FEATURE
HOW TO BE THE MOST FASCINATING PERSON IN THE ROOM
At MDRT, 7.2 percent of the group was the Maestro. At NAIFA, 8.9 percent of the group was the Maestro. Now, this is really significant. With 49 archetypes, hypothetically each one is going to have roughly 2 percent. But, actually, the number can be as low as .3 percent. The patterns that we see among both of these groups are very strong opinion, having a very clear idea of how to succeed and being very goal-directed. If Point A is where I am today and Point B is where I want to go, it’s very clear to this group how to make that happen; how to not only envision it, but how to also enact it. This is really important for an advisor to be able to do, because that’s really what an advisor’s core competency needs to be: seeing a goal, setting a goal, understanding how to get to the goal and then actually realizing that goal. FELDMAN: If you use the power and prestige triggers, how can you approach people in the most effective way so that you’re using these as an advantage? HOGSHEAD: People with power and prestige can be sometimes perceived as being a little bit intimidating because they have high standards. They have big goals. They tend to be high energy, and they can be imposing. So it’s important when these personalities first meet somebody that they
HOGSHEAD: For both of them, the highest dormant trigger was Rebellion. Rebellion is about innovation and creativity. People who use the Rebellion trigger tend to be highly entrepreneurial. They’re out-of-the-box thinkers who like to be unorthodox in the way they approach situations. Advisors tend to not be like that. Advisors tend to be better at figuring out, “What’s the environment? What’s the goal? And what are the steps that we need to take to get there?” Not necessarily reinventing the wheel. FELDMAN: Does that mean advisors get out of their depth when they set up and operate their own practices? HOGSHEAD: Many of them are entrepreneurs. They’re not entrepreneurs that are reinventing the product or reinventing the category. They are entrepreneurs who are built on relationships and on delivering for their clients. It’s important for them to surround themselves with others who can supplement that. For example, my personality archetype is the Catalyst, and the Catalyst is defined with Passion and Rebellion. So, I’m great at being able to deliver big, visionary ideas for my clients, but I’m very clear that when it comes time to do the spreadsheets, the scheduling, the detailed PowerPoint follow-ups, that the rest of my team is better suited for that.
to know our core personality advantages and how to optimize our own performance by supplementing our strengths with our team. This becomes especially critical for advisors who are the engine of their company. FELDMAN: How does the MDRT and NAIFA archetype stack up to other sales industries? Is it typical for top salespeople to have Power and Prestige as primary triggers? HOGSHEAD: No. Other sales industries tend to score higher on Passion and on Rebellion. And here’s why this is different. In other sales scenarios where you have customers walking through the door, such as at a car dealership, salespeople are going to be successful if they can walk up and instantly build a connection, and they only have 30 seconds to do that. Then if that sale walks out the door, they’re gone forever. In financial services, and within the insurance industry, it’s much more about building long-term patterns and being able to execute over the course of months, years and decades. So the personalities tend to be less explosively charismatic, and much more about being focused on the result that you want to achieve. Now, one caveat that I’d like to make about everything that we’re talking about right now – there’s no one way to succeed. There’s no one way to build relationships and communicate. So I want to be really clear that it is not that it is better if you have Power and Prestige, or Power and Mystique. It has more to do with making sure that you’re communicating, introducing yourself and sharing your message in a way that’s consistent with your core strengths. So, people can be extremely successful in financial services using, say, Rebellion. They are really creative and can see opportunities in the market that other people can’t see, because they’re able to brainstorm and think untraditionally. They can see the market’s going here, but we really need to be going over there. Sometimes you can succeed by going exactly in the opposite direction of everybody else in your industry. It’s more a question of how can you apply your natural strengths to serve you, your client and your company.
The triggers test is not a test about how you see the world, but about how the world sees you. understand how they’re being perceived. Because, remember, the triggers test is not a test about how you see the world, but about how the world sees you. And how the world sees somebody with the Power and Prestige trigger is that they’re seen as ambitious, admired, focused, respected, competitive, results-oriented. So the goal is not to temper those traits and tone them down. The goal is to make sure that they are channeled toward results for the client. FELDMAN: Was there a consistent dormant trigger, a trait they had but were not using? 16
So I hire for three triggers: Trust, Alarm and Mystique, which are best at implementation and execution. So my executive assistant is a Sustainer. The Sustainer is primary Alarm, secondary Trust. Sustainers tend to be very calm. They avoid chaos because they like to plan out every detail. They like to know exactly what’s going to happen. She’s very by the book. You know, like five minutes before our call started, she sends me an email and says, “Five minutes until your call. Your printouts are to your right.” Everything is planned out because that’s her gift, and that’s why I hired her. And for all of us, it’s important for us
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » February 2013