A few weeks ago I was invited to the Boca Raton Resort and Club to introduce and facilitate a panel of the “best of the best” life insurance and financial planners. Their objective was to share how they achieved the top levels of success within their industry. The room was packed with about 100 sales people, all who wanted to hear what the “silver bullet” of success would be.
So here’s their secret: pay attention to, focus on, and only do the daily activities that you get paid for! In particular, one gentlemen clearly pointed out “I don’t get paid to read e-mail, shuffle paperwork or deal with my staff – I get paid when I sit in front of clients and solve their financial problems and get introduced to other new clients that I can help. Anything other than that is a distraction.”
In working with high potentials and star performers, here’s what I have found; it’s the rare few who are super successful because they are extraordinarily talented or uniquely gifted. It’s usually the ones who simply follow these basic rules of success.
1) Be good at and have passion for what you do (How are you constantly getting better?)
2) Be easy to work with (How is your bedside manner?)
3) Consistently do the things that you get paid to do (What are your top three revenue generating activities?)
4) Have processes in place that handle the things that you don’t get paid for, but still need to get done (What should other people or systems be doing so you can focus on item #3?)
I’m always surprised by the throngs of people who sign up for any ‘Secrets of Success’ series. They usually walk away saying “I knew that” – unless of course it’s a highly specialized seminar on day trading or flipping homes in a down market! But that’s a conversation for another day.
The secret is, there really is no secret. It boils down to getting clear about and then only working on the things that you get paid for. And that takes an extraordinary amount of discipline!
