To be in sales you have to be a little narcissistic. In other words, you need a good level of self-esteem and self-confidence. Most good sales people know their client is not necessarily buying from the company they work for but from the person. We make most major purchases through other human beings, not machines.
When I started out in the insurance field I was with a large company or general agency. It always bothered me that on the literature the company name was bigger than mine. In addition, there was no place to put my photo on my business cards. Why was this important? It was important because I am unique and my clients were buying from me, not some agency that they had never heard about.
It is a slippery slope when you start to brand yourself to be more important than the company you work for. Fortunately, health and life insurance lends itself to being an independent broker. While the folks at the general agency were nice enough, they did not necessarily embrace my philosophy of doing business.
Admittedly, I am either the most atypical sales person or the worst sales person. I do not go for the ‘close’, I refuse to pester people after 5pm, I don’t ask for referrals, in short, I am failing the successful salesman outline. But I really don’t care, because it is all about me. That is not my personality.
It is all about you. Follow your instincts; you will be the success that you want to be.
