Kevin Trokey is founding partnerand coach at St. Louis-based Q4intelligence.

We spend a fair amount of time and energy training insurance producers. Given that it is their agency owners who engage our services, somewould rather be anywhere else but sitting there with us for twodays of training. We call these folks “hostages.”

But we urge them to keep an open mind, encourage them tochallenge everything we teach, and take time toexplain why each step is effective and necessary. We help them totake ownership of the broker sales process.

Some get to that recognition faster than others. I could write awhole series on the objections we hear, but there is one that comesup every time: how much time a prospect will make available tothem.

Related: Targeted prospecting: why you should be doing it(and why you probably aren't)

Our sales system is built around a three-step process. Eachmeeting has a distinct purpose, each step tees up the next andbuilds on the last, and each step will likely take an hour to anhour and a half.

Defiant declarations always ensue: “There is NO WAY I can get aprospect to take three meetings. And there is NO WAY I can get morethan 10 to 15 minutes at a time.”

We call BS, because we use the same sales process ourselves.Nobody would be sitting in that room with us if someone on theirleadership team hadn't given us three meetings and adequate timefor each meeting.

When we explain this to the room, the response is interesting.Most are curious as to why it would be different for us, and thereis usually the lone holdout who explains, “You just don'tunderstand; our prospects are different.”

The problem isn't that their prospects are different. Theproblem is that the meetings they have with prospects aren'tdifferent. The typical series of conversations a producerhas with a prospect usually include:

• Let me explain to you who “ABC Agency” is and our112-year history

• We have achieved Gold/Platinum status with all thetop A-rated carriers

• If you give us a chance to quote, I'm sure we canbeat your price

• Let me show you our capabilities binder of productswe offer

• The real difference between ABC and everyone else isour service. You will come to see us as an extension of your HRdepartment

And, no, I wasn't listening in on your last pitch.

Your prospects have heard this same message over and over andover and probably check out when you launch into it. They are notinterested in hearing your version of the same story. They aren'tinterested in your past; they are concerned about their future.They aren't interested in discussing your products, they areinterested in discussing the problems your products can helpfix.

Do yourself a favor. For your next prospect meeting, leave theagency history lesson and your capabilities binder at the office.Instead, show up prepared to discuss the future they desire and theproblems that may get in their way (addressed by the products inyour capabilities binder). If you do that, you may very well haveto cut the conversation short so that you can get to your nextmeeting on time.

Game on!