Small Business Leadership and Sales Blog

Marvin LeBlanc

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Small Business Leadership: Using Social Media

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

The following is an email I recently sent to my team members about how we can use social media more effectively. 

Team,

This is a follow-up about the importance of you spending 20 minutes nightly or outside of work building our social media presence. 

Purpose: To generate buzz, and develop better and more meaningful referrals at a cost much cheaper than an ineffective Internet lead. 

Action: What we do need is for you to constantly “share” or “like” the approved, compliant posts that we broadcast weekly on our business page. 

Social media tip – If you only “share” and “like” the approved, compliant posts, you’ll never be out of compliance and you will be helping to grow our reach through your social network. 

Don’t talk price or product – ever.  Social media is about relationship building. If you’re building someone’s interest, get their contact info and respond to them offline via phone. 

What we most want to do on social media is to listen

Social media for public relations1

What are we listening for? Listen for things that are relevant to our business. Life events that may mean a need for or change to insurance. 

Life events such as:

  • Having a baby
  • Buying/selling a home
  • Buying/selling a car
  • Moving into/out of an apartment
  • Someone who has died
  • Someone who has recently become disabled
  • Someone recently became engaged to be married
  • Someone recently got divorced
  • Someone recently lost a job
  • Got a new job  

When we identify who is having a life event — because we saw it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn — then we reach out and chat with them about it. 

You are talking to them when they are more likely to be in their “itch” cycle for your particular product or service. For example: A young couple recently married is more likely to see the need for life insurance than a young single person. 

So make a casual call. It will probably lead to you asking, “When can we sit down and have a cup of coffee?” 

Most people will appreciate that you reached out to them. And you reached out to them just at the right time.   

It’s a simple program. That’s where the genius is: in the simple stuff.

Social media is the new cold call and it is not a fad. Work the system and the system will work for you. 

If you use any of this and it works, be sure to tell me what you and your team implemented. We all can learn from another good idea, strategy or tip. Remember, there’s no one right way to find success.

Tags: Small Business Tips, Business Leadership

Small Business Leadership: Myth of the Natural Born Salesperson

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Have you ever heard someone say, “He is a natural-born salesperson”? Please realize nothing could be further from the truth. There are no natural-born salespeople. It just doesn't happen.  All development is self-development. All development takes effort. It takes energy. It takes focus. And it will all happen faster if you are around winners.

Think about this. It's easier to be a teammate with a perennial winner than it is to play with a team at the league's bottom. Every athlete will tell you that you'll earn more and you'll get more recognition and you'll receive better coaching and you'll have more fun and you literally will play better ball when you're around better athletes.

To play on a winning team in the sales field, you must be constantly increasing your sales knowledge and improving your skills and strategies.

golf

Golf illustrates life

In the early 1990s, I played many, many competitive golf matches. Here’s the most important life lesson I learned back then.

When the competition was better, I was better. When the competition was not so good, I was not so good.

Psychologically, I don't really know how to explain the phenomenon. Maybe it's just a competition gene deep inside your soul. Maybe it has to do with your desire. Maybe it has something to do with your core values.

How does this relate to what you do? 

You have to be very careful about the kind of people that you associate with. You have to be very careful about what and who you listen to.

Givers and takers

There are only two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. Now, I’d like to ask you to separate the people in your inner circle into one of these two categories. Remember, their name can go in only one column or the other. That's it. They're either a giver or a taker. Be truly honest with yourself. 

Once you write out that list, you have to be very careful of the takers on your list, no matter how close you are with them. They will suck the lifeblood right out of your body. 

The takers are usually a group of non-dreamers. They are usually a group of people that see the world through a half-empty glass. Do takers need to be entirely eliminated from your life? No. But you have to be extremely careful because they are going to negatively affect your mind and your choices in unbelievable ways.

What about the givers? What about you? If I ask five of your friends, “Are you a giver or a taker?” what would they say?

If you don't feel like you're a giver, do you feel like you can become one? Do you think you were naturally born to be a taker? Or do you believe that it might be a learned behavior? Is it possible that you can make better choices on a daily basis?

Here’s a hint: If you spend more of your time with givers, you may find yourself changing.

Constantly look at your list. Constantly upgrade your list. Keep thinking about being better and doing better.  Keep planning for self-improvement. Remember, what we regularly and consistently affirm about ourselves has a way of becoming reality. 

Here are some questions and affirmations that may serve to guide you:

What is talent but originality robed in resourcefulness?

What is achievement but a dream dressed in work clothes?

What is accomplishment but ability stripped of its doubts?

What is life but a series of opportunities masked as difficulties?

What is significance but effort that is draped in day-to-day self-improvement?

Becoming more significant

What I want to constantly encourage is for you to be more significant. Ask yourself these two questions on a daily basis:

  • What did I do today?
  • What random act of kindness did I perform today? 

 Many of you have sales and business development roles. I promise, if you spend time on the self-improvement habit, your business will grow.

Tags: Business Leadership

Small Business Leadership: Adding Value to the Customer

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Walt Disney called the process of giving added value "plussing". His idea was to add value to a trip to a Disney theme park, movie or anything Disney produced. This extra value was not tied to anything Disney did that added money to their coffers. It was just little things that made the experience of going to a Disney function even more enjoyable!

The prospect of giving added value in any business, including insurance, is something worth looking into. In this way clients won't have to duck into a bathroom or engage in idle banter just to get away from a sales pitch they think is coming. Finding ways to give extra value in a business is a sure way to lock up clients for years to come. When they know it's not all about sales and selling they are much more willing to become clients and customers.

Yet, how does one go about adding value for a client? What kind of magic must one perform to win over a person or family for life? A few simple but powerful strategies are listed below. As long as one is natural and sincere these ideas can work magic on current and future clients.

  • Find a niche for the business. Price LeBlanc, a mega car salesman in Louisiana, used to give away country sausage to everyone who bought a vehicle from him. Find a great niche!!
  • Check out the refrigerator door when in someone's home. Children and grandchildren usually fill it with pictures and drawings. Learn about these kids. If one is in Little League think about sponsoring the team. Does one have a school trip coming up? Donate money for lunch on the trip or sponsor the entire trip. Give the client something to remember the business by not dealing with the company.Family Fridge   Flickr   Photo Sharing  resized 600
  • Pay attention to what a person is passionate about. Does a client love to garden? Purchase a rare and colorful Old English rose for their garden. Does another have a book collection? Find a favorite or special book for them. The customer will understand they are valued for more than just their money. 
  • The gang's all here!! Why market a business to one couple or family at a time? Gather up several, or many, and give a presentation to all of them. Feed them a meal. Give out door prizes. Get them to come out with family, friends and neighbors to be exposed to the business.
  • Give a meaningful gift when business is done. Just sold a couple of large insurance policies to a couple. As they sign their names on the policy present each of them with a nice pen. Each time they use their pens after that they will remember their purchase.

Finding ways to add extra value may require some thinking. One has to make sure it keeps with the personality of the business and the person running the business. Rest assured though, if shown they are valued as a client they will continue to come back for years and years. 

Adding value for a client is a great way to lock in that person or persons business for life. Doing it in a way that does not add to the bottom line of a business shows the client that they are valued as both a client and a friend. So whether giving away country sausage or ink pens add a little extra to a client's experience and lock in their business for a long time, maybe even for life!!

Tags: Business Leadership, Small Business Leadership Speaker

Small Business Leadership: Why the Insurance Professional Matters

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

If you are feeling stressed, overworked and under appreciated then this blog is for you.
Why? 
                              Answer: Because YOU MATTER!


   "In a world of email, voice mail, business plans, and meeting briefs, the individuals who can articulate their goals, substantiate their claims, and support their visions, will own the future". - Denis Waitley
sales speaker
1. Because insurance products are complicated products to understand.
2. Because it is difficult for the consumer to receive complete information via online. Some of our biggest offenders are highly educated people.
3. Because the consumer needs a trusted practitioner to explain and interpret in "simple language" that they understand.
The insurance professionals that sees themselves as a "commissioned teacher" moving forward will find themselves with a wealth of referrals.  Whereas, an insurance professional that is perceived primarily as a "commissioned salesperson" will fall behind.  Point: Trust in The Teacher
Insurance professionals offering an average or below average experience to their client base will be marginalized and have less than 3 years in their career.
However, insurance professionals that stay obsessed with offering irresistible, marvelous value have nothing to fear.
Huge threat: the insurance professional that does not have a real strategy to attract capable, high energy talent that truly can sell and teach the client they are attempting to serve.
I would love to hear your comments and feedback!  Feel free to share with anyone who you think could benefit from this message. 
Peace, Love and Gumbo
Marvin LeBlanc 

Tags: Small Business Tips, Business Leadership, Small Business Sales Speaker

Small Business Leadership: 10,000 Hours of Practice

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Please enjoy this article from Wisdom Group. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. How does Gladwell arrive at this conclusion? And, if the conclusion is true, how can we leverage this idea to achieve greatness in our professions?

Gladwell studied the lives of extremely successful people to find out how they achieved success. This article will review a few examples from Gladwell’s research, and conclude with some thoughts for moving forward.

practice

Violins in Berlin

In the early 1990s, a team of psychologists in Berlin, Germany studied violin students. Specifically, they studied their practice habits in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. All of the subjects were asked this question: “Over the course of your entire career, ever since you first picked up the violin, how many hours have you practiced?”

All of the violinists had begun playing at roughly five years of age with similar practice times. However, at age eight, practice times began to diverge. By age twenty, the elite performers averaged more than 10,000 hours of practice each, while the less able performers had only 4,000 hours of practice.

The elite had more than double the practice hours of the less capable performers.

Natural Talent: Not Important

One fascinating point of the study: No “naturally gifted” performers emerged. If natural talent had played a role, we would expect some of the “naturals” to float to the top of the elite level with fewer practice hours than everyone else. But the data showed otherwise. The psychologists found a direct statistical relationship between hours of practice and achievement. No shortcuts. No naturals.

Sneaking Out to Write Code

You already know how Microsoft was founded. Bill Gates and Paul Allen dropped out of college to form the company in 1975. It’s that simple: Drop out of college, start a company, and become a billionaire, right? Wrong.

Further study reveals that Gates and Allen had thousands of hours of programming practice prior to founding Microsoft. First, the two co-founders met at Lakeside, an elite private school in the Seattle area. The school raised three thousand dollars to purchase a computer terminal for the school’s computer club in 1968.

A computer terminal at a university was rare in 1968. Gates had access to a terminal in eighth grade. Gates and Allen quickly became addicted to programming.

The Gates family lived near the University of Washington. As a teenager, Gates fed his programming addiction by sneaking out of his parents’ home after bedtime to use the University’s computer. Gates and Allen acquired their 10,000 hours through this and other clever teenage schemes. When the time came to launch Microsoft in 1975, the two were ready.

Practice Makes Improvement

In 1960, while they were still an unknown high school rock band, the Beatles went to Hamburg, Germany to play in the local clubs.

The group was underpaid. The acoustics were terrible. The audiences were unappreciative. So what did the Beatles get out of the Hamburg experience? Hours of playing time. Non-stop hours of playing time that forced them to get better.

As the Beatles grew in skill, audiences demanded more performances – more playing time. By 1962 they were playing eight hours per night, seven nights per week. By 1964, the year they burst on the international scene, the Beatles had played over 1,200 concerts together. By way of comparison, most bands today don’t play 1,200 times in their entire career.

Falling in Love With Practice

The elite don’t just work harder than everybody else. At some point the elites fall in love with practice to the point where they want to do little else.

The elite software developer is the programmer who spends all day pounding code at work, and after leaving work she writes open source software on her own time.

The elite football player is the guy who spends all day on the practice field with his teammates, and after practice he goes home to watch game films.

The elite physician listens to medical podcasts in the car during a long commute.

The elites are in love with what they do, and at some point it no longer feels like work.

What’s Next?

Now that we’ve reviewed the trends uncovered by Gladwell’s research, what can we do about it? All of us want to be great at something. Now that we know how other achievers have gotten there, what can we do to join their ranks?

One approach: We could choose a field and practice for 10,000 hours. If we are currently working in our target profession, forty hours per week over five years would give us ten thousand hours.

Or… We can look at the question in reverse. Where have we already logged 10,000 hours of practice? What is it that we do really well? What tasks do we perform so well that people ask: How did you do that? Sometimes when we fall in love with practice we don’t even recognize it!

If you’re running a company, what does your company do better than anybody else? What is it that the individual members of your company do better than anybody? How do you create an environment that gives everyone on your team the opportunity to practice?

Conclusion

Business is tough, especially now. Yet even in the midst of a challenging economy, there are individuals and companies that prosper beyond all expectations. Practice plays a major role in success.

Suggested Reading

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Through interviews and statistical analysis, Gladwell determines why some people and organizations achieve success far beyond their peers.

Tags: Business Leadership, Guest Blogs

Small Business Leadership Speaker: 10 Happy Tips

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Hello Marvelous People!
None of us are exempt from periods of sadness or bad moods. Next time you get "the blues", focus your efforts on the following tips that will get you back to "HappyHappyHappy!"
Motivational speaker
1.Turn off the sad music.
2.Turn out the negative people.
3.Make time to do nothing. Then do it.
4.Read hilarious stories. 
5.Watch youtubes of your top 3 comedians. Daily.
6.Say "no" more and schedule less events that drain your energy.
7.Spend time with friends that you authentically connect with.
8.Sing louder in the shower!
9.Focus on living congruently with your beliefs.
10.You will be happier if you live full and die empty.
Make Marvelous Happen!!

Tags: Motivational

Small Business Leadership Speaker: Audi Partem Alteram

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Welcome Back for a quick Marvelous Nugget!

Today I am in one of my “Recharge Appointments” that I set weekly on my calendar.
One of the things that I do is that I go back and reflect on the notes that I take in a notebook. These notes come from company meetings, conference calls or one on one “huddles” with my team members or other beautiful people that are put in my world. My notes say:“Audi partem alteram….”

No, it is not a car ad. Or jibberish.

It is Latin and it means “Hear the other side.”

listen
It was Saint Augustine that said this.  He scorned Christianity as a young man, but he listened to the other side and became one of the faith’s greatest evangelists.
These days it seems we’re too busy trying to get our own point across.  This makes for very bad listening. 

Listening takes practice and skill. Maybe that’s why most people prefer to talk. Because it’s easier than listening.

A close friend of mine that shared the above latin term with me, read an article on her flight to Arizona about a doctor who is deaf. She was challenged as to what a deaf person could teach us all about listening. 

Her observations for you to consider today:
1.   When it doesn’t come easy – when you have to work for it – do you develop listening abilities that most of us don’t have?
2.   Are you really listening to your clients? 
3.   Are you really listening to your friends & co-workers?
4.    A big part of creating a Marvelous Customer Experience at your company is to re-commit to authentic listening. Becoming a listening saint is the beginning process of that experience.

As always share your feedback below or privately email us at Marvin@MarvinLeBlanc.com  Don’t be selfish. Forward this to someone that might benefit in a positive way. We love to hear your stories of how you or your group are applying these principles as you pursue Marvelous Performance.

Until next time, I wish you Peace, Love and Gumbo.
Marvin LeBlanc LUTCF, CNP

 

 

Tags: Small Business Tips, Business Leadership

Small Business Leadership: Director of First Impressions

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

Attention Marvelous People!

Do you ever need to hire a new “Director of First Impressions” (formerly known as the Receptionist) but you are weak at writing a compelling ad to attract the right person?

Are you just too busy or just too lazy to put in the thinking to come up with something?

739px Receptionists

Well today’s your lucky day. 

1. The ad below is an ad that actually works, so steal it now and do something with it.  Don’t post it at some boring career site. Take it and do what one of our Raving Fans did for us.

2.  What’s that? Let your “Raving Fans” also known as your Centers of Influence that love Facebook HELP YOU. Our Raving Fan posted it on her Facebook page. Yes, you can certainly do your own posting, but the point is to open your mind to other channels of people that are not in your immediate circle.

Here was her post:

Friends,

A friend of mine is looking to hire the right person immediately.  If you know someone who might be interested, please pass this email along and ask him or her to contact me for more information and to schedule an interview. 

Energetic, fast paced, established & professional sales office looking for a positive, thorough & reliable Director of First Impressions.  Responsibilities include answering multiple phone lines, processing payments, managing paperwork, etc.  Must be computer literate, have a positive attitude, friendly voice & be a quick learner.  Opportunities for advancement exist.  This is a full time (M-F 8 to 5) position in Jefferson, LA. If interested, please send me an email with resume and salary requirements.

Peace, Love & Gumbo, 

Marvin LeBlanc 

LUTCF, CNP

Tags: Small Business Tips, Business Leadership, Small Business Leadership Speaker

Small Business Leadership: Customer Service is Everything

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

This is a guest article from Westley Annis. Enjoy these words of wisdom!

Peace, Love and Gumbo

Marvin LeBlanc LUTCF, CNP

Customer Service is everything.

Anyone who has been in business for more than three hours knows that to be true.

The funny thing, is that customer service seems to be falling away.

The first time you go into a store and see a self-checkout register, you go to it for the novelty of it. The second time you do it because the service at a human check-out register is lacking.

Not all self-checkouts are created equal. At WalMart, they are nearly as useless as a human check-out if you have more than a few items. Home Depot is a little better, but you better not have any big items. Sam's Club, who just rolled theirs out in November 2011 are the absolute best. So, your mileage will vary depending upon where you are shopping

Every national chain, especially franchises, now have only surveys where they want to know what kind of experience you had. This means it should be even easier to keep track of the service level of individual stores and workers. Unfortunately, either they are not getting enough people to fill out the surveys or they are ignoring them.

I am a mystery shopper. I get paid to visit different businesses as a customer and report back about my experience. The report I have to give is detailed. In fact, I am instructed on specific things to look for. I know what the uniform code is, how displays are supposed to be arranged and how long I should wait in line.

However, I don't think I would need this knowledge to recognize the level of bad service that is rampant, especially at fast food restaurants.

With the level of service you find at a McDonald's or Burger King, could they have grown from a few stores to the international chains they are today? The same goes with some of the younger chains like Subway.

Do we, as the paying public, accept the mediocre service in exchange for moderate prices and hopefully fast service? The cost of a "value meal", or whatever they want to call it, for one person is close to $7.00. For another few dollars, you can often get better food and better service, but at a slower pace.

Now that I think about it, maybe this old business sign is truer today then it ever was.

customer service

Tags: Business Leadership, Small Business Leadership

Small Business Leadership: True Definition of Selling

Posted by Marvin LeBlanc

We can spend our whole life working in sales and yet not know its origin. That astounds me — so much so that I often ask salespeople, “Have you ever looked up the word sales in the dictionary?” Never in my speaking career has anyone in my audience responded to me with the correct root of the word.

Shrimp gumbo

So here it is. It comes from the word sellan, an Old English word meaning to give.

  • It does not mean to take!
  • It does not mean to sell door-to-door like a charlatan.
  • It does not mean to connive.
  • It does not mean to manipulate.

Can you imagine if all the newcomers that strike out in the sales world really knew what salesmanship was about? They would understand that true salesmanship is about true give-manship!

Get that or you ain’t got nothin’, folks.

In my view, we’ve got so many people living in this capitalistic society who are so involved in me, me, me. Rarely will anyone give a “dung” about what you want until you help them acquire what they want.

Thank you Lefty Lefton for this revelation: As salespeople, we must start with the prospective buyers’ most important question: “What’s in it for me?”

We have to make it all about them. It’s kind of an unorthodox, altruistic turn if you really think about it. If you satisfy them first, you’re going to get enough of what you want. But, you’re going to have to wait.

My point? Be more patient and sell more! Being from Louisiana, I call this “gumbo patience.”

Marvelous people, it’s a lot like cooking a good gumbo. You have to bring that gumbo up to a boil, then you have to slow it down. You don’t rush it. If you rush it, you’ll burn the hell out of the bottom of the pot, and the gumbo will taste like starch. You have to have a little patience. So, you put that gumbo on a low fire and you wait.

Word to the wise: Don’t overlook the “bringing it to a boil” point that I just made. Excellent communicators must never forget this rule: I must be red hot before I can expect you to get lukewarm. Remember that it’s our responsibility to inspire our prospective client to get “red hot” and boiling with desire to move forward.

It’s like one-day-old wine. Nobody ever drinks one-day-old wine. It’s not good until later. It’s the same way with sales. We have to wait and stay with our systems and go through the process. We can’t be so self-consumed with paying our mortgage, bills and insane expenses that we don’t stop and ask some good questions.

Peace, Love and Gumbo, 

Marvin LeBlanc LUTCF, CNP

Tags: Small Business Sales Speaker, Sales