Making Age an Advantage for Young Insurance Agents

Making Age an Advantage for Young Insurance Agents Your Age is an Advantage: 3 Tips for Young Agents Personal Development Series “I am a young person in my 20’s and have no insurance experience. Will it be difficult to gain the trust and credibility to get people to buy from me?” This is a question that we often hear at 360training.com from young people who are considering a career in insurance. It is a valid question because advice providedâ€"or not providedâ€"to an insurance customer can spell success or financial disaster. Here are three tips to help budding insurance professionals take advantage of their youthful age. Tip #1: Know Your Stuff!! No one wants people to give advice on important financial issues, like insurance, if they don’t “know their stuff.” Your youth can be an advantage when earning the right to serve customers. A big part of earning the trust and respect of the client happens before you even meet the prospect. If you “know your stuff,” you can meet the client with confidence, knowing you have earned the right to be there and are prepared to serve. • Example:   The current Affordable Care Act has made it possible for many people to obtain health insurance with better coverage and lower rates than before, especially those with modest income and serious pre-existing conditions. The average insurance agency owner is a white male who is 58 years old and may not have embraced the new health care environment. Being set in your ways or political views can get in the way of understanding and adapting to change or new financial realities. Backed by technology, many younger people with an open mind and ability to learn have quickly established their credentials in understanding and producing results in the health insurance arena. • Example: Medicare, annuities, disability income, securities, earthquake, and flood insurance are examples of important products that require special certification. These are opportunities for a young agent who wants to “out serve” and “out learn” his or her competitors. Online courses make it easy to obtain these certifications and stay current with new changes. Many people may not know if they live in a flood plain or how to obtain flood insurance if so. Earthquakes can happen anywhereâ€"take the recent outbreaks in Oklahoma and Texas for example. Some of the most severe earthquakes in the Northern Hemisphere, which struck New Madrid, TN in 1811 and 1812, have been predicted to happen again. • Example: Certifications and designations from established and credible programs speak to the professionalism of an agent, regardless of age. There are a number of designations availableâ€"showing that the agent has met established professional standards and has stayed current in his or her field. With work, some of these certifications and can be earned in a matter of weeks. Tip #2: Be a “World Class” Listener and Ask the Right Questions What do you think a person with lots of experience and knowledge likes to do? Often, the person talks about how much he or she knows and what he or she has done. If a customer does not see a direct connection to how this narrative pertains to them, then the knowledgeable and experienced agent just talked himself/herself right out the door. The highest compliment we can pay another person is to listen carefully to what he/she is saying. • Example: As they say, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Understanding starts before the first meeting. This can be accomplished by checking the website of a business, the prospect’s membership in social media such as Facebook, Linked-In, etc. Be careful not to give the impression of being an internet stalkerâ€"use this information as a way to recognize accomplishments or business history instead. Likewise, if you have a website or a corporate Facebook account, consider sending a message that you are looking forward to meeting them and include a link to our own information. This is a way to let the prospect see your training background, membership in volunteer organizations, or other special highlights without coming off as arrogant. • Example: Some sales training programs teach agents to try and find what is wrong with their present insurance agent, program or company. Do the opposite by asking what they like best about their present insurance program, agent or carrier. After listening carefully, try and find at least three “pain points” where the prospect has expressed a desire for improvement. Now you are ready for the next step. Tip #3: Meet the Elephant If for some reason, the prospect would not do business with you (no matter how qualified you are), would you like to know that information sooner or later? The answer, of course, is soonerâ€"before investing more time in obtaining quotes, preparing a presentation, and doing all the work involved in closing the case. Maybe the prospect just thinks you are too young. Maybe the potential client just wants to make sure that he or she is getting a good deal by consulting another insurance professional. Regardless of the reason, now is the time to meet the elephant in the roomâ€"if there is one. • Example: “Ms. Prospect, it is obvious that you have put some time and thought into your present insurance program. Congratulations on your effort. You have identified several areas that you would like to see improved, such as [list items]. If I am able to make these improvements to your satisfaction at an acceptable price, is there any reason you can think of that we cannot be able to do business together?” This is an important trial close. If the person will not do business with you, now is the time to find out. Do not say another word. Be quiet and listen until the person says that he or she will (or will not) be willing to do business with you. Age might be more of a factor in the mind of the agent than it is in the mind of the prospect. But now is the time to find out, before moving forward. Summary: The difficulty of being young and new in the business can be overcome and used to your advantage by: • Knowing your stuff and being prepared to serve the client • Being a world class listener and being able to ask good questions • Summarizing what the client would like to improveâ€"and asking if there is any reason you could not do business together if you can deliver a solution. We hope these steps will guide an agent from an activity-oriented to a results-oriented action that will lead to the prospect’s satisfaction and the agent’s success. *The author may be contacted via email: tricia.sharpton@360training.com.

8 Signs Youre the Toxic Co-Worker in the Office

8 Signs You're the Toxic Co-Worker in the Office 8 Signs You're the Toxic Co-Worker in the Office Poisonousness can change an in any case wonderful workplace into one where efficiency endures, spirit dissolves and representatives are searching for the most readily accessible lifeboat. Toxic managers and associates can represent the deciding moment an association. We know who they are , as they normally make themselves simple to spot. In any case, consider the possibility that your organization is staffed by a record of apparently marvelous individuals. You may have gotten lucky, or maybe your most noticeably terrible feelings of trepidation are at last being acknowledged: What in case you're the poisonous collaborator? Typically, you'll have a type of thought that you're disdained. Be that as it may, mindfulness is frequently missing for some individuals. Furthermore, regardless, venturing back and considering your conduct at your working environment wouldn't do any harm. It may assist you with distinguishing a few zones in which you could improve. That may mean chipping away at your administration or social aptitudes, which are becoming increasingly more significant in the present occupation advertise. So how might you tell whether you are the harmful colleague? Here are eight indications. Do you generally appear to get left out when lunch solicitations are distributed? Or then again maybe there is by all accounts a type of gravitational wonder in the lunchroom where every other person finds a seat away from you. Accept that as an insight. Individuals may be dodging you, and that is a sign. Obviously, this kind of social segregating most likely hasn't gone unnoticed. So in the event that you end up in a forlorn and baffling position, analyze your conduct. Work on building associations with your coworkers. It is safe to say that you are completely executing it at work, hitting the entirety of your imprints and leaving the remainder of the rubes in the residue? Without a doubt, that is something worth being thankful for, yet you may need to make sense of why no one else can keep up. Maybe your prosperity is coming to the detriment of every other person. Is it accurate to say that you are assuming praise for others' work, swiping thoughts, and so on.? That is a certain method to solidify yourself as the workplace outsider. Rather than concentrating on your own prosperity constantly, chip away at lifting up everyone around you, building fellowship and attempting various techniques. This is an incredible way to chip away at your initiative aptitudes and really show the higher-ups that you can lead. In case you're all around despised, you're going to run into the roof in the long run. You won't be promoted into an authority position if nobody regards you. In the event that your life at work is beginning to take after that of a teenager's, you have a few issues on your hands. There's continually going to be some degree of dramatization. However, in the event that you really need to be effective, you'll overlook it. In the event that you get yourself reliably at the focal point of some office spat , pull back. Attempt to make sense of what you're doing that is getting you into that position, and work on it. Jumping off the entirety of that office dramatization, on the off chance that you discover you're some way or another consistently the person in question, well, you're presumably the issue. Quit playing the person in question, and begin tackling issues. Change your temper, and others will start to regard you more. Pioneers don't get advanced for accusing the entirety of their issues for other people or on things outside of their control. They take the reins. Genghis Khan wouldn't have played the casualty card, and neither should you. Have you at any point voiced a supposition or thought in a work meeting that carries the discussion to a slamming stop? That most likely methods you haven't been focusing on your associates. You may feel like your thought was the best for the gathering. Be that as it may, if it's met with confounded looks and uncomfortable silences you likely haven't been tuning in. Rather than passing on one apparently extraordinary profession, work together more with your partners to give and take thoughts . Give you esteem their suppositions, and they'll start to esteem yours. The workplace shouldn't be all work and no play. Who'd need to be in that condition each day? Taking a couple of moments to share some close to home news or show a clever feline video is a certain something. Be that as it may, continually holding tight somebody's work area chattering about all things everywhere is another. On the off chance that colleagues will in general disagreement the other way to abstain from being cornered by you and your glib ways , you're most likely carrying some degree of poisonousness to their lives. Spare your gab for the lunch break or after work. Is it a given that you'll be 15 minutes late consistently? Do individuals not anticipate an undertaking from you by its due date, or do they abstain from relegating you significant errands through and through? On the off chance that your partners have abandoned you doing things right, you're most likely the harmful associate. You being questionable disappoints everybody, regardless of whether it doesn't legitimately influence them. It's a matter of decency. They got the opportunity to take a shot at time, so for what reason would it be a good idea for you to get a pass? Hold yourself to the workplace norms to abstain from being found in this negative light. You may believe it's incredible that two of your associates contributed at last to assist you with completing your work. Be that as it may, outside of phenomenal conditions, that is not ordinary. In the event that every other person can achieve their outstanding burdens without anyone else and just you get help, you're likely observed as moderate or dishonest. On the off chance that your outstanding task at hand is preposterous , you should introduce the issue to your chief and have potential arrangements prepared. In any case, if individuals need to help you in light of the fact that your work is messy or drowsy, it's dependent upon you to get down to business. It's not reasonable for your colleagues to need to watch out for you. This article was initially distributed on The Cheat Sheet . It is republished with consent.

Pick an Industry Before It Blows Up

Pick an Industry Before It Blows Up Pick an Industry Before It Blows Up Go to the front of the line by finding the following business or claim to fame going to develop and make it seem as though you were made to have that job.In the wake of the financial downturn, pinpricks of thriving are starting to radiate through. No single industry is essentially ricocheting back to pre-downturn force, however there are some industry portions that are beginning to get once again into shape. The test is to distinguish those regions of your industry and center your pursuit of employment accordingly.Say you're an IT individual who is searching for another position. Innovation is gigantic, covering each industry. Recognizing the high-development regions in tech can assist you with centering the organizations and positions you focus on; the language you use in your resume, introductory letter and meetings ; and the abilities you emphasize.This will require some examination and a receptive outlook. Peruse industry diaries and online journals. Go to pertinent meetings and occasions, and listen cautiously to the buzz. What points come up again and again?You're going to need to do a smidgen of schoolwork, and the schoolwork is doing some exploration as far as what are the development rates. Search for signs from industry investigators, even the securities exchange, regarding where development is showing up, said Kathleen Brush, creator of Administration = Motivation = Innovation + Productivity.Cheryl Palmer favored the basic requirement for research, and suggested utilizing the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a device. Look at the Career Guide to Industries on the BLS Web webpage to see whether an industry is developing, declining or remaining level, said Palmer, a lifelong mentor, proficient resume author and originator of Call to Career. This guide will likewise reveal to you which callings in that industry [are] becoming the fastest.Once you have distinguished a zone of development, it's an ideal opportunity to cast your resume in another light.Repack age comparative encounters or close encounters on a resume, said Phil Rosenberg, leader of reCareered, a vocation data site and profession instructing administration. You can exhibit to a business that you have a ton of comparable encounters, while possibly not the specific experience.Rosenberg suggests really investigating your resume to guarantee that it's intelligent of what your objective organizations are searching for and not what your present or previous managers discovered important.One of the things that I see reliably - and this is across ventures - is that up-and-comers will in general compose a resume about what's critical to themselves, as opposed to what's in it for [the organizations they are targeting], he said. That even comes down to the language utilized in a resume. Ordinarily, resumes are written in the language of the old manager, utilizing language and words that were ordinary of their previous employer.Job searchers ought to consistently keep their ears open - once in a while actually - for the sort of data that will assist them with deciding the most encouraging business paths.Going back to the IT model: Tim O'Reilly is the organizer and CEO of O'Reilly Media and one of the individuals who runs the Web 2.0 Summit. He talked about the gathering, held as of late in San Francisco, on the NPR radio program, Taking everything into account. When requested his conclusion about the following large thing, O'Reilly, who is credited with begetting the expression Web 2.0, stated, without overlooking anything, the change to portable. He proceeded to examine the utilizations of versatile innovation that he accepts will be significant effects on organizations and purchasers alike.Of course, O'Reilly isn't the main individual to recognize versatile similar to the most smoking pattern in the tech business, and Taking everything into account is absolutely not by any means the only setting on which it's been talked about. Yet, that is the point: Job sea rchers should search for combination focuses and utilize that data to educate their hunt. The individual who interfaces those information specks can bundle and advance his experience and abilities with the goal that he advances to organizations' developing enthusiasm for a basic area.This procedure can, and should, be summed up to any industry, and can help work searchers advance beyond the bend and serenely into another position.Debra Donston-Miller covers work-life issues and troublesome quest for new employment circumstances for Ladders.

Everyday is a championship day. Visualize your winning self

Everyday is a championship day. Visualize your winning self Every day is the Championship day! Retraining myself to think like a champion in the office and on the water. Photo credit: Brett Seng Every day is the Championship day! As I mentioned in my last couple of posts, I took a little over a month to go fly-fishing for Steelhead in February / March. I rented a house in Forks, Washington with a great friend and photographer Brett Seng, and we fished together just about every day. For a few of the days, I stayed with a group of friends at Jeff Brazda’s Bogey House  on the Bogachiel river. Jeff runs an amazing steelhead lodge with the best guides and chef on the Olympic Peninsula. If you ever get the opportunity, I highly recommend it. Every year, a good buddy  puts together a group of anglers and rents out the lodge and guides in for a few days. This is also in Forks, Washington and I blogged about a prior experience  here.  Our host  invited a guest he played football with who is an  avid angler and current NFL coach. I am the only angler in the group that doesnt have their  own company but  it was the Coach that I learned the most about company culture and taking personal responsibility for your career. The coach was not only the most unassuming guy at the dinner table, he was the quietest and most humble. Coach  probably had the most to brag about and yet; he was the most reserved. I really admired his style. The only bling he brought to the table was a newly minted Super Bowl ring. If it were me, you would have seen jazz hands all night long and a guy waving the manicured digits like a newly minted, I mean engaged, Beverly Hills trophy wife showing off her 2+ carat VVS1 Tiffany bauble. Beverly Hill blowhard this guy was not. The coach was your  everyday Joe. You would have never known this guy was a celebrity let alone a recent winner Super Bowl. Badass. Coach retrained my day-to-day mentality One of the guys in the fishing group is a world-class fly-fishing caster. He literally goes to international competitions where competitors  cast for distance.  Competitors cast with  both their left and right hands and the caster with the longest total combined distance  wins. He is extremely good, and he takes casting to a level that combines the balance/elegance of yoga and the power of an Olympic gymnast. In angling  circles, casters at his level are referred to as Jedi’s and watching him cast will make you wonder if “the force” really does exist. He can defy gravity with rod and line. That all being said, our Jedi has the occasional tendency of psyching himself out on the day of the competition. The coach said he could “fix” our brother angler and what I learned while listening to the coach was personally life-changing. I won’t be able to do the lesson justice in 1700 words but I will provide the cliff notes. Coach asked our guy a couple of questions: Coach: When is your next competition? Caster: April, San Francisco Casting Ponds Coach: How far does the number 1 guy cast? Caster: About 180 Feet Coach: How far are you casting now? Caster: About 180 feet (Note: This is with a fly rod. Most anglers, myself included are not able to cast this far with conventional spinning rods and lead weight.) Coach: So you can beat this guy? Caster: Yes, in the prelim’s and the warm-ups, I usually beat everyone. There was some more back and forth, but Coachs message below is the loosely quoted meat of the conversation. We do not train FOR the Super Bowl. We have a saying. “Every day is the Championship day.” We train every day as if it is the day of the Championship. This way, when the Super Bowl day arrives, nothing is different. With this mentality, the day of the Super Bowl day is just another practice day. The day of the Super Bowl is just another “every day.” If you train FOR the day Super Bowl, you can psych yourself out on the big day because that day is the  â€œspecial day”. It is not just another every other day. If you train as if Every day is the Super Bowl, nothing will be different or “special” on the day of the Super Bowl. Every time you make a cast in your practice sessions, take one breath and have one thought. “One breath, One thought. That thought may be that this next cast is going to be a championship cast taking place at the San Francisco Casting ponds. “One breath, One thought. was the mantra of the evening.“One breath, One thought. I must have heard this 15  times over the course of the evening. He also suggested our angler fly down to the casting ponds and practice a couple of times in the actual environment so that he would  know exactly what to imagine and think about as he trained with the mentality that This next cast is going to be the championship cast.   Yes, this is essentially the practice of visualization but when the coach explained it, it wasn’t an unbelievable mind trick. His explanation was sound logic. Later in the evening, Coach said something to the effect of, “These guys are championship players. They need to be championship fathers and husbands. Every day is a Championship day. Not just on the field but off.”  This guy was definitely a big picture thinker.   HRN with Tom Cable, SuperBowl winner, an everyday guy and HR hero. Needless to say, the softest-spoken guy at the dinner table had everyone’s attention and I went into my fishing bag and pulled out my little Moleskin to take notes. Some at the table were staring at me, but I didn’t care. This is the stuff I live for. These are the lessons that you won’t get anywhere else. This is the guy that created Super Bowl mentalities and moved players to believe in not just themselves but in each other as a team. What HR guy wouldn’t want to remember this stuff? For the rest of the trip, we were constantly asking our brother caster the following: Q:“What day is it?” A: “Its championship day” Q:“What are you?” A:“A champion!” When you have everyone in the group, reminding you of how to think about your game and everyone in the group encouraging you, you can’t help but feel better and elevate your game. And that is exactly what I saw. The group dynamic changed. The mood was lighter and more celebratory. I can only imagine what happens at the professional level.   I fished with our competition caster over the next couple of days and saw his casting go to another level. He cast with “style” and “grace” and,  he cast with a “street attitude”. His casts were landing right where they should. Even if you didn’t know anything about casting, if you watched this guy, you would know that he was something very different from the rest of us hacks. You could tell he was applying what the coach had talked about the night before. He was a Champion caster. So, how does any of this casting and fishing stuff relate to the corporate world? If you are preparing  for an interview, practice the interview questions and think about yourself in front of the hiring manager and in the interview room. See yourself confidently answering the questions and then creating a rapport  with the hiring manager. Go through the entire interview in your minds eye. Coach explained that before the game, his  quarterback goes through the entire game with all the plays on the field. He doesn’t just visualize the game, he physically plays a winning  game. If you have a big presentation coming up,  practice that presentation in full dress rehearsal mode. Practice in the conference room you will be presenting in and practice out loud. When you practice at home, imagine yourself in the conference room with the faces of the attendees looking directly at you and see them on your side vs. against you. If you are a manager, treat your team as if they are all champions. Talk to them as if they are winners. Talk to your team as if they are children, you will see the childlike behavior. Talk to them as adults, and you will experience adult-like behavior. It was great to hear the coach talk about this and it echoed my thoughts which I blogged about here.   At the beginning of the trip, I explained to my  roommate for the  month, catching fish would be great, but the goal for me is to learn. I didn’t catch many fish on this month-long trip, but I learned a lot about fishing, casting, tying flies, and rowing a boat. Just as important, I learned a ton  about people, teams, myself, and group dynamics thanks to the folks that I was able to spend time with including the Coach. Next time you are doubting yourself, think about being a Champion. See you at the after party, HRNasty nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone who is good at something. “He has a nasty forkball. If you felt this post was valuable please subscribe here. I promise no spam,