Expert Perspective Presented by BenefitsPro Expo

Habits of high-performing advisors

Succeeding in the insurance world as an advisor who is producing new business is one of the toughest sales careers anyone can attempt to pursue.

Successful advisors have not only overcome the challenges our environment has thrown at them but have developed habits that enable them to outperform their peers on a consistent basis. (Photo: Shutterstock)

As a father of three young daughters, I have certainly seen plenty of toys, shows, clothes, etc. that display the mythical unicorn, but it turns out I’ve also seen several in real life.

I’ve heard that if you meet a high-performing benefits advisor, you have just seen a unicorn. Succeeding in the insurance world as an advisor who is producing new business is one of the toughest sales careers anyone can attempt to pursue.

Related: How to “retail-ize” health care and free the unicorns – with Eric Haberichter

Selling and managing a book of business in the benefits space requires you to build a meaningful relationship with a business in which they like and trust you and to present compelling evidence as to why you are the best choice to be their business partner.


Be sure to attend Ben Conner’s Motivational Track session, “Habits of High-Performing Advisors” at the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, August 16 at 1:30 p.m., featuring: 

• Kareim Cade, president and CEO, Great Lakes Benefit Group • Randy Hansen, president and founder, PSG Washington • Bryce Heinbaugh, managing partner, IEN Risk Management Consultants • Jessica McCool, regional operations consultant, BOK Financial Insurance


From there, you need to have the vision and technical expertise to guide them through a strategy for one of the largest expenses impacting their business and employees. You need to surround yourself with the team and resources to guide that employer in health care and insurance tactics, compliance, wellness, communication and employee engagement. Lastly, you need to have insights into how the rapidly changing landscape will shift in the future and how they should adapt.

Amazingly, there are individuals across the country who have succeeded in all these areas and become high-performing advisors. They have not only overcome these challenges, but have developed habits that enable them to outperform their peers on a consistent basis. They have been able to master one of the most difficult roles that exists in the sales environment and mastered a process that provides confidence that they are able to lead executives toward meaningful results in their health care and health insurance programs.

Our country will continue to face challenges as we try to navigate a broken system. Employers and employees need advisors to perform at the top of our games and relentlessly pursue becoming the best we can be. They need a health care system that can begin working for them, so that their paychecks and profits aren’t continually robbed by hospital systems, PBMs, insurers and misaligned brokers.

At the upcoming BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, we have curated a panel that is going to share the habits of high-performing advisors. We will encourage, inspire, and provide insight about how you can elevate your career, as well as reinforce the disciplines that you already have put in place.

During my career, I have grown a $1 million book of business before I turned 30 years old and become the president and CEO of my firm. While I have experienced and identified habits that contribute to success in the benefits industry, I have also committed to learning from other high-performers about key areas that have allowed them to succeed and achieve growth. Although there isn’t one path to success, there are key habits that allow high performers to take different paths to outperform most in this industry. This panel will discuss habits in the following categories:

I am confident you will leave the session knowing that you just saw a panel of unicorns who encouraged you and showed you the path to become one yourself.

Register now for the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo.

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