Old-school producers don't serve themselves or their agency well. But you can change a Plaid's stripes.

Mr. Plaid sells group insurance. He can be found in many employee benefits brokerages. He used to wear a plaid jacket and white shoes, but he doesn't wear that outfit anymore.

Mr. Plaid is everywhere. He represents obsolete thinking and a sales behavior played out today that last worked in the 1970s.

Yes, Mr. (and Ms.) Plaid are still applying their stock in trade today, even though their rate-based selling doesn't work very well anymore. Question is: Why do so many Plaids still exist?

One answer may be that the Plaids are resistant and unable to adapt to today's technology-driven marketplace.

Another reason is more disconcerting: some Plaids are just coasting, hoping to hold on to what they have until they can retire. They have lost the thrill of the hunt for new business. Their customers respect their expertise less each year relative to the onslaught of modern competitors.

Consequently, their book of business is usually small, and they lose more each year than they gain.

The Plaids understand the need to constantly add new value to current clients and prospects they wish to sell. Yet, despite this understanding and the superior sales methods employed by savvy competitors, they snap back into old habits like a rubber band and do not forge ahead with new proven sales techniques.

They will spreadsheet the carriers, take you to lunch and rely on relationship rather than performance. Relationships are extremely important to build and maintain, but relationships do not trump performance and added value for selling and keeping groups.

Today's employee benefits buyer expects all that the Plaids offer, but only as a gateway to an appointment. The buyer would not even talk to you unless you could get great pricing, terms and offer product knowledge, so don't base your sales presentation primarily on that premise. It's the added value and differentiation you bring that makes and keeps the sale.

Are you a Plaid?

Let's get personal. Are you a Plaid? If so, you are in good company, but don't be proud of being a member of this group. Instead, ask yourself a few probing questions. Do I want to change my ways and become successful again? Do I want to supercharge my career, make money, light up my prospects and customers and ensure my successful future? (You may want to read my Sales Call article in last month's issue of EBA for a few pointers.)

Chances are your brokerage firm has purchased some sort of technology that gives you the ability to talk about new stories with prospects and customers. If not, get something that differentiates you and allows you to offer added value to prospects and customers in return for the insurance AOR. Next, immerse yourself in what the technology offers so that you can integrate its features into a customer-centric sales presentation. Practice that presentation so that it flows well within your sales style. Finally, start to learn about the issues facing prospects and customers in the areas of human resources, employment law, compensation and employee communication. These are the areas where employers are having problems today. They need help and you can be their salvation provided you have some expertise or technology that helps them in these areas.

You have to speak differently in your sales presentation. You also must cultivate a new relationship with prospects and customers that positions you and your agency as a trusted adviser in areas other than insurance. The more effective you are at positioning yourself this way, the better you will be positioned against your competitors because they are facing the same challenges in becoming new generation salespeople.

I know a producer I'll call Jim. Jim was a Mr. Plaid. He was schooled in yesterday's sales techniques where shopping the plan, blocking carriers and getting the best rate was paramount to making the sale. Jim had some success, but nothing to write home about. I worked with Jim, went on calls with him and taught him today's sales techniques. It all made sense, but Jim was reluctant to try out these "radical" ideas. He lumbered along for a couple of years and then something clicked.

He ceased being Mr. Plaid and tried a few of the new school sales techniques. He called me one day to announce that he had gone on two cold calls, pitched his technology solutions, differentiated his sales presentation and presented a performance-based sale based on alternative solutions on what he perceived his two cold-call prospects needed. The prospects' needs were not insurance related. To his and my delight, he walked out of both cold calls in a single afternoon with AORs from each prospect. He was converted and has been ripping through his sales quotas ever since.

Here is another story of a producer we'll call Sue who works in a major metropolitan market. Sue was a Ms. Plaid, and here's why. She had a big book of small accounts. Most of her groups were around 15 employee lives, but she had more than 100 groups. When I first started working with Sue, she had Ms. Plaid written all over her. Most of her accounts would see her once or twice per year, usually just at renewal time. In her market size, she was a rate taker rather than a rate maker, so selling on rates was of little value. She had sales and customer relationship management technology available to her, but did not bother to learn or use it. She was not adding value to her accounts. She was a clerk peddling insurance and, because of her Ms. Plaid techniques, every one of her accounts had a "For Sale" sign on it for competitors who had and used technology to stay in touch with customers regularly and provide added value to the relationship.

Sue's situation was quite different than salesperson Jim. Her small account size meant that over-servicing any account would eat into the profitability of that account because each group's commission was relatively small. I worked with her to show her how her sales technology could help her keep in contact electronically with each account every week by sending each account tools and valuable content that each account would use and appreciate. It worked! Not only did her customer satisfaction sentiment soar, this new servicing technique worked as a great sales model for selling new groups.

Today Sue is making more money than ever. Her accounts are happier with her. Most of all, she has shed her image and behavior as a Ms. Plaid. Her career is on a new footing, and her future is bright.

Is there a Plaid down the hall?

Maybe you're not a Plaid, but he or she works in the office next to you. Maybe you have lots of Plaids in your sales force. They are bringing down your entire sales operation and negatively affecting your firm's image with current and potential customers. It is in your and your firm's best interest to convert Mr. or Ms. Plaid or else get rid of them. They are a drain on your overall productivity as a firm in their current state.

It is a difficult task to convert Mr. or Ms. Plaid into a modern seller. But here are a few tips I've seen work.

First, purchase a good sales technology that adds value to your account relationships. This will be good for your accounts, your sales, and will have a transforming effect on your firm's image as a leader in the marketplace.

Second, ensure that every seller and every support person who has customer relationship responsibility uses it. There are few things worse than having a sales technology and not using it. The effect on the street for your competitors is that you don't have anything at all.

Third, stop selling rates as your main sales feature. I know I'll get a boatload of mail on this one, but it is true. You have to provide the best price, or at least a competitive price, but that doesn't mean you have to spend all your precious sales time hammering on rates. Present the rate, sell the rate and move on. Spend most of your selling time talking about non-financial matters that are important to the buyer. If you've really mastered this concept you'll use your sales technology to uncover buying signals from the purchaser that are far flung from the traditional insurance clap-trap. Of course, make sure that you provide a solution to whatever concern the buyer raises. This will differentiate you and make it easier to clinch the sale.

Of all the sales winners I have the privilege to work with, each has, or is growing, a big book of business as a result of the concepts I've addressed in this column. Some of these sellers are former Plaids. All are winners taking business primarily from Mr. or Ms. Plaids. You see, although it contradicts logic, the Plaid have large accounts, too. Those are the buyers that are particularly ripe for the taking.

Change and evolution

The world of benefits selling is changing faster than ever. The Obama administration may only hasten that change. Change brings opportunity. Employers are still buying group benefits. New wealth streams are still being created everyday for successful sellers and their firms.

It sounds like a cliché, but the choice is really yours: Will you be a Plaid, or will you make the investment in your career and your customers to drop your old ways like a bad habit and begin to make more money by gathering more customers and making more money for yourself and your firm in the process? Mr. and Ms. Plaid are a dying breed. Don't die with them. EBA

craigd@davidsonmarketing.com.

Not for CFOs. CFOs say they will be taking sizable pay cuts next year, but salary reductions won't trickle down the finance chain. Ajilon Professional Staffing, a professional staffing firm, has released a report with estimated salary ranges for various finance and accounting positions at small-, medium- and large-sized companies in 75 major North American metropolitan markets that shows the national average salary for chief financial officers and treasurers is expected to decrease 7.7% in 2010 compared to 2009.

However, national average salary for all finance and accounting positions is expected to decline only 0.85% next year, "revealing the resiliency of the job market for finance professionals," Ajilon states. Other finance and accounting positions surveyed include:controllers, tax managers, accounting managers, accountants, internal audit staff, senior analysts, credit managers, accounts payable/accounts receivables supervisors, payroll managers, partners, managers and staff accountants.

The accounting profession is expected to grow in size and scope in 2010 as proposed changes in regulation and compliance create new roles for them, according to surveys by Ajilon in partnership with the Institute of Management Accountants. The demand for financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting due to the recession will be the No. 1 driver job opportunities for accounting professionals, followed by the transition to International Finance Reporting Standards and the economic stimulus package, Ajilon states.

"Companies that take a proactive approach to attracting and retaining this top talent- which includes providing a strong compensation package to their people- will be first to grow profit and regain market share when the economy rebounds," said Doug Arms, Chief Talent Officer of Ajilon Professional Staffing."We are seeing the best and brightest pool of talent we've seen in decades; many companies are looking for creative ways to attract and retain this talent as we prepare for the upturn."