and not just looking for a return,” she added.

Mark Briscoe is Senior Director, Strategic Communications, at NAIFA. Contact him at mbriscoe@naifa.org