Testimonials

After giving it a few weeks since our last follow up, I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you for taking the time to work with our small group as well as the one-on-one time you gave me personally after the workshop in June.

When I heard that Kevin was giving us the opportunity to attend this workshop, I immediately thought back when I attended the workshop seven years ago as a new agent. Meeting Bill Grimes and listening to the information that he had on me specifically on my “call reluctance” gave me the opportunity early on in my career to make career changing decisions and put me on a path of success early on. Starting with “The Chicken List.” What a great way to overcoming so much in such a short amount of time.

Fast forward seven years later and I find myself still as an Agent with the Knights of Columbus. Now, instead of having a job, I have a career. A career in which I feel as though I have been able to earn a good living for my family, accepted by my peers but more importantly, valued by my clients. When I call people to meet, they meet with me. When I notice a concern in their “plan” they listen to me and more times than not, my clients have purchased the products I have recommended or at least some version of what I originally proposed. I have learned that if someone has told me “No” I do not take it personal. I have to get to a certain number of “nos” to get to the “yes” that I am looking for.

By comparison, after taking your workshop so many years after the first time, this workshop has shown me different things about myself that I need to improve on. One of which is my “selfishness”. The fact that you pointed out this one word in a one-on-one discussion with me has set me on a path of a furious pace and the ability to let no obstacle stand in my way. When I find myself (during working hours) drifting off and not doing my job I hear you telling me “Oh, your being selfish!” To remind you of why that is important to me, during our conversation, I told you that when I get to a certain point in the year, towards the end of the year, I slow down. I am not as aggressive. I do not make as many calls; therefore, I do not see many people and inevitably I do not write many applications, which means to me, I am not protecting enough families.

When you asked me why I thought I was being like that, I told you I felt like I had a fear of succeeding and you said why is that? I then told you about the guilt I feel about being successful after the death of my son in an automobile accident in 2017. We talked about that for a while, and you had asked me if I thought my story was important for people to hear. I told you “Yes”. You asked me if I thought could people benefit from hearing my story and again, I said “yes”. You asked me if I told more people my story would more people buy more of what I was selling to protect them and their families? I said “yes”. Then you asked me if more people could benefit from my story, more could do more to protect their families, as well as when I sell those products, would I make more money to provide for my family? Again, I said “yes”. To that you said…”oh, so your just selfish…” to that…a giant and I mean humongous light went off in my head and to that I replied “YES!” Yes, I am being selfish…not one time had I ever seen it that way. I do not want to be seen as selfish but by not being as aggressive and not seeing enough families I was keeping others from putting themselves in a better situation when the worst happens, the loss of life…in my situation, the loss of a child. I was putting up some imaginary wall, although, it does feel very real at times. I was letting my own situation dictate the way I perceived others. I was not protecting the families that need my protection and the products that I sell to be there when they need them. I was not doing my job.

Since that realization, I have been more driven than ever. I am not putting off completing the service work that has slowed me down. In fact, I have welcomed my wife into my business to take much of the service work AWAY from me. With your help I reassessed my goals because I was absolutely crushing my original goals for the year. For five years I have been putting off getting my FICF designation, which allows me to be a better agent for my clients. I am proud to say that I am over halfway through the course, and I will be taking the test by Friday of this week. I have really learned the power of words and that the words you say have meaning. I am more persistent in the house at the kitchen table and busting through objections to write the policies that these families need. Since taking the workshop again, a new desire and mission has been awoken inside of me. I welcome the entire process. Make the calls, schedule the appointments, see the people, write the business, get paid.

Also, knowing that I have some of the same issues as other agents is a great help. The workshop revealed that, and the small group sessions showed it even more. This career is not Rocket Science, but somedays I sure try to turn it into that.

I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone who wants to learn how to be better at not just their careers, but their life.

Thank you again to you and your Team!

Darren Richuber Knights of Columbus

Dear Manard,

I wanted to write to you and say thank you again for the work that you do. On the long drive down to OKC, I was thinking that I might get some clarity about myself as a salesperson and have a little fun along the way (which I did); but I was not ready for what actually happened.

The testing we did revealed some dynamics in me that I wasn’t aware of on a conscious level. When I came to you to try and understand these results you asked questions that made me connect dots I didn’t know were there. To name one issue specifically, I realized that my lack of advanced graduate education in contrast to all of my siblings receiving master’s degrees or higher, had built in me a fear of approaching my highly educated prospects. In other words, irrational feelings of inadequacy were taking food out of my family’s mouths, and financial independence (and the joy that comes with that), out of my marriage. Literally no other training I have received in my 8 years with the Knights has touched on anything quite as profound as that.

Simply knowing that and being able to name it put me back in the driver’s seat against that fear. Now, when I see a name on my call list or a face across a room at a party that belongs to a highly successful medical surgeon, or judge, or business owner, my response is different. The fear still pops up, but now I can look at it for what it is… the irrational feelings of an adolescent whose siblings stayed in school longer. I know more about finance then my siblings, and I know more about finance than that doctor/judge/or business man; and remembering that truth dispels that fear and replaces it with an excitement at the possibilities in front of me! Instead of thinking “this guy knows more then me he’ll never buy anything”, I know think, “helping this prospect might be the case that makes me MDRT”.

So, from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of my family… Thank you!

BTW: Before attending my YTD sales was maybe $60,000 in premium between 40 or so policies. In the past 5-6 weeks since returning from your workshop I have written over $63,000 in premium between 10 policies.

Ian R. Johnstone
Advisor
6221 S. 58^th St. Suite F
Lincoln, NE 68516

Manard,

We first got involved with the SPQ FSA exam and the “Retrain Your Sales Brain” workshops back in 2015, and it helped us take our agency to the next level. Manard was our original instructor and helped us build a foundation of knowledge regarding our “Sales Call Reluctance” that was holding us back. In 2015 we finished as the #1 Agency in the Knights of Columbus for the first time. We continued to work with the material doing several workshops over the years.

Many of my agents have been through the course up to 4 different times. This has helped us stay on track and finish #1 6 of the last 8 years. In this business you are growing or dying!! Our biggest obstacle is usually between our ears and this program is the only thing out there that addresses our true problems!! Don’t let your anxiety of knowing the truth hold you back!!

Kevin Pierce

Manard,

I am providing details on how my team has responded to the Re-Train Your Brain Workshop we held in Cary, NC..

As I sought to bring this training to our team, I had a team in NC I had led for 5 years, and had just inherited another 2 states – VA and KY. I knew the existing team would benefit from Call Reluctance Training, and could see it equally in KY and even more so in VA. The SPQ Gold Evals confirmed this.

In addition, I knew we were also not consistently asking for referrals, and had no proven process for increasing referrals in place for gaining long term, consistent success.
Since I had worked with Manard Warren & Associates in the past, I knew that you could close these gaps by using the workshop.

While it is too soon to see the increase in sales productivity from this training, we can for certain gauge the prospecting consistency, and it’s impact on prospecting touches, meetings held and new opportunities being added to our funnels.

Prospecting Touches (Based on Power Hour Results)
*The training was attended 1/3 of the way into October
October – 853 Total Touches – 50/Rep
September – 408 Total Touches – 24/Rep – a 109% Increase

Meetings Attended
*The training was attended 1/3 of the way into October

679 Meetings – 40/rep
Previous Quarter – 371/mth, 22/Rep – a 83% increase
In October 450 or 66% of our total meetings were First Meetings – The average per month last Qtr was 374 – a 20% Increase

New Opportunities Created
*The training was attended 1/3 of the way into October
Total New Opportunities Added to Funnel 332, 19.5/rep
Previous Quarter 301, 17/Rep – a 10% increase

Traditional Lines Added to Funnel – 5,791 – 341/rep
Previous Quarter 4,162 – 244/Rep – a 39% increase

M2M Lines Added to Funnel – 1,237 – 73/rep
Previous Quarter – 545 – 32/Rep – a 123% increase

The bottom line here is, even with 2/3 of the month in results to see following our training, we are seeing tremendous increase in results.

Kenny Wray

Associate Director
State & Local Government
Verizon Business Group