Achieving MDRT’s Top of the Table consistently happens when you understand where you most need to focus. Three MDRT Past Presidents discuss what this was for them.
Working hard and excellence
There must be a secret formula for people to be successful, thought MDRT Past President Ross Vanderwolf, CFP, early in his career. Then he attended an MDRT Annual Meeting. “The more people I spoke to at the Annual Meeting, the more I began to realize that successful people worked harder,” Vanderwolf said. “They worked harder than me, they saw more people than me, they had more appointments than me and they built a reputation of excellence in a particular field.
“I saw a quote the other day that seemed to sum it up perfectly: ‘Revenue follows reputation.’”
Spending time with other successful people
MDRT Past President Mark J. Hanna, CLU, ChFC, unlocked the power of MDRT when he began volunteering at MDRT meetings. By talking with fellow successful members, it set him on a path to achieving more. “Since 2000, I’ve been Top of the Table every year. I attended every meeting every year, both MDRT and Top of the Table, and I was involved with the MDRT Annual Meeting’s PGA (Program General Arrangements) and then the Top of the Table Advisory Board and had opportunities to spend significant time with other volunteer leaders who had very successful practices.”
Hanna says one of his biggest takeaways was that most successful MDRT members no longer identify as salespeople; they identify as professionals.
Delegating
“Don’t do something for $25 that somebody else could be doing. You need great support,” said MDRT Past President Caroline A. Banks, FPFS.
It’s important that advisors focus on working with clients and have a strong team that can make sure the paperwork and other office work is done well. Banks works in the highly regulated U.K. market where the government requires that financial advisors deliver the level of client service they said they would. If an advisor isn’t delegating, they won’t be able to make this happen.
Furthermore, by delivering high levels of service, it keeps clients happy, which retains them as clients and generates referrals.
The was excerpted from the 2024 MDRT Annual Meeting presentation, “Attaining and maintaining Top of the Table production”
