What is Wealth and Wisdom?
Wealth & Wisdom Institute is not a selling system. We do not have financial planning software. We are not in that business. Unlike many companies, I feel you should choose the selling system of your choice or any combination of systems to help you succeed. Wealth & Wisdom will not conflict with any selling system you use. Wealth & Wisdom does not interfere with your personal selling process. We are here to enhance your efforts.
Wealth & Wisdom Institute focuses on the communication and the marketing of your business. This effort will introduce you to more selling concepts and ideas that will enhance your practice. These concepts and ideas may expand the financial planning you do with your clients, not eliminate it. It may surprise you that by studying your communication and marketing skills, that you will only increase your revenue, not decrease it.
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Selling Systems
Selling Systems are wonderful tools when they are totally understood and used for the right reasons. Every professional should develop the skills needed to use a selling system. Selling systems are designed to take not only the planner, but also the client down a planned, systematic path.
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A selling system will also aid a planner in proving that the concepts and ideas that he or she presents can mathematically be proven correct. When a planner knows they are correct in their assumptions, that planner will have all the confidence in the world to approach the client. This confidence is essential in creating a successful planning career. So selling systems are important tools in guiding a client down a planning path and giving the sales professional the confidence of being correct. By using selling systems a representative develops technical skills.
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Company Training
The jarring reality is this: if a company, any company, could get rid of their sales people without suffering a financial loss, they would do it in a minute. But they can’t. So in their own way, they will praise you and glorify you when you do well, and shun you if you do not. Do not take the praise or scorn personally, that is life. Companies consistently measure us against our peers. These are called production reports. This is just my opinion about these reports, but there is not a person in my life, that if they care for me, loves me or respects me, that will put me on a list. My life is not a game, neither is my career. A company list can praise and honor a salesperson for doing a lot of production, even if it is for the wrong reasons.
That being said, company training should provide all of its professionals with in-depth training and information about its products. The training should include the proper implementation for those products and their uses. Many times, the technical specifications of products will explain why it is superior to others. Teaching the technical aspects of the product will give you the confidence in your presentation that will help you sell that product. What is taught here again, are technical skills.
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Passion
I believe that passion for your work is developed over time. The survival rate in our industry is low in the early years because the passion for what we do has not had time to develop. We are trained in-depth on technical skills by our companies and our selling systems. As these skills are mastered, a passion begins to develop. Our technical skills separate us from our competition, thus it becomes our passion.
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We have to understand that our passion may not be the passion of the client. the client’s passion is wrapped up in their everyday lives.
In the movie, Phenomenon, John Travolta plays a man who has deep feelings for a divorcée who owns a small farm. To survive this woman makes wicker chairs that she loves. John Travolta secretly buys the chairs as fast as she can make them. She is happy people are buying them. One day John’s doctor was talking to a friend of his who was having marital problems. His friend, dismayed by the lack of communication in his marriage, blamed his wife. John’s doctor spoke up and said to his friend;
“When was the last time you invested in your wife’s chairs? When was the last time you invested in your wife’s passion, not yours? You don’t get it, do you?” What he meant was, what you perceive as her problem is really yours.
It is true that people will buy things from people they like. From a client’s standpoint, passion in our business can be either good or bad. It all comes down to whether that passion is about us or them. I am certain that with our technical skills we can win the battles of the day, but without communicating to the client’s passion, we can lose the war.
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Communication
Imagine that everything you will be discussing today will not only impact your life, but also the lives of everyone that can hear you. Imagine the power of delivering a message to people that will change their everyday lives in a way that they have never experienced. Imagine you becoming the most powerful asset in someone’s life without ever mentioning a product. Imagine that your message is so compelling that people will eagerly introduce you to others. The magic of your communication skills will have people asking, “What should I be doing?” and “How much can I get?
To get this reaction from people, you need to develop communication skills and a process of engaging as many people as you can. In everything we do, there is a brief moment when people will decide whether they are attracted to us or want to avoid us. It is our communication skills that get us beyond that point. The problem lies not in what we know and how brilliant we are, it lies in our ability to communicate.
Our companies are good at teaching us why we should have life insurance. Much of what they teach us involves developing our technical skills. Our selling systems will help us prove to a client that we are correct at the point of sale and this will aid and supports our technical skills..
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Learning how to discuss issues of the day with people that will result in them wanting life insurance is a communication skill.
Reasons
The reason that people are not lined up outside of our office doors to meet with us is simple. In the grand scheme of things, we help people prepare for retirement, and financially help protect their families in the event of their death. These are not the everyday issues that people want to discuss with their friends, neighbors, relatives or even with professionals like us. Typically, these topics are conversations of avoidance not attraction.
Our communication skills should stimulate the thought process and the emotions of the person we are speaking to, not shut them down. As professionals, our discussions should revolve around events and issues that impact that person’s everyday life. People want to discuss the causes and effects of everyday challenges. These are the discussions that they will willingly participate in and listen to. They will have these discussions with their friends and neighbors and you. These are conversations of attraction.
When you speak to the everyday issues in people’s lives, they will not be afraid to talk to you. More often than not, they will want to talk to you.
Until we learn the skills of communication and address the client’s passion, possessing all the technical skills in the world will not make people want to see us. From time to time, people will feel they have a need to talk to us but not a desire to talk to us. Developing your communication skills may be the difference between creating a single sale or having multiple sales, maximizing referrals, and increasing your client and revenue base.
Learning the difference between conversations of avoidance and conversations of attraction will change your life, and the lives of others.
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Marketing
Having all the great products, selling systems and passion does not guarantee success in your business. Even though we strive for great products, systems and passion, these alone do not consistently introduce us to new people. Marketing is a process that will support your products, become an extension of your selling system and create a passion in your work that will attract more people to you. Marketing is not simply throwing an ad in the paper telling people what you do and how wonderful you are. Your marketing should be systematically supported by materials, concepts, ideas and presentations that highlight conversations you have with people. These materials should be personalized and identify you in a way that separates you from your competition. Marketing to a message will allow you to communicate with people at a deeper level, much deeper than marketing the company and its products. You must market yourself first and have the system, tools and training to do it. Unfortunately, in our business, most marketing is done by default, by accident, without any idea of how to multiply the results. Your marketing should not only enhance you, but the process should create a system of referrals and name recognition. Also, your marketing should target the type of client that fits your profile and the type of business you conduct.
Our industry is no different than others. Business will fail if we have no customers. Many times, marketing your business comes up short. Ask yourself this, does your marketing identify and promote you as a leader in your industry? Does it separate you from your competition? Does it help create passion in your message and solutions? Does it assist you in keeping your message alive and in front of clients with marketing materials? We must come to the conclusion that marketing is something that we want, but receives very little of our attention.
Your marketing should be the centerpiece of your practice. It should define who you are and what you stand for. If you are marketing to a message, you will expand your ability to have deeper conversations with clients and potential clients.
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Wealth & Wisdom has annual symposiums hosted by Len Renier. Find out more about upcoming events by clicking here