A Bailout Plan for Insurance Sales Pros

If you haven’t felt assaulted by bad economic news lately, you live in the woods with no TV, no newspaper, and no Internet service. The stock market has lost trillions. Real estate values and sales have declined at record rates all across the United States. Layoffs are epidemic, small businesses can’t get loans they need to make ends meet, and retirement 401ks have plummeted 30 percent on average. And to add insult to injury, banks and automakers have had their hands out, imploring Uncle Sam to rescue them from their own incompetence and bad judgment.

If you’re an insurance professional or salesperson, you may well be wondering: Who’s going to bail me out? The answer, of course (unless you’re AIG), is “no one.” Not the government, not the president, not your employer, not your customers.

According to George Ludwig, you, as insurance professionals, must use smart, time-tested business and sales strategies to bail out yourselves

“Each and every one of us must do our part to conquer this crisis,” said Ludwig, the author of “Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code.” (Kaplan Publishing) “We must participate in our own rescue by not giving up, by refusing to use the slow economy as an excuse for poor performance, by staying in front of our customers, and by continuing to use proven ‘best practices’ to reach sales success.”

Ludwig compares the current situation to a whitewater rafting trip he took years ago on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. “We were about to head out, and our instructor was giving us last-minute safety lessons,” he said. “He warned us that if we should capsize, he might not be able to get to us immediately and that we had to participate in our own rescue. He told us to be resourceful and do everything we could to save ourselves until he could get to us. And I think that’s what we salespeople must do now. We must participate in our own rescue, be accountable for our actions, and realize there is no point in waiting for the government or anyone else to throw us a lifesaver.”

Your Own Rescue Plan

So how do business and salespeople conquer this crisis and orchestrate their own rescue plan? Here are eight fundamental keys: