So, I’ve made a slight turn again to cover a topic that seems to get ignored a lot.

So….Yes…

We’re still in our series:

Selling Opportunities Come From Everywhere

http://howtosellpreneed.com/prospecting/selling-opportunities-come-from-everywhere#more-2650

The above link will take you to the first part of the series but…

But, well, here I go again.

I received a rambling email and thought I’d address the rambling nature more than the problem which I think are one in the same.

You’ve often heard me talk about FOCUS and staying on track.

Even though I’m not a big fan of scripts it is important to outline where you are and where you’re heading.

So, scripts can help keep you focused on the task and yes, for some, internalizing the words of the presentation can help as well.  (I have scripts on the catalog page that will be available shortly).

By the way, this is another reason why I constantly preach the “4 Commitments to a Sale”  (check the catalog page)

Get those commitments and you’ll get the sale every single time.  Miss a commitment and you risk a “no” sale.

YOU are an expert Pre-Need Seller.

I don’t care if you’ve been in the business one day YOU are an expert.  You know infinitely more than almost anyone on the street including your prospect.

The worst thing you can do with all that knowledge is tell everyone you meet everything you know.

Because most prospects…heck, all prospects…are interested in ME, the ME being YOUR PROSPSECT.

It is way more important to share information with your Prospect that is applicable to your Prospect.

How do you know what information to share with your prospect?

Well, that’s the point I’m making today and the response I sent our email friend above.

You’ve got to listen to your prospect to determine the information your prospect is looking for and not the other way around.

You’re not a Preacher….

You’re a Presenter of info….

And that info must be relevant to your prospect.

The only way of knowing what is relevant to your prospect is to ask questions and listen closely to the responses.

The old formula of listening 80% of the time and speaking 20% of the time with a focused clear path of where you want to go solves the problem of TWADDLE.

And, twaddle was exactly what I found in the email I received from our friend.

How do you eliminate the twaddle?

Go back to the basics.  Go through the presentation script.  Go through the 4 commitments to a sale.

Go through and streamline what you’re doing by listening to what your prospect is telling you.

In fact, when you get really good at this you’ll hear your prospect tell you how to sell them.

It’s that simple!

Happy Selling without Twaddle!

David…

P.S.  Most of the answers to selling pre-arrangements can be found on the catalog page.  I’m about to launch the Whole Enchilada (everything I’ve got including the kitchen sink!)

All subscribers will be notified when the Whole Enchilada is ready.

If you’re a member I’ve got something even more special for you.

Stay tuned…

Catalog

…..

I’ve known plenty of people in my lifetime who have had a mindset so strong that nothing could stop them from succeeding.

What’s interesting is that no matter how strong your mindset very few sellers of pre-arrangements have…

Referral Mindset

Because it is so difficult to describe I’m going to give you some examples.

A close friend of mine believes in referrals so much that he’ll forgo the sale in order to get a referral.  His attitude is; “if they aren’t going to purchase from me anyway I’d rather get in front of someone else.  And, heck, why not get in front of someone else without doing any more work?”

I have another friend who played minor league baseball (he never could quite make the majors) but was a terrific seller of life insurance.  He told me once, “Dave, when I went to bat I was looking for one pitch and one pitch only.  It didn’t matter to me what the pitch count was because I had a mindset that there was one pitch I could hit out of the park and that’s the one I looked for.”

I know a very successful Salesperson who has made a great living out of referral prospecting.  You’d recognize the company he works for but his division doesn’t advertise.  He doesn’t advertise.  In fact, he only works from referrals.  Nothing else.  He has the referral mindset.  In fact, he asks for referrals in every step of his system.

You could call his prospecting system; Referral Prospecting.  He does it very well.

From first making contact, to the presentation, staying-in-touch, follow-up, and sale.  Everything he does is geared toward referrals.

You’ve got to get that “referral Mindset” down. 

You’ve got to get that mindset deep down into your bowels.  It’s got to be in your gut to where it is so much part of you that you ask at every stage.

Referrals are the hardest (because hardly anyone asks) and yet the EASIEST WAY TO GET MORE SALES.

When you meet Prospects referred to you that’s the way they believe you do business.  So, for Pete’s sake, make sure you ask for referrals from the beginning, to the middle, and the end.  Ask for referrals!

Begin your new referral mindset today.  Incorporate that mindset into your system NOW.

Just do it!

Happy Selling!

David…

…

No, I’m not talking about production numbers or commissions.  I’m talking the difference between a true warrior and a so-so mediocre producer.

The difference between a premier running back in football and an average back is a half-step.  The premier running back is half-step quicker.  That’s all.

Not much really.

The difference between Premier producing pre-need sellers and average is pretty minor as well.  But, the difference is big because average producers will not do what they have to do to break-out of mediocrity.

So, how do you go from an average producer to a premier achiever selling pre-arrangements?

Three Tips

Tip one:  Do something every day that will bring you closer to a sale.  A few extra phone calls, some letters sent out, prospecting for an hour, work the cemetery grounds, follow-up with a family.  Every single work day should include something to get you closer to a sale.

Tip two:   Develop another niche group to capture.  Start with your own Natural Market, search for Champion Endorser®.  Your cemetery/funeral home has a natural market.  Are you tapping into these markets?

Tip three:  Mindset change.  This is the most difficult.  It isn’t easy changing the way you think.  If you believe you can’t do it, you won’t do it.  I’ll be posting a lot more on mindset changes.  If there were one area you should focus on the most it is this area.

Your own belief system is powerful.  It has taken years for you to develop your outlook.  A good friend of mine is putting together some info on what I would term the “Selling Factor”.

There are some Pre-Need Warriors who seem to be a “natural” at selling.  Those successful warriors are willing, able, and just plain “do” what mediocre producers will not.

Where do you fit in this category?

Can you become a warrior?

I know you can do it.  We’ll cover some of the specific pieces to the puzzle next time.

Happy selling!

David…

…

It wasn’t formal, just two guys talking about how the business has changed over the years.  My ten years, his 20 years of experience from when we first started, 5 years later, 5 more years later, and all of a sudden, we ended at the beginning.

Yes, 2010.  The beginning of the New Year and the question becomes….What is the state of pre-need?  Will the recession have an impact?

“David,” my friend said.  “it’s a different world we live in compared to 20 years ago.  Cremation, memorialization, the attitudes now compared to way back.”

“Yes,” I said.  “I know many of my friends long for days gone by.”

Yes, indeed, it is interesting because for my friend the first 10 years were the most fun and for me the first 10 years were the most fun.  But, of course, my ten years came ten years later.

But, my friend thinks the industry has changed so much that he’s not so sure about the future.

I’ve often said that the reality of selling pre-need has not changed one bit.  You see, it’s still about the basics.  It’s still about the economics.  It’s still about the type of business you should be chasing….not anything…..but business that benefits you as much as your customer.

You’ve heard me preach this thousands of times but for the sake of the first of the year let’s try it again.

If you are new or an old-timer in the pre-need business (and for those of you who keep up with this site in the car, real estate, life insurance, and other industries) the same rules apply.

Figure out what your average sale equals (average commission on that sale) and what you have to do to get that business.  How much time and energy you must invest.  This is how you can figure out what your income will be.

If you are a cemetery or funeral home owner let me repeat this for you…what type of business do you want?  If it is traditional business that’s where you need to focus all of your energies.

Forget about the pocket change and don’t even try and compete against the really low cost providers…you won’t win….and by the way, they won’t win either.

No business built on being the “lowest cost” provider has ever survived in the long run.  None.  And before you begin emailing me on some of the current businesses that will remain nameless do some homework.

Being the lowest priced in town has been tried over and over again.  Just take a look in the history books of big name businesses that have bitten the dust because someone else found a better way to provide the lowest cost items.

There’s no loyalty in “CHEAP”.

I’ve been doing an experiment with a low cost (I mean very low cost) provider.  I’ll update you in a few months.  But for purposes of this conversation it isn’t working.

Cheap doesn’t work in the long run and it won’t get you any loyalty either.

Anyway, I digress.

We were talking about my conversation with an old-timer about the current pre-need selling environment including some attitude changes.

I took a marketing course in college once that described the life cycle of a business (and product).

The theory was that in the beginning you have a star, followed by a cash cow, and ultimately it becomes a dog and dies out.

Unless the product is reintroduced it will remain dead until it’s abandoned and forgotten about all together.

We had been studying about a certain soap that had been around for 100 years.  It was the top selling soap until all of a sudden it was losing market share quickly.

Finally, in a desperate bid to save it the company reintroduced it as a low cost brand.

For all my college years this really was fascinating because my teacher said it was a brilliant strategy.

But, if the teacher had thought about the strategy he would have ridiculed it because the company never recovered the product.  Yes, it is still around as a low-end alternative but none the less the profit margin is so low they have to sell truck loads just to make a couple of bucks.  For you owners out there that’s the problem with low cost strategies.  You make almost no profit and in some cases lose money and hope to make it up in volume.

What the maker of the soap should have done was reintroduced the new and improved soap and “niched” it for a particular segment of the population.  When you niche a product you’ll typically sell less but for more money and higher profit margin. 

In the deathcare industry traditional ground burial (mausoleum) offer the highest profit margin.  Are there as many traditional burials as there used to be?  NO.  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a strong niche for this type of product/service.  One key to capturing this market is to know who your customer is and how to communicate your message.

That’s what I shared with my friend who had been in the pre-need business for 20 years.

“You’ve got to reinvent yourself”

He didn’t necessarily agree but I can assure you that the reason was simple.

When you reintroduce yourself you’ve got to figure out a way of prospecting for new business in front of the correct crowd.

That’s the real secret to selling pre-need (or cars, or real estate, insurance, you name it).

It’s about Prospecting in front of the right crowd likely to purchase from you.

I’ve heard it said that you need the correct:

• group of people
• and message to those people
• and delivery of the message

Niche prospecting is locating a group of people likely to purchase from you, develop the message, and deliver the message.

We’ll be discussing this and a lot more about how to locate the “niche” group in the coming days.

And, yes, I’ll be talking more about the long conversation I had with my friend about the present environment for selling pre-need.

Until Next time…Happy Selling!

David…

P.S.  I preach this a lot but because it is the first of the year and I need to bring it up again.  If you want to see a Doctor would you want that Doctor to keep up to date with all the latest doctoring advances.

Just because you’re in sales doesn’t mean you need to stop learning or re-learning.

What I’m saying to you is to invest in your SELF.  No one else will.  You’ve got to do it your SELF.  So, if it’s a book, a tape, a conference, or combination, training classes, start now. 

I’ve got stuff to help you.  Check out the catalog page but don’t get CHEAP like the low cost providers.

And, for Pete’s sake, don’t become obsolete.  Invest in YOUr self so you don’t become obsolete!

…..

I refer to this as a Champion Endorser® (see more on this in the Ultimate Package)

The best time to get referrals is early in the presentation.  The second best time to get referrals is to mention throughout the presentation and the third best time is after the sale.

In other words it is always a good time to ask for referrals.

Your monthly newsletter is another perfect opportunity to ask for referrals.

Whatever you do always be asking or bringing up the topic of referrals all the time.  People forget.  As soon as your new customer walks out the door he/she has forgotten all about it.  Remind them of referrals.

Finally, think about your process from beginning to end.

Put together a ‘referral’ opportunity into each step of your Marketing/Prospecting/selling/stay-in-touch/follow-up program. 

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

And, for Pete’s sake, don’t forget to reward your Referrer.  It can be a personal note, a pat on the back, dinner, candy, flowers.  Don’t forget to acknowledge your Referrer somehow some way.  I’m guilty of this mistake myself but you’ve got to do it (another one of my many New Year resolutions).  Better late than never but acknowledge your Referrer.  If you haven’t done so, do it now!

Happy Selling!

David…

…

A fellow pre-need seller (who will remain nameless) really aggravated me the other day when he said he “can’t get things done”.

We’ve been talking about goals and
dreams and how to achieve more in 6 months
than you achieved all last year.

Sometimes I refer to it as “execution” other times “get-r-done” and still other times, “just do it“.

My fellow pre-need seller was complaining that he can’t get out all the correspondence he wants by January 4th.  Mind you, he told me this on December 1st.

Why?  I asked.

There isn’t enough time, he replied.

One of the biggest problems I see with Pre-Need Sellers is a lack of disciplined.  You don’t have to be super organized just disciplined to do something every day that’ll get you where you want to go.

So, I said to him.  Diagram, or flow chart, or list the things you’d have to do to get your mailing out.  Heck, he had maybe 7 items on the list.  Once or twice a week he took care of one of the items no matter how long it took.

Well, within 3 weeks he had done it all and hardly noticed.

Now, he’ll get the mailing out with plenty of time to spare.

Here’s the lesson: 

Do something every day that gets
you closer to a sale. 
OR,
do something every day that gets
you closer to your goal.

Think of it like you were eating an elephant.  Elephants are huge.  How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Happy Selling!

David…

…