Insurance and financial services professionals assembled for this year's Million Dollar Round Table might believe they can rest easy because of their superior sales production. But that would be a false assumption, one that could put their practices at risk, according to Mark Sanborn.
President of the consultancy Sanborn & Associates, he conveyed this warning at "MDRT Speaks," a fast-paced series of innovative business concepts presented on Monday at the annual meeting being held in New Orleans. To continue to excel, he told agents and advisors attending the session, you must strive always to "be better than your best."
"I'm here to tell you how to turn ordinary success into extraordinary success," said Sanborn. "Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be extraordinary."
To be anything less, he added, is tantamount to jeopardizing your practice. That's because of relentlessly rising consumer expectations. The more one provides clients, he said, the more they come to expect. Thus, you have to continually grow your value proposition to stay at the same perceived level of service — and to keep competitors who are coveting your clientele at bay.
"The great football coach Woody Hayes said that you're getting better or you're getting worse; the status quo is not an option," said Sanborn. "The reason why people become successful but don't stay successful is because their competitors are improving their quality of service relative to them."
To up your game with clients and prospects, he added, you have to ask yourself three game-changing questions:
Am I achieving my practice goals?
Am I striving to fulfill my potential?
Is my service oriented towards clients' success?
To become the best at what you do, said Sanborn, you have to surpass in performance what you're able to accomplish today. You have to "make your best better." Yet so many advisors falter or languish in their practices after achieving a measure of attainment because they don't continually improve.
