Wholesaling demands that you be fit physically and emotionally.

Welcome Dr. Barton Goldsmith, who is a three-time award winning psychotherapist, a syndicated columnist and radio host, as well as a recognized keynote speaker.

He has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, CBS News, NBC News, Beauty and The Geek, and The Greg Behrendt Show.

Dr. Goldsmith was named by Cosmopolitan Magazine and in the book The Complete Marriage Counselor  as one of America’s top therapists. He was also one of 12 authors who inspired, was sited and quoted in bestselling author Alisa Bowman’s new book Project: Happily Ever After, in addition his own books; Emotional Fitness for Couples – 10 Minutes a Day to a Better Relationship and the sequel, Emotional Fitness for Intimacy – Sweeten and Deepen Your Love in Just 10 Minutes a Day which were included in the Oscar “Swag Bags” as well as the 2009 Primetime Emmy gift bags.

Dr. Goldsmith also published Emotional Fitness at Work – 6 Strategic Steps to Success Using the Power of Emotion, the third in the Emotional Fitness book series in September ’09.

His most recent book is 100 Ways to Boost Your Self-Confidence – Believe in Yourself and Others Will Too.

He’s also one of the many amazing contributors to I Carry The Bag magazine.

Please enjoy our chat with Dr. Goldsmith.

flickr credit

Similar Posts:

• Wholesalers: Put Down The Cheeseburger And Slowly Back Away From The Plate – Michelle May, M.D.
• How Can Wholesalers Sell To Crazy Busy Advisors? – Jill Konrath
• Trends That Will Affect Wholesalers and Their Leaders – Lee Kowarski
• Advisor ADHD: Are Wholesalers Being Heard? – Maribeth Kuzmeski
• 5 Ways Wholesalers Can Reduce Stress – Life Coach Mary Allen
• Wholesalers: What’s Your Schmooze Quotient? – Susan RoAne
• How Do Wholesalers Build Loyalty With Advisors? – Shep Hyken

Are wholesaler focused on the wrong numbers?

No, I have not lost my mind.

Yes, dollars in the door – gross tonnage – is still the measurement of success for virtually most wholesalers.

But what if production is the wrong number to focus on every single day?

Unlike sales professions where we control the end buyer, we only get to attempt to influence the intermediary.

That means we can’t walk away from a day’s work knowing that we sold a car, a container, or a house.

So, instead of obsessing about how much business we need to do daily, to meet our monthly goal and our annual goal, what about eating the elephant (your goal) in more bite size pieces?

You eat the elephant instead of the elephant eating you.

Try setting goals for:

• Number of appointments daily
• Number of appointments weekly
• Number of new prospects seen weekly
• Number of hypos or illustration run weekly
• Number of drop-ins attempted weekly
• Number of branch meetings weekly
• Number of social events weekly
• Number of referrals requested weekly
• Number of successful forward schedules completed weekly
• Number of thank you calls completed weekly
• Number of thanks you notes (email or snail-mail) completed weekly
• Number of client events scheduled monthly

This much is true: if you take care of the numbers then the numbers will take care of you.

So, if you diligently and thoughtfully goal set around these numbers – and hit these goals with regularity – the production will follow.

I have never seen it not.

Until the time when the production numbers fall in line, you get to celebrate success each and every time you meet or exceed these goals.

And celebrating success feels good.

And when you feel good, you do good.

Mojo anyone?

I Carry The Bag is now in it’s 3rd year. Are you subscribed yet?Similar Posts:

• How Much Love Should Wholesalers Give To Top Producers?
• 5 Ways For Wholesalers To Cope With Feeling Overwhelmed
• 7 Ways To Get A New Internal Wholesaler Off To A Fast Start
• 20 Questions Wholesalers Should Ask Themselves To Have A Career Year In 2012
• 7 Essential Wholesaling Skills Your Manager Wants You to Have
• 6 Checkpoint Topics For Wholesalers To Discuss With Advisors
• Wholesaler Survey 2011 – The Results: Part One

At a recent 2 hour workshop session for a group of wholesalers, one of the activities we did was strengthening the quality of the questions that they asked both existing advisors (to deepen the relationship) and prospects (to find the point of pain).

As the group was sharing which of the 76 Great Questions they would be adding to their repertoire, one wholesaler piped in with the following (paraphrased but damn near verbatim):

“Rob, I’ve been a wholesaler since 1993 and in all the time I have found that my best approach in appointments is to talk about me. Reps want to know about my accomplishments, why I’m qualified and what I can bring to the equation”, he said.

He continued, “If I’m the 6th guy in his office that asks him the same questions he’s just going to get aggravated.”

My reply was that, “I respectfully disagree.”

Now I’d like to amend that answer to I couldn’t disagree more.

When was the last time you were successfully sold anything by someone that only talks about themselves?

Isn’t the whole point of asking great questions (not to be confused with the standard, seemingly obligatory, bullshit questions) and then listening to the answers with a high degree of empathy, to get insights that help you formulate how you’ll sell to the prospect?

To demonstrate your ability to walk in the advisors shoes?

To find out where their pain is?

To discern what solutions you’ll provide that will be attractive?

The whole exchange of questions and answers is about client discovery, yes.

And it’s also about the foundational building blocks of solid advisor relationships that are formed by what you ask and how you react/respond.

What if you could get more sales ideas and best practice information cross pollinated through out your entire firm – and do it it a way that increases information adoption and results?

Now you can with Wholesaler Masterminds Private Label Radio.

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• 2011 Update: 24 Great Ideas Wholesalers Use to be More Productive – and Memorable
• How to Craft a Story and Spin It
• 5 Things to Do to Make COIs Love You
• 14 Guaranteed Ways to Achieve Success With Your Internal Wholesaler

If you are like a lot of wholesalers, or just plain human, you likely spend too much time in your own head.

And that’s why Theo Androus is with us for this episode of Wholesaler Masterminds Radio.

Theo works closely with individuals and organizations to help them increase the profitability and effectiveness of their businesses.

His expertise in the areas of Referral Generation, Business Development, Practice Management, and Client Retention has made him a frequent and popular speaker at industry meetings and conferences. Theo is known for being a repeat presenter and is often invited back year after year.

Theo is an incredibly dynamic speaker. As soon as Theo gets in front of the audience, they know that he is an extremely gifted speaker who will bring them real-world solutions with specific, actionable strategies. From the rookie to the seasoned professional, Theo’s messages have meaningful and lasting value.

He’s also been one of the many amazing contributors to I Carry The Bag magazine.

Please enjoy our discussion with Theo.

Wholesaler Masterminds Private Label Radio is now available for you to bring sales ideas and best practices to your entire organization!

flick creditSimilar Posts:

• Wholesaler Talent Is Overrated – Geoff Colvin
• Great Wholesalers Don’t Disrespect Others
• Are Wholesalers Getting to The Question Behind The Question? – John Miller
• 6 Ways Wholesalers Become Franchise Players
• 24 Great Ideas Wholesalers Use to be More Productive…and Memorable
• Wholesalers Need to Get Dirty in the Data – Steve DeLano
• 10 Better Questions Hiring Managers Can Ask Of Wholesaling Candidates

In our coaching and live appearances we speak about the power of email marketing for wholesalers – when it’s done correctly.

Here, from TechJournal is an infographic that includes more sobering statistics.

Statistics that mean you need to work harder to break through the clutter of the financial advisor’s inbox.

Also read:

5 Ways Wholesalers Develop More Openable And Readable Emails
Newsflash: Advisors Are Not Opening Your Emails
There’s Always A Crack In The Door For Wholesalers To Get Through

[click image to display full size]

flickr creditSimilar Posts:

• There’s Always A Crack In The Door For Wholesalers To Get Through
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• 5 Ways Wholesalers Develop More Openable And Readable Emails
• 6 Ways Wholesalers Become Franchise Players
• The Door Is Wide Open So Why Aren’t Wholesalers Walking Through It?
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• 7 Most Popular Posts in March 2011

Quotes are great.

They get you to think.

Have the ability to inspire.

Give you a window into the thoughts of great minds.

Here are 23 quotes that we think speak to wholesalers and their leaders:

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” ~Vidal Sassoon

“I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement.”~Donald Trump

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” ~Babe Ruth

“Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching.” ~George Van Valkenburg

“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” ~Will Smith

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.” ~Thomas J. Watson

“I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep.” ~Charles Maurice

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

“You should always stay hungry. Stay hungry, so you can eat.” ~Syed Balkhi

“If hard work is the key to success, most people would rather pick the lock.” ~Claude McDonald

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky

“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” ~Earl Wilson

“Not a single person whose name is worth remembering lived a life of ease.”~Ryan P. Allis

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~Mark Twain

“The road to success is always under construction.” ~Arnold Palmer

“Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune.” ~Jim Rohn

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” ~Napoleon Hill

“Hire character. Train skill.” ~Peter Schultz

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” ~Henry Ford

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.” ~Catherine Cook

“Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.” ~John F. Kennedy

“Start today, not tomorrow. If anything, you should have started yesterday.” ~Emil Motycka

The Wholesaler Masterminds Business Builders Store is open – step on in.

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• TMT – The Only Thing A Wholesaler Has To Offer
• 3 Ways Wholesalers Can Influence Advisors – Steven Gaffney
• 20 Questions Wholesalers Should Ask Themselves To Have A Career Year In 2012

Do you get dirty in the data?

If you have used the Wholesaler Masterminds Rotation Builder then you know it’s a terrific tool to assist you with the proper way to cover your territory so that you run it – and not the opposite.

One of the important elements of properly constructing the Rotation Builder is to understand where, geographically, your reps are concentrated in the region.

By state, city, address, and zip code.

Until recently I thought I needed to purchase an expensive program to map advisors.

Silly me.

Watch this (expand video to full size screen and set quality option to 720p HD for better viewing):

Wholesaler Masterminds coaching clients get tons of ideas about ways to improve their practices – why not find out more?

flickr creditSimilar Posts:

• There’s Always A Crack In The Door For Wholesalers To Get Through
• 5 Ways Financial Advisors Partner With Wholesalers
• How Can Wholesalers Sell To Crazy Busy Advisors? – Jill Konrath
• Wholesalers Shouldn’t Neglect The Movable Middle
• 4 Things That Advisors Need From Wholesalers In Today’s Market
• 2011 Update: 24 Great Ideas Wholesalers Use to be More Productive – and Memorable
• How to Craft a Story and Spin It

Wholesalers are BUSY folks.

Scheduling your appointments.

Making travel plans.

Ordering the necessary literature.

Preparing winning presentations.

Traveling to appointments.

Meeting with advisors.

Taking/making endless phone calls.

Reading/responding to floods of emails.

CRM data entry of your appointments.

Sending follow up correspondence.

Responding to home office/manager special requests.

And the other countless business tasks (not to mention the stuff going on in your personal life) that cause even the greatest wholesalers to feel, at times, completely overwhelmed.

So what’s a wholesaler to do?

What allows you to mitigate the noise and decompress from the insanity?

1. Invest in admin assistance:

Have you ever calculated your hourly wage?

At $250k per year (depending on the number of hours a week you work) it’s north of $100 per hour.

That’s a lot of money for administrative work.

Check out sites like HireMyMom or elance and you’ll be amazed at the quality of help you can find at prices that will surprise you.

In fact, that’s how I found my assistant Wendy – and she’s awesome.

If you had to spend an extra $500 per month to make an extra $50,000 a year isn’t that money well spent?

Not ready for that leap?

Then use technology more effectively.

Explore Dragon Dictation to dictate call notes for cut/paste into CRM.

Both CamCard and CardMunch (a LinkedIn product) allow for effective tracking and handling of business cards collected at conferences and larger rep events.

2. Make a list:

Sure it sounds basic – and it works.

Just the fact that you can get all the thoughts that are swirling in your brain out on to a real or virtual piece of paper helps relieve the overwhelmed.

I use both a simple spiral bound loose-leaf notebook (which, once filled, is always saved and filed by date) for bigger projects and online note services/to dos for daily/weekly task reminders.

Apps/sites like Evernote, Fetchnotes, Toodledo are all used by wholesalers to effectively get a handle on the endless stream of things to be done.

3. Me (you) time:

Your clients, prospects, internals, boss, spouse, kids, friends, acquaintances, social networking ‘pals’ etc. all require bits and pieces of your precious time.

So, where is your ‘you’ time?

Make a commitment to yourself to:

Go get a massage
Take a long solo bike ride
Go for a run
Sit on a bench
Walk around a city and take photos (one of my favorites that I’ve recently started to chronicle on Pinterest)
Read a non business book
Stare at a wall

It doesn’t matter what the what is – it matters that you take time for you.

4. Remove tolerations from your life:

In the Fall 2011 edition of I Carry The Bag, Life Coach Mary talked about the importance of removing tolerations from your list of life’s daily to dos.

What are tolerations?

They’re the little items that pile up in our lives and take up space in our thoughts – space that can be freed up for more impactful/important items.

It’s everything from that errand you keep meaning to run to the household item you keep meaning to get repaired.

5. Get more comfortable with the word ‘no’:

We are wired to say ‘yes’ as much as possible because as sales professionals we feel we might miss something if we say no.

And the truth is you have to say no from time to time…even though it may never feel good to say it.

However, your ability to say no, to find alternative solutions and navigate creative outcomes will most certainly lessen the weight of feeling overwhelmed.

Five ways to keep the overwhelmed gremlins from wreaking havoc on your wholesaling mind and body.

Question: What do you do to get past the feeling of being overwhelmed?

Let us (and your peers) know in the comments below.

Our Wholesaler Masterminds Coaching programs, whether experienced privately or in groups, live at your meet or via telephone, address the widest possible range of topics that effect wholesalers and their leaders – we invite you to contact us to learn more.

Also, here is post from Zen Habits that may assist as well: A Guide to Cutting Back When You Feel Overwhelmed

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• Wholesalers Are Feeling Optimistic As The New Year Unfolds
• 12 Numbers For Wholesalers To Obsess About Besides Production
• 10 Ways to Ignite the Fuse With a Producer

Big question.

And recently one that has come up more than once with my coaching clients.

As a former disgruntled employee – turned satisfied entrepreneur - I have a strong point of reference.

Clearly the economy of our wholesaling community since 2008 has been all the motivation many would need to stay in place, endure the unhappiness, and keep the dollars coming in.

But most of us we get wonderlust from time to time – it’s human nature.

So we start to convince ourselves that the grass is greener.

Even though it might be crab grass.

As I made my way through my Google Reader recently I came across the image at the top of this post.

It came from It Starts With and contained the following thought provoking questions:

Am I my best self in this relationship?
Do I believe in the product, organization, or service?
How does this job make me feel? Good, Accomplished, Satisfied?
Am I challenged to be my best?
Am I growing and learning?
Am I meeting or surrounding myself with good people doing interesting things?
Are people in this organization open to new ideas and receptive to each other?
Is this the best use of my skills and talents? Aka – Am I indispensible?
Are there people I can learn from and look up to? Do I have good mentors or advisers?
Do I want to become my boss?

These are great questions to check-in with yourself about from time to time.

In addition, wholesalers are not the only ones staying in place while evaluating/contemplating change.

Our most senior leaders of distribution also wrestle with the ‘should I stay or should I go’ question.

In fact, Kathy Freeman Company recently released their annual whitepaper which contained the survey findings about this very topic:

Our coaching covers a wide range of wholesaler, divisional manager and national sales managers issues. If you’ve been contemplating working with a professional coach contact us and let’s have a discussion.Similar Posts:

• 23 Great Quotes For Wholesalers
• Wholesaler Masterminds Radio: Deeper COI Relationships
• 11 Things Wholesalers Must Do To Ensure A Long And Successful Career
• 11 Reasons Great Wholesalers Leap Out Of Bed In The Morning
• 40 Adjectives That Describe Great Wholesalers
• Trends That Will Affect Wholesalers and Their Leaders – Lee Kowarski
• Wholesaling Chicken or Wholesaling Egg? – The Epilogue

A number of years ago I hired a speaker to address a group of financial advisors.

His message was impactful and struck a chord with most of the audience.

Recently while working with a coaching client, the client remarked to one of my comments, “Oh, you mean finding out the question behind the question”.

And it was at that moment I knew I had to invite John Miller to join us here.

John is the author of QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, Flipping the Switch: Unleash the Power of Personal Accountability, Outstanding! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional and co-author of Parenting the QBQ Way: How to be an Outstanding Parent and Raise Great Kids Using the Power of Personal Accountability.

He is founder of QBQ, Inc., an organizational development firm based in Colorado dedicated to “Helping Organizations Make Personal Accountability a Core Value.”

A 1980 graduate of Cornell University, John has been involved in the training and speaking industry since 1986. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Karen. They have seven children and one grandson.

John will have an article in the next issue of I Carry The Bag…the official magazine of wholesaling, celebrating it’s second anniversary – are you subscribed yet? If not, look at what you’ve missed.

flickr creditSimilar Posts:

• Wholesalers Need To Suck Before They Soar – Theo Androus
• 7 Ways To Get A New Internal Wholesaler Off To A Fast Start
• 5 Ways For Wholesalers To Cope With Feeling Overwhelmed
• 24 Great Ideas Wholesalers Use to be More Productive…and Memorable
• Great Wholesalers Don’t Disrespect Others
• Wholesalers Need to Get Dirty in the Data – Steve DeLano
• Stats For Wholesalers Who Send Emails