Selling, like golf, requires careful thought.
As a young man, I occasionally played golf on a competitive basis. I was decent, but never really great. I always liked the quote from the immortal Bobby Jones, “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears.”
Chi Chi Rodriguez once said, “Golf is a thinking man’s game. You can have all the shots in the bag, but if you don’t know what to do with them, you’ve got troubles.”
It’s the same with Consultative Brokerage. It’s all in how you approach each encounter with a client that determines your success. I’m drawn to a number of the analogies between successful Consultative Brokerage and a satisfactory round of golf. Here are some of the highlights:
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Keep your mind calm. Jack Nicklaus used to visualize a clear placid lake before every shot. You need to do the same during the chase of a deal. There are many emotions that will arise over the course of working on an account. These emotions can range from fear to greed, and yes, sometimes anger. To be successful, you can’t let these emotions cloud your judgment.
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Visualize each shot. A successful golfer visualizes each shot prior to executing a swing. Before taking action, they see the outcome and focus on the right mechanics. This is the same as a Consultative Brokerage transaction. Visualize each outcome of a client interaction. Ask yourself before each call, “What is my goal during this meeting?”
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Never choose your club before seeing the lie. A golfer will often anticipate the next club selection while moving down the fairway. This leads to judgments that aren’t based on facts, but opinions. The resulting shot might not be effective. A successful broker determines their next action only after they’ve completely analyzed the client situation. This analysis involves choosing from a number of solutions.
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Don’t wait in the fairway with a club in your hand. For the most part, you rarely see a professional golfer swinging their clubs while waiting for the group in front of them to clear the green. Why? Because they don’t want to lose the feel of the swing. They know that they only have so many good swings during one round and don’t want to waste one at the wrong time. In the same way, successful Consultative Brokers know to keep their powder dry, until their prospects are in a position to receive their best efforts. Don’t waste swings on deals that aren’t ready to be done.
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Understand how to manage the course. The course is set up the same for every golfer. The ability to shoot a lower score than a competitor revolves around how a player manages the environment. In this situation, the course is the commodity and the player’s skill level of managing it becomes the point of differentiation. In our profession, the carrier’s prices are the commodity and your skill level in understanding Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) becomes the differentiator.
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Put the last hole out of your mind. A great golfer recognizes that the last hole, good or bad, is only one encounter. There are 17 more that need to be successfully completed. So they don’t allow themselves to become emotional about any single outcome. A bad result on a hole doesn’t destroy them and a great result doesn’t make them invincible. They understand the nature of this business with its victories and, yes, sometimes inevitable defeats. Don’t dwell on your defeats or successes. Move on to the next deal with confidence and visualize a positive outcome.
A successful Consultative Broker practices professionalism, client value, and skillful deployment of resources. As the marketplace changes and the competition heats up, remember this advice from Bobby Jones: “The object of golf is to beat somebody. Make sure that somebody isn’t yourself!”