Sales Success in the Surety Industry is About the Right Relationship

The 2011 Sales Workshop for Surety Professionals held in September in Austin taught participants the systems of top producers and how they can incorporate these techniques into their own practice. Jon Dick, a professional sales coach, along with NASBP members Larry McMahon of Alliant Insurance Services and Don Appleby of Willis of Colorado, who participated as Workshop facilitators, addressed specific sales strategies that work in the surety industry and how a surety professional’s personal motivations and talents can be leveraged for sales success.

“I’m doing most of the right things, but learned I needed to add a few to improve”, said one participant. After the motivation module, a participant commented, “I learned a ton about myself that I had no idea about. What I thought motivated me was not what really did.” The students were advised to develop a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of their competition and to create personal scripts.

In addition, participants were challenged to return to their offices and create their “Top 120” by analyzing their individual markets and their current book of business. Also, they were invited to participate in the conference call with the instructors to discuss their progress in early October. During that call with the instructors, the participants discussed their challenges and next steps. NASBP is forming a sales study group to help the Sales Workshop participants stay in touch with each other to share ideas and to provide feedback about their progress. For more information about the Sales Workshop, contact Ann Latham at alatham@nasbp.org or 202-686-3700.