I met a young insurance sales rep a couple of years ago at a gig I was speaking at. We hit it off and stayed in touch.  Even had lunch together a couple of times. Recently he contacted me about getting together to discuss a business opportunity.  When I asked about it, he was guarded but then finally shared he was involved in one of those multi-level marketing deals.  Wanted to get me involved because of my speaking and of course, my network.  I thanked him for thinking of me but told him I wasn’t interested.  He wanted to meet and have lunch anyway, so on my next trip to his neck of the woods we met.  Seems most of the conversation was him trying to pitch me the MLM shtick.  I mean, marketing collateral, laptop, PowerPoint slides, the whole thing.  He didn’t seem discouraged by my lack of interest, change of subject, or my outright “no”.  Finally, the lunch ended and it was over. Or so I thought.

The next thing I knew (like that same day), I was hit with an email with a list of products, services, and the revenues generated selling these products. I sent him a note requesting to be taken off the list but that didn’t happen.  I just got more and more emails including the generic form letter telling me how stupid I was.  He followed up with a phone message asking me about the products and if I would be interested in creating a website to sell them or if I was interested in buying them myself.  This went on and on.  I returned his latest call just this week (our original lunch was back in October) to tell him to stop calling me and to remove me from all lists or it was going to get ugly.  I could not have been more direct.  He said,“OK, OK.  But can I call you back in 3 months to see if you’re interested then?” I said this would be our last call.

How many insurance agents, financial advisors, planners, and other salespeople just don’t get it? How many go way over the top to pitch their stuff?  Answer – too many! No means no or it gets ugly.

Focus on your prospects (I mean true prospects) and there are no worries.  A prospect is someone that knows you (or of you), values your work, and is interested in becoming a client now or later. That’s it! Awesome if it’s through a referral! How much of your marketing is focused on true prospects rather than on the proverbial suspect? No wonder so many reps fail!  If more reps “got it” maybe less would be focused on MLM schemes.