Second, many rookie sellers get terrible advice, evidenced by the four points listed above. Selling is hard enough without bad advice. When that bad advice comes from your employer, it is a recipe for failure. Over the decades, I've observed what I think of as "Truths." Here are some that might provide better advice:

Sales techniques that worked for one person, will not necessarily work for someone else who has different skills and talents. For example, a hard driving sales person will sell in a very different way from anyone else. Take what you can from whomever has the best advice, then adapt it to your own style.
Technology forces us to adjust our sales messages. The people who came into the business prior to the emergence of social media are often stuck in history and unable to use the new media effectively. It's like driving a Dodge Dart when everyone else is driving BMWs.
Unless you can read your prospect, you stand a 75% chance of failure with him/her. We teach all our coaching clients a simple technique for reading people. It is the key to doubling your production with very little effort. Unless you can read your prospect, you deliver the same logic to everyone. How could that be successful?
Prospects generally are highly resistant to replacing their current advisor. Relationships are like big, powerful magnets. Even when the current advisor is providing underwhelming service or performance, the client is still reluctant to replacing him/her. So, offer a second opinion or a comparison.
Prospects often have the wrong idea of what you do. They don't understand the difference between an agent, an advisor, a financial planner, banker, underwriter, etc. To consumers, those are all the same.
Prospects typically do not understand financial products beyond a very rudimentary level. So, a reference to a technical term is totally lost on them, worse, it confuses them, and a confused mind always says No.
People have pre-existing opinions about your industry, your company, your products and you – they might not be positive opinions. See the Edelman Trust Barometer, which shows the financial industry is not trusted. So, do not make the mistake of assuming your prospect really want to hear from you.

The Old Ways sometimes work. But, is that the kind of odds you want? Do you want to gamble your career on "sometimes?" Selling is not a job. It's a career. Like any career, it demands continual learning. If you are selling in the same way you did ten years ago, you're probably long overdue to a review and adjustment. My advice is to find someone who can help you sell in your own natural style, rather than someone else's.

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Thumbing your nose at ignorance

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