Troy Clark's Blog, page 2
March 29, 2014
Final Expense University, Coming SOON!
Master Sales Training Videos..
Sales Rookies and Sales Pros alike will enjoy dozens of Master Sales Training videos by noted author, and National Top Producer, Dr. Troy Clark. Final Expense University will be launched within the next 30-60 days on FinalExpenseSuccess.com Home Page. Stay tuned!
What Participants Will Learn:
Why Sell Final Expense? Field Sales 101 The Secret Flow
20 Most Frequently Asked Questions Phone Sales 101 Agent Sales Schedule
Insurance License 101 Agent FIELD Sales Presentation Appointment Setting
Contracting, Commissions 101 Agent PHONE Sales Presentation 4-in-1
Products 101 Sales Script MANUAL Customer Warm Up
Leads 101 Phone Phobia Identify Customer Need
Leads, Advanced Quotes PreQualify Customer Health
Burial Costs Collecting Payment Information Close The Sale
Application Process Tie Downs Customer Objections
Inspiring Sales Stories Faith and Success Cold Calling
Much MUCH MORE !!
March 1, 2014
Green Eggs and Successful Sales
Green Eggs and Successful Sales
4 words — Massive Rejection Equals Success.
A Top Producer is the person who hears the most “No’s”. To realize profitable weekly sales results, every customer “no” gets you closer to a sale — “Yes”!
“Some people fold after making one timid request. They quit too soon. In sales there are usually four or five ‘no’s’ before you get a ‘yes’. If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren’t doing enough asking”. Jack Canfield
A perfect sales training manual to prepare you for the no’s you are sure to encounter on your way to a challenging 2014 is “Green Eggs and Ham”, by Dr. Seuss.
Sam-I-Am is the main character trying to convince his friend to taste an unfamiliar plate of green eggs and ham. Unfazed by the constant series of no’s he receives, Sam-I-Am simply offers the same product again-n-again, only in a different package: in a boat, with a goat, in a box, with a fox, etc…A Master Salesperson Never Hears No.
Winners focus on selling, not on not selling.
Equal wisdom is found in the second character of the book (the customer), who is unwilling to try anything new with Sam-I-Am. He constantly says “no”, even though he admits to never having tried green eggs and ham. The customer finally decides to taste-test the product just to appease the salesperson. To his surprise HE LOVES GREEN EGGS AND HAM – a Win-Win!
Become a “Sam-I-Am” sales professional. There are PLENTY of leads, sales opportunities, in 2014! Wait a minute, instead of Sam-I-Am, I like the name, Pro. Pro-I-Am describes a sales expert who puts basic, time-proven sales techniques of plain ole’-fashioned raw-bone perseverance, combined with sales presentation adjustments, into practice each new day.
Take a lesson from a children’s book. Are you as effective and determined, in sales, as Sam-I-Am?
Any insurance professional, who is not being persistent, relentless, unstoppable in their sales career, has not even graduated from a “Kindergarten” class of sales school.
Massive Rejection Equals Success!!
Troy Clark, Ph.D.
January 4, 2014
2014 NEW BOOK Release!
2014 NEW BOOK Release!
Failure Is Not The Final Chapter
“This is a very good read!” “A real page turner”
“Very good overall!” “Worth the read”
- Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Paperback eBook Audiobook
Amazon.com Customer Reviews / More Customer Reviews
Samples:
Paperback eBook Audiobook
“How YOU Can MASTER Final Expense” – NOW in Audiobook!
November 8, 2013
July 31, 2013
New Book Coming!
NEW BOOK COMING!
Though I cannot reveal the actual title of my new personal growth book just yet, please enjoy a brief description:
Never Give Up On Yourself !
Dr. Troy Clark, author of How YOU Can MASTER Final Expense and The Perfect Bible, delivers fresh power to transform your worst setbacks into dynamic victory.
Hope is not destroyed when dreams of happiness are shattered. Positive growth is how Troy fought back, and so can you.
In visionary, easy-to-read style, the author shares an exact framework for maturing organic potential, showing you how to convert your own defeatism, even failure, into authentic success. Dr. Clark alludes to mistakes he absorbed as development into proactive renewal, guiding you through 4 steps to personal growth victory. Dr. Clark encourages while challenging each reader, going deep. Gut check your desires. Clean out your thinking errors. Ripen your core confidence. See yourself, and your future, in perspective you’ve never seen before!
Enjoy an astounding vision of what is possible for your life. Think, focus, plan, LIVE like the winner you were born to be! From corporate executives to homeless shelter residents, Dr. Clark’s transparent, uplifting message inspires a clear direction to one fulfilled purpose – connecting the dots of inner growth to outward triumph as a luminous passage through life’s darkest moments.
A professional speaker, noted author, and thought leader, Dr. Clark relishes motivating audiences to never give up on living your dreams.
No matter what page your life is on, rest assured –
Failure Is Not The Final Chapter.
May 18, 2013
The SECRET FLOW
THE “SECRET FLOW”
The “Secret Flow” of Sales Power – What is it?!!
How do “they” do it? “Winners” close sales-after-sale-after-sale in the same day! Does this seem like a mystery to you? To close DAILY sales, National Top Producers tap into the “psychology” of a buying customer.
Easy as 1-2-3
First:
Following the mindset of “buyer” is to know a certain order of how, when, and what to say to an interested client/customer. The more I speak, the more appealing I become to a customer, due to a fitting sales method employed. There are certain steps that lead to the closing of a sale today. Specific steps, together with exact sales verbiage, builds mutual trust/respect/immediate value/“buy now” urgency, step-by-step between agent and customer within an expert sales presentation. My “Sales Script MANUAL” accomplishes this in an initial conversation with your customer. From start to finish, speaking about certain things too soon, or at the wrong time, ie: customer payment information, will “spook” your customer, and result in watching them shrink away from your sales presentation. There is an exact time and way to relate and secure important information needed to close a sale. Following the psychology of a buying customer will make this process acceptable more times than not to your customers. The “Secret Flow” of Sales Power is not magic, it is a strategic sales presentation that MASTERS this order: Verify Customer Info, Why I Am Calling, Customer Warm Up, Identify Need, Prequalify, Decision Maker, Benefits Explained, Quotes, Ask For Sale, Referrals.
Second:
Tie Downs. Each section listed above within my finely-tuned, buyer-inducing Sales Script MANUAL, contains a “Tie Down” question. A Tie Down is a mutual agreement or decision shared between a customer and a sales rep/agent. Most inept sales reps make a “B line” for the close of their sale presentation within a few minutes, overlooking many question marks within the mind of a buying customer. If a customer sees a buying decision as too ominous, big, huge, or immediate, they will try to muster up 20 different objections to get out of the conversation. However, if a customer and sales rep have enjoyed a series of small, mutual agreements together, as stepping stones to the close, your customer is more likely to see a buying decision today as simply another small decision in a more logical order. It will make more sense to the customer to buy now. At the same time, Tie Downs also “nip in the bud” certain customer objections. The order of my well-laid-out Sales Script MANUAL allows you to squelch virtually all customer objections before they have a chance to torpedo your sale at the close of a sales presentation. I would estimate between 80-90% of all sales that I closed, I DID NOT HEAR ANY OBJECTION from my customer. Why? Because I believe it is worth it to do a thorough job upfront, covering every Tie Down question from start to finish, within a masterful sales presentation.
Third:
Top Producers only spend their time TODAY talking to BUYERS. I never spend my time trying to convince a non-buyer to buy my product today. A “secret sauce” to sales success (closing 1-4 DAILY sales), is to only spend your time on that which gains profit. It is not profitable to waste any time becoming a “sales beggar”. Once I have indentified that the customer I am speaking to is not a buyer, I immediately stop my sales presentation, and move on to someone else. My Sales Script MANUAL is designed so that you KNOW within 5-10 min, whether or not you are talking to a real “buyer” customer. Even when I find out that my customer is not a buyer, I still “squeeze a lead” to locate more buyers by utilzing my Collecting Referral Script. To gain 1-4 daily sales, I must deliver 5-8 sales presentations each day. This amount of daily sales presentation is only accomplished by wisely locating and sharing exclusively my time with “buyers”. My Sales Script MANUAL allows a sales rep to accomplish this perfectly.
Hey Sales Pro! The only thing you get paid to do is sell. Before you can break out in the powerhouse salesperson you want to become, get plugged into the “Secret Flow” of what works in closing DAILY sales. Sell smart to realize your full potential in closing DAILY sales. Witness the realization of your goals, and watch the dreams of your life unfold.
March 29, 2013
Chapped Hands and Successful Selling
CHAPPED HANDS AND SUCCESSFUL SELLING
What does a minister, cold weather, chapped hands, and selling final expense insurance, all have in common? Read on..
Ministers are often stigmatized to never wanting to “get their hands dirty”. My father would be an exception. Although his ministerial calling has driven him, literally, into a cross-country, circuit-riding, itinerant ministry, he savors home-projects of physical labor.
The winter months are no exception. While working outdoors for several weeks, his hands became dried out by the constant wind, as well as the cold, dry temperatures. Cracked areas of skin appeared on his hands. To seek relief, he found a bottle of ointment in the medicine cabinet. The daily moisturizer would be given to a full lather on both hands several times per day. Problem solved, right?
After a few days, instead of the flaky dryness of his hands decreasing and going away, it increased. Dad’s hands would become even MORE parched as coarse as sandpaper by day’s end. The skin-cracks were deepening. Well, more ointment is needed, he presumed.
However, after a week and a half of religious ointment application, his hands worsened to shed a “dandruff” of flaked skin, covering both hands as freely as a frosty mug. Puzzled by the failure of the moisturizer, he voiced his dilemma to us, his family. We listened and suggested a doctor visit. The crackled, flaky skin was raw when he showed us his hands. Poor dad. What could be causing such an intense outbreak of skin dehydration?
One day later, the cause was discovered. The label of the moisturizer product that was being used was carefully read. “LIQUID SOAP” it declares on the front label! He had been using soap, assuming it to be a moisturizing lotion, to gel the dryness of his fractured skin. Instead, the soap was chapping the hyde off his hands.
Now, here’s the rub. Can you try to identify with this in terms of selling final expense insurance? How could you be failing in Final Expense sales, when it seems you are employing your best technique to close daily sales? This is when life schools us. Sometimes,
familiar skills that we utilize in business to make things better may inadvertently be opposing success. Perhaps the good ole methods of yesterday, or “yesteryear”, aren’t working on today’s sales platform.
My dad’s chapped hands were worsening, because of bad luck? No. Bad weather (circumstances)? No. Bad hands? No. Bad choices?
No-No-No. The situation worsened, because he did not consider that his own chosen remedy to the problem was, in fact, making it worse. Even if you did not initially contribute to defeatism in your business, you can refuse to work differently, to your own frustration.
Your failure will turn on a dime into a personal success by asking, “How can I accept responsibility in this? I have made some mistakes. Where is my point of correction? What can I do differently now? (I cannot help my situation by myself alone. I am willing to be helped.)
A feeling of powerlessness to change your situation instantly turns around when you realize the problem is likely in the mirror. This is one thing that I do have control over – me. I can change course. The feeling of power is given back; the answer soon presents itself. In this respect, your failure becomes good for you, because this is a place where new success can spring forth.
“Read the label” of your sales technique, when it keeps worsening. You can continue to stay stuck in old habits of sales failure (using liquid soap for moisturizer), or you can switch by making specific changes identified in the mirror.
February 28, 2013
4 Things Successful Salesmen/women Do
4 THINGS SUCCESSFUL SALESMEN/WOMEN DO
Experience gained through a failure is a success, if you adjust to work smarter.
1. Embrace Daily Opportunity.
By joining the Final Expense career path, you now have accessed a golden opportunity that most people in life never get the chance to do – WRITE YOUR OWN PAYCHECK!! A WINNER embraces this opportunity as a gift every single day! Serving Final Expense life insurance policies means making a positive difference in the lives of families one-at-a-time. This is a powerful gift! Are you focused on reasons to succeed? Or, are you critical to pointing out disappointments and reasons to fail? Life is showing you to stop going in a previous dead end direction, and move on from here differently. Final Expense sales is a gifted vehicle to get you from where you are to where you want to be financially, professionally, and personally. This is your opportunity TODAY, as good as you want to make it!
2. Proactive Self Improvement.
No man is an island. That is, no one can succeed all on your own. ARE YOU REACHING OUT FOR HELP? How many IMO agencies provide bi-weekly ongoing training, individual coaching sessions with absolute best sales professionals, phone and email support within the same day? If your IMO does not provide this, you are blessed to access all of these at a moment’s notice at FinalExpenseSuccess.com, but YOU must reach out. Wendy, Bill, Thomas, George, Steve, as well as myself – all National Top Producers averaging 7-12 weekly sales – ALL of us initiated and established a “coaching relationship” with upper management, top producers to improve our own selling skill in growing from beginner to expert. Are you stuck? Are you isolating yourself? Winners need help and get help. Are you? This is also true – “God helps those who help themselves”.
3. Daily Work Ethic.
The more dials on the telephone, the more sales you make. Case closed. (P-S-S-T…my 1-4 daily sales were oftentimes made in the 8th, 10th , or 12th hour of the day!!)
4. Give Back.
May I respectfully challenge those agents who are averaging 10 or more sales per week? Have you considered one purpose for being blessed in sales is so that you may help others to succeed? How many articles have you submitted to your home office that would lend direction, focus, and encouragement to the newest agents, as well as to our entire industry? How often do you share practical selling tips that are working well for you with fellow agents? Are YOU VOLUNTEERING your time to help mentor anyone else on your sales platform? What are you proactively doing to “give back” to a sales system that has given so much profitable opportunity to you? Much of what we enjoy today within my superior Sales Presentation Scripts exist in written form today, because I took time out of a busy sales schedule in months past, to enhance and fine-tune my Sales Script to a perfect pitch – then share it. Top Leaders are made legendary only because they benevolently give back and share with others after attaining success themselves. What are you sharing from your expertise to assist other agents who are struggling to reach the level of success you now enjoy?
SALES SUPREME IN 2013 !!
January 24, 2013
4 Things Successful Salesmen/women NEVER Do
4 THINGS SUCCESSFUL SALESMEN/WOMEN NEVER DO
What a successful Final Expense Sales Agent chooses NOT to do is critically as important as what an agent will do in 2013. Not one wealthy person I know became rich by accident. I can think of no better New Year’s Resolution in your Final Expense TeleSales business than to conscientiously avoid these 4 Agent Pitfalls to Failure.
1. Complain About Leads.
Consistent TOP PRODUCERS spend energy and time ONLY on that which produces sales. How is focusing on lead quality honestly going to assist any agent to close one sale today? A lead is what it is at the time it was created. There are approx. 14 tremendous lead resources in my Leads Resource List http://www.finalexpensesuccess.com/lead-companies . TOP PRODUCERS understand that any sales system is an imperfect tool made perfect in the hand of the user. Only one thing matters if you have not a closed one sale TODAY – deliver the next Sales Presentation to the “next customer in line”. One third of my own total sales production came from “older” leads. Why? I learned how to increase my skill set, squeeze more out of the leads I had, and closed more sales than an average agent who is still complaining, with ole’, dusty, crusty leads! When A leads are scarce, instead of complaining about it, a TOP PRODUCER focuses on increasing his selling skill level in older leads, or order more A leads. Stewing in disgruntled angst over “not enough A leads” is a pure waste of time to a TOP PRODUCER. A foul spirit over leads only gets an agent’s focus off of selling and further “behind the 8 Ball” of making a sale TODAY !! Perhaps you should purchase a “Coaching Session” with a Pro salesperson like myself http://www.finalexpensesuccess.com/individual-sales-coaching, and learn trick-of-the-trade to squeeze everything you can out of new and older leads.
2. Multi-tasking While Selling.
Consistent TOP PRODUCERS focus on ONE thing at a time. While selling, there is no combination of other things being accomplished unrelated to selling (ie: house chores, trading stocks, family projects, running errands, paying bills, answering emails, etc. etc.). A carefully mapped-out Weekly Schedule http://www.finalexpensesuccess.com/sales-products takes care of all of life’s obligations one hour at a time. If you have a thousand different things spinning around in the back of your mind while selling, you need a better Weekly Schedule, or a life-or-death commitment to stick to the schedule you already have in place. An adhered to Weekly Schedule takes important things out of your mind and puts them down on paper to be cared for in due course on schedule. This liberates your mind and allows expert agents to stay “on top of their game” with mental clarity, while selling.
3. Giving Up After A Lost/Missed Sale.
I am no better of a salesperson than you are. The difference between a consistent TOP PRODUCER, and an average agent is, who wants it more. When agents learn that I closed 9 sales working 65 hours my first full week in Final Expense Phone Sales, only the 9 sales is recognized. However, when you break it all down, this equates to one policy sold every 7 SOLID HOURS on the phone. I was ignorant when I first began. Although I was previously an awarded Top Producer in final expense field sales(14 sales per wk avg), I did not know what the heck I was doing selling final expense insurance over the telephone! How many sales do you think I lost/missed every 7 hours, because of my inability to close a sale over the telephone? SEVERAL !!! Just like you. So, to stack the odds in my favor, I worked longer hours, made more dials (into older leads), gave more presentations, increasing my selling skill at the same time, more than the average agent is willing to do. Do you easily give up after temporary setback? Every last agent is faced with a choice when a sale is missed or lost. Will you settle to become a footnote in the statistical heap of agents who thought that working smarter means “easy work”? Or, do you forge ahead to employ new experience gained through temporary failure? Consistent TOP PRODUCERS never, ever, EVER, NEVER give up, until a sale is made.
4. Measure Success Based On What Other Agents Do.
What non-productive agents are doing is what TOP PRODUCERS avoid. Excellence is a choice. If you want 2013 to be your best, most LUCRATIVE business experience in your entire life, you must become indifferent to mediocrity. Period. It is the end to swimming with the current. Every Final Expense sales agent is a self employed individual. A consistent, TOP PRODUCER is extremely committed to doing differently whatever it takes apart from average agents, to make this opportunity realize their future aspirations. Do you posses a desire to excel on your own, or is your work ethic simply reacting to what others are doing? Rise above. On your own, I challenge you to think more, plan more, work more, improve yourself more, grow more, desire more, focus more, and become more successful than any salesperson in Final Expense sales industry. You don’t get what you want; you get what you become.
Remember, I am here for you if you desire exact assistance on how to sell Final Expense, both in the field, or over the telephone. Let’s pour in our absolute BEST efforts into the Final Expense marketplace and keep growing to new heights together!
A TOP PRODUCER gives a minimum of 5-8 sales presentations per day Monday-Friday to generate 1-4 sales per day to watch their bank account grow weekly by $1,500 -$3,500.
SALES SUPREME IN 2013 !!
December 20, 2012
Be Your Own Santa Claus
BE YOUR OWN SANTA CLAUS
Ho – Ho – Ho! Need more dough – dough – dough? Be your own Santa Claus!
Tis the season for great gain to those who buckled down and made their sales volume happen this year on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. It sure is an awesome feeling to… have a first-class sales skill-set that provides for a healthy and profitable holiday season – even in this economy. Is this YOU?
Folks, my heart goes out to agents who are struggling just to close a couple sales each week, or worse, each month. Here are a few suggestions to apply as “New Year Resolutions”, so that YOU may become your own Santa Claus in Final Expense (FE) sales:
1. Get connected to Winners.
STOP hanging around and being consoled by whiners & complainers who are looking for reason to fail, instead of being focused on reasons to succeed. A main reason why I became a National Top Producer in FE sales is because I begged my manager for 2 months, back in the early days of my career, to ask a Top Producer if I could go with him on his appointments for one day. We finally worked it out. After watching his sales presentation all day long, I changed 2 things in my own sales presentation that I learned from the Top Producer. My sales doubled, tripled, then quadrupled in a few short weeks!
2. WRITE OUT your own daily/weekly schedule.
My overall success in sales was planned. I wasn’t lucky. My success was planned. I explain this is great detail in my book, “How YOU Can MASTER Final Expense”. My schedule is my boss. My schedule keeps my life and priorities organized, so that my personal life and business life DO NOT overlap. The main thing is keep the Main Thing the MAIN THING. Nothing else gets done, until after I close at least one sale TODAY.
3. Work smart.
Get on a sales platform that is streamlined without any pitfalls to an agent. Get a MASTERFUL sales script to work off of. Pay for high quality leads, then close sales, and the cost of the leads will wash out – with profit! Figure out what Top Producers do, then duplicate it! Don’t allow pride nor ego to complicate the simplicity of what works by saying, “Well, I’ve always done it this way…” Oh really? Are you closing 10+ sales each and every week? Self adjustment to work smarter is the biggest, unspoken secret to successful selling.
4. Treat Customers with dignity.
Respect each customer. My goal for each one of the ten thousands of sales presentations that I have personally delivered to customers in my FE sales career, was to leave a smile on a customer’s face, whether they bought a policy from me, or not. My job is to be a professional. It’s not the customer’s responsibility to be in a good, happy disposition. This is an agent’s professional responsibility. Why? Good things happen to people whose heart is in the right place. The more a customer is respected by you, the more likely they will want to do business with you TODAY. A customer is normally a reflection of how they are being treated by an agent. Most customers are nice people, who want to be treated fairly, while getting specific information that matches their need, within their budget. Take your time with a interested customer. Be thorough. Answer their questions. Do not talk over a customer to rush a buying decision. Connect the dots of your benefits to your customer’s specific concerns and situation. Make your sales presentation a fun ride. Laugh. Empathize. Feel their life, then add value to it with your product. Take your time, yet keep the conversation upbeat and moving forward. Dignity sells.
5. Enjoy what you do in sales.
I can find enjoyment in losing a sale, just as much as I can enjoy making a sale. “Uh?”, you say. How is that possible? My success is not determined by the number of sales I close, but rather by the utmost sales performance I gave. Did I do my very best? Can I improve my selling technique? Am I putting my heart into each customer conversation? Is my disposition positive, or critical? Winners know how to find a “happy place” while selling – the place where I put my focus to enjoy the ride, instead of buckling under the pressure to make a sale. Think of who will love you whether you fail or succeed – your spouse, pet, children, God, church, friends, etc.. This is where I keep my mind, while closing an average of 1-4 DAILY sales. Win or lose, I am loved. This powerful outlook attracts buying customers like bees to honey.
Your Creator-God in Heaven is crazy about His love for YOU! Personally, I received divine, perfect love from Him the very moment I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my own heart and life, as a personal Savior. If you do not feel like anyone cares about your life, look up! Because God never interferes with man’s free will, it is totally your choice to accept what He offers – salvation and forgiveness for every sin.
My final expenses are cared for in this life, and in the life to come! By trusting in what Jesus Christ did on Calvary’s cross to save us, we have hope, grace, love. Santa Claus represents an even bigger picture of a skyward Father who wants to shower YOU with blessings (& sales!).
Let me know, if I may boost your FE sales career with an individual coaching session. Most importantly, rest assured, that you can know for sure that Heaven is your eternal home after this life is over. How do I know this to be true? How could a person NOT know, when the Creator of the universe comes into a person’s life and transforms an individual from the inside-out, installing a new set of desires, new energy, a new reason to succeed?
I believe YOU Can! Merry CHRISTmas!!
Troy Clark, Ph.D.
