NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015 - (Page 9)
chairman's corner
My Half Cent Worth
AS
DAVID LONG
NAILBA CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
I ponder this issue's
theme of sales and
marketing, I'm moved
to share a story of one of the first
sales presentations I made in college. The course was Management
Communications, and it-naturally-
included a great deal of speaking
assignments (this included me giving
a rather dry presentation on the difference between permanent and term
insurance to 20-year old college students-what can I say, it was in my
blood!). Toward the end of the semester, our final speaking assignment
was to sell something-anything we
wanted. After watching several cliché
pen selling attempts, I knew I had to
shake things up (actually, it was the
night before it was due, and I was
desperate for my widget), so I asked
a fraternity brother of mine if I could
use one of the products he had sold
over the summer; he had the knife
selling gig that many of us recollect
from college summers.
He gave me Super Shears-the
last pair of scissors you'll ever buy!
My audience was still college students, so selling cutlery barely outpaced the excitement of term vs.
perm, so I needed a hook to close.
How can a college student see the
benefit of a $100 pair of scissors?
Well, my campus was in the city of
Berkeley, an eclectic locale, which
among other colorful cultural phenomena, featured more than its
share of panhandlers. The problem:
you're walking home from class,
you're asked for spare change by
two people at the same time. You
reach into your pocket, and only
have one penny-BUT-you have
your trusty Super Shears in your
backpack. At this point I pull a
penny out of my pocket and cut the
penny in half, AND scene! Probably
the only "A" I ever got at Cal-but
it aimed me in the right direction
when it came to learning the art of
selling benefits over features. Little did I know I'd end up selling a
widget you had to die to benefit
from (thanks again Dad!).
I'm still learning. I hope you are
too, and NAILBA is here to help.
By now you are likely familiar with
NAILBA University and the courses that are offered in the areas of
sales training. If not, be sure to
check it out on NAILBA.org. However, we have just boosted our ability to learn from the best resource
available-each other. The NAILBA
Network is a members-only forum
where we have the ability to communicate all year long about sales
and marketing ideas. Subject matter is pretty wide-open, and hopefully by now you've had a chance
to see some of the topics in your
inbox each day. I've been keeping up with the Daily Digest emails
and have to say the input has been
valuable already-staff management, government advocacy, technology, and carrier issues are some
areas that have been touched on.
I encourage you to not only read
OUR INDUSTRY CONTINUES to have legislative,
economic, and recruiting challenges, and NAILBA will
continue to help its members rise to these challenges
as "the voice of independent distribution."
along, but contribute your expertise and your own questions!
This is my last column in
Perspectives as Chairman and it has
been a very productive year. We have
accomplished a great deal in this
first year of our new Strategic Plan.
We have bolstered our ability to
exchange ideas with each other. Our
partnership with AALU in government
advocacy is off to a great start, with
more collaboration with other sister organizations to come. The working relationship between NAILBA and
the Life Brokerage Technology Committee (LBTC) has been strengthened
and improved. We have expanded
educational offerings for professional development with a focus on best
practices in agency management. And
the Agency Successor Networking
Group continues to help the next generation of agency principals grow into
industry leaders.
Our industry continues to have
legislative, economic, and recruiting
challenges, and NAILBA will continue to help its members rise to these
challenges as "the voice of independent distribution." With my successor Chip Van Dusen leading a talented Board of Directors, along with our
veteran staff at headquarters, the
future of NAILBA members is bright.
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Chair this past
year. A special thanks to my family
and team at the agency (often one
and the same) for supporting me
in this role all year long. I'm sure
my dad will breathe a sigh of relief
that I can't tease him in this column anymore! Also, huge thanks
to the NAILBA staff for keeping me
from embarrassing myself too often,
their continued great job in running
the association, and putting on the
best meeting of the year. See you in
Orlando at NAILBA 34!
www.nailba.org 9
http://www.NAILBA.org
http://www.nailba.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015
NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
A Conversation with Robert O’Neill
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Member Profiles
Agency Successor Networking Group
Life Happens
NAILBA 34 Program Preview
Evaluating Your Carrier Relationships
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers
NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015
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