Today (2/13/08) our Regional Sales Coordinator hosted a meeting for his region. The 2 hour meeting covered the sales results for our region for 2007, and also the New Competitions for the early part of 2008. He also talked about the "new dynamics" (things) he is implementing in a twice per month sales meeting to better educate Associates so that we can close more accounts/sales.
Our region is one of the top regions in the state; for 2008 one of the most important goals for us is not setting appointments- we are all doing a fantastic job at that. What we really need help on and also to learn more about is "making the sale" after giving the Employee Presentation. So these will be key skills to learn during the early part of 2008, that we will be taught during the Regional Sales Meetings held twice a month.
We also had the pleasure of listening to the # 1 Sales Associate for the state (2007). He talked about the "new" referral system that our State started during the end of 2007, and talked in detail about how the system has been effective at opening "New Accounts" and "Decreasing Cold Calls" via "Increasing Warm Market Referrals". He has one Associate that generated 14 "new referrals" from your client, and so far 7 of those 14 referrals have become "New Business Accounts" - which is a very high percentage.
If you'd like specifics about today's meeting, please call or email me, I will provide more details for you. Thanks Brian Morgan
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Recent Meeting with Regional Coordinator / Feb 2008
My Regional Coordinator suggested that we meet and discuss some of the issues that I have had with Aflac. I spent about 2-3 hours typing up in a summarized format all the Weekly Sales Reports from the day that I started with Aflac. This was the basis of our meeting, looking at all the businesses that I have given presentations to, and trying to find exactly what to do to increase my overall success in closing.
After reviewing my Summary of Sales Reports, these are my Regional's Advice and Insights:
1. Increase your number of contacts/week, shoot for 5 (kept) appointments/week
2. Increase your appointments/week- set & kept 5 appointment per week
3. For Employer Presentations, use the first 10 minutes to build rapport, instead of going straight into the Aflac Presentation, 10 minutes for Raport, 10 minutes for Aflac
4. During the first 10 minutes- Sell Yourself and your servicing of their business
5. Don't talk about rates, plans, or products in the Employer Presentation- Make this presentation fun and simple, not complex, the goal is to set the Employee Presentation through this Employer Meeting
6. Goal for the Employer (ER) Presentation is to Set the Employee (EE) Presentation- you should leave with two tentative dates, A: the EE Presentation Date, B: the EE Enrollment Date
7. Give the Employees one day to "think things over", if Presentation is on Monday, the follow-up Enrollment should be on Wednesday.
8. Again, the main goal of the Employer (ER) Presentation is to set the dates for the Employee (EE) Presentation and the Employee (EE) Enrollment.
9. For Doctors Offices, it is generally good to bring the office lunch on the day for the Employee Presentation (EE).
10. You should, during the Employer (ER) Presentation, ask specific Questions that help you understand when the best time to give the Employee (EE) Presentation will be: "Is there an Employee Break before Noon?", "Do all Employees take the same lunch time breaks?".
11. Know and plan for your immediate goals prior to the meetings: Goal # 1 is to Set the Employer (ER) Presentation, Goal # 2 is to Set the Employee (EE) Presentation and Enrollment.
12. If the Employer (ER) allows you to see the Employees, he/she has given you the "ok" to sell the Employees your products.
13. Learn to be able to understand if a comment is a genuine objection or if it is just an excuse, this makes a big difference.
14. Definitely USE the Information Sheets when giving the Employer Presentation, these allow you to get information about each employee and the products that they may be interested in, not doing this will hurt your ability to close them during the enrollment dart. This is the sheet they list their name and the products they would like information on / about.
15. When you go to the Enrollment, you simply meet with the Employees one to one, and during this time review the "information sheet" that they gave you during the first presentation- during this one to one meeting you explain all the benefits after your ask them the right questions, identify their needs for the product first, get some agreement on the benefit of the products and re-affirmation that the price is affordable, and the product would give them "piece of mind"- etc.
Also during this meeting:
Sales Wrap Up:
There are about 20 businesses that I thought would be simple sales prior to having the Employer (ER) Meeting. The real statistics are these so far:
1. Closed out of these 20 = 0
2. Accounts that I really believe will close (out of these 20): 5
3. Prospects from these 20 that I don't think well see again, or sell this year: 9
4. Total Approximate Volume I think will be actual: 25,103
5. Approximate Income from these: 5580
That's it for now- more later on- Brian
After reviewing my Summary of Sales Reports, these are my Regional's Advice and Insights:
1. Increase your number of contacts/week, shoot for 5 (kept) appointments/week
2. Increase your appointments/week- set & kept 5 appointment per week
3. For Employer Presentations, use the first 10 minutes to build rapport, instead of going straight into the Aflac Presentation, 10 minutes for Raport, 10 minutes for Aflac
4. During the first 10 minutes- Sell Yourself and your servicing of their business
5. Don't talk about rates, plans, or products in the Employer Presentation- Make this presentation fun and simple, not complex, the goal is to set the Employee Presentation through this Employer Meeting
6. Goal for the Employer (ER) Presentation is to Set the Employee (EE) Presentation- you should leave with two tentative dates, A: the EE Presentation Date, B: the EE Enrollment Date
7. Give the Employees one day to "think things over", if Presentation is on Monday, the follow-up Enrollment should be on Wednesday.
8. Again, the main goal of the Employer (ER) Presentation is to set the dates for the Employee (EE) Presentation and the Employee (EE) Enrollment.
9. For Doctors Offices, it is generally good to bring the office lunch on the day for the Employee Presentation (EE).
10. You should, during the Employer (ER) Presentation, ask specific Questions that help you understand when the best time to give the Employee (EE) Presentation will be: "Is there an Employee Break before Noon?", "Do all Employees take the same lunch time breaks?".
11. Know and plan for your immediate goals prior to the meetings: Goal # 1 is to Set the Employer (ER) Presentation, Goal # 2 is to Set the Employee (EE) Presentation and Enrollment.
12. If the Employer (ER) allows you to see the Employees, he/she has given you the "ok" to sell the Employees your products.
13. Learn to be able to understand if a comment is a genuine objection or if it is just an excuse, this makes a big difference.
14. Definitely USE the Information Sheets when giving the Employer Presentation, these allow you to get information about each employee and the products that they may be interested in, not doing this will hurt your ability to close them during the enrollment dart. This is the sheet they list their name and the products they would like information on / about.
15. When you go to the Enrollment, you simply meet with the Employees one to one, and during this time review the "information sheet" that they gave you during the first presentation- during this one to one meeting you explain all the benefits after your ask them the right questions, identify their needs for the product first, get some agreement on the benefit of the products and re-affirmation that the price is affordable, and the product would give them "piece of mind"- etc.
Also during this meeting:
Sales Wrap Up:
There are about 20 businesses that I thought would be simple sales prior to having the Employer (ER) Meeting. The real statistics are these so far:
1. Closed out of these 20 = 0
2. Accounts that I really believe will close (out of these 20): 5
3. Prospects from these 20 that I don't think well see again, or sell this year: 9
4. Total Approximate Volume I think will be actual: 25,103
5. Approximate Income from these: 5580
That's it for now- more later on- Brian
Three Months in Aflac Sales
My first month with the company Aflac was in November, but this entire month was really filled with learning and training. December was the first real month of starting my sales with Aflac, but I still was doing a lot of learning (products and skills). January was really the first month that I felt confortable about doing presentations on my own, but I get tons of help from my District Coordinator. He's there to run any presentations that I need help with and generally his help is necessary as he has 4 years experience over me.
After many years of learning how to set appointments, I am not new to being able to use the telephone to set appointments. Generally, with small business owners (micro firms) they don't have a gatekeeper and setting appointments is very easy. Yet I have set many presentations with firms that have over 5-10 employees, and they don't seem to be easy sales as I predicted when I began.
Right now my main objective is to (weekly) set a minimum of 5 (kept) appointments. And generally these are with small and micro businesses (micro meaning 1-2 employees). The larger accounts that I have in my prospect pipeline seem very difficult to talk with the right person, generally the benefits director or HR person.
In February and March (2008) my goal is to learn more of the products we offer, so that presenting them is simple for me. Perhaps my main goal is going from the initial presentation and getting the sale. In December and January we ran a good deal of presentations, ones that I expected would close, many of them did not. So as a result I am not prospecting as much to large firms (50-100+ employees) and starting to target more small and micro firms.
My goal for 2008 is to get to the point to where I have about $1000 in income coming in each week, right now that does seem like a lofty goal based on the results from the December and January Sales results, or lack thereof.
That's all for today- Check back I will try to write daily or a couple times a week. Brian
After many years of learning how to set appointments, I am not new to being able to use the telephone to set appointments. Generally, with small business owners (micro firms) they don't have a gatekeeper and setting appointments is very easy. Yet I have set many presentations with firms that have over 5-10 employees, and they don't seem to be easy sales as I predicted when I began.
Right now my main objective is to (weekly) set a minimum of 5 (kept) appointments. And generally these are with small and micro businesses (micro meaning 1-2 employees). The larger accounts that I have in my prospect pipeline seem very difficult to talk with the right person, generally the benefits director or HR person.
In February and March (2008) my goal is to learn more of the products we offer, so that presenting them is simple for me. Perhaps my main goal is going from the initial presentation and getting the sale. In December and January we ran a good deal of presentations, ones that I expected would close, many of them did not. So as a result I am not prospecting as much to large firms (50-100+ employees) and starting to target more small and micro firms.
My goal for 2008 is to get to the point to where I have about $1000 in income coming in each week, right now that does seem like a lofty goal based on the results from the December and January Sales results, or lack thereof.
That's all for today- Check back I will try to write daily or a couple times a week. Brian
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