A former broker, Nelson Griswold today works as an agency growth consultant to benefits firms across the country and is recognized as a leading expert on selling and cross-selling. Griswold is author of the industry bestseller, DO or DIE: Reinventing Your Benefits Agency for Post-Reform Success, and was recently awarded the 2013 Industry Leadership Award by the Voluntary Benefits Association. Griswold spends well over half the year on the road working with agencies and brokers. We caught up with him in his hotel room in Chicago.

This is a sales business. Too many owners and principals have forgotten that benefits firms are sales organizations. Growth and profits are a function of effectively selling your ideal prospects on your unique value proposition.

Bring solutions. Being a broker is a transactional role while clients today expect a benefits advisor who helps identify pain points and brings solutions, not just products — i.e. a consultant.

Think consultative selling. Today's most successful benefits consultants are engaging clients with question-based consultative selling techniques in order to remain relevant and profitable.

Solve, don't sell. The best-kept secret of selling is that it's fun and rather easy when done right. Most sales trainers make it hard. Selling is just helping your clients solve problems with the product, service or process solutions you have. Pushing product is hard; getting paid to solve problems is kind of fun.

Bring insight. With clients expecting more from their benefits consultant, you prove your value by bringing business insights — valuable information about his business the client doesn't already know.

Cross-sell to solve problems. Clients have multiple problems they struggle with beyond the medical renewal. Cross-selling is just finding these problems and offering a solution. Think of it as repeat consultative selling.

Think outside the box. Think beyond the traditional spreadsheet-and-product solutions. Worksite voluntary benefits is an excellent place to start since this one product category provides you with a large toolbox of product and service solutions for the client.

Incentivize growth. Most benefits firms reward renewals the same as new business, then wonder why their salespeople don't bring more new business. If you want to grow your book, revise your compensation plan to pay less for renewals and more for new accounts. It works.

Manage your sales process. Most benefits firms do a poor job of managing their salespeople. The old saying is, “If you don't manage it, it's not important.” Benefit firms are sales organizations; selling better be important. Growth and profits come as a result of managing the sales team and process effectively.

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Griswold: What I&rsquo;ve learned

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Griswold: What I’ve learned