3 Mind-blowing Ideas I Learned From Leader’s Protocol Training by Mr. Tinton Deveza

The King of Training on his throne.

Mr. Tinton Deveza did it once again. 

Fortunate enough to become part of his new training module called “Leader’s Protocol”, I found myself being moved by his mind-blowing ideas on what leadership should look like. The things that he taught us are completely new to me – things that I didn’t learn in business school. Really, I thank Sir Tinton for being the very man that he is – constantly on a lookout for new ideas that not only resound to him as a financial consultant for more than 30 years but ideas that are also very practical and are scientifically backed up. I thank him for putting up this wonderful module altogether. I just know that he “gave his everything” on this one for he himself will not be happy if he won’t give his all. Thank you, Sir Tinton, for moving us once again.

Below are the top 3 things from the module that I’d like to share with you.

1. Leave your people alone.

During one of the discussions, some managers opened up that they wanted to make time to coach their people one by one. Sir Tinton’s response astounded me, “It’s a waste of time.” His idea is very simple. Build a business with people who are self-directing and then leave them alone. Did we recruit good people so that we can all hold their hands through the business? No! We recruit self-directing people who can act independently and own their own businesses. Do we send them to trainings? Of course. If they are self-directing, they will might as well send themselves to further trainings. Do we answer their questions? Of course. If they are self-directing, they will have many questions but don’t spoon-feed them nor make them dependent on you. Build a business of leaders, not followers. Building a business with followers in the Personal Finance industry is a waste of time, money and effort on your side.

2. Don’t look for the outliers.

While we celebrate the achievements of the outliers – people who have attained the spectacular in the business – Sir Tinton said, “Don’t waste your time and effort looking for them.” I agree with him. We don’t look for outliers, outliers find us. But for them to find us, we must be faithful with our regular tasks. I, for example, consider one of my recruits as an outlier. Even though he has a full time job, he was able to close a policy (a P60K APE PAA) within two weeks. He is also very diligent in passing his Weekly Monitoring Form. I believe he is an outlier because he can do all these things even with a full time job and finishing his MBA. He is a real gem! But looking back, I realized that I did not proactively recruit him. He was the one who sent me a message that he wanted to become a financial consultant. So, you see, outliers are self-directing. They know what they want and they have the initiative. If you do your business well, they will come to you naturally. I believe, though, that there are many ways to attract the outliers. One of them is using blogging and social media, which is what I am doing now.

Right now, I am seriously thinking of creating my own training module in Blog and Social Media Marketing for Financial Consultants. Is it something that will interest you? Send me your thoughts via markjosephdelgado@ymail.com or 0917-838-7545.

3. Mastery is painful.

Set your mind on this. If you want to become good in what you do, pursue mastery. And to master your craft, you don’t need to wait for 30 years. You can do it through constant practice in front of the mirror, through getting constant feedback from your trusted colleague and through regular monitoring of your daily activities. If you think mastery is just a walk in the park, think again. Mastery is actually painful. It requires grit and perseverance. If mastery doesn’t hurt, it will mean nothing. My ultimate lesson as a Rookie here is that I should readily embrace pain as part of the business. Every pain that I embrace must be considered as a stepping stone towards mastering this craft that I have chosen to myself – a financial consultant, a man from the Pru.

Thank you again, Sir Tinton, for the wisdom you shared with us! God bless you.

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5 Radical Lessons I Learned From MDRT Builder Training by Mr. Tinton Deveza

Selfie with Mr. MDRT Builder himself, Mr. Tinton Deveza.
During the second day of training, he gave me a warm
welcome inside the class and told me how my blogging
gave him the adrenaline rush that he needed for the day
when he was feeling ill the past few days. A little kindness
goes a long way! Pay it forward. Please share this blog to
your friends and teammates!

Today, I decided to temporarily halt my selling and recruiting activities to process what had

happened to me yesterday. Yesterday, my life as a salesman and as a Man from the Pru totally changed. It was my first day of training with Mr. Tinton Deveza, a well-respected man in the financial services industry with more than 30 years of experience. I was enrolled to his MDRT Builder Training, a highly recommended course for financial consultants who would like to achieve MDRT status – as soon as possible. If there is one word to describe my experience with Sir Tinton yesterday, the word will be “revolutionary”. His ideas totally debunked all the myths that I used to believe in about selling. What I like about Sir Tinton is that, despite being more than 30 years in the industry, he still remains open to changes and is constantly on a lookout for new ideas as well as improvements of the old ones. He knows that changing times require different methods. He is not limited to thinking that everything that worked 30 years ago will still work today. I believe this is what made him different from among the many speakers I have listened to – he is humble, teachable and relevant.

Allow me to share with you some of the things that I’ve learned from Sir Tinton. If you are a financial consultant, it is needless to say that you should enroll to his class as soon as possible.

1. The Lost Art of Giving.

As salesmen, sometimes, we get too preoccupied with how we will be able to achieve – how to achieve higher sales, how to achieve this month’s promos, how to achieve this quarter’s bonus, how to achieve this year’s incentive trip and so on and so forth. We are too preoccupied with achieving – with receiving. Sir Tinton totally blew my mind when he said, “While the rest are focused on receiving, focus on giving. Then you shall receive.” Boom!

Like a farmer, we can only reap what we sow. How can we receive if we don’t know how to give? It’s the law of nature. If you are a salesman and your mindset whenever you approach someone is “How can I close a sale with this person?”, it’s time to change. Instead, think about “How can I be a person of value to this person?”. That mindset first, then the sale will follow.

2. Sell yourself first.

Mr. Tinton put it bluntly, “If the person doesn’t like you, he will not buy anything from you.”

As salesmen, again, sometimes we get too preoccupied with how good our products are. This is not bad. But most of the time, our clients don’t care – not yet. On their minds, “Why will I buy from this person?” Instead of becoming too preoccupied with what you are selling, think about how you will establish trust with your client first. They have to know you, like you and trust you.

Relationship first. Then, sell your products and services.

3. If you’re on time, you’re late. Be early instead. 

Be 30 minutes earlier than your agreed meeting time. Upon arriving at the venue, retouch and do some warm-up exercises. Think about how the meeting with your client will go while considering the 2 items I enumerated above. Finally, visualize closing the sale.

4. The “I am the greatest salesman in the world!” mantra is dead.

This is the end of the “I am (insert anything positive here).” self-talk as we know it. Mr. Tinton said that according to studies, this doesn’t work anymore. The new way of doing this is by asking ourselves the question, “How can I move this person?”

There’s a pattern that I recognized in his talk immediately. What works is that we should actually stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on our clients. Instead of me, me and me, think about them, them and them. 

We should be more customer-centric than self-centric. After all, without our clients we are nothing.

5. Fact: You cannot sell to people without money.

At the start of the discussion, Mr. Tinton asked me how I do my prospecting. I answered, “Sir, being only 3 months in the industry, I still randomly select my prospects. But slowly I am recognizing a pattern that good prospects come from 2 industries – my 2 biggest clients come from there. I want to do it this way because I’d like to proactively pursue people in industries who have the ability to pay. That’s because the products that we sell require shelling out money for long-term.”

I was actually blown away when Mr. Tinton told me that what took others years to understand took me only 3 months. I am saying this not to give praise to myself but to thank Mr. Tinton for affirming my most recent realization.

When I was still starting, I used to believe that I should sell variable unit linked insurance policies to practically anyone. I believe everybody needs it. I mean, come on! Who doesn’t need life insurance policies? Americans have an average of 10 policies per person, while Singaporeans have 4 per person! Why does it have to be so tough to sell even 1 policy to a Filipino who has none?

But reality hit me when after meeting so many working professionals during my first 3 months, I am still not able to close my target sales of at least 10 policies. Now I get it. While everyone likes the products that I offer, not everyone has the capacity of buying it. It can be for a variety of reasons but still the bottom line is, personally, I believe that we should pursue clients who really have the capacity to avail of this kind of investment. And those people are the ones who readily have the money. When I say “readily have the money”, they are not the ones who still have to make adjustments in their finances or think about the offer for weeks or months before getting back to you. There are actually people who readily have the money and are currently on a lookout for ways to invest it. My suggestion is, actively pursue them.

All these things, only from Day 1 of my MDRT Builder Training with Mr. Tinton Deveza. Still more to come. Thanks, Sir Tinton!

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