Success in Employee Benefits Group Sales Podcast

In this second podcast where Employee Benefit Recruiter, Steve Faulkner, interviews a top performing rep, he speaks with Chris Roberts. Chris is currently a Regional Vice President in the Mid-Atlantic region, based in Maryland, for United Healthcare Specialty Benefits.

Chris joined the world of group insurance in 2001 after a career in sales and earning his MBA. He was a life hire for Unum, joining the group rep world at the ripe old age of 31. He got a solid grounding at Unum, and was performing well when he made the move to Assurant.

He spent the next four years as a sales rep at Assurant, the last three of which he was either the number one, two or three rep in the country for either case count or premium, out of a field force of 185 reps.

His peak achievement was 'Rep of the Year' status in 2006, a year when he was #1 for case count.

Steve asks Chris a series of questions to what see what ideas listeners can borrow, be reminded of, use etc. on their desks to help them be more successful.

The full podcast is just over one hour long. You may listen to it in its entirety or as individual questions by clicking on the corresponding MP3 links. I'd recommend more than one listen...

Introduction (length 2:24)
Q1. Finding the brokers that you click with (3:27)
Q2. Work ethic-a typical day and week. Power time. (3:02)
Q3. More on power time. Don't let 30 days go by. (6:36)
Q4. Activity goals. Focusing on the comp plan. (5:04)
Q5. Dealing with rate issue (16:27)
Q6. The Holy Grail, getting to see the end user (2:12)
Q7. Building relationships with underwriting (4:32)
Q8. Timing/getting to be the recommended carrier (4:02)
Q9. A sales manager's perspective (4:33)
Q10. A great rep v's a good rep. Preparing for the sales call. (9:12)
Summary (3:35)

Listen to the whole recording (66:06)