Advice for New Agents Part II

Previously, I had outlined the first of several recommendations to help new agents start their careers on the right track and to realize longterm success. They are:

1.) Be Urgent
2.) Don't be Patient with Your Needs
3.) Keep Your Focus

My recommendations continue with the following:

4.) If you Think It; Ink It. Years ago, author, businessman and sales expert, Ron Willingham, taught me the value & power of writing goals and benchmarks down on paper. Writing down your plans, goals, and strategies for success does something positive for you. For one, it makes the goal tangible and "more" real. Your ambitions become codified to a degree when they are written down; they become part of a record or public document that others can possibly see and note. Whatever the driving force or "magic" that is found with writing down your goals happens to be, the fact that it helps you to accomplish what you set out to do is undeniable. So, if you think it, ink it in order to be successful.

(Mark McCormick in his book, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989. In 1979, graduates of the MBA program were asked to set clear written goals for their future and their plans to accomplish them. It turned out only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals, 13 percent had goals but they were not in writing and 84 percent had no specific goals at all aside from getting out of school and enjoying the summer.Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers again interviewed the members of that same graduating class. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent of students who had no goals at all. Most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, 10 times more than 97 percent of their graduating class. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of goals they had set (and spelled out) for themselves when they graduated.)

5.) The Will to Win is Not as Important as the Will to Plan to Win. If ever I had an adopted mantra, it would be those words. I cannot overstate the importance preparation and planning is to being successful. The assumption that success "just happens" to a person is all too often an accepted viewpoint. Success is a deliberate act. I encourage everyone to be deliberate with their goals, ambitions, and their lives as much as is possible for them. If you want to be successful in business and in sales, then plan on success. Write down your goals and measures for success. Give those goals a time-line to be followed. Plan out a path to success one step at a time. Regularly review your plan...adjust your methods...And for goodness sake, act on your plan. Nothing gets done until someone does something. So plan your success and act upon it. The will to win is not as important as the will to plan to win. Plenty of people with strong wills, exceptional talent, and enviable privilege fail in life. Why? They fail because they relied on their will, talents and privilege to make them successful. They never thought to plan out their success. Be deliberate. Plan to be successful.

6.) Control Your Calendar...or someone else will. A challenge that faces everyone who is working, employee and employer alike, is time management. For the new agent that is busy with marketing & sales activities, controlling your calendar and utilizing the limited resource of time as efficiently as possible is a critical element to success and happiness. Get a calendar, use it, plan out your days and weeks with activities that are marketing & sales related. Develop regular habit patterns in your work schedule that are targeted at getting people in front of you (marketing) and in holding sales conversations with as many people as possible. Push to the periphery of your work day those tasks that are not marketing & sales oriented. Confirm appointments and reschedule them as appropriate. If you have a 5:00 pm sales appointment and 7:00 pm sales appointment on the same day, call the 7:00 pm appointment and see if they will move up to the open 6:00pm slot. Be accommodating with your schedule...But don't be at the mercy of everyone else's whim & calendar as well. Strike a balance with your available work time that is reasonable. If you allow others to control your calendar, you run the risk of becoming gradually frustrated and embittered as a sales professional.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu