Have you ever run into the same business challenge repeatedly and you just couldn’t get past it? If so, you are most likely on a production plateau and in need of a tool or technique to create a transformational moment. In other words, you need a Game Changer! 
 
Mickey Mantle, who had an impressive 536 home runs during his baseball career, said, “It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life."

Let’s take a look at a few Game Changers that can have a lasting impact on your business.

How do you convey your message to a client without seeming “needy” in the process? By understanding how clients think!

Clients give referrals for two possible reasons. First, they want to help you grow your business. Second, they want to help friends and loved ones. Of these two reasons which one do you believe is a strong reason to give you a referral? If you said to help friends and loved ones, then you are right!

If you are like most advisors and agents you know that there are only three ways that your production can go: rise to a new production peak, backslide to a production valley, or cruise control onto a production plateau. Two out of three of those are not good states to be in your business and most people that reach a production peak don’t remain there for very long.

So, where do you currently find yourself? Most of us need a strategy (or several) to move from where we are to where we want to be.

If you are like most advisors, you have aspirations and dreams to build your business. You may have thoughts of creating business plans to assist you in reaching your goals. However, ask yourself this question: “How many times have I created a business plan only to file it away or lose my motivation to follow it through?”

Oftentimes, advisors start out their business plans with the best of intentions, only to get sidetracked by the day-to-day operations which leave those plans unattended and ultimately unfulfilled. If this has happened to you, rest assured that you are not alone. So what is the solution?

No matter what time of the year, no matter what stage of your planning, a business plan is not enough, you need a business blueprint!

If you are in the financial services industry your business is tethered to the market. When the market is up so is your business but when the market is down, so is your business. It’s inevitable especially if you have a fee-based business. When the market and your assets under management drop it also means your gross commissions drop.

When this happens, do your business-building activities necessarily need to follow suit? The answer is “no”. However, many advisors stop prospecting because they don’t have a good strategy for continuing to do that task during a Bear Market.

If you are viewing a Bear Market as an obstacle rather than an opportunity you certainly won’t reach the next level.

Are you on a production plateau? Many advisors and agents are. In fact, at some point, every financial advisor, insurance agent, wholesaler, branch manager, and even agency manager hits a production plateau. I know because I’ve coached them all through one.

So, what do you do? The real question is if you had all the tips, tools, techniques, strategies, and solutions…would you apply them? In other words, are you coachable?

Let’s face it, it’s easy to procrastinate from time to time. The problem is when procrastination goes from an occasional occurrence to a daily avoidance that the real challenges set in. With a task such as prospecting for example, if your business is on a production plateau chances are you bought into a narrative that you will come off of the plateau without intervention, and that your pipeline will trend upwards again soon.

Does this sound familiar? Let’s look at this subject from a different perspective. Everything that you may have been telling yourself about procrastination may simply be a myth.

Have you jumped onto the social media bandwagon in recent years when it comes to marketing your business or are you still stuck in the 90s cold calling? I have been in the financial services industry for almost three decades, and I was reluctant to add one more thing to my prospecting plate such as social media. That is until I learned how to leverage the power of LinkedIn!