Want to know why I was able to keep selling day after day, week after week, month after month?
It was the most fun company I ever worked for. Every morning and evening we’d have sales meetings that were fun! We’d do sales training and play games, scream, run around, and all kinds of goofy stuff. It was silly, goofy, and immature. But it was fun! And because it was fun we didn’t see how tough it was, we didn’t absorb all the rejection, we stayed positive and kept on selling! Selling anything consistently is hard. Your agency doesn’t need to be Disney World, but if it isn’t fun you’re missing the chance to be way more successful. Here’s 31 ways to make your agency the happiest place on earth.
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Ringing a bell after a sale is for wussies.
Get yourself the biggest, baddest, loudest gong on Amazon or Ebay and every time somebody makes a sale, GONG that thing! Is gong a verb? Anyway, don’t worry about interrupting other people’s phone conversations. You’ll sound like an awesome place to do business when your coworker casually explains, “Excuse me, that was just my coworker banging the gong…” |
2 ) Have Lots of Sales Contests
Keep things fresh with new sales contests between your producers.
Try to set it up so everyone has something to go for and win, not just the best salespeople in the office.
Run contests that reward the behaviors that lead to sales (i.e. getting referrals or x-dates) instead of the actual sales themselves. You don’t want to hang the carrot too far out in front of your rabbits.
3) Make a JibJab Video
4) Buy a Pinball Machine
It’ll give your employees something to do every now and then to get a break and what could be cooler for your clients than playing free pinball while they’re waiting for an appointment?
Extra bonus: it keeps the kids busy while you’re talking to mom about life insurance and 529 plans.
If you’re really considering this, I’d use Craigslist or Ebay because they’re expensive new.
5) Paper Airplane Contest
Of course first prize goes to furthest flight but don’t forget honorary mentions for creative design, longest hangtime, and most interesting flight path.
Don’t forget to take pictures for Facebook!
6) Give Commissions in Cash on the Spot
I’m sure you’re thinking, but what if the policy doesn’t get through underwriting?
It doesn’t matter, it’s just about doing something different and exciting to get the office charged up. You can do just five or ten dollars and then pay the rest of the commissions at month end.
7) Take Silly Pictures and Post Them on Facebook
Reminding Facebook fans you’re fun to do business with is as easy as posting a funny picture of your agency once a week.
I wish I could give you a bunch of ideas here, but I think the candid spur-of-the-moment stuff is going to work the best. Don’t forget to include your customers. (if they don’t mind). |
8) Middle Name Day
It sounds stupid and pointless but I promise you it’ll be funny. I don’t know why people have such silly middle names.
Maybe I should ask my mom… my middle name is Fredrick.
9) Celebrate Achievements Way More Often
Often in sales, as soon as you hit a goal it’s time to start focusing on the next one. That’s a great way to burn yourself and your team out.
Set lots of different goals: daily goals, weekly goals, product goals, monthly goals. Set goals for everything and I’m sure you’ll have something to celebrate at least once a month.
10) Outside the Agency Team Activities
You can learn a lot about your co-workers by interacting with them outside the normal environment.
Go to a movie, go bowling, play laser tag, go out to eat… find ways to get your families to meet each other. Find a time that everyone can be a part of it. And if no one wants to do anything with you, maybe you’re not any fun. |
11) Keep Track of Office Records
Keep track of all this stuff and put it in a highly visible place that everyone can see.
Throw a big celebration (see #9) when individual and team records are broken. Maybe you could have some trophies or a plaque.
12) Make Sales Wagers
Whoever sells the most, earns the most referrals, upsells the most coverage, gets the most x-dates, gives more quotes, makes more phone calls whatever… gets a reward.
One of my favorite wagers is the good old pie in the face for the loser.
13) Give Out a Best _____ of the Week Certificate
Print out ablank certificate that you can write anything you want in and give out an award every Friday for something new.
It could be for the best sale, best customer service, best teamwork, best joke… whatever. It might be a stretch, but maybe you could use it for a customer every now and then. |
14) Listen to Fun Music
You can try… but you will not succeed.
15) Haiku Contest
Selling insurance,
Without ever having fun,
Will drive you bonkers.
16) Trivia Contests for Clients
Or if you want to make it a bit more engaging, get a box of Trivial Pursuit cards and have the client pick one.
Get the whole office involved and if anyone knows the answer the client wins.
17) Buy a Dart Board
It could be in the back room for a fun break every now and then. Or maybe you can even work it into the sales day with something like this: everybody throws one dart and that’s how many cold-calls you have to make that day.
Watch out for the triple 20!
18) Hang Up Children’s Pictures
It could be artwork your kids make or your customers’ kids make, but there’s something fun about seeing artwork from the young ones hanging up.
Maybe you could get kids to draw funny insurance pictures like, “Mom’s car after the accident” “What Dad does at work all day” or “The Gecko getting run over by a Mack Truck”. |
19) No Complaining Contest
If your agency is like most it’ll be a huge pot by Friday. You might just want to do this for one day at a time.
20) Group Stretch
Stretching will get more oxygen to your brain and get your blood flowing.
And this way no one will “pull a hammy” when they run out the door at 5:00pm!
21) Helium Balloons
This will make you feel great and if the parents are like me they’ll be thrilled that their kid stopped whining for a few minutes at the insurance agency.
You can give them to your producers for a job well done too!
22) Funny Dress Up Day
This is obviously fun to do on October 31st. But if you really want to have some fun have a crazy dress up day on a random day.
Here’s some ideas: Dress like the 1980′s… Wigs for everyone… Everyone in pink… Dress like your favorite movie star and then everyone else has to guess who it is… You’re going to feel a little silly when you go out for lunch by yourself but it’ll make a great Facebook post! |
23) Paint The Office Brighter Colors
You might want to get the opinion of someone who’s good at this kind of stuff so your office doesn’t end up looking like a pre-school.
24) Funny Photoshopped Pictures
You probably don’t have to buy a photoshop program though. There’s some online ones that work okay like Pixlr and Splashup.
Just be careful. DO NOT do anything that could offend someone.
You don’t want to be in court explaining Exhibit A – A picture of your co-worker’s face coming out of an horse’s backside.
25) Office Anniversary Celebrations
Birthday parties are cool, but when you throw a party for someone’s anniversary at work it shows their time spent is valued.
Unlike a birthday, office anniversaries are only shared with the office, which makes it a bit more special and exciting.
26) Smile and Laugh More
When you consciously make an effort to smile and laugh more your brain will reward you by wanting to do it and finding reasons to do it more often.
Don’t go overboard. If coworkers hear you laughing by yourself in the bathroom they’ll start laughing behind your back.
27) Share Funny Stuff on Your Agency Facebook Page
Funny car accidents, cartoons about insurance, insurance jokes, etc.
You can get some good ideas for insurance Facebook posts over here.
28) Install a Nerf Basketball Hoop
And to be honest, a Nerf Basketball Hoop is fun for a few minutes every now and then but it’s not going to distract your staff for hours when you’re away like a dartboard or pinball machine might.
Don’t be a ball hog. Let your clients take a shot every now and then.
29) Magic Word Contest
It’s actually a good game for salespeople because it encourages conscious conversation and thinking on your feet.
Although I can’t deny that I would probably laugh, I strongly recommend you to stay far away from dirty words here.
30) Good Natured Office Pranks
Try this one on your co-worker. Leave them a written message that Mr. Lyon or Mr. Behr called and provide the phone number to your local zoo!
If you do that one you have to let me know how it goes!
31) Set the Example
If the agent sees half-empty glasses everywhere so will everyone else in the agency.
When an agent brings laughter and positivity every day the entire agency will follow.
Decide you’re going to have fun with your business and do it today.
I’ve given you enough ideas.
Note from John:
And if you can’t think of anybody, click the Like button so more agents will see it on Facebook.
Thanks and HAVE FUN!
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