August, 2002 Article Submission Journal Archives ABOUT FSO Financial Services Online (FSO) is the first and largest financial services publisher and portal on the Internet. Our publications include Financial E-News, Financial Services Journal Online and Messages From The Masters, which are available at no cost on our Portal http://www.fsonline.com ADDENDUM: This Newsletter is published by Financial Services Online, Inc. and distributed on a complimentary basis to members of NAIFA, subscribers of the Virtual Sales Assistant(TM) and selected other recipients. It is designed to provide financial service professionals an overview of the events and happenings that may affect their business. If you would like additional information on any items or the sources used, please e-mail us at e-news-list-admin@ e-news.fsonline.com Contact: Carolyn Hersman chersman@comcast.net Copyright © 2002 Financial Services Online. Reprints and/or permission to reproduce Financial Services Journal must be obtained in writing from the publisher, Financial Services Online. LEGAL NOTICE Please read these important legal notices concerning this publication About NAIFA Founded in 1890 as the National Association of Life Underwriters, NAIFA is comprised of 900 state and local associations and represents the interests of 90,000 life and health insurance agents and financial advisors nationwide. Many of NAIFA's members are NASD-licensed registered representatives or registered investment advisors. Benefits of membership include legislative and regulatory representation, education and training, and networking opportunities. The NAIFA umbrella includes the Division of Financial Advisors and three specialty organizations: the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), the Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA) and GAMA International.		How To Create Your Own Creativity by Bill Brooks The ability to be creative with solutions, prospecting or working with customers has always been a key skill for any salesperson to possess. Being creative will allow you to revitalize your sales career tenfold because you will instantly find yourself becoming more able to provide your prospect with new and innovative ways to solve their problems or improve their situation. Creativity does not come easily to many salespeople. Barriers to creativity arise every day, and your ability to identify and conquer these ever-present obstacles will help you to increase your sales success. Routine can be one of the most common barriers to your personal creativity. Following the same routine every day will certainly not stimulate you, leading to a serious lack of creativity and innovation in both your career and personal life. Some routine is definitely necessary, even inevitable and desirable, but too much of it will certainly not help your creative juices flow. Try varying the ways and times that you do things in your every day schedule, and doing so is sure to help stimulate your creativity. Fatigue is another highly common barrier to creativity in salespeople. Giving your all every day while you pursue prospects is highly respectable. However, you need to take some serious downtime if you want to avoid burnout. Burnout is not conducive to stimulating your creativity, and you need to keep this in mind. Take time to play. During this playtime you will find that your creative juices will flow. You are likely to find an elusive answer to your prospect's problem when you're not at work, and not even thinking about it. Negative thoughts can also present barriers to your creative thinking ability. Thinking pessimistically is obviously destructive to anything, and your creative ability is no different. The optimist sees an opportunity in every problem, but the pessimist sees a problem in every opportunity. You probably know this. But knowing something and doing it are two different things. By approaching any sales problem with an open and positive mind, you are sure to stimulate your creativity exponentially. It will allow you to try new and inventive ways to fulfill your prospects' needs and wants. Fear is a concept that fits into the category of negative thinking. If you fear trying anything new in your sales activity, then you will most certainly fail to tap into your creative sources. Conquering your fear of using new ways to approach, help, or service your prospects will help you conquer a serious and common barrier to creativity. It's up to you how you choose to face your fear, and if you face it with courage, then your ability to use your creativity will surely increase. Any crisis presents an interesting twist on your creative ability. If you view a crisis as a phenomenal opportunity to tap into your creative abilities, then you are on the right track. Salespeople who fear crisis situations and fail to see them as chances to prevent the same problems from arising in the future are the same salespeople who are hurting their own creativity. Creativity solving any crisis situation can also provide you with the possibility that new and creative ways of doing things may emerge from the current crisis. Unfortunately, making excuses is a common practice among lots of rather average or poor salespeople. Blaming your own failures on outside factors is just too easy. You must avoid doing this if you intend to maximize your sales performance and stimulate your creativity. Blaming your own shortcomings on factors such as a bad territory or your competition will do nothing for you, your sales performance or your income. Take responsibility for your mistakes and your lost sales, and use what you've learned from these failures to creatively approach future prospects' problems, wants and needs. Another excellent way to stimulate your own creativity is to read and study the creativity of others. Biographies, success stories, articles and examples can help to inspire you to reach the higher levels of creativity that other innovators have reached themselves. Reading this type of material can help to push you to higher levels of creativity that others have reached. Creativity is sometimes difficult to maintain and keep. Your childhood imagination sometimes leaves you as an adult. Barriers that will hinder your creativity can include such factors as too much routine, fatigue, pessimism, fear, the way you handle crisis situations, and making excuses. Each of these barriers can be overcome if you become able to identify which of them is negatively affecting your creativity. Simply use your head when you feel stumped by a problem and then implement the solutions that are discussed above. You should not feel limited, though. Develop and use your own personal methods that will allow you to cultivate your creativity. The key is simply to realize what exactly it is that is harming your creativity, and then conquer it. This will help you improve your sales performance, as well as your own self-image, and this is priceless in creating your own creativity and your own successful future! Bill Brooks is CEO of The Brooks Group, an international sales training and business growth firm based in Greensboro NC. For more information visit www.thebrooksgroup.com. If you would like to receive The Brooks Group's free e-mail monthly sales or sales management newsletter e-mail: Barbara@thebrooksgroup.com or call The Brooks Group at 800-633-7762.