As benefits producers we sell and service health and financial security. When a child is sick or a spouse is in pain, we provide the means of treating the illness and easing that pain while protecting the family’s fiscal well-being. When the difference between business success and failure is a healthy, productive workforce, we provide important tools needed to build one.

Given the importance of buying decisions in this context, it’s understandable that most shoppers want help from an expert before making a purchase — someone who understands the stakes, risks and opportunities. They want someone who can help guide them to the solutions that best fit their unique needs. This desire for help from a capable counselor and advocate is especially true for business owners making benefit decisions not just for their own families, but for those of their employees as well.

Not surprising, then, are the results about key drivers for sales success identified by the “Trailblazed Sales Project Study.” It found that sales professionalism — by being worthy of the trust clients place in their brokers — goes hand in hand with sales success. (The study surveyed producers in order to isolate those behaviors and characteristics shared by high-growth producers, but not as common amongst their less successful colleagues.