I visited recently with TOT member Van Mueller after a Wisconsin NAIFA talk. He told me he was just speaking with a struggling advisor looking for help.
Van asked a deceptively simple question that revealed the advisor’s problem. “Do you have a hobby?” “Fishing” he said. “Tell me about it,” said Van. The advisor spoke enthusiastically for 20 minutes. He gushed about the fish he loved to catch, how he caught them, his equipment, his fishing adventures and his plans for future outings.
Van listened intently. When the advisor finally stopped for a breath he asked, “What type of life insurance policy do you like to sell best?” The advisor paused for a few seconds but didn’t really have much of an answer.
Van then wondered about the most effective sales approach the advisor was using today. There was more silence and only a mumbled reply.
“Why are you asking me these questions,” asked the advisor.
“Because, when you can speak with as much enthusiasm, energy and excitement about your life insurance business as you can about fishing, you will have the production and performance you need,” said Van.
Van was talking about passion. I could not have said it better.
Think about you and your business. Can you speak with as much excitement about it as you can about your hobbies? Do you research your business as much as you do your hobbies? Do you get as excited about talking about your process, your company and products, and your approach as you do with the details of your hobby? Can you talk about interesting specific sales? Are you developing new ideas and approaches for your audience? When you talk about the business, can you excite the people around you?
If you can, you have the necessary passion for longterm high performance success. In fact, the greater your passion, the greater your potential success will be in any endeavor in life.
Experience shows that if you don’t have a business about which you are passionate, you just won’t have a successful business. If you have no passion, you will have no business. You may be “in the business” but unless “the business is in you”, you will not achieve your true potential. Advisors with passionate purpose outperform.