In our continued effort to support the independent insurance producer, we have added a new category to our blog: wellness. We preach a lot about process and while it’s important to focus on the professional side we also believe you should have access to personal development as well. We have teamed up with a wellness pro who has agreed to offer ongoing advice to help you take control of your health while cruising America selling insurance.
Jeremy Koerber has been in the wellness and healthcare industry for nearly 20 years and has some great ideas to help you stay fit. Maintaining your health plays a major role in the health of your business and I say this from personal experience. Jeremy is my personal wellness coach and we wouldn’t be bringing him into our community if we didn’t have hard evidence that he produces results. As we continue this journey with Jeremy, I will share with you my results and how wellness is impacting my personal business.
I hope you enjoy this series and I’m happy to make an introduction at any time if you would like to chat with Jeremy.
By Jeremy Koerber, MA, ACSM HFS
Sell, sell, sell! It’s what you eat, sleep and breathe. You hustle every day to fit in some family time in between sales calls, training, administrative work, marketing, relationship building with your client base and travel. For many sales people, balance is an unrecognizable concept and terms like exercise and nutrition are dirty words.
It is common to hear sales professionals state that they will take better care of themselves “when they are established and making money.” It is eerily similar to the phrase a young couple might make when discussing starting a family. “We want to wait until we are established and making enough money to support a family.” Problem is, there is never enough money and once you hit the level you feel qualifies as “established” you will most likely set your heights on your next professional achievement. At least you should be if you are a sales rep that wants to make it to the top.
The time to act is now… you just don’t realize it yet.
Fact: It is very easy to start work and wake up six-months later with an additional 10-20 pounds. It is also easy to make your personal health and fitness a low priority when you are faced with making quotas and a fat paycheck. But, I believe improving your overall wellness can make you a more successful insurance producer. I can think of four reasons:
- We know customers are more likely to buy from people they like and trust, but physical appearance also plays a role in customer’s buying decisions…THIS IS THE COLD HARD TRUTH.
- You may think you are productive with your “nose to the grindstone” approach, but taking time out to exercise will give your brain a break, bolster creativity and keep you energized throughout the day.
- If you look and feel good you will display confidence. Customers like this trait. It makes them feel good. Confidence should be spewing from your pores and being physically fit builds confidence.
- A tremendous amount of networking is done in the gym. You never know where your next customer or lead will come from.
The toughest thing for many, maybe for you, is to envision how health and wellness can impact sales production. Case in point: I worked with a client for a short period of time who was trying to get back in medical sales. At the time he was 300 pounds, smoked, and developed diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure). He also couldn’t land a job because, I believe, he simply looked about as unhealthy as one could get. There are human resources rules that say you cannot discriminate based on physical appearance but let’s be honest, it happens every day. The healthier you are the better chance you have of making a solid impression with the buyer. This sucks, but it is what it is.
Now here is where it gets interesting. He finally landed a job and wanted to lose weight before traveling to New York for training. We employed a simple exercise and nutrition program that was working. But, once in New York he quit doing everything that was making him successful. In his mind, he didn’t have the time anymore because he was in classes all day. Truthfully, he had all the time in the world. He simply failed to see the big picture of how these strategies were making him both healthier and a better salesman. Many of my clients are financial planners who make fitness the first thing that happens in the morning and plan their day to ensure they eat healthy foods. They are in shape and they have massively successful businesses.
There is no difference in the schedules of the two clients discussed above. They both have three kids, work long hours, etc. The only difference is one client makes the time in his schedule for exercise and nutrition and the other wishes for the time to exercise and eat healthy to magically appear. It comes down to priorities, planning and big picture thinking. As you read this ask yourself…
“Am I happy with my current personal health and fitness?”
You may also be thinking that this blog didn’t give me any strategies to implement and you would be right. The first thing I do with any client is to lay the cards on the table and determine where they are in their mindset. Again, ask yourself.
“What is your current mindset?”
Once we have figured that out and your level of commitment, we can move forward implementing strategies that will improve both your physical and career health! Are you ready to change the way you think?
About the Author:
Jeremy Koerber, MA is the owner of Integrated Wellness Concepts, and is an ASCM-certified Health Fitness Specialist with 18 years’ experience in the health and fitness industry. His team’s philosophy is to create wellness plans and exercise programming that focuses on integrating physical and nutritional concepts into his clients’ lifestyles that fit their objectives, interests and personality.
To contact Jeremy visit www.integratedwellness-concepts.com or call him directly at (314) 807-8634.
