Why is it some of the most successful insurance agents are obnoxiously pushy? You know who I’m talking about. These rotten eggs sell more insurance than 10 people. You can’t stand them and neither can anyone else yet your sales manager holds them up as the ideal. They are the example thrown in your face when you tell your sales manager you aren’t selling anything making all those ridiculous cold calls.
As you know there are always two sides to every story and two versions of reality. The sales manager is as excited as a puppy getting its belly rubbed over this jerk because the jerk sells a lot of policies. Neither the sales manager nor the jerk care about the trail of destruction the jerk leaves in his wake. Plus the jerk actually enjoys mistreating and ill-using people. This bad behavior give the jerk a sense of power.
Now for the other side or version of the jerks approach. The jerk sells a lot of policies because he has to sell a lot of policies to maintain his revenue stream. His repeat business and referrals are virtually non-existent. No one would refer the jerk unless they hated the other person and even then most people can’t bring themselves to sick the jerk on anyone they know. Therefore, the only way to sustain a business is to constantly sell new policies to new people.
The jerk is a workaholic and that’s a good thing because that’s the only way the jerk can keep things going. Because no one likes the jerk when the jerk gets an appointment he has to sell something and that’s exactly why he’s so obnoxiously pushy.
Okay, so what’s a decent human being supposed to do? Well, the good news is you can be more successful than the jerk. You can do it with far less work than the jerk. Plus you can do it without ever feeling ashamed of yourself.
The key to your success is selling without rejection. You simply eliminate those words, actions, and behaviors that trigger resistance, defensiveness, and rejection. Rather than pushing for a “yes” you strive for understanding and then guide the thought process. As Benjamin Franklin once said everyone thinks their own ideas are great ideas. You simply help your future clients discover their own great ideas.
