Have you ever wondered why a particular technique works well for everyone else but you? The most common reason for this is that we haven't taken the time, or made the effort, to make it our own.

For any technique to be effective we must first adjust it to our own vocabulary, philosophy, and personality. If we just try to spit out a technique exactly as we heard it, without first making these adjustments, the delivery will seem forced and unnatural. And even though our intent is to make the buying process easier for our customer, they will usually assume that we're just lying or making stuff up as we go, thus eroding whatever confidence or rapport we may have succeeded in building with them.

Then, once we have made it our own, we need to master the technique by role-playing it over and over again until it becomes second nature.

Here's a quick and easy way to do this.

First, we need to familiarize ourselves with the technique. To do this, we simply need to silently read the word track to ourselves four or five times. The frequency will vary from person to person, of course, but basically we need to keep reading it in our heads until we can anticipate which line comes next.

Next, we'll need to read the technique out loud to ourselves approximately five times. This will allow us to hear how it sounds when we say it and to modify it so it becomes natural for us to deliver. To do this, the fourth and fifth time we read it out loud we need to do so with a highlighter in our hand. If we come to a word or phrase that feels too uncomfortable, or that we keep stumbling over, we just highlight it and keep going until the end. Then we go back and decide; do we add this word or phrase to our vocabulary (by saying over and over again until we own it) or do we substitute it with a like meaning word or phase that already is in our vocabulary?

Lastly, we need to create muscle memory. To do this, we take the final (personalized) version of this technique and role-play it until we master it. By mastering it, I mean it needs to become second nature to us. It needs to be retrieved and delivered with little to no effort at all. The frequency and amount of practice needed to achieve this will also vary from person to person but I like the ratio of role-playing three times to every one time we use it with a client. Then, once we master it, practice it once for every three times we execute it with a client.

The time required to do all of these things is surprisingly small. Twenty to thirty minutes per technique is usually all we'll need. Do you have twenty to thirty minutes per shift to devote to mastering one new objection or closing skill? If you do, and every one of us had better of admitted that we do, that means in two months time we'll have mastered fifty new techniques! How much more effective do you think we'll be then? How about a year from now?

Make the decision right now to do it. Really commit to it. Then, above all else, have fun doing it!

Michael D. Hargrove is President of Bottom Line Underwriters Inc. and can be reached at the contact points below.