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OPPORTUNITY: Portfolio Based Selling

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Thu, Mar 19, 2020 @ 12:02 PM

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Tags: Sales Tips, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, tips on selling insurance to seniors

Selling Your Way Out of a Crisis

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Thu, Mar 19, 2020 @ 11:42 AM

Selling Your Way Out of a Crisis

Selling Your Way Out of a Crisis

The time for you to start climbing out of the hole that you find yourself in is now. There is no benefit from waiting to begin your recovery. It doesn’t help you to wait until things settle down, watching them get worse, feeling a sense of dread, allowing yourself to be disempowered by events.

Take Back Your Power

When events and circumstances beyond your control derail your goals and plans, the fact that you can do nothing about the root cause of the challenge can make you feel as if you have no power. Even though you feel as if you are powerless, you are not. While you may not control the root cause of a crisis, you can manage your response. You can determine what you believe, and you can manage your reaction.

There is every reason to maintain a mindset that is positive, optimistic, future-oriented, and empowered. Being confident doesn’t require that you pretend nothing is wrong in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Instead, it is the belief that you are going to succeed despite the challenges you face. An even more empowering belief system is one that believes adversity is a gift, one that stretches you, that causes you to grow, to improve yourself—and your company and your clients.

Your mindset is critical because it is what will determine your actions. Nothing gets better unless you make it so.

Build Your Plan of Action

In a time of great crisis, especially one that impacts your business, it doesn’t pay to treat extraordinary circumstances like things are business as usual. Instead, it’s business unusual, which means you need to do things differently. That starts with a plan of action.

When a crisis harms your sales, improving your results means more activity and greater effectiveness. Your plan needs to require massive action in response to the crisis that causes a loss or reduction of sales. There are only four ways to grow revenue, and you should use as many of them as possible, starting with selling more to your existing clients, communicating with them at a higher frequency, and making sure you retain them.

You also need to acquire new clients, ones who can give you new revenue—and potential growth. However much prospecting you were doing before the crisis, you need to double your effort and increase the number of opportunities you create. There are always clients who need help recovering from their own crisis, and identifying and helping them recover helps you recover.

When you have the power to do so, raising your prices increases your revenue. The last way to grow is to acquire a competitor. This sales strategy is useful for those with the resources to do so but denied to most sales organizations.
Not only will you feel better having made a plan to recover, taking action will provide you with a sense of direction, a sense of certainty that you are going to be able to rebuild.

Improving Your Effectiveness

When every opportunity counts, improving your effectiveness is critical. You want to do everything you can to ensure your win. Speeding up your recovery means slowing down, focusing on the fundamentals of effective selling, and doing the work necessary to ensure you win big deals.

You may not have built a territory and account plan, targeting your dream clients and developing a pursuit plan. Now is the time to be clear about who your dream clients are and tighten up your theory about why they should change and how you can help. Your sporadic approach to prospecting needs to be driven instead by a valid prospecting sequence. You might also have lost your discipline around creating new opportunities and building a pipeline. When new opportunities from existing and new clients are critical to your recovery, focusing on building a pipeline is the only way forward.

Under normal circumstances, you may have been lax in your pursuit of opportunities, going through the motions of sales activity without being intentional about the outcome of each interaction in the sales conversation through which you are leading your prospective clients. If you are going to sell your way out of a crisis, you need to treat every opportunity as if it is critical, planning your sales calls, following your sales process, and using the methodologies that are proven to increase your results.

The key to improving your win rate, in good times and bad, is to improve your effectiveness. If you want better results, you have to improve your ability to produce better results, something that is as true for sales managers as it is for their sales reps. Better sales leaders get better results from their sales teams. Better salespeople win more—and better deals.

It has been said that one should never waste a crisis. Use this one to improve your effectiveness, taking more action, and improving your efficiency in the fundamentals of good sales.

Create a War Room

A war room is a place from which to plan, communicate, and adjust your approach as things change. Your competitor is not your enemy, and most of them won’t respond as aggressively as they might need to. Instead, your enemy is the poor results that come with an economic crisis.

In a crisis, more communication is necessary. Feedback as to what is working, what isn’t, and what adjustments you need to make is critical. When something is working, you want to do more of it, making sure everyone is aware and has access to strategies and tactics. When something isn’t working, you may need to find another way by making adjustments or making changes to your approach.

Most importantly, you want a visible place to keep score. Your progress will be slow if it isn’t significant enough to track and communicate. In complex B2B consultative sales, we tend to measure our results less frequently than we should, especially when sales cycles are long and decisions require building consensus. That won’t do as you sell your way out of a crisis. You are going to need to measure sales effectiveness more frequently in B2B sales.

The First Rule of Getting Out of a Hole

The first rule for getting out of a hole is to stop digging. Maybe you have been too lax about sales prospecting and sales effectiveness. You may have been able to grow because your vertical was increasing, a rising tide lifting all boats. When the water recedes, you can see the stumps, the companies that were only growing because their market was growing.

Increasing your revenue means selling more. You do not benefit from waiting for the crisis to end before you decide to improve your sales results. The way out of any crisis is always to sell your way out. Get moving.

Source: https://thesalesblog.com/2020/03/17/selling-your-way-out-of-a-crisis/

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Tags: Sales Tips, tips on selling insurance to seniors, phone tips, COVID-19

COVID-19 Selling Remotely and Helping Customers be Prepared

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Tue, Mar 17, 2020 @ 04:34 PM

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Tags: Sales Tips, tips on selling insurance to seniors, phone tips, COVID-19

COVID-19: Agent Scripts & Tips

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Tue, Mar 17, 2020 @ 10:00 AM

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Tags: Sales Tips, tips on selling insurance to seniors, phone tips, COVID-19

The Ten Commandments of Prospecting: 2020 Edition

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Mon, Jan 13, 2020 @ 02:27 PM

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Tags: Sales Tips, Leads, prospecting

Top 5 Viewed PSM Guides of 2019

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Mon, Dec 16, 2019 @ 03:01 PM

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Tags: Sales Tips, Medicare Advantage, Medicare, Medicare Supplement, Leads, Medicare Sales, tips on selling insurance to seniors, Social Media Marketing, online sales

If You Are Being Out-Hustled

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Wed, Oct 30, 2019 @ 02:58 PM

If You Are Being Out-Hustled

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Tags: closing sales, Sales Tips, sales advice

The 10 Time Management Strategies You Need to Implement Now

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Wed, Jun 12, 2019 @ 08:14 AM

The 10 Time Management Strategies You Need to Implement Now

June 11, 2019 by Anthony Iannarino

Here are ten strategies that, when implemented, are guaranteed to improve your productivity.

Calibrate Your Priorities: There is nothing more critical to effective time management than determining your priorities. If you are going to be productive with time, you need to know what you want in every area of your life, something I call Achievement by Design. Because you have one life, you should design what you want from it. It’s too easy to get wrapped up in tasks that are not related to your priorities, so get clear on what’s most important first.
Determine Your Outcomes: One of the reasons so many people struggle with time management is that they have a task list, or a to-do list if you like that better. The most productive people have these lists too, but they are focused on the outcomes of the tasks, not the tasks themselves. Let’s say you want to increase the sales of your business by $1,000,000. That growth will likely require many to-dos, and those tasks will probably change over time. Let me give you a straightforward example. You might have a task that reads, “Go to dinner with significant other.” The outcome might be “deepen the relationship with significant other,” a result you can achieve regardless of where you eat dinner.
Treat Everything Like a Project: One way to improve your time management is to treat everything as a project. A project will likely have several tasks, it will take some time, and you will probably have helpful resources available to you. When you treat important outcomes as a project, you spend time planning your actions, and you schedule a time to complete the necessary tasks, turning a list of tasks into something more substantial.
Establish Routines: In interviewing dozens of writers, they universally shared the routine of rising very early and producing pages first thing in the morning. They all suggest this routine was an essential part of their process. Whether your routine is to work immediately upon waking (my method) or go for a run or a workout, the discipline will improve your time management. You might have a morning routine, an afternoon routine, a weekly review routine, or a routine for reviewing your priorities.
Draw Boundaries: When you say “yes” to small things, you are saying “no” to bigger things. It is challenging to manage your time when you don’t have boundaries. Some people want your time and attention at work, and many times, their needs are real. Without borders, you will never be able to protect the time you need for your priorities. You will no doubt be asked to help with projects, some of which will be interesting to you. However, when you agree to chair a committee, you are saying no to the things that are more important to you. Saying “no” is a powerful and necessary strategy, if you want to manage your time better.
Schedule Weeks and Days: Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into weeks, and weeks into months. It is easy to fritter away your time when you haven’t determined beforehand what you are going to do with it. Once you know your priorities, you can schedule your days and weeks, starting each day with a solid plan to make progress on the few important things. When you begin to work, you won’t waste any time deciding what you need to do.
Give Your Priorities Your Focus: Even though you have a schedule, you have limited attention and focus. You have some times of the day where your focus and your will power is stronger (for me, it is the first thing in the morning). You want to give your best energy to your most important priorities. Refuse to give those power hours to things like your email or social media sites. Instead, do the few things that move you closer to the outcomes you need to produce.
Aggregate Tasks: Some tasks are necessary, like responding to your email or voice mail. You also have to pay your bills and fill out reports. These tasks lend themselves to aggregation. Instead of living in your inbox, check it three times a day, and process the emails completely (if you read it, decide what to do with it, do it, or put it on a task list, then archive it). If you are going to pay your bills or do your expense reports, collect them and do all of this work in one sitting—instead of allowing it to chip away at your time.
Use a Single Task Manager: Some people’s idea of a task manager is a computer monitor covered in yellow post-it notes (maybe not the most elegant solution, and one that is also not mobile-friendly). It would be best if you had all of your projects and tasks wrangled into one place where you are confident you won’t miss something. If you like electronic task managers, there are dozens of good ones. If you prefer analog, a notebook works, as long as you keep everything there. Whatever your choice, commit to it completely.
Decide What Not to Do: A to-don’t list is as crucial as a task list. What would go on a to-don’t list? How about “Don’t open email first thing in the morning.” Or, “Don’t allow people to interrupt your focus blocks.” If you want to do even better with your time, maybe try: “Don’t let other people place their priorities above mine,” knowing you can make exceptions when it makes sense. A list of things you are not willing to do will help you better manage your time.

Source: https://thesalesblog.com/2019/06/11/the-10-time-management-strategies-you-need-to-implement-now/

Image: www.Canva.com

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Tags: Sales Tips, Time Management

Email or Call? The Best Way to Reach Out to a Prospect For the First Time

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Wed, Apr 03, 2019 @ 02:25 PM

Email or Call? The Best Way to Reach Out to a Prospect For the First Time

For years, there's been a debate raging in the sales community: When reaching out to a prospect for the first time, should you call or email?

After all, first interactions with prospects are key -- you're aiming to establish trust, provide value, gather key information, and perhaps even secure a follow-up meeting. If you don't use the right medium, they'll be less receptive to your message (and that's assuming they engage at all).

Luckily for sales reps everywhere, more than 20 sales experts and practitioners on Quora decided to weigh in.

The Best Way to Reach Out to a Prospect For the First Time

When In Doubt, Email First

The majority of experts recommended starting with an email. "An initial email usually makes more sense because it doesn't require [the prospect to] answer at the moment they receive it," writes Robert Graham, author of Cold Calling Early Customers.

Plus, as others pointed out, you can use an email as a reason to call.

"I always start by referring to this first email to show we're one step further in our relationship," explains Stan Frering, head of Client Relationship Management for Easytrip France.

Emailing has a third advantage over calling, according to EchoSign co-founder Jason Lemkin. It lets you educate your prospect on the product's value proposition, and clearly connect it with the prospect's situation.

"The prospect needs to understand the value proposition first," he explains. "It needs to be very strong, and very clear. No one will take a random call about a product they've never heard of it's not 100% crystal clear they have a huge, pre-defined need for it."

When to Ignore the Email-First Rule

However, there is one exception to the "email first" rule.

Lemkin says once your brand has been established, it's time to start calling your prospects.

"If your prospect has already heard of [your company], they'll know if they want to speak to you about the product and learn more about buying," Lemkin writes.

For example, say you're a salesperson for Dropbox. You call a prospect and say, "Hi John, I'm with Dropbox, and I noticed your CEO tweeted that your company is almost out of free virtual storage. I'd love to discuss how we could get you some more so you can keep all your files in one place."

John already knows Dropbox and understands why it's a useful product -- so he's got a good reason to stay on the phone.

However, if you were selling a brand-new cloud storage solution, Lemkin argued that it would be better to send John an email first so he has more time to consider your value prop.

Not sure how much clout your company name carries? To quickly gauge brand awareness, go to Google Trends and compare how many people are searching for your company versus your top competitors. If your company gets the most searches, that means it probably has the highest name recognition in your space.

A Better Method Than Phone Or Email?

But to one expert, the question of "phone vs. email" is innately flawed.

SVP at LivePerson Sean Burke says that, in fact, your default shouldn't be calling or emailing. He recommends using your network to get an introduction -- great advice, considering that having a referral makes a buyer five times more likely to engage.

"You'd be surprised how often this crucial first step is ignored," Burke writes.

Once your mutual connection has agreed to introduce you, ask him or her which communication method the prospect prefers. Most people have an individual preference for calling or emailing.

However, if you don't have a shared connection, Burke suggests looking at the prospect's social media presence. If she is "social" -- meaning she's got 500-plus LinkedIn connections and an active Twitter or Instagram account -- use those channels to interact with her and start adding value. If she's "traditional" -- meaning she doesn't meet those criteria -- Burke gives you the go-ahead to call or email.

Whatever You Do, Don't Cold Call or Spam

While opinions differed on the relative merits of calls vs. email vs. social media, the experts were unanimous on one point: You should never reach out to a prospect via any channel without doing research first.

"Ultimately, you are in a much better position -- either calling or emailing -- if you have background information on the person you are contacting," notes Jeremy Boudinet, head of marketing for Ambition. "That way, you can tailor your message off the bat, since you have an idea of how you can add value to that person or company."

Sales Email or Sales Call? Experiment and Find Out

Although these guidelines should definitely guide your prospecting strategy, don't forget they're just that: guidelines. "Why not take a test-and-learn approach to this problem?" writes Nick Dellis, Weebly's VP of Business Development. "What works for you may not work for others."

Dellis suggests emailing first, then calling with 10 to 20 prospects, doing the reverse with another 10 to 20 prospects, and comparing the results.

"Taking this approach of testing ideas and optimizing is the only way to find out for yourself," he says. "And it'll help you be a better salesperson in the longer term."

First Contact Email

If you choose to start the conversation with an email, be sure you include a rapport-building element and communicate your value proposition.

Not sure what a first contact email should look like? Here's an email template you can use to start your outreach.

Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-best-way-to-reach-out-to-a-prospect-for-the-first-time

Image: Freepik

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Tags: Sales Tips, sales advice, Sales Strategies

How to do one thing at a time

Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Wed, Mar 13, 2019 @ 10:50 AM

How To Do One Thing At A Time

In his 2013 book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, writer Gary Keller reminds us that everyone has 24 hours in a day. So why do some people earn more, achieve more and get more done? They “go small,” he says:

“When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small. ‘Going small’ is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”

Going small to follow one path sounds easy, but there are fresh opportunities and shiny objects around every corner. Distraction is everywhere. There are times when you want to test the waters, and creativity often requires sampling. But if you truly want to move the needle, it demands a narrow field of vision.

For example, our company always chooses an annual focus area. Last year was about data. Across all our teams and functions, everyone worked to boost user productivity by leveraging data. That task looks different for each employee, but we’re aligned with a single, shared goal. When you focus on what’s important, the results can be incredible.

Lay out all the options and pick what really, truly matters. Set your focus area and stick to it.

Start as small as possible

The advice to “go small” works on multiple levels. Choosing your goal or main project is the first step. Then, once you know what you’re trying to achieve, zoom in closer.

When we’re working on a major project, I always try to step back and ask: “What’s the smallest version we could create that would still produce results?” Once you have that mini version, gather feedback. Refine and work your way up to a bigger, better model. Keep going, and you’ll achieve more than you thought was possible.

Create automated systems

Technology is far from foolproof, and until recently, our admins were constantly tackling server issues at 3 a.m. Every time it happened, I reiterated the need to find a real solution – one that didn’t require midnight wake-ups.

Eventually, we installed automated tools that tell us, for example, when our servers are 80% full. They notify us again when the servers reach 85% capacity. Now we never hit that 95% panic zone. We’ve automated an issue that drained our focus.

Systems aren’t exciting, but they are essential. Create efficient processes and automate as many steps as possible. You’ll free up valuable time and energy to stay focused on your “one thing.”

Designate a leader

Sports teams need coaches and captains. Orchestras need conductors. Group activities almost always function better when someone’s leading the way, even if the work is highly collaborative. At JotForm, all of our cross-functional product teams have leaders – and good ones dramatically increase both focus and productivity.

So what makes a strong leader? In my experience, it’s someone who can make quick, smart decisions. They listen closely, gather information and make choices that move the group closer to its goals.

If you’re working solo, it’s equally important to step back from your daily tasks and measure what matters. Be your own leader. You can always reach out for help, too. Whether it’s a friend, colleague, mentor or advisor, a different perspective is often highly valuable – but remember that the final decisions are always yours.

Explore – within your boundaries

All this talk of single-minded focus can sound really dull, especially if you’re a creative person. I get it. But doing one thing at a time isn’t about boring yourself into efficiency. There can still be room for exploration if you create clear boundaries. Build your sandbox, and then you can play in it.

Because we spend a full year chasing one big goal, our teams are welcome to follow some tangents along the way. There’s no rush to the finish line. I also realize that off-the-wall ideas can spark innovation, so we encourage experimentation.

If your team is eager to explore, set some markers so you don’t get lost. For example, our Friday ‘demo days’ are the time when everyone checks in and shows what they’ve done. If a team has gone off the rails, we can gently bring them back on track. Usually, though, we’re excited about what they’ve accomplished.

You can set up markers as a solopreneur as well. Think of your project as a large circle that contains lots of smaller circles or checkpoints. Once you have those boundaries in place, you’re free to wander.

Set tech limits

In a 2010 study published in the journal Science, Harvard University psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert discovered that people spend almost 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re currently doing.

Even more striking? Distractions make us unhappy. As Killingworth explains, “Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people’s happiness. In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged.”

That’s a stunning thought: being focused can actually make you feel better, regardless of what you’re doing. From starting a business to finishing a spreadsheet (without checking Instagram), single-tasking will not only help you achieve great results, but you’ll enjoy the process a lot more.

Startup gurus and productivity experts have endless suggestions to help you stay focused, but here’s what consistently works for me:

Box your time. Creating time limits is oddly motivating (and effective). Whatever you want to do, try ‘boxing’ it into a set time period and ignore distractions, including email, calls, texts, making coffee, alphabetizing your bookshelf or grooming the cat. Get laser-focused for that set period of time and then take a break. Repeat as needed. You can apply this same principle to projects, teams, products or just about anything else that requires true focus.

Box your energy. We all have energy limits. Even the so-called “sleepless elite” (high performers like Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi and fashion designer Tom Ford) will eventually run out of fuel. Doing one thing at a time will preserve your precious energy. And just like time-boxing, you can get even more intentional about shifting your energy toward what matters.

For example, if I have a big interview or presentation on my calendar, I’m careful about what I schedule around it. I try to avoid meetings. I get more sleep. I eat more leafy greens and I do what I can to stay relaxed. I’m ‘boxing’ my energy toward an important goal.

Make a clean break

In June 2018, the makers of a message board app surveyed more than 11,000 employees at 30 of the biggest technology companies. They asked: Are you currently suffering from job burnout? More than 57% of participants said yes.

Many people are struggling to stay on what can feel like a treadmill without a ‘stop’ button. The tech-fueled blur between work and personal time can be difficult – and confusing. And if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, it’s all in your hands.

The solution? Create as many boundaries as you can, within your sphere of influence. As much as possible, separate work from your personal life. I know this might sound overly simple, but even if you work from home, it’s up to you to create real limits.

Set office hours, for example, and don’t clock in outside those periods. When I leave the office, I do everything I can to leave work there, too. I want to be present for my family. I want to enjoy my time with them – and I need to rest and recover. I don’t work on the weekends, either. If I do have a new idea on Sunday afternoon, for example, I’ll send a quick note to myself (but I won’t dig into it).

If I want to share something with a team member, I will send them an email, but I’ll write ‘FOR MONDAY’ in the subject line. If I see emails at night, I remind people that they should wait until the next morning (and then I try to take my own advice).

Take real time off

I can’t say it enough. Even if you’re working hard to build a business or accomplish great things, downtime is not optional. You need to rest. Your body needs to recover, your brain needs to consolidate all those inputs, and you’ll be infinitely happier and more productive if you give yourself a break.

The data confirms it: After a vacation, 64% of people say they’re “refreshed and excited to get back to [their] job.” Hiking in nature and staying disconnected from all devices for four days can lead to a 50% spike in creativity. If employees took just one extra day of paid leave each year, the result would add $73 billion in output to the US economy.

So, whether you’re crafting a business plan, writing a novel, lifting weights or perfecting your Bolognese sauce, give it everything you have. Do that one most important thing and then move on. It’s that simple – and that powerful.

Source: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/business-strategy/how-to-do-one-thing-at-a-time-161803.aspx

Image: Freepik

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Tags: Sales Tips, Sales Strategies

Medicare Blog | Medicare News | Medicare Information

OPPORTUNITY: Portfolio Based Selling

Selling Your Way Out of a Crisis

COVID-19 Selling Remotely and Helping Customers be Prepared

Sell Remotely - YourMedicare Telesales

Wondering About Medigap?

Coronavirus Symptoms and Prevention

COVID-19: Agent Scripts & Tips

The Ten Commandments of Prospecting: 2020 Edition

Top 5 Viewed PSM Guides of 2019

If You Are Being Out-Hustled

The 10 Time Management Strategies You Need to Implement Now

Email or Call? The Best Way to Reach Out to a Prospect For the First Time

The Best Way to Reach Out to a Prospect For the First Time

When In Doubt, Email First

When to Ignore the Email-First Rule

A Better Method Than Phone Or Email?

Whatever You Do, Don't Cold Call or Spam

Sales Email or Sales Call? Experiment and Find Out

First Contact Email

How to do one thing at a time

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