If your sales aren't hot you may be frustrated and confused. You know the sales and marketing systems you're using are working for others, but they aren't working for you. How or why can that be? Because you're reading this article I'm pretty confident that you have at least some experience and knowledge with eating. And that's why I think you'll be able to relate to the examples I'm going to use to convey my point even if you've never personally eaten chili. In case you don't know what chili is, it's a hot spicy soup.
Have you ever noticed that both you and your mother can follow the same recipe using the same ingredients and the same tools yet your chili doesn't taste as good as her chili? Theoretically your soups should taste exactly the same, so why is it they don't? Given the same recipe, the same ingredients, and the same tools to cook with the difference has to be in your techniques.
The same is true when you try to follow a sales or marketing system provided by someone else. You have the exact same systems as everyone else yet when you use these systems you don't get the same results. There are subtle differences in your application of these systems that you aren't aware of. These differences exist and will always exist for scientific reasons. You see, you're born with natural behaviors and motivators. You don't see things, think about things, or respond to things the exact same way as the person or persons who created the systems your following.
That doesn't make you wrong or the systems wrong. It does mean that you need to make adaptations in how you apply those systems so they better fit who you are naturally. When you do the application of those systems feels more comfortable for you, and they work much more effectively for you.
Another example comes from a chili cook off. Everyone is cooking the same thing but everyone has their own unique interpretation of the same dish. One version of the soup is selected as the winner. And there is a direct analogy to your insurance sales success.
To your customers you look like just another chili cook off entrant. The problem with your cook off recipe is that it looks like, smells like, and tastes like most of the other cook off entrant's chili. The winner is the agent who knows how to present a chili recipe that stands out among all the other chili entries. And that happens for you when you're able to create a core marketing message and unique market position that attracts the interest and attention of the right people.
