Proven strategies and mindset for achieving Top of the Table every year

Achieving Court of the Table or Top of the Table doesn’t happen by chance, and there’s no magic to it. It’s about doing the right things daily. And it all starts with a plan. When you do that, it’s possible to reach Top of the Table in a year.

I created my plan by understanding how many days in the year, month and week I would work and then how many of those days I would see clients. This tells me how many of those days I need as focus days. Then I make sure my calendar is always full, so I see prospects and clients on the planned client days.

I never leave the office without knowing that my next week is taken care of in my schedule. That’s the level of discipline and focus that enables me to hit Top of the Table.

Changing your mindset

The funny thing is I’d never heard of Top of the Table when I first joined MDRT. I was told to go to the Annual Meeting by my mentor, MDRT Past President Tony Gordon, of Bristol, England, UK. I had already reached the Court of the Table level, and I thought it was the maximum level I could write. The reason I thought I couldn’t achieve more was because that’s what I saw at the time from my peers. Then suddenly I found out about this new world of Top of the Table, and it opened my mind about what could be achieved.

As soon as I got back home to the U.K. after the meeting, I began writing a plan. I thought What do I need to do differently in a day, week and month to achieve Top of the Table?

Understanding your numbers

I’ve always known my numbers, such as how many people I was seeing a week, my closing rate and my average case size. By having that core data, which I think is an important place to start, I easily came up with a plan. I don’t mean the plan was easy though. It means that because I’ve got this core information, I knew how many people I needed to see to qualify for Top of the Table. 

After the first year, I qualified for Top of the Table. Each year, I evolved and honed the plan by being a bit more sophisticated in the way I operated with clients. For example, I began seeing wealthier clients. 

Staying consistent

It’s incredible how I went in one year from never having heard of Top of the Table to qualifying for it. All that was blocking me before was that my eyes weren’t open to the level of business others were achieving and I could achieve. Mindset is crucial. And now, it’s not even a question mark in my mind that I will make Top of the Table every year. For me, it doesn’t matter how good a year I’ve had the year before, I start afresh with a blank sheet of paper, going at it again and monitoring the data.

The discipline to do something every day to work on your plan is key. Not every week, not every month, literally every day. And if you do the right things every single day and live by certain principles, then by doing that, you’ll reach Court of the Table and then Top of the Table.

See more from Simon Lister in his video “Proven strategies for achieving Top of the Table every year.”

Simon Lister, of Norfolk, England, UK, is a 16-year MDRT member. He’s also a Top of the Table member.

Watch MDRT member-exclusive videos from Simon Lister and Tony Gordon:

• “Why financial advisors are paid communicators” from Simon Lister
• “Why objections really are questions” from Tony Gordon
• “Simple ideas that close big cases” from Tony Gordon