Cato: What about the image
of the professional reading Financial Services Journal
?
Ziglar: I believe
image based on integrity is a must for each reader because
success is going to be dependent on the trust they can
generate in their prospects and maintain in their clients!
Clients would prefer the ambassador.
In the world of financial sales
and marketing there are five reasons people don’t buy:
No need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust.
Though the prospect won’t always say, "That’s an exaggeration!"
or "You’re lying about that!" the prospect "feels," or
senses, that something is not quite right, and that feeling
spells no trust or no action to purchase. They want to
be considered special and they want you to be special,
to stand-out, to be their ambassador. And if you are not
well perceived, you can count on it, there will likely
be fewer sales for you! This is one reason why it is important
that you emerge from the pack as an ambassador for your
specialty.
Emerson said, "If you would lift
me up you must be on higher ground." And in the financial
products and services sales vernacular, if you’re going
to ‘write me up,’ I must know that you are on higher ground.
The many financial scandals on
Wall Street, at major corporations, and with mutual funds,
have unfairly made it more difficult to sell insurance
and related products. With integrity you do the right
thing! That means you have nothing to feel guilty about.
With integrity you have nothing to fear because you have
nothing to hide.
When you remove the burden of both
fear and guilt, you are free to be your best self. Like
it or not, the kind of person you are determines the image
you project. Look at the ego-maniacs in financial planning
and insurance, who are not aware of their real image!
The Dali Lama says the best way to feel good about yourself
is to do something you are proud of.
Dr. Dean Ornish conducted a 20-year
study and concluded that our relationships are more important
to our physical health than the food we eat or the exercise
program we’re on. Your relationships are more important
to you physically than the food you eat or the exercise
program you are on.
Obviously, relationships that you
must develop not only affect your financial success, but
your physical health as well. If you become an ambassador
in your specialty, not only will you be more successful
financially, but you will improve your client relationships,
and you will be healthier as well. This also extends into
the balance of life because all long term relationships
are built on trust, so that takes us right back to the
integrity issue.
What Art
Linkletter Says
About You Being An Ambassador …
America’s beloved
father-figure, Art Linkletter, has a squeaky-clean image.
Linkletter is ageless and his popularity goes on-and-on-and-on.
Linkletter is responsible for many good works in addition
to being known as a TV personality, author, speaker to
countless financial organizations and associations, and
former USA Ambassador to Australia. We discussed his image
and your image. Art Linkletter believes, "Insurance marketing
professionals can not fake a good image!"
Cato: What
about your image?
Linkletter:
My image has been and remains the key to my success!
As an ambassador for many national companies, I have asked
the public to accept my personal guarantee that a product
they have never used before is good, reliable, and worth
trying. These include the first electric blanket, GE,
the first home permanent, Toni; the first non-ink pen,
Papermate; the first cake mix, Pillsbury; the first diet
cola, RC; and the first mail order auto insurance to be
sold to non-drinkers.
"I
am an ambassador because my image
is the key to my success!"
Art Linkletter |
My image as an ambassador was also
the reason that I cold persuade the Los Angeles School
Board to permit me to be the first and only commercial
broadcaster to take children out of school during the
daytime lessons for an appearance on my show, knowing
that I would not exploit them and the cause of education
would be enhanced. We were on CBS TV, five day a week,
for 26-years; I interviewed 27,000 youngsters, the basis
for his best-selling book and TV series called Kids
Say The Darndest Things.
My ambassador status helped me
to be appointed as the formal Ambassador to Australia
by President Regan, and to be appointed to the first drug
abuse and education committee by President Nixon. And
my ambassador image opened the doors to a successful career
lecturing across the country on positive thinking.
Cato: Tell us about the
image our readers need to be more successful as a financial
advisor today?
Linkletter: I
consider image to be especially important to any financial
professional seeking to achieve now. This is why I recommend
becoming an ambassador in your insurance specialty. This
is because he or she is asking people to trust him or
her. In our era where corruption, immorality, and plain
thievery, have signed our national financial landscape
from Wall Street to Main Street and among top corporate
executives, the insurance industry’s honest marketing
professionals are left to pay part of the price for this
massive wrong-doing. As an addendum, I used the word image
as the true representation of a personal character based
on reputation and record. Out here in Hollywood, images
are ‘spun’ by PR people who often conceal the true nature
of their celebrity clients. There’s an old familiar and
very cynical saying that goes, "The key to success is
having a good image; once you can fake that, you have
got it made!"
What J.
T. "Dock" Houk Says About
Your Status As An Ambassador…
One of the most respected
major figures in America’s financial industry remains
scandal-free and unchallenged as our nation’s leading
authority on foundations, including foundations for average
people. He is J. T. "Dock" Houk, JD, Ph.D., CPhD, and
CEO of the National Heritage Foundation, founded in 1968.
He has since been highly involved with financial professionals.
The author of seven books, "Dock" Houk directs the highly
successful foundation for foundations and he says, "Establishing
a foundation is far easier than most financial professionals
realize. This often gives their clients advantages no
other source offers. And this often enables them to control,
influence, or direct, all assets on an ongoing basis."
Houk can be reached at 6201 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church,
VA 22041, phone 800-986-4483, or access the official "http://www.nhf.org"
Website.
Cato: Please
explain your image?
"Dock" Houk:
Until I read Napoleon Hill, I would have said
image takes care of itself. All my life, I have lived
the adage of John Maynard Keynes, who said "in the long
run, ideas control," and so I have focused on the construction
and implementation of ideas. The some forty new ideas
I have come-up with, in my life what I call "inventions,"
and most of them came from the thought "the majority is
always wrong." The majority of people take the most easy
path, and frequently follow charismatic (and wrong) leaders.
"After I became
an ambassador for my specialty,we grew into the largest
organization of our type in America’s financial
industry."
J. T. "Dock" Houk
JD, Ph.D., CPhD
CEO, National Heritage Foundation |
In 1968, I came across the thought
that "giving" was better than "getting," and finally concluded
that one of the most important keys to a happy life, no
matter what my income, was "giving." And as I patterned
my life after that thought, I never thought that my image
mattered. As we ran into critics, many of them concentrated
on me personally and used my image against my ideas.
Cato: What
about the Financial Services Journal reader who desires
greater success?
"Dock" Houk: The conflict
that faces you is "should I be myself" or
"should I appeal to a certain public?" To
answer that question is an individual challenge, since
"being yourself" (wearing lampshades at parties)
might conflict with "achieving to the max in your
specialty. There is a debating trick called "argumentation
ad hominem" that lawyers use in court all the time.
It means "if you can’t beat the argument,
beat the man," and it frequently appears when a
counsel attempts to "impeach the witness."
This means that counsel can win, even though the witness
has information against his case. What this might mean
to an image conscious professional like you should be,
is that if you rally want your argument to prevail, present
to the decision maker(s) an image that is favorable to
the acceptance of your ideas. Ideas may still control,
a la Keynes, but your own ability to get your special
ideas across is probably a function of your ability to
create, present, and close, within the framework of an
ambassador’s image. At moments when you have a burning
desire to convince somebody of something, what do you
invite them to do? Have a heart-to-heart talk!
What Brian
Tracy Says About You
As An Ambassador For Your Specialty…
Brian Tracy is known
world-wide as one of the most in-demand sales trainers
and motivational speakers for insurance marketers. He
is considered both a leader and a role model among his
peers. Tracy is also an acclaimed author and award-winning
platform talent. Tracy’s operation is known for being
highly efficient. Brian Tracy says, "No doubt about it.
You must become an ambassador for your specialty! Your
image must look, in every way, the part that is consistent
with your fast success!"
Cato: Tell
us about our image?
Brian Tracy:
The reason image is so important is because people
are primarily visual and they form their first impression
of you by the way you look on the outside and in your
representations and media exposures. If they do not like
what they see on the outside, they very seldom take the
time to probe any deeper. If any field, the impression
you make on others is important to your success. Thus
it is absolutely essential that you look the part that
is consistent with the image you wish to project or convey.
Image is usually forgotten
by financial planners and insurance agents, but image
is essential. Still, image is not sufficient in itself.
You must also have the substance that comes from many
hours of work and study on yourself and your product or
service. You must really know what you are talking about
when you get a chance to talk about it.
"Your
ambassador status will get you through more doors,
and provide you with more opportunities to explain,
and to answer questions, and this will advances
your sales!"
Brian Tracy |
Over the years, I
have read many books and articles on the subject of image.
I am extremely sensitive to the way I look on the outside
and to all of my media exposures. At the same time, I
work to improve in my fields, so I study two-to-three
hours every day, on average. My success has been as a
result of working on the form and the substance simultaneously
while being careful to maintain my ambassador status.
Cato: What
about ambassador positioning?
Brian Tracy: As you may know, I began
my sales career in mutual funds and insurance. Eventually,
I built a 95-person sales force with branches in six countries.
Not only was image important to me, but image was also
important to the people I recruited, trained, and put
into the field. Today many of them are millionaires. Many
of my raw recruits have also become ambassadors in their
specialty and gone on to create wonderful lives for themselves,
both in insurance and financial sales plus other fields.
It is essential that
that you have the appropriate image. You must not ignore
your image. You can not allow your image to form without
your total control. Joining an association or two, going
to church and a Rotary Club, and attending a PTA meeting,
does not, I repeat, does not, mean that you have established
a desired image. People who do not know this are living
in the past. Most likely such people are producing like
others did in bygone days.
