Five Skillful Keys to Success

A recent “B.I.T. o’ Brian” video covered—in three minutes—“The Five Skillful Things You Need to be Successful Today.”

Buffini starts with his key concept: A SUCCESSFUL AGENT PROMOTES CONSTANTLY.

He immediately reminds the audience that when he puts something in a list, number 1 truly means it’s number 1, that is, it’s what he considers the most important item! In other words, if you do his first item faithfully you’ll be fine, no matter what you do with the other: s, yet if you do all the rest of the list well, you’ll achieve phenomenal success. So, promoting as a posture is crucial to success, but it’s not exactly what you might think!

Brian’s second key clarifies the first: we’re not promoting just to do transactions, but we’re promoting in order to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. When we build relationships, we create a long-term business and become professional business owners.

The third key—and it’s especially crucial in today’s world—is the importance of PROVIDING VALUE. Today’s potential client is savvy and has access to so much raw information, we have to demonstrate our knowledge and expertise—providing value—so we can overcome the tsunami of often worthless and confusing information and earn our clients’ trust.

In order to achieve the previous pair of keys, however, we also have to SELL SKILLFULLY. While we often shy away from the word “sell” and its connotations of the used car lot, when we get right down to it, the world constantly revolves around “selling” at various levels and most of the time that means we’re “selling” ourselves in different contexts. Brian makes the point that skillful selling is done in such a way that it really serves the other person, not ourselves, and to be most genuine, it involves a high level of integrity. Most folks these days can smell an old school snake oil pitch a mile away, so skillful selling is very different.

Finally—and in my mind, absolutely crucial, since if we neglect this foundational key, the rest of the structure crumbles—we need to SERVE FASTIDIOUSLY. We must meet and exceed expectations—yes, it’s a cliché but it’s true—and if we believe in and achieve that impeccable level of genuine service, we will be wildly successful and generate consistent referrals to maintain a peak state in our businesses and enjoy our lives and families more than ever.

Not bad for a three minute video!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development