The Other 8 Wholesaling Skills Your Manager Wants You to Have

Here’s the follow up to the 7 Essential Wholesaling Skills Your Manager Wants You to Have post.

In that post I said:

The survey findings were distilled down into two distinct categories. Those skills we deemed to be most critical indicators of success and secondary (though not much less important) skills.

While the following skills were rated as less critical on a scale of 1-10 than the attributes in the first article, it should be noted that these all came in very closely behind and are really no less important to the success of the great wholesaler.

Self Confidence – There is a fine line between self confidence and cocky. Think of it this way: cocky is self confidence gone bad.

Yes, underneath all the brash and brazen behavior of the cocky wholesaler there is some form of self confidence. It’s just being masked by this annoying facade of arrogance.

Conversely the self confident wholesaler has a confidence about them that is almost palpable. Kinda like, dare I say, Tiger Woods – before the 10 alleged mistresses?

Friendliness – Maybe this should be called Likability, or are they the same? Folks that have the ability to connect with others quickly, to find points of connection that lead to an immediate dialog, or start to gain trust right out of the gate make for great wholesalers.

Organization – When I managed wholesalers I had no tolerance for late sales reports, expense reports, etc.  My thought was, and is, if I am paying you in excess of $250k per year you can figure out how to get your administrative house in order.

Attention wholesalers: want to gain favor with your manager? Do your administrative work on time so he/she doesn’t have to nag you like an adolescent child.

Stress Tolerance/Deals with Change – This assessment of preferred wholesaler skills was done a number of years ago and I imagine that this attribute would have been on the ‘essentials’ list if managers were polled today.

That’s because wholesalers today are tested in ways that simply were unthinkable 3 years ago. Hostile brokers, dissatisfied shareholders/policy owners, and skeptical prospects all make for additional clicks of the stress meter to the right. Add in the rigors of travel, activity tracking, CRM requirements, the number of folks in line to take your job, downsizing, right-sizing, product changes, new marketing campaigns, a new CEO, a new sales manager, higher sales goals, less expense money and the stress-o-meter is past maxed out – it’s at 11.

Managers need wholesalers that work well under stress and can deal with change– and a ton of it.

Motivation to Change –– Do you take feedback well? What do you do with it? Great wholesalers are introspective and are looking for ways to up their game. They seek out feedback and they act on it.

Socially Adept – Just because you are a market (or marketing) genius does not mean you have the social skills to make it as a great wholesaler.

Did you hear the one about the wholesaler that popped Xanax before large events just to get through the whole event?

I knew this wholesaler.

Not socially adept.

No longer in the business.

Flexibility – Read this from the shorespeak newsletter archives: Gumby Never Pulled a Hamstring

Emotional Maturity – This list isn’t just about wholesalers or employees; it’s about how we all interact in the world. Not to get too zen (but I am from California…), the partial list of attributes of emotional maturity are:

• The ability to listen to others without passing judgment

• Knowing how to fight fair, to argue without making it personal

• Mastering the art of compromise

• To see, and consider, another person’s perspective

• To be able to express your feelings appropriately

• Taking responsibility for your actions and behaviors

• Maintaining perspective under trying circumstances

• Keeping your word and being dependable

• Having a sense of humor, including self–deprecating humor

So how do you self assess your skills on these 8 attributes, and the 7 from the prior post?

Where do you have room to grow or improve?

We coach good wholesalers that sincerely want to become great – why not join us?

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