This year's Senior Market Advisor Expo hits Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino August 25-27, with an impressive array of motivational speakers, seminars, workshops and other opportunities to learn more about the business and network with the best. Here's a preview of what to expect, as well as an informational piece on websites written by advisor, speaker and media expert Nolan Baker. For more information on the event and how to register to attend, visit www.SeniorMarketExpo.com.
Attract new clients and keep the clients you have
Friday, Aug. 27 | 11:15 a.m.
Hal Becker, Author and Sales Expert
Closing keynote speaker Hal Becker doesn't ask for referrals–never has and never will. "My doctor has never said, 'Hey Hal, you know any sick people I can call?'" he notes. Instead, he uses what he calls the "Bruce Springsteen" method. Springsteen got on the cover of every major magazine back in the '80s for one simple reason, says Becker: He gave great concerts. "If you really do a great job, people want to refer you," says Becker. "I think weak salespeople ask for referrals."
Becker is a sales trainer, consultant and author of books including "Can I Have 5 Minutes of Your Time?" At the age of 22, he became the No. 1 salesperson among a national sales force of 11,000 for the Xerox Corporation. Six years later in 1983, he survived cancer only months after launching Direct Opinions, one of America's first telephone survey marketing firms.
Becker has since sold the company and has become a nationally recognized expert on sales, customer service and negotiating. He conducts seminars and consults to more than 140 organizations a year. He has been featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Nation's Business, plus newspapers and radio and television stations worldwide.
In his presentations, Becker notes that companies have shifted resources away from sales training and that has hurt salespeople's performance. "There are 34 million salespeople in the U.S. and less than 3 percent are over quota, which is kind of shocking," he says. "Most salespeople hover around average or below average and that's with virtually no training."
Becker presents a multistep process to improve performance. The first step is to get organized. Great salespeople are highly organized, he says. They keep track of the details in their business and keep their appointments and commitments.
The second step is to become aggressive, but this doesn't mean beating prospects up with the world's hardest close. By aggressive, Becker means staying in contact with clients and prospects. "The key is how many calls can you make a day, whether it's to high-net-worth individuals or to small businesses," he says. It's a constant process." The third part of the process: honesty. "I know it sounds corny, but all we have is our reputation," he says. "A lot of salespeople forget that. You want to build a fabulous brand or reputation and when it's all said and done, that just takes time."
Generating leads through all stages of your career
Wednesday, Aug. 25 | 2 p.m.
Honey Leveen, President, Your Insurance Specialist LLC
Not many people get to hear royalty speak in person. That will change for attendees of a presentation by Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP, owner of Your Long Term Care Insurance Specialist, LLC, in Houston, Texas. Leveen is the self-proclaimed "queen of long term care insurance." It's a whimsical title but in fact Leveen is an experienced and successful producer who has focused exclusively on LTCI since the early '90s. She has qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table several times and is ranked among the top 100 LTCI producers.
Leveen's presentation will cover lead generation, and she will share her experience of trying multiple methods over the years. In the early part of her career, she used mailings and cold calling. "Direct mail worked beautifully in the early '90s but for some reason, it's not that effective these days," she says. "Maybe people are getting too deluged or maybe people resort to the Internet more." Some methods have been less successful than others. For example, Leveen has tried print advertising but with weak results.
Nowadays, however, she relies on a busy networking schedule. She's an active member of the West University Rotary Club and president of Houston Area Continuity of Care. Leveen also belongs to a business women's book club that meets monthly as well as another professional women's group that meets once a month.
Her participation in Houston Area Continuity of Care ties in directly with her work. The group "encourages the mutual sharing of information among health care professionals involved in continuity of care and discharge planning." Leveen says the membership comprises health care agency owners, durable medical equipment providers and marketing staff from assisted living facilities.
Leveen's program will focus on how different lead generation strategies can work differently for different people and at different stages of their careers. She plans to cover three distinct phases–starting out, mid-career and experienced–in an interactive session using videos. The presentation will draw on her experiences and recognition of how her techniques have evolved. "When I think of how I generated business in the early part of my career, I really was meeting myself coming and going," she says. "I was much more phone intensive. I planted many seeds during these years and now I'm reaping what I've sown over the past 20 years."
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