Craig J. Davidson

Craig Davidson says brokerages and small business owners should not be down about failure.

Craig Davidson on the importance of maintaining a winning attitude.

Craig Davidson on creating the sales environment you want.

Craig Davidson on the core elements of seller and buying behavior

Push employers fear buttons to sell and renew business says Craig Davidson.

Craig Davidson on how health insurance consumers will soon face a technology divide for employee benefits

Are you pessimistic or are you optimistic about the Supreme Court's June decision to basically uphold all of PPACA? What is your plan in this sea of personal and corporate uncertainty?

Your sales organization has a mix of players. Some are great, some OK and some, well, not making the grade. Yours is like many - but not all - organizations. Not all employees are titans, but that's what your goal should be. This column will look at profiling employees into three categories. It is about improving the ranks of superstars and changing out substandard players. We want to create a stronger army for you with higher productivity and profits.

Health care and the Supreme Court are expected to take center stage on Thursday. The announcement will telegraph the futures of many, regardless of what the high court says. Whatever choice the court makes has consequences that will change your direction and that of our industry for a long time to come, says EBA contributor Craig Davidson.

Benefits sales technology can help you sell more. It's a proven fact, but unless you've tried the right technology and someone trained you how to make the technology sing like a song bird, you would not know.

Every brokerage sells in the small group market. The reason is simple: That's where most of the group business resides.

Let's look at the use of power for selling and properly managing a sales staff. We are definitely talking about transformational leadership with these two applications.Leadership is the use of power and influence to direct the actions of followers toward others to goal achievement. I define power as the ability to influence the behavior of others and resist unwanted influence in return. The existence of either or both does not, however, mean that you will be able influence anyone. That is where the strength of the leader comes in.

What is the difference between a manager and a leader? According to Warren Bennis, founder of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California, "Managers do things right, but leaders do the right thing." A world of difference exists between these two individuals. Which camp do you fall into? Most people have some management acumen, but a minority has the stuff it takes to be a great leader.

I would like to discuss with you the building blocks of a successful sales culture. Let us start with values and morals. Then we will move on to thoughts which lead to behavior. Behaviors establish a culture, the backbone of your organization.

Building customer relationships parallels the concept of personal addiction. An addiction requires an occasional fix. According to Dictionary.com, "fix" is a term that means "a compulsively sought dose or infusion of something: to need one's daily fix . . ." Think about giving your customers a fix during this frenetic renewal season.

Most group business renews on January 1. So you are going through the craziness of putting your 12/1s and 1/1s to bed. Carriers are late with numbers. Groups are asking you to take their plans to market. You are playing defense as sharks circle your groups more this time of year. Welcome to the busiest time of year for most brokers and consultants.

Crossing the value gap should be a top priority for benefit sellers. The value gap is a chasm that exists between how most advisers sell, which buyers view as ho-hum, and a wonderful place where relatively few sellers travel, but buyers love. Taking your buyers across the value gap lands you in a place where buyers are more frequently willing to buy and where you'll have more fun than a kid in a candy store.

To sell is to close. It is the penultimate conclusion. Selling is of no value unless one can close the sale in a timely manner.

We talk for a living. We should be experts at talking to prospects, but not everyone is an expert. Let's devote this column to discussing how we can improve our grammatical skills to improve our ability to present and close more sales.

Stop working harder at sales. Instead, turn on your computer. When the dots are properly connected, data can open a whole new world of selling for you - a smarter way. Once you get over the paper tiger of scary data, you'll discover a new method of locating and working prospects that you never dreamed of before. You'll make more money with this technique.