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Blog

New white paper: Account Professional as Value Creator in Insurance Brokerage

12/3/2019

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Since there is competition in all markets for traditional coverages, agencies need to add value to their clients to distinguish themselves in their market area. But there’s a disjoint in perception of what “client value” actually means. Agencies are focusing on systems and efficiencies to process transactions faster. It's the right thing to do. But clients want value creators managing their account – people with high degrees of business acumen that can relate to the uniqueness of their industry and recommend solutions accordingly. 

BWST works with Agency Brokers to apply a value-creating client interaction process that when followed, earns account professionals the right to suggest business building ideas that make sense to the client. There is no one better equipped than the day-to-day client contact to make cross- and upselling recommendations and BWST helps these firms make the most of this valuable resource. 

Click on the PDF below to see how you can transform your account and relationship management teams into revenue-producing value creators! 
valuecreationwhitepaperv3.pdf
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BWST forms alliance with Zeiberg Consulting: The Leader in Portable Leadership Training

11/21/2019

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​Princeton, November 21, 2019: Bill Walton Sales Training and Zeiberg Consulting have partnered to provide organizations with topical leadership training that enables employees to embody their organizational values and deliver on their value proposition. "We've heard from our clients that today's managers are operating in fast-paced and complex environments and they're lacking in some of the basic management skills" says Bill Walton, Bill Walton Sales Training's President and founder.  "This lack of capability has HR professionals frustrated," Walton added. Zeiberg Consulting has been training managers and leaders for over 20 years. This new portable curriculum is the brainchild of founder Charlene Zeiberg and her partner Joanne Polichetti. "We created this flexible curriculum to meet leaders where they are in their development. Our clients don't have time to create programs from scratch and most open enrollment programs feature dated content" says Charlene Zeiberg, founder of Zeiberg Consulting. Collaborating with a firm like Bill Walton Sales training is perfect for us since BWST's training is shaping more than just the sales culture, it's reaching a broader audience," Zeiberg added. For more information, visit www.zeiberg.com or download the pdf below to learn more about how you can develop agile leaders in your organization.

curriculum_executive_summary2019.pdf
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Burnout is real, especially among top performers

11/21/2019

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Employee engagement is a major concern for HR leaders. Year after year, concerned managers and researchers discuss Gallup’s shocking statistic that seven out of 10 U.S. employees report feeling unengaged. Recent data from research by Yale University and published by Harvard Business Review shows that one out of five employees reported both high engagement and high burnout. They call this group the engaged-exhausted group. These engaged-exhausted workers are passionate about their work, but also have intensely mixed feelings about it — reporting high levels of interest, stress, and frustration. The risk for companies is that this is happening across the sales organization among their top performers. 

Solution:
Sales Managers and HR can help by examining the demands they’re placing on people to ensure that employee goals are realistic. Many are rebalancing workloads of employees who, by virtue of being particularly skilled or productive, have been saddled with too much.


​The other opportunity is to provide employees with ways to build their energy stores to operate at a higher level of engagement. What this requires is an understanding of an individuals' ultradian rhythm - times where we have the most energy and clarity of thought - and align our work accordingly. In sales, prospecting and proposal writing are both important and necessary, but require different things from us in terms of our energy and can be day part dependent. Here are some ideas to grab our engagement back: 

 - Sleep research shows we all focus in 90-minute increments and need a rest period after
 - We are creatures of habit - create energy rituals that don't drain you mentally
 - Match caffeine intake with water intake. Caffeine is a diuretic and dehydration saps energy
​ - Drop the notion that you should work evenly and hard all day long. This has worked never
​ - Give yourself permission to take time off, go for a walk, or read a book vs. social surfing


​To learn more about how your organization and boost their energy and engagement, download this fact sheet for our Create a Sustainable Edge program or call Bill Walton Sales Training at 917-439-3271.
creatingasustainableedge.pdf
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Bill Walton Speaks at TriNet Global Sales Meeting - Creating a Sustainable Edge

10/19/2019

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Las Vegas - August 7, 2019: Bill Walton spoke to the best of the best at TriNet's global sales meeting at Caesar's Palace. The theme, creating a sustainable edge has its foundation in focusing on energy management, not time management. According to Bill Walton, founder of Bill Walton Sales Training, "The best salespeople are going to find a way to make their number. But if they're burning out they run the risk of becoming too tactical in their approach." Walton goes on to mention that to customers this can sound transactional in nature. So what do clients want? They don't care about your time management victories, but they do care about ideas and the vitality you bring to the conversation. Key points from the keynote: 

Multitasking is dead - it takes 61 seconds to divert focus to a new task, and another 61 seconds to refocus back on the original task. Try doing that 50 times a day and your day is shot.

Harness the Power of 90: We operate in ultradian rhythms of 90-minute burst of productivity that must be followed by 20 minutes of rest. Reality - we beat ourselves up because we can't go all day long. Plan your "bursts" and be good to yourself. 

Develop positive energy rituals: this doesn't mean run out and grab a yoga mat. Get out on a bike ride in the park, eat the the table with your family three nights a week, or go see a movie at lunch. Keep your energy up. It's your greatest asset. 

For more information on how you and your team can create a sustainable edge click here: 
creatingasustainableedge.pdf
File Size: 298 kb
File Type: pdf
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Bill Walton Keynote speaker at CIPC February 28, 2019

2/8/2019

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Finding the right referral partners makes selling so much easier. They advocate for your business. They introduce you to new connections, and they help you move the sales needle. But cultivating the right referral partners in the private client space is different. Referral partners and centers of influence are bombarded with requests to “connect” and the best aren’t looking to help you. They want to add value to their network. This session will help you think more broadly and strategically about your COI network.   
 
Topic areas will include:
  • Who is actually right for me and my practice?
  • What value do I bring to potential COIs? Who would find that compelling?
  • Where do I find the ideal COI candidate?
  • What should my messaging be with COIs?
  • How should I plan for contact with a COI that valuable and differentiated?
  • When do I know I’ve earned the right to ask for introductions?
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Bill Walton Teaches Tech Leaders How to Connect with Small Business: Raleigh, NC August 10, 2018

8/15/2018

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Bill Walton presents to small business sales organization at Citrix:
A great day with the Citrix SMB team. Connected sellers to the needs, passions, obsessions of small business owners. Themes: Value creation, meaning more, and issue fluency in the business owners industry. SMB owners can work any 18 hours a day and wear many hats. They need authentic people to support them and they need results now. Thank you to Michelle Neal, Director of Sales Effectiveness. You are a Value Creator! 
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Sales Leadership in Financial Services: A Shift to “Transformational Energy Leadership!” A VoiceAmerica Radio Show with Bill Walton and Dr. Matt Woolsey, Renown Executive Coach

7/24/2018

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With the Wealth Management, Banking and Insurance industries changing practically weekly, firm leaders should be taking a hard look at their talent - specifically their sales leaders. They’re the true pivot point in an organization and when trained well, MAKE MONEY FOR THE FIRM.                     FACT - Investing in sales leadership can yield top line revenue gains of up to 29% according to Wilson Learning.  The role of the sales leader has morphed over the years, from “top closer” to “product expert” to "administrator." To win in this era of digitial client acquisition, these pros need to be freed up to coach and develop producers.
 
Listen to this engaging conversation with Bill Walton and Dr. Matt Woolsey, the nation’s leading authority on transformational leadership. You’ll be given a roadmap on how to make sales leadership a strategic advantage in your organization – one that you can drop to the bottom line. Topics include:
 
  • “The Managerial Covenant”: Getting producers to commit to bigger goals
  • The difference between general leadership and sales leadership
  • The four competencies of effective sales leaders
  • What sales leaders in financial services need to start doing, and STOP doing
  • Managing across multiple generations
  • Finding more time to coach
 
Click on the link to enjoy the show:
https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/108308/transformational-sales-leadership-what-is-it
 
Share your comments with us on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/billwaltonsalestraining) or Twitter (@wfwalton) or at bwalton@billwaltonsalestraining.com.
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Bill Walton Speaks at Digital Wealth Management Conference in NYC-  IN|VEST 2018

7/11/2018

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​I spent the day at IN|VEST 2018 yesterday in NYC as an evangelist, a trainer and thought leader. The conference was well produced and the speaker roster couldn't have been a better fit. The goal - provide concrete ways to leverage digital wealth technology internally and externally to drive seamless financial experiences that feel like consumer experiences. Here's a list of the key observations. Please excuse the brevity:
  • This is the right conference at the right time
  • Investors want faster/cheaper/more personal/seamless/simple. Think Uber
  • AI in the next 12-18 months will be prevalent and drive engagement
  • This is still a persona-based business
  • A key expectation of the digital client: "Show me you know me"
  • Consumers want the ability to go from purely digital to human hand holding
REMANING QUESTIONS and TO DOs:
  • Know what level of financial literacy you want to target
  • How will you gauge the right level of profitable "personalization" 
  • This is about speed - can your internal culture keep up? 
  • Internally - figure out what your people do best, automate the rest
  • Create holistic offerings vs. siloed services for investing
  • Do you have the right data - consumer data, AI, etc and the actionable insights from it? 

For more insights, call or text  917-439-3271 and I'd be happy to share more.  - Bill

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Client Acquisition in a Box [Book]

7/1/2018

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Financial professionals all agree that they need new clients. But the challenge    of balancing a healthy client base and dealing with an endless flow of admin is crowding out the time for a strategic prospecting effort. The result? A prospect-when-I-get-to-it approach that barely moves the needle. Without a dedicated prospecting effort, advisors, planners, bankers and insurance pros face real revenue gaps in their practice. In order to respond, this book provides a proven system that will get the growth readers need that positions them as credible, not salesy. 
 
Taming the Four Headed Dragon gives Bankers, Private Client Advisors and Insurance pros an easy-to-adopt process that validates what they’re already doing well while giving them the three things successful prospectors possess:
  1. Laser beam focus on an ideal client type
  2. The messaging to connect credibly
  3. The time to commit to a planful approach
Without these three things, prospecting becomes tactical and sounds transactional. That's not a good thing since most any client worth attracting is with another firm and individual. Inside you’ll find:
  • Templates for prospect messaging (with great samples!)
  • Ideal client “declarations” to share with COIs
  • Meeting agendas and constructs to make sure every contact pays off
  • Closing process that gets prospects to commit
Click here to see what readers have said about Taming the Four Headed Dragon: https://www.4headeddragon.com.
 
Start winning more that your share of new business by ordering your personally signed copy of Taming the Four-Headed Dragon. Go to https://www.4headeddragon.com to order. Most credit cards accepted. For an earlier start on your client acquisition efforts, download your free copy of the chapter that helps you ask for the business. Click here to get yours: ​www.billwaltonsalestraining.com/freedownload2.html.
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The Coffee Talk Meeting: The first Step in Effective Client Acquisition Part 2 in a Two Part Series

6/18/2018

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In part one, we talked about the coffee talk meeting as a co-created experience. The key is to build momentum for next – the all-important second meeting in business. Here are 10 tips to ensure you get your share of the pie in your next coffee talk meeting. 
  1. Asses a client type category that you think your prospect falls into such as a Rental Car CFO, top producing commercial Real Estate Executive or Brand Director for large Pharma. This can help you get some fluency in the specific trends these folks encounter.
  2. Introductions: Try it’s nice to “see you” vs. nice to “meet you” It implies more intimacy and projects confidence.
  3. Check timing: ask if your contact still has the full hour that was pledged. You want to make sure you can bring your conversation to a good segue if time gets cut short.
  4. Ask these three “journey” questions during your meeting for light discovery 1.) What’s been your journey? (Gets at the prospects view of their path) 2.)Where are you now? (Gets the prospect to divulge the current state) 3.)Where are you going? (Gets at goals, and potentially some dissatisfaction in the current state)
  5. Take notes selectively. In your notebook, draw four rectangular boxes one over another on one page. As you hear a key point, fill in the box. Remember this is a connection meeting, not a court case.
  6. Based on your journey question answers, offer to help in your own special way of authentic generosity.
  7. Context is king - if your meeting is scheduled for an hour – protect the last 10 minutes like gold.  Use this time to play back and clarify key points and suggest a next meeting.
  8. Have one specific ask. This should be tied to what you thought the client type (prospect) could realistically help you achieve. Link the ask to the value of the current conversation and extend that to a second meeting.
  9. Craft a hand-written thank you as soon as you can. Bullet your playback points as a tee-up to meeting #2.
  10. A few days later, send an email follow-up that looks something like this:
 
“Hi Ellen, it was great seeing you this past Tuesday and thanks for being so generous with your time. We covered a lot of ground together but wanted to follow up on some of the things we both thought were important:
•    This is the video of my Chamber talk on messaging
•    A Whitepaper on what the best are doing around prospecting in wealth management
•    A link to my blog post on social media that I told you about. Nice tie to your team’s challenges.

Thanks also for your help in connecting me to Steve over at TKD Securities. I know we said that we’d connect at the end of the month - here are some additional dates and times for us to reconnect on the prospecting topic. Please feel free to pick one that works or suggest another. 
•    June 6 – after 12p
•    June 7 – all day
•    June 13 – before 3pm
 
Thanks again, Ellen. I look forward to seeing you soon." 


If no response in two weeks, send a calendar invite with the same message above around timing flexibility. This assumes that you made firm and purposeful connections in the coffee talk meeting and the next meeting was implied and agreed upon.  

As always we value your comments and success stories. Please send all good news to bwalton@billwaltonsalestraining.com. 
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    Bill Walton Sales Training has over 60  years of collective Fortune 500 company experience in Sales, Sales Training and Field Sales Management. Our specialty is preparing individuals and organizations to present their value propositions in a way that results in higher close ratios. Our team are un-blurring the lines of differentiation between their client's fiercest competitors.

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