YOU'RE FIRED!

Nine agents face The Ultimate agriculturist Challenge

The room was hushed as the nine finalists walked in, wondering what to wait for The silence was quickly dispersed as sales guru Roger Sitkins started not on by explaining why he was not wearing a Donald trumpet wig in his role as entertainer of this misbegotten offspring of "The Apprentice." "I direct the eyeed even worse in the wig than The Donald," he quipped. And for a like reason it began.

Each of the nine finalists had applied to be part of this eight-hour undertaking through submitting a brief essay upon why they should be considered for designation as The Ultimate farmer (For a list of the finalists, diocese the sidebar on page 60) The Ultimate husbandman Challenge took place on the final day of the Independent Insurance Agents & agents of America (IIABA) Annual Convention held in fresh York City. The final sum of two units were on stage at the closing general session prior to the featured speaker, Rudolph Giuliani. The winner was not absented with a check for $2500 and recognition as The Ultimate husbandman while the runner-up was "fired" before what revolveed out to be a standing-room-only concourse of more than 1,000 tribe So the stakes were high.

The beginning session began at 8 a.m. sharp with a threat of push-ups hanging above any stragglers. It ended at noon. The breaks, the longitudinal dimensions of which were determined and announced by means of Roger, occurred approximately every hour. They were started and extreme pointed by a coach's whistle with the same stricture regarding timeliness.

With single exception, that being myself, the morning session was clos and was an educational session where the nine participants learned and practiced what was awaited of them in the afternoon session. At the session following luncheon the contestants would have to face the public and The Roger the Ultimate Arbiter of The Ultimate farmer Challenge, and could be fired.

WIN

The morning session began with Roger presenting a WIN (What Is Normal) list that involved strategies and skills that each of the nine were suppos to make normal in their selling careers. "Our real goal here is to transform," Roger said. "I want each of you to gaze at me as one of your large clients or scenes You have to be externally focused upon your clients and prospects, to diocese things through their eyes, thus that you can be proactive, rather than reactive."

The objective is to become each client's trusted advisor. To determine if an agent has been lucky in this endeavor is quite simple. If the client calls the agent before he makes a significant change in the way he or she is doing business, then the agent is a trusted advisor. If the agent finds without after the fact, then the agent is a vendor.

Roger put in mind ofed several other areas where an agent could transform from primarily reactive to proactive. "Have trusted advisor lunches where you invite an important client to advance in and discuss anything and everything. Determine exactly what you make from a client and expend 5% of those revenues upon that client. And do that in a meaningful way. Talk to your clients and remember what their likes and dislikes are. When you achieve them a gift on their birthday or for no reason at all, make it something they will remember. If they're avid football fans and you can acquire tickets for a game, that might be the memorable gift. on the other hand make certain you know whom the client's favorite team is. You don't want to be sending an avid Gator fan to a Hurricane game."

Pareto's Principle

It may unbroken a lot like what individual learned in kindergarten. Well, that isn't pure of the next segmentPareto's Principle-although it is relatively simple. It's the 80/20 rule

While it appears simple, the application of the control can be difficult and takes a change in mindset for many family The first application of the control applies to the personal transformation that agents ne to sustain in order to become ultimate farmers Most agents are spending 80% of their time reacting to situations. Ultimate farmers spend 80% of their time proactively.

So in what way is an agent going to become more proactive when that agent is taking care of a lump of clients? That's where the next to the first use of Pareto's Principle conies into play. The agent necessitys to pare down the number of clients to "the vital few" It wholes counterintuitive. But, in order to become an ultimate farmer an agent needs to enlarge by reducing the number of clients in his or her work "Agents need to analyze their volume of business with the 80/20 mastership in mind," Roger advised. "On average, the bottom 25% alone provides 2% of an agent's revenue; the bottom 50% solitary provides 5%. These are the clients who ne to be traded to another one in the agency who have affection fors working with smaller accounts. We don't want the independent agency a whole to lose these clients. on the other hand we do want them to be handled by the agency of a person who is best able to do the piece of work Then you can concentrate upon increasing your revenue by concentrating upon a select group of clients of a certain income size.

"Consider the fact that the top 2% of clients at the average agency provide 31% of the agency's income and you can see quite dramatically who exigencys to be treated best, in the way that they can be retained."