Set Your Owen Rule

This sets the stage for business guidelines.

FOR SALE BY OWNER:

Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000 or best offer. No longer needed, Got married last month. Husband knows everything. Sometimes you just feel that way when you talk to a prospect don't you. I decided a long time ago that I was going to set rules for how I did business and with whom I chose to do business. It has worked for me and if you do the same, I think you would benefit greatly. By deciding not to take everyone on a s a client, you are setting in place guidelines about yourself and your practice.

I have 3 rules by which I decide if I am going to grow a relationship with a practice. I have used these rules as my guideline for a long time and it has worked for me. Here they are:

1. I don't do business with people who will not come to my office. The only exception would be if someone were physically impaired. If they will not come to see me then I would only be in a lesser place in the relationship if I had to go to their home. It was hard at first but then it became totally automatic. I do business in my office.
   
2. I don't move a prospect to a client if they smoke cigarettes. It is not that I am a nut about smoking (my parents both smoked) it is simply this, it has been my experience that people who smoke are more difficult to move to client status. The reason is totally unclear and probably has no real reason behind it but that has been my experience. Smokers are more difficult to sell, plus I don't care for the smell of tobacco.
   
3. The third one is the real reason and the one you should copy. I don't do business with people who tell me what to do. If someone tries to explain my business or always is in an argumentative spirit, goodbye! The "know it alls" are just that, they know it all and frankly most of them don't know crap. So by weeding them out early, I save myself a lot of grief and frustration.
   

I have used these 3 rules to set guidelines for myself and they have worked. I suggest you adopt your own rules and stick to them...For me nothing irritates me more than the bona fide expert who know nothing and just can't wait to tell you so. I know more about annuities than any prospect can ever know and I need to always be in the position of expert.

I suggest you do the same, if you are not the expert, you will never get respect and never control the sales process.