After jumping into fray, I realised I was in the world of selling once again, something I somehow didn’t relish. But still I was enthused. I was raring to go, however I had to cool my heels for couple of months, first there was delay in generation of advisor code, then there was an induction training program.
I had to undergo AIP or Advisor Induction Program. It was a four day affair and pretty intensive. I had attended a detailed session at Max New York Life, that came handy and I could understand the new concepts and products easily. I was already quiet clear on few policies, or so I thought.
At last my code arrived and I could go out on the road. My first experience though it was not entirely mine was with a colleague of mine. I caught hold of him, took him to the resturant and had called my unit manager too. And the unit manager gave the presentation. It was good enough, we were pretty convinced of our success. He asked for sometime to think. After somedays I realised the he had just bought time, he gave me the general excuse of lack money and of trust in the company. I tried to explain, but I was already angry and was seething.
In between there were number of presentaions by my unit manager, second presentation was to a low paid employee. Then two more of my colleagues who were there in Amway too. They listened carefully then, when I called them for follow up. One of them just refused plainly but other arrived. He sat there for a while and try to wriggle his way out. But my unit manager was persistant. And when he tried to counter his excuse of no money, he got angry and stood up and just walked out. Poor manager he was stunned and I felt sorry for him.
But that incident was enough to douse my fire of enthusiasm. I realised few things. First I selling insurance is tough just about as tough as selling Amway wares. Secondly selling could get humilating. Thirdly may be selling is not for me afterall. Lastly definately its tough to be Business Partner in three months. Business Partner is someone with about 10 L of business with him.
The more I thought about it more blue I felt. There was no friend in true sense. No one was ready to do something for me. Second was rage for Amway distributors, I knew number of them. I thought they were in the same team as me. As I was a salesman like them. So may be, so I thought, they would give me a more sympathetic hearing. But that was not to be, they refused to listen, few of them whom I asked, inspite of fact that they themselves poached on other peoples time they refused to listen to me. I had this self righteous rage. The rage continued and I rued at peoples limited financial literacy. Here I was selling this great product and people are refusing to listen. If they have no money now then what would happen 15 years down the line. They are saving in post office schemes, which are generating negative returns. So in effect they will have less money on hand then what they actually started with. And God forbid, if something untoward happens, then what will happen to their family’s financial security. These were issues of importance and people were not understanding and furthermore even refusing to listen.
Then something more happend, I happen to attend a training session by Branch Manager, contrary to my expectations, he was sparse in telling about the various products. He didnt get into details or indepth study. Then I happened to meet an advisor of other company Future Generali, she in her enthusiasm told me about the child plan of her company in detail and I couldn’t get it. Then I met an LIC agent a colleague too, I asked him about their child plan and he told me in couple of lines.
So I drew my conclusion: people don’t understand in the first go. One doesnt have to be verboise. Try to sparse and highlight the main point in simple and if possible metamorphic language.
I happened to read a book by Zig Ziglar on selling. Here he clarified and emphasised what I already knew somewhere that selling involves lot of rejections. I gained back some of my lost confidence, then a close friend of mine enthused me and asked me treat this as a learning period and take charge. I decided too after seeing the performance of my unit manager, he was able to motivate only me. So I decided to make presentations myself.
More about that later.
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Rendezvous 