What to Look For When Hiring a New NAA Agent

You want to bring more people to your National Agents Alliance team, but maybe you’re not sure what qualities you should look for in a new recruit. We can help you identify what qualities are most important for new agents to possess when they’re joining your team. If you find people with the following characteristics, you better hire them because they’ll make great agents!

Willing to Learn

You want your new recruit to be willing to learn everything there is to know about the business and to be excited about selling insurance and helping others. Many people who are new to the business have this quality because they’re excited try something new where they know they can earn a good living and be happy. Other people who may be willing to learn are people who have worked for an agency that they weren’t happy with. Agents who couldn’t make the income they dreamed of at other agencies are happy to learn about our lead system and team of supportive agents who will help them achieve the success they’ve dreamed of.

Knows What They Want

You want a person who knows where they want to be in five years, or who has clear expectations about what they want to gain by being a part of your team. People who have clear goals for their future are likely to work hard and do whatever they need to do to achieve those goals. These are exactly the type of people who can find great success in this business.

Positive Attitude

Andy always says that a person’s mindset determines the outcome. If a person comes to the Alliance believing that they aren’t going to do well selling insurance, then they won’t do well. If a person comes in to your business thinking that they can make $250,000 in their first year, then they can because their attitude and mindset is positive.

Now that you know what you’re looking for, get out there and start looking for recruits! If you would like to see our advice on how to keep your new agents happy and working hard, see our blog post “Keys to Recruiting and Keeping Your Recruits with National Agents Alliance.”

What Is ‘Success’ to You?

What are the things that let you know that you’ve made it? Do you define success by the clothes that you wear, the house that you live in, the cars that you drive and the vacations you take? Or is it the power, recognition, and fame that scream success for you? Some may even say a happy and healthy family is true success for them. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get different answers.

Entrepreneur Magazine recently posed that question in a nonscientific Facebook poll to their fans, in which they discovered that respect trumped power and money as the definition of success.

According to the 600 respondents, nearly 52 percent revealed that success is “being respected in business.” Twenty-two percent stated that “being powerful in business” is success, while 12 percent said “becoming a millionaire” and “making my family proud” is when they know they’ve made it.

But, the one thing that all successful people will say is that it took hard work, dedication and the desire in order to make their dreams to come true; and that rewarding feeling that you know you accomplished your goal was the sweetest reward of them all.

Don’t let that rewarding feeling elude you. Everyone can be successful and accomplish their goals when they set their mind to it.

As Andy Albright said in the Millionaire Maker Manual, “It takes WORK to make your DREAMS work.”

So go ahead, set your goals and get to work!

Dig Yourself Out of that Rut!

Have you been stuck in a rut? Do you have all these great plans for what you would like to do, but don’t know how to go about it, which has left you in between a rock and a hard place? The ties to your current situation can make you feel like you’re stuck where you’re at, and make it seem impossible to reach the next level.

While many people want to place blame of their current situation on others, the ugly truth is that your life is your own responsibility. It’s up to you to break out of that rut and break free from the comfort zone of your current situation – Here at National Agents Alliance, we’ve seen so many individuals do this that we know you can too!

If you want to break from the mundane, author and leadership coach John C. Maxwell has some tips that can help you climb out of your rut:

• Accept responsibility for your own life: It’s easier to blames others or outside factors for your current situation, but at the end of the day you are only responsible for yourself. Yes, things do happen to good people, but it is your choice on how you handle and rise above them.

“Take time to examine your life and how you’re spending it. Where can you take responsibility to make changes—even if your past choices haven’t led to your present predicaments? Getting out of a rut begins with the acknowledgement you must make the choices to do so,” Maxwell suggests.

• Know where you want to be: Knowing where you want to go is the first step.  You need to have a specific vision of where you would like to be, not just something broad like, “being successful.”

“You’re going to spend your life doing something. It might as well be what you really want to do. Have you given yourself a target? Have you written out your goals and described your dreams? If not, you need to,” Maxwell suggests.

• Divide your dream into manageable parts: As Andy Albright says, “Inch by inch, anything is a cinch.” The same concept applies here.

“One thing that often paralyzes people is having a dream or even a big goal with no realistic way of achieving it. How do you solve that? By breaking it down into bite-sized pieces that you accomplish with focused effort,” Maxwell says.

• Take action today: Nothing great is ever accomplished by sitting idly. Get up, and make some moves toward your goal and the position you want to be in.

“What kind of action can you take today that will start moving you out of your rut and take you one small step closer to your dream? It doesn’t have to be a big step. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a significant step. It just needs to be a step in the right direction,” Maxwell explains.

 

• Grow into your tomorrow: With each step you take, they need to get bigger and more strategic each time.

“My one final piece of advice is to tell you to get help. Too often we are so embarrassed about where we are that we become afraid of admitting to someone else that we’re stuck. That shouldn’t be. There’s no shame in getting stuck—only in staying that way when you have a choice to change,” Maxwell urges.

The Pursuit: Separating the Leaders from the Great Leaders

Are you in pursuit of something? Are you taking advantage of everyday in order to reach greatness and achievement?

The pursuit is what makes leaders great. They are never satisfied with the “traditional” or “status quo,” they are always chasing after excellence; the next thing, change, results, knowledge and the bigger picture. This is what separates the leaders from the great leaders and the movers and shakers that the followers look up to.

In fact, great leaders are great pursuers.

If you are not actively pursuing something—your dreams, the next level, the bigger picture—you’ll never attain anything. In fact, having the mindset and staying focused on the pursuit is such a critical element to leadership that failing to possess this quality will set you back to mediocrity or even worse—obsolescence.

But simply just pursuing something will not be enough. Your pursuit must be intentional, deliberate, unyielding, consistent and aggressive—nothing should stand in your way. Obstacles are merely hurdles that can be moved out of the way.

Everyday should be a continued forward movement towards your goal. Those who stop along the way will never make it to the end of the race, or the light at the end of the tunnel.

National Agents Alliance wants to know what are you pursuing and how are you doing it?

Listening

Are you a good listener?  Do you really listen when others speak, or are you focusing on what you will say next?  Do you interrupt people in mid-sentence?

I think everyone can agree listening is a skill worth developing, and can be the difference between people who achieve and people who live average or less than average lives.  Isn’t it sad that students today can graduate from high school and college without having been taught success principles?  It’s a shame that 99 out of 100 people learn no goal-setting principles and drift through life and never realize their potential.

Talent, by itself, is not the key because we know the world is filled with talented people who never reach their potential.  We also know that a lot of average people achieve greatness.  Ultimately, your success will be determined by your attitude and the action you take over a long period of time.

Agents with National Agents Alliance know the importance of listening because it is one of Andy Albright’s 8 Steps to Success, and they learn that listening is crucial to an agent’s success.

To improve your listening skills learn and follow these five tenets that Andy stresses:

1. Never interrupt.  Show respect to the speaker by letting them express their thoughts and ideas.
2. Sit down and be still. Giving your full attention to the speaker lets him know you are really paying attention and care about what he has to say.
3. Maintain eye contact.  In one-on-one, conversations making eye contact shows respect for the speaker and will help keep you focused on what is being said.  In a meeting or conference, where eye contact is more difficult, taking notes will show the speaker you are listening.
4. Acknowledge what is being said.  Nod your head occasionally to show your engagement, or say, “Yes,” or “I understand.”
5. Ask Open-ended questions. Asking questions that cannot be answered with a “Yes” or “No” improves the quality of the conversation.

Challenge yourself to improve your listening skills.  The top producers at National Agents Alliance have mastered listening skills and will tell you they now serve their clients better because they actually know what is important to the client.  The relationships built through this skill leads to more sales, more referrals and more repeat business.  It is a simple skill that you must master.

Don’t Let Bad Energy Destroy Your Sale!

It’s time to pucker up buttercup, because your lack of energy is killing your game! Your attitude, energy level and enthusiasm are integral factors in determining if you’re going to make that sale!

As Andy Albright stated in Step Eight: Communicate with a Positive Mental Attitude of 8 Steps to Success, “Communication can be destructive or constructive…A successful business is a contagious attraction. Either you bring individuals toward you, or you push them away.”

A positive attitude coupled with enthusiasm and passion for what you do sends the message to the customer that you believe in your product, and you’re excited about what your product has to offer your customer. At National Agents Alliance, we are helping to protect millions of people nationwide in the unfortunate event of an untimely death, potentially saving a family from losing everything they own—that alone is enough to get excited about everyday!

Don’t believe me? Look at any top seller in National Agents Alliance; they are pro-active in our organization. Their high energy and positive attitude combined with their drive to make things happen is what has helped drive them to the top. Energy equals motivation and motivation equals success. People are drawn to positive people; no one wants to do business with the “doom and gloom” guy.

If you want to boost your energy level and attitude, try these tips:

• Resolve to look at the glass not half empty, not half full, but full. Half of the glass is filled with water and the rest is filled with air.
• Appreciate the good in your life. You woke up today, you’re breathing and you have a job; you’re doing better than a lot of people.
• Exercise! When you exercise you release endorphins, the feel good chemical in your body.
• Dress for success. When you’re dressed at your best you tend to feel better and exude more confidence.
• Fish for compliments! When you need an extra boost of confidence call some of your satisfied customers to hear their positive comments about their experience. This not only gives you the confidence boost, it helps to keep the relationship strong by staying in touch.

Having the right outlook and high energy not only will benefit you professionally, but you’ll begin to see a positive change in your life altogether!

How to Become the Next Million Dollar Agent

Are you being teachable?

Have you learned something new today?

Did you resolve to change your life in order to reach success?

As Andy Albright asserts in the 8 Steps to Success, “learning something new should be a part of your daily life.” No one gets ahead in life by sitting idly, riding off their out-dated knowledge. Successful people continually work to perfect their craft, which comes in the form of ongoing education about their products, sales techniques and how to become better agents. Success is not accidental; it’s earned.

At National Agents Alliance we offer an array of opportunities for our agents to learn and become more “teachable.” Our agents have the option of taking advantage of educational programs like NAA University and President’s Club; as well as weekly rotation meetings take place all across the United States. National Agents Alliance also holds semi-annual conferences and Spring and Fall Forwards to further educate and inspire our agents.

Our most successful agents did not reach the top by not taking advantage of our educational programs and meetings—in fact, it was integral to their success. Look at our agent Stephen Davies, who became the youngest agent to earn more than $1 million in one year, doing so by the age of 25 – the direct result of becoming teachable.

In order to become the next million dollar agent you should be asking yourself:

• Am I associating with the right people?
• Am I reading?
• Am I avoiding negativity and negative people like the plague in order to keep my focus?

At National Agents Alliance we promise that if you become more teachable, and follow Andy Albright’s 8 Steps to Success, you will reach heights of success that you never thought was possible.

Just keep Andy’s advice in mind: “Be teachable. Don’t think you are too smart to learn, and don’t think you’re too dumb to achieve.”

Ensuring Repeat Sales

At National Agents Alliance (NAA) we encourage our insurance agents to promote repeat business by offering a positive experience with their clients the first time.

One sure-fire way to ensure that NAA insurance agents will have repeat customers, and referrals from their customer’s friends and family is to offer an experience they couldn’t get anywhere else.

This “experience” is everything for customer; it’s how they decide whether or not they will make a purchase from you. The experience you offer your customer can range from the quality of your product, to the level of customer service they receive. Since National Agents Alliance only offers the best products on the market, it’s important that our agents provide an equal or better experience for our customers.

Connecting, understanding the customers problems and then solving them with your product is key to success and repeat customers.

In Andy Albright’s 8 Steps to Success, step three is all about listening. Knowing and mastering the listening technique taught in Albright’s book is key into creating repeat customers and fostering an ideal experience.

In order to accurately assess who your repeat customers are, it’s advised for NAA insurance agents to keep a log of customers to see who is returning for repeat business and who isn’t.  For those customers who have not returned to conduct more business, or have not opted to make a purchase at the time, it is always good to make a phone call to see if your services could be of use.

Optimism Equals Sales

Viewing the glass half full, rather than half empty may actually boost your sales performance.

According to The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, “…testing revealed that the agents with more optimistic styles sold 37 percent more insurance than those with pessimistic ones, and that the most optimistic agents actually sold fully 88 percent more than the most pessimistic ones. Furthermore, agents who were more optimistic were half as likely to quit as were the pessimists.”

Our agents at National Agents Alliance can not only benefit from increased sales and performance, but in it can enhance your overall well-being when dealing with work-related struggles. For example:

• Optimism reduces your stress levels.
• Promotes happiness.
• Optimism forges persistence, which is an essential trait needed for achieving success.
• Increases productivity levels.
• Helps you deal with failure constructively.
• Makes you proactive.
• Increases the likelihood of effective problem solving.
• Ensures that you believe in your dream.
• Increases your level of motivation.
• Helps build successful careers by promoting productivity.
• Optimism ensures that you are focused.
• Promotes bonding between people.
• Promotes effective communication.
• Promotes confidence and self-esteem.

At National Agents Alliance we agree with Sir Winston Churchill, who once said,  “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Little by Little

At National Agents Alliance our top people know that success does not happen overnight, although some agents do grow their business quite fast.  It has to be understood that a strong work ethic is a staple at NAA and everyone learns that we can have huge success if we put in the work over a period of time.

The key phrase is: “over a period of time.”  Doing the right things and doing things right, little-by-little, every day, even the smallest, seemingly insignificant tasks, is the absolute necessity for success.  Not overnight success, but enduring success.

Here are a couple of examples of the “little-by-little” approach that make it understandable.  Suppose you want to lose weight and start an aggressive running program, and you run a mile every morning for a week, but on day eight you skip.  The next day you skip again.  The day after that you skip too.  Do you think you will lose weight? If you don’t see big results after the first seven days it can be easy to say, “Why bother?”   You have to do a little every day, just a little, but it has to be consistent, then over time, the weight starts coming off.

It’s amazing that you can get huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.  It just takes time.  Here’s another example that you may have heard before that illustrates the concept well.  Suppose you were offered a choice of $3 Million dollars or a penny doubled every day for 31 days, what would you choose?  It’s easy to look real quick and take the $3 Million and run, but let’s dig a little deeper.  After 5 days the penny doubled would be 16 cents; after 10 days, $5.12; after 20 days $5,243, and with 11 days still to go in the month!  Now the compounding effect, the little-by-little, takes over in force.  After 31 days the penny doubled is worth $10,737,418.24, more than 3 times the $3 Million!

At National Agents Alliance we build our agencies over time, little-by-little, and pretty soon it compounds into a big business with those huge rewards that come with the small, consistent daily tasks that seem mundane and unimportant.  Looking at the amount of income being generated though, you will realize that all those little things paid off.  We can’t have the microwave mentality; we have to do it over time!