What Attracts More - Selling or Helping?

There are many distinctions related to taking a professional, helping approach over a sellingnapproach, and they have significant implications. Professionals help rather than sell. They have clientsninstead of customers/policyholders. They build relationships instead of conducting transactions. Theynoffer solutions instead of sales. They attract clients instead of pursuing customers. People buy fromnthem instead in being sold. They find cooperative opportunities instead of competitive obstacles. Thinknof the implications from these distinctions. We’ve always heard that people do business with peoplenthey like, and people like people who help. You’ve heard the term “trusted advisor”? This is what we’rentalking about. It occurs when you shift from selling to helping. Imagine having clients who are eager tonrefer others to you.

When you adopt the attitude of a professional and take the focus off the products, guess who the focusnfalls on? You! You become the service that clients buy. You become valuable. You become a resource.

You become an expert. Clients don’t look to insurance policies for answers, they look to you! One ofnthe greatest challenges in arriving at this mindset is becoming clear as to what makes you unique so youncan communicate it effectively to your prospects and clients. I often work with my clients on clarifyingntheir purpose and identifying their unique strengths so that their marketing and leadership is effective.
An interesting challenge we face is that we tend to downplay our strengths, especially if they comeneasily to us. We tend to take them for granted and we tend to assume that everyone has the same (ornbetter) abilities. A very revealing exercise I often ask clients to do is to ask five people they know for fiventraits that make them excellent at what they do. (My suggestion is to ask people who aren’t family. Asknclients, friends, and associates.) You may be surprised at the results. I find that the responses fall intonthree categories. 1) You’ll hear things about you that you and everyone else already knew and willnthereby get confirmation, 2) You’ll hear things that you already knew but didn’t think anyone elsennoticed, giving you new insights as to what people notice and value, and 3) You’ll hear things that younnever knew about yourself; things that never occurred to you to be a trait that others would value.
These traits and insights are the things that set you apart from all the others out there. These are thenthings that cause people to do business with you. These unique traits will help you be more effective asnyou contact new prospects, present your ideas, and generate referrals.

I find that when people aren’t clear about what sets them apart and aren’t clear about their purposen(Inotherwords, why they do what they do) they end up leading with their products and their company.
They rely on the strength and credibility of others instead of leading with themselves. The goal of everynprofessional should be to become credible in their own right. That doesn’t necessarily becoming thenforemost expert in their field, but it does mean becoming excellent at what they do as a professional –nhelping others. It means finding new ways to help. It may even mean helping in ways other than withninsurance. You can become a resource for information or a networking source of contacts within you
community. You can offer advice in other areas of business or life (other professionals are more thannhappy to provide you with article and insights you can pass on).

The whole point of this is to stop selling insurance and start helping people. It’s been said that peoplendon’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and it’s true. The interestingnconsequence is that when you take your focus off of selling and place it on helping, you’ll attract morenclients, generate more referrals, and sell more insurance. Life is good…