When Did You Stop Learning?

Last week I had lunch with my friend Mike. His brother “Jake” sells commercial insurance. He has created a focused and tight niche directed at commercial divers. Guys and gals that weld, say, gas lines in the middle of the ocean.

It seems that Jake has made quite a name for himself in his niche. He has found a way to go directly to the underwriting insurance company and skip the traditional intermediate brokerage relationship.

One day Jake received a call from one of the legacy brokers in this particular area. In fact, this broker had dominated the market for 30+ years – until now.

During the conversation the broker asked in amazement how Jake got access to the niche. How did he locate his prospects? How did he get direct access to the carrier without a broker intermediary?

Jake explained that he does relentless research. He has spent unfathomable amounts of time dialing in the answers to these questions and dozens more. In short, he became a recognized expert and trusted source of this highly specialized insurance product – and in the process boxed out the legacy broker from a ton of business.

Then Jake asked the 60 year old broker one gutsy, honest question that you actually might expect from an up and comer half his age, “When did you stop learning?”

Are you still learning?

Do you devote Jake-like time to getting deep in the weeds of your craft?
In the absence of what shorespeak has always referred to as ‘student of the business’ learning, you, or your sales force, are at risk.

At risk of finding out that another sales team, or individual sales professional, has figured out a way to reengineer the system.

At risk of realizing that your ‘standard operating procedure’ is now an antiquated approach.

At risk of losing market share, revenue, and profits.

Take a good look around your shop and in the mirror – you haven’t stopped learning, have you?

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One thought on “When Did You Stop Learning?

  1. Excellent point, especially with so many industries in transformation mode.

    I can tell you the EDA Industry (Engineering Software) has changed big time in the last 5 years or so and I see evidence of it in every account call.

    Historically disparate or silo’d departments are now both horizontally and vertically compressed, and IT is the new VP of Engineering.

    I see this in company after company now. It is now a different sale but actually better because you can sell across three disciplines now at one call.

    Try selling the old school method in these companies and you’re lucky to get a one off low end license in there.

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