All day, everyday, I work with wholesalers who are laser focused on being the best at their craft.

We/they meticulously and introspectively toil over the smallest details of the business looking for the edge that, frankly, is going to crush you in your region.

And here is a business building nugget that I offer to you without charge or obligation that will change your business too.

It’s a 100% proven and effective way to increase your sales.

A way that will earn you the respect of advisors, your boss, your peers and, well, just about anyone with a pulse.

A way that screams, “I AM A PROFESSIONAL AND I UNDERSTAND HOW TO RUN MY BUSINESS!”

A way that requires no monetary investment.

A way that is remarkably, powerfully, yet subtly memorable.

A way that has you distinctly and irrefutably separated from the Sea of Wholesaling Sameness.

What is this unbelievably powerful secret to greater wholesaling success?

Do what you say you are going to do,
when you say you are going to do it.

Sound too basic?

Skeptical about the effectiveness of such a trivial suggestion?

Try this challenge:

For the next week intentionally think about the commitments you are making (versus arbitrarily agreeing to tasks, deadlines, events, and engagements) BEFORE you make them.

Consider both

1. the do-ability of the commitment you’re about to make (difficulty factor) and

2. the time frame that you are committing to.

If you know, or suspect, that you run the risk of not being able to deliver on both parts of the commitment DON’T MAKE IT.

Our industry (and Sales in general) is rife with too many folks who simply toss out meaningless promises that are bound by neither the promisor’s word nor by any dependable frame of time reference.

To be the wholesaler that consistently and diligently lives into both small and large commitments is to absolutely separate yourself from the bumbling wholesaler masses.Similar Posts:

• The Typical Wholesaler vs The Great Wholesaler – An Infographic
• The Four C’s of the Legendary Wholesaler
• TMT – The Only Thing A Wholesaler Has To Offer
• Make a Fortune, Have a Life, or Both?
• Tell Me Where It Hurts: 10 Questions For Business Planning With Financial Advisors
• One Cure For The Stressed Out Wholesaler
• Can Wholesaler Ego And Humility Live Side By Side?

There isn’t a day that goes by that great wholesalers aren’t negotiating something.

A financial request from an advisor.

A time commitment in their calendar.

A successful and agreeable outcome with a family member.

So, what are you doing to tune up this part of your practice?

Enter, Greg Williams.

Greg is a member of the National Speakers Association and specializes in the subject areas of Motivation, Negotiation, and Interviewing Strategies & Techniques

Greg is the author of the highly acclaimed audio CD sets, “How To Negotiate Your Way To Success”, “How to Become a Dynamic Interviewer – Developed For The Savvy H.R. Professional”, and the latest besteller titled “Negotiate – Afraid, Know More (AKM).”

Greg has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, discussing negotiation tactics and strategies.

The NEW BOOK “Brotherhood of the Bag” has arrived!!
Watch the video here.

Similar Posts:

• What Do Advisors Need From Wholesalers? – Frank Maselli
• Wholesaler Energy and Positivity – Jon Gordon
• The Collapse of Wholesaler Distinction – Scott McKain
• Are Wholesalers Emotionally Fit? – Dr. Barton Goldsmith
• The 800 Pound Wholesaler – Bill Guertin
• Trends That Will Affect Wholesalers and Their Leaders – Lee Kowarski
• Wholesaler Work Ethic and Entitlement – Eric Chester

I want your best client.

After all, if they are good enough for you and your firm, they will be a perfect fit for me and mine.

Hell, you’ve pre-qualified the advisor for me – and thanks for that.

Even knowing that your best client is my best prospect, why is it you continue to take for granted the ones that ‘love’ you the most (read: your top producers)?

If you know that you need to improve your ability to stay in front of your best clients between appointments, try touching them with any of the following – and be sure to use a combination of email, voice mail and snail mail as appropriate:

• Portfolio updates sent under your signature versus the firms
• Practice management insights that will help them grow their practice
• Personalized info-bits that are generated from your deep understanding of your best client’s interests
• Predictable and consistent emails that both inform and, to some degree, entertain
• Phone calls that let the advisor know you care and appreciate the partnership/business
• Postage stamped and mailed handwritten notes

Great wholesalers have mastered the art of presence in their absence.

Have you?

Our Priority Partner Preferred Coaching clients are seeing a 30-50% (or more) pick-up in their quarterly sales.

Get more info about any of our coaching programs today.Similar Posts:

• 12 Traits To Consider When Developing Your Preferred Advisor Profile
• Do Advisors Prefer Emails or Phone Calls to Schedule Wholesaler Appointments?
• 12 Numbers For Wholesalers To Obsess About Besides Production
• 6 Ways Wholesalers Can Market Like Coca-Cola
• TMT – The Only Thing A Wholesaler Has To Offer
• 11 Reasons Great Wholesalers Leap Out Of Bed In The Morning
• The Four C’s of the Legendary Wholesaler

[Ed. Note: part of our continuing series of "Short Take" posts that we hope provide food for thought and reflection. They are borne out of the discussions we have everyday with our coaching clients.]

Wholesalers are the quintessential Type A group.

Which, as reminder, means:

• Type A has got a severe sense of time urgency.
• They are always running and can hardly relax.
• If they sat without doing something useful they may end up feeling guilty
• Type A’s are over achievers, they usually get themselves involved in many different unrelated activities and perform well in them all.
• Type A’s biggest problem is stress, they are usually overwhelmed by the amount of tasks they have to do.
• These tasks are usually a huge list that they planned for themselves.
• Type A is usually competitive and has a high challenging spirit.

source: 2knowmyself.com

 And one of the dangers of our type is the “shiny object syndrome”.

For wholesalers that means we hear the next great sales idea, find the next great app, or discover the next great process improvement and we promptly forget/abandon any prior idea, app or process that came before it.

Next time you go in search of something “shiny and new”, be sure to check the “used it before and it worked really well” file.

Brotherhood of the Bag, A Wholesaler’s Handbook has 114 different stories to help you improve your practice.

See what’s inside at Amazon.com

flickr creditSimilar Posts:

• Inside a Wholesaler’s Head
• The Comfortable Wholesaler
• 7 Ways To Get Past Your Production Plateau
• The Wholesaler’s Big Blown Opportunity
• 3 Reasons Why Wholesalers Stray From The Basics – Don Connelly
• Undeniable Attributes of the Greatest Wholesalers – Part One
• One Completely Ridiculous Reason Advisors Tune Wholesalers Out

Chances are your next divisional or national meeting is just around the corner.

And most wholesalers simply pack the bag, get on the plane and go.

The thing is, too many of us walk away from sales meetings feeling overwhelmed.

As if we just tried to drink up all the ideas  – both formally presented and informally discussed – as if dispensed from a fire-hose.

That’s why great wholesalers understand that they need a plan.

Try this next time.

Think about your meeting in terms of what you will take from your boss/peers/trainers and what you will leave behind.

We call it your Give & Take Plan.

Before you leave, make a list of five (5) best practices you want to share that will make the whole team more effective.

Then find an opportunity to share them, formally or informally, at the meeting.

Next, during the meeting make a simple list of the five (5) big ideas that you will take away and experiment with implementing.

Not 50 ideas.

5 ideas.

Want great ideas for the Give portion of your Give & Take Plan?

Pick up your copy of Brotherhood of the Bag, A Wholesaler’s Handbook at Amazon.com.Similar Posts:

• Advisor Elephant Hunting: Use LinkedIn to Get References and Recommendations
• The Consistently Consistent Wholesaler
• Prevent Wholesaler Drowning By Avoiding The Sea of Sameness
• Former Merrill Insider Speaks About Wholesalers – Dave Mullen
• How Wholesalers Assist Advisors With Branding – Kimberly Bordonaro
• 9 What Ifs: The Great Wholesaler’s Approach To National Sales Meetings
• Wholesalers: Stay Away From Shiny Objects

We work in a serious business.

But that doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves too seriously.

Which leads us to Dale Irvin.

We met Dale years ago when he emceed a national sales meeting we had.

And we’ve been fans ever since.

Dale Irvin is the world’s only Professional Summarizer.

A bit about Dale from his website:

He is a member of M.E.N.S.A., the organization for really smart people. Other famous members include Steve Martin, Sharon Stone, Geena Davis and Jodie Foster.

He collects human skulls. Not real ones you sicko, he collects skulls in the form of carvings, casts, and reproductions. Why? Well, you really need to hear his speech “Laughter Doesn’t Hurt” to find out.

He rides two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, one of them adorned with 18 chrome skulls.

He lives in a haunted house. It is currently occupied by a non-threatening poltergeist.

Get more of Dale’s goodness at his YouTube channel or on Facebook.

The NEW BOOK “Brotherhood of the Bag” has arrived!!
Watch the video here.

Similar Posts:

• Wholesaler Work Ethic and Entitlement – Eric Chester
• A View From The Wholesaler’s Passenger Seat – Dr. Bob Froehlich
• Wholesaler Time Management – Interview with Laura Stack
• 4 Pillars of Profitable Wholesaler Networking – Allison Graham
• The Collapse of Wholesaler Distinction – Scott McKain
• What Do Advisors Need From Wholesalers? – Frank Maselli
• Win One of Ten Free Subscriptions to I Carry The Bag…the official magazine of wholesaling

[Ed. Note: part of our continuing series of "Short Take" posts that we hope provide food for thought and reflection. They are borne out of the discussions we have everyday with our coaching clients.]

Is there a constant, endless stream of business thoughts cascading through your head?

Do you find it near impossible to turn off the barrage of to dos that live on paper, in apps and on your mind?

Unlike the 9-5 worker, our lifestyles (aka jobs) have this built in hazard.

And if your not careful it will overtake you.

And you’ll become too frequently overwhelmed.

Unless you take time.

Time to stop.

Time to listen.

Time to just be.

Try HeadSpace.

See what’s inside Brotherhood of the Bag – it’s been selling really well.

flickr creditSimilar Posts:

• Wholesalers: Stay Away From Shiny Objects
• The Comfortable Wholesaler
• The Wholesaler’s Big Blown Opportunity
• 7 Ways To Get Past Your Production Plateau
• Are You A Prehistoric Wholesaler?
• The Give and Take of Your Next Sales Meeting
• The Consistently Consistent Wholesaler

[Ed. Note: part of our continuing series of "Short Take" posts that we hope provide food for thought and reflection. They are borne out of the discussions we have everyday with our coaching clients.]

If you have wholesaled long enough you know that there are years where the stars just align.

Your product is perfectly positioned in the marketplace.

Your support team members (internal, scheduler, admin.) are firing on all cylinders.

Management has a basis point plan that makes you weak in the knees.

And if you are not careful, you’ll blow it.

Too many wholesaler’s do.

They look back and say to themselves (or others), “If only…”

If only they had seen the opportunity as clearly.

If only they had planned properly.

If only they had stretched out of their comfort zone.

Is your career year waiting right in front of you?

I Carry The Bag now has apps that support reading on the go and perspectives from some of the best minds in America – get the details here.Similar Posts:

• Inside a Wholesaler’s Head
• Wholesalers: Stay Away From Shiny Objects
• 7 Ways To Get Past Your Production Plateau
• The Comfortable Wholesaler
• The Results Part 2 – Wholesaler Survey 2011
• 9 Most Popular Posts For April 2011
• Three Impactful Sales Strategies For Wholesalers – Anthony Iannarino

[Ed. Note: part of our continuing series of "Short Take" posts that we hope provide food for thought and reflection. They are borne out of the discussions we have everyday with our clients.]

Your goal for the year is set.

You have in your business plan to scale up production in Q2, Q3 and Q4.

The problem is you are stuck at $__________ million per month (insert your number).

So how can you get over the hump and break into new, uncharted production territory?

Examine:

• The frequency and caliber of your social interaction with advisors
• How you build value with COIs
• Making your presentation skills more compelling
• Getting better at the most basic events (i.e. branch lunches, branch training)
• Developing/spit shining your PVP-Peerless value Proposition®
• The quality (not how much you spend) of your advisor events
• How well your team (internal, scheduler, asst., etc.) is coordinated in their approach

Chances are your next production break-out will be a result of fine tuning one or more of these seven items.

We tackle issues like this and a whole lot more with our Wholesaler Masterminds Private Coaching clients.

flickr credit

Similar Posts:

• The Wholesaler’s Big Blown Opportunity
• The Comfortable Wholesaler
• Inside a Wholesaler’s Head
• Wholesalers: Stay Away From Shiny Objects
• Prevent Wholesaler Drowning By Avoiding The Sea of Sameness
• 6 Ways Wholesalers Can Market Like Coca-Cola
• VIDEO: Why Wholesalers Need A Great PVP-Peerless Value Proposition

[Ed. Note: The first in a continuing series of 'Short Take" posts that we hope provide food for thought and reflection. They are borne out of the discussions we have everyday with our clients.]

Old couches:

Worn and tattered on the arms.

Exceedingly comfortable.

Sleep inducing.

Overly comfortable wholesalers:

Worn and tattered in the briefcase.

Dangerously comfortable.

Sleep inducing.

Being comfortable is for couches, not high performing wholesalers.

Our jobs are too big and the payoff is too large to get too comfortable.

Brotherhood of the Bag is now available both in print and via Kindle.

flickr credit

Similar Posts:

• Inside a Wholesaler’s Head
• Wholesalers: Stay Away From Shiny Objects
• 7 Ways To Get Past Your Production Plateau
• The Wholesaler’s Big Blown Opportunity
• Advisor Elephant Hunting: Use LinkedIn to Get References and Recommendations
• Wholesalers Should Never Show Advisors Their 6th Toe
• TMT – The Only Thing A Wholesaler Has To Offer