By John Hilton
InsuranceNewsNet September 27, 2018
CHICAGO - Anyone
can sell insurance, Patrick Bet-David says. He is out to prove it by creating a
500,000-strong sales force within 10 years.
Most of them will
have little experience selling insurance, he insisted during a summer interviewwith
InsuranceNewsNet Publisher Paul Feldman.
Bet-David is
sharing his approach to selling today at the InsuranceNewsNet 2018 Superconference
outside Chicago.
That approach
includes plenty of modern office dynamics, as seen at Bet-David's Dallas home
office complex.
Beyond the
reception area, playroom for clients’ children and meeting rooms, you step into
a warehouse-sized area containing the usual cluster of cubicles. But then
there’s the game area next to the gym and the full-sized classroom on the
second-floor balcony — all within the same huge room.
Within that room is
a bustling, diverse, young hive that any marketing organization or brokerage
would die for. In the corner is a glass-walled room that serves as Bet-David’s
office and video studio.
And this is just
the home office. Across the country are more than 5,000 agents not only selling
but also relentlessly recruiting, ensuring exponential growth.
His hiring plan is
based on maximum training and attention, Bet-David said.
"At first, you
have to hold their hand, walk them through each step, give them proper
direction and make sure you’re as hands-on as possible," he explained.
"I saw that a lot of my competitors didn’t want to do that because they
didn’t have tolerance with people and they expected everybody to get it as they
got it."
Ease Into It
Bet-David's program
avoids throwing new salespeople into the pool to sink or swim with a sales
mandate. Instead, he wants his team members to get comfortable first, sans the
pressure to perform.
After all, how can
you sell like a rock star when you're still learning how to sell?
"Taking them
part-time allowed me to retain more people. Maybe they made $800 in their first
month. It’s cool, but it wouldn’t replace their $4,000 income," Bet-David
said. "The next month, they might make $1,200. Next month, $2,200. Then
it’s $6,000. “Oh my gosh, I just made $6,000. I’ve never made this kind of
money in a month before.”
Simply put,
Bet-David would rather work with a clean slate than deal with salespeople full
of war stories from other jobs. He calls non-sales candidates
"greenies."
"I would much
rather bring in greenies because I can direct them with the culture that we
have and that gets them to move at the speed that we’re growing versus having
any hiccups," he said. "So I’m a fan of speed and efficiency. With
greenies, we tend to work a lot faster than with people who are not
greenies."
InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business
and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached
at john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow
him on Twitter @INNJohnH.
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