Chapter 6 of How to make Your First Week the best?

You can’t complete recruit training nowadays without completing the new crucible. We did not have to go through this, so we went through Marine Combat Training at Camp Geiger instead.

This is the Marines way of saving a little money while allowing female Marines to experience the same training. WM’s weren’t allowed to do MCT at that time. The Crucible and MCT was one week of complete hell.

You had 1-2 hours of sleep a night, you were given five MRE'S (Meals Ready-to-Eat) to last the seven days, and a whole bunch of hell to go through. Miles of hikes, runs with your pack and boots on with rifle, muddy and dirty, ropes to climb, obstacles to complete, tasks to do as a team of 12 Marines.

If you fail a task, then you start over. Sleep deprivation sinks in on about day two or three and you have no idea what you’re doing, but at this time, you start to rely on your training to carry you through to the end. This is when you have to fall back on your training to get you through.

Doing things the right way, and not your way, will get you a lot of sales. Doing things your way in the Marines gets you and your Marines killed. Pay attention to the little things, and specifically pay attention to these things:

Your presentation

Your objections - are you getting the same ones?

Your appointments - are they all there or are they cancelling?

Did you utilize all of your time?

Did you do 10 stop bys everyday?

Did you hit your goal?

You should hit 5k a week doing field sales.

20k a month doing field sales.

Phone sales - Did you have 150 calls or 4 hours of talk time everyday?

You should hit 5-10k a week in phone sales. You can reach more people.

Did you order more leads for the next week? You have to take leads. You’ll go broke fast if you don’t.

Never throw a lead away until they say NO to your face. If you’re doing phone sales and you gave a good presentation and they said NO, then move on.
Are you contacting your manager after each sale or no sale?
Is your manager contacting you daily as well?
You both should want to help you grow. The more you talk to each other, the faster you’ll get it, and the more money the both of you make.

You had great first day. Either one of two things happened: you got lucky or you made your own luck by reading this book, paying attention to the training of your manager, and you practiced everything to the T.

That is the secret here - there is no grey area. You either are all in and you’ll do very well or you’ll fail miserably. Let’s say though that after your first week is over you noticed that everyone was telling you to come back or they needed to talk it over with their kids, etc. What can you do to help yourself? You need to go and add those objections into your presentation.

For example:

“Mrs. Jones, a lot of my clients want to think about this decision and talk to their family. I agree with them, however we found that when you actually have the policy in front of you to show them what you did and they can see it and understand it, a lot of them can see the benefits of the policy and they encourage you to increase it, which we can do very easily.

So, let’s get this in place today while we have you approved. You’ll receive the plan in the mail and then you can show your family. Should they have any questions just have them give me a call. Now, Mrs. Jones, who would you like the beneficiary to be on this plan…” and you keep going.

You can go over the objections on our website or ask your manager for a list of them, they are all the same.

Agree with the client… “ABSOLUTELY, Mrs. Jones”
Make something up, with the knowledge you have

Move on

“Absolutely, Mrs. Jones. While you're thinking about that, I am going to just finish the paperwork. Who would you like the beneficiary to be on the plan?”

“Absolutely, Mrs. Jones. I know you need to get your checkbook, so take your time. I have some paperwork to fill out while you're getting that.”

Simple! Now you have to utilize the time in your day to maximize your profits. Using the online mapping tools, Google Calendar and preparing your leads before you call them will save you so much time.

The biggest thing I have seen is people set 1-2 appointments and they might get stood up and they go home. WHY? If you put the time in to go work, then GO WORK! If I told myself I am working Monday through Thursday as hard as I can for four weeks and I was going to hit 20k, then I would do whatever I could to hit that goal. When I hit it, I would relax and get ready for the next month.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll find that on the first week of the month, you’ll make a lot of money because that’s when your client gets paid. So I am taking extra leads the last and first week of the month to make my money. I use weeks two and three to maintain and clean up leads. During your first six months in the business, though, you need to hit it hard every week so that you can build your residuals up.

Set goals and use your managers to help hit those goals. Some companies give you lead credits for hitting X amount of production. That’s a good goal to hit. If you don’t have to buy leads, then you make more money. Pretty simple to figure that one out. Some companies offer trips.

“If you hit X amount, then you get a free vacation.” So if they say, “Hey, if you hit 10k a month in AP, then you get to go to Cancun or Panama.” Guess what? I am trying to hit to go on those trips. I’ve had over 20 agents hit those trips by using this system I am teaching. I’ve taught the top producers in the country, or we’ve talked and learned from each other. Some companies have the Blazer Club, Rolex Club, Escalade Club, and other clubs.

Get everything you can get because you deserve it. There is a reason those goals are in place. If you aren’t hitting them, then you aren't surviving and you won’t make it in the business. Period!

Check in with your manager everyday! If he isn’t calling you, then call him or her. If they aren’t answering, then call his or her boss. You deserve all the attention you can get your first 1-2 weeks in this business.

If someone brought you into the business and doesn’t give you the time to train you right, then that is wrong. We’ll address this in our leadership and managing book. Hopefully you have a great first week. If you do exactly what we tell to in this book, then you will have no problems.