When I was younger I was on the school swim team, and in the summer went to canoeing camp. I also loved to bicycle and to ski. These were perfect preparations for selling insurance.
The swim coaches would put us in lanes in the pool with other swimmers of roughly the same abilities and encourage us to swim as many lengths as we physically could, while keeping up with the pace of others in the same lane.
Surprisingly the number of lengths that we could swim, and the speed at which we swam them, increased dramatically over time. Everyone improved at the same time, and we all pushed each other, often without being aware of it.
When it came to race day or to the day of the water polo game we had the strength and stamina to do what we could to help the team. We quickly learned that the more we practiced the better we became.
In the summers the canoe trippers would take us on trips that were longer and more difficult than we at first thought we could finish. The first days of many trips were dreary affairs with almost every camper complaining constantly.
But, as the trips progressed, and our strength and abilities increased, so did our pleasure. Year by year our expertise increased and the trips grew longer, and more difficult.
No trip was ever as hard as that first one though.
On a bicycle they call training "road miles". Your group rides as far as it can and then you all limp home. The next week you go farther, Each week it becomes more pleasurable.
Soon you love to ride everywhere, until winter comes.
Skiing is the same. Skiers do vertical miles. Those skiers you see, coming down steep mountains almost vertically, have done a lot of vertical miles before the run that you see.
Insurance sales takes all of the same skills. It takes time and practice to learn to be a top performer. Every time that we speak with a client we gain experience.
After a while we become more comfortable and better at what we do. Eventually we can learn to do it as a part of who we are. Then we can learn to improve what we do so that we become expert in our field.
The top performers in insurance are much like top performers in any sport. They practice their craft every day. Every day they get up with a determination to strengthen their skills and to learn more about what they can do.
You too, can train to become a top performer by following these principles. That's what I do.
And that's how to reach the top.
Lawrence Geller, internationally known expert on disability insurance, has addressed audiences in both Canada and the U.S., while his articles have appeared in professional and financial journals in both countries, and the U.K. For more of his tips on improving your performance, read his article, Be A Top Performer .
How to Reach the Top - To learn more about this author, visit Donald F. Pooley's Website.
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Donald F. Pooley
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Copyright 2005, Donald F. Pooley, Inc.
Don Pooley CLU, CFP, CHFC, "The
Advisor's Advisor" has shared
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