Susan Lovejoy, Financial Associate 

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 Q: Can you tell us about your background and who you are?

A: I’m Susan Lovejoy, I’m a Financial Associate in Pennsylvania. I’ve been with Thrivent for 8 years. I have a small office; I actually work out of my home. Prior to my eight years at Thrivent, I was a manager at a temporary health service and I did that for about 20 years. I was responsible for outside sales and inside sales of about 13 people.

Q: What was it that attracted you to become a financial advisor?

A: I enjoyed helping people, I enjoyed learning about the insurance field and I definitely enjoyed learning more about investments. I knew there was time when I didn’t know much about it and the knowledge that I gained, I felt the need to tell other people about it.

Q: Were you a Thrivent Member before becoming an Advisor?

A: Yes I was, I was a life insurance member and I was talking to my Thrivent Representative when I was thinking about a change and he talked to me about the career and it seemed to be a good fit.

Q: Did you even consider any other companies at the time or were you sure if you were going to make the move it would be with Thrivent?

A: I was absolutely positive I would do it with Thrivent because of its Christian background and the experience I had with my representative, it was just very good.

Q: Now that you’ve been at it for eight years, does anything surprise you about what it takes to be successful compared to what you expected when you first joined?

A: I don’t know if it surprised me, I did know that working on your own takes a lot more self-discipline then you can imagine, having all the freedom to decide to what to do with your day. I’m sure when you’re starting it can be very tempting to fill your time with other things to do. You don’t have someone telling you that you need to make phone calls. You have to have self-discipline, which is key.

Also, determining who you want to talk to, you have to know a little bit about their background, what they might be interested in and what their needs might be so you can prepare your listening skills for when you are talking with them.

Q: How do you have that balance and discipline between your time at work and time with family or away from work?

A: With a model week with budgeted time slots, from there you can determine what topics need to go into your week. Like lead generations, brain storming on who you might know and actually planning calls you’re going to make. Also there’s a certain amount of administration, you have to follow-up on applications and tedious work that is not all that much fun. So, if you can budget out how much time you think you will need to do each area, you can manage out your time. I would definitely start with how many calls you think you need to make a sale and how many sales you need to make such and such NSC’s and work it backwards.

Q: It seems like you take a real measured approach to getting the results that you want, you mentioned that you need to be sure about the kind of person that you chose to do business with, how would you describe your ideal client?

A: I don’t necessarily put it into an age group, some have recommended that you do, you chose the type of person, and you specialize in the retired field or young families. I don’t narrow myself down, however I have definitely taken to heart this topic that has come up in some of our RFO meetings that you want to do business with people that you like. I look at my churches, certain clubs that are in town that volunteer and do a lot of good work. I find that people that are in those are generally generous nice people. I do look to groups that do tend to do volunteer work and I look at people that I know.

Q: How do you attract and develop new members?

A: Well, that has always been a difficult topic… because when I did look at where I get my new members, it really isn’t from one particular area. I have done some workshops, I did the Social Security Workshop and I also did the “Keeping the Farm in the Family” and I have gained some new members from that.

I have gotten several new members just by talking with current members; I’m a lot better now than I was eight years ago on asking for referrals. I’ve learned different techniques other then, “Do you know someone that I can call?” so I have really planned out how I will ask a particular client that I am meeting who they might know. I gear it specifically towards that person. 

In addition, I do advertise because I live in a small town and quite honestly I believe it only works in a small town, I was able to very easily able to afford a billboard. I have gotten several new members from just having my sign up there; people will recognize me in the grocery store.

Q: Let’s talk about productivity, how has production been for you over the eight years that you have been a Financial Associate?

A: Well, if you ask me I have had kind of average production till last year. I think in the beginning I needed to find a balance between home life, work, church and other volunteer things that I do. I will say that I had one year where I did not make the minimum and I think that is important to bring up because last year I made conference. After I did not make minimum, I just happen to run into a year, that year, where I did a lot of sales but they were very small, a rollover of a thousand dollars or fifteen hundred. I stated to get pretty down about that and then I began to look at who I was meeting with and not that those thousand dollar rollovers aren’t important because they are helping those people but I did need to learn to meet with those that might have a bit more assets then normal. So I did look to the volunteer organizations in my area that had generous people and I did find those people with more assets then I had been meeting with. That helped, again, in no way do I ignore those that do not have a lot but I changed the type of person I was looking for to meet with.

Q: So, how did it feel to make conference this year, was it your first time?

A: Yes it was. It was absolutely wonderful. It was a very satisfying feeling to make conference; I have wanted to for a number of years, it was well worth the work.

When I look back to that year and think to myself I think, “What did I do?” Another change I had made was that if I had a personal activity come up and I needed to take off work I would make sure to make up for it on Saturday or Friday night. Rearranging my schedule to make sure that I have 10 appointments, if I hadn’t made my own quota of phone calls during my normal work hours that I would stay until I got it done.

Q: Do you do any joint field work with any senior or junior associates?

A: I have but I didn’t do a lot of that last year. I will be honest, however I do feel that it is very important and I started this month with Mike Gallagher, a senior associate. I have worked with him before but not on a intentional level. I will have a certain number of calls that I will arrange with him to go with me and take it from there. I feel like that is what I need to get to the next level.

Q: When you think about the next level, what are you goal and aspirations for this year?

A: I would like to make conference again. I actually hired my son as my office professional during the 4^th quarter of last year and he got his insurance licenses. If Thrivent hires him, I would like to form a team with him. I love the flexibility of this career and that success is based on yourself.

Q: When you were first invited to the CAPS™ workshop, do you remember how you felt about it?

A: I will be honest, I didn’t know what it was at first. When I was first invited and they said CAPS™ all I could think of was the CAP app. It has been somewhat of a jolly joke that the workshop is not about the CAP app but once I was there I absolutely loved the program.

Q: What’s been your experience with the change in the outcomes of conversation when you are using the CAPS™ skills with prospects and clients?

A: I think what improved most with me was my closing skill. Off all the skills I feel I was weakest at the closing. I think the CAPS™ training helps you close along the way. You are always asking them for that acceptance and leading them to whatever they might need. They have a realization that they need it.

Q: Is there any difference in the length of the conversations you are having with clients or how many conversations you might need to have before they make a buying decision?

A: I think overall it’s probably shorter because again you have planned everything out. (Certainly a client can throw out a question or objection that you haven’t thought of and you may need to do a little research) but if you have been using the CAPS™ program and planning out the call, as-well-as doing enough research on the client, I think it shortens the sales process.

Q: Has CAPS™ influenced your communication outside the business with family or friends or your community activates?

A: Yes it has, this program actually improves your communication skills in general. So many of the problems in our world are due to just miscommunication, overall I do think it helps very much.

Q: If someone would ask you, “Sue, what’s your opinion of CAPS™ and if I have a chance to go, what would you tell me?”

A: Absolutely! I say that for whatever level they are at because again, even if they are a veteran, some portion might seem elementary to them but no one is good at everything. It makes you focus on planning those calls. Some veterans have been doing it for many years and have been doing it the same way this can be a great refresher for them. If they were new, take it as soon as you can.

Q: When you look back on your experience, what would you consider the most important outcome that you have had as a result of going through the workshop?

A: I think it has increased my production, in that I do plan my calls now and because I do I know where they are going to go.

Q: Do you still formal use the pre-conversation checklist?

A: I am doing it a little less formally, I don’t have the checklist right next to me when I’m planning my calls but I do bring out the book and look through it when I am looking for one of those word tracks (transitions). I do refer to the CAPS™ manual often.

Q: Any suggestions for me to improve the workshop?

A: I do feel the post workshop conference call when everyone discusses examples of what they did and how they are being successful was very helpful, now whether it fits into everyone schedule, I don’t know.

Q: If something like that was offered on regular basis, is that something you would take advantage of?

A: Yes, I would. I don’t know if I would do it on a regular basis, like every week but if it was offered, I would call in once a month or something. It’s amazing when someone is talking about a particular case, how much you can pick up on that.

Q: At the end of the day what does it mean to you to be able to share your belief and help people with their finances?

A: I feel that I am completing a mission, of my own. I ask God everyday to bring to me or show me the people who need help and are going to need help down the road. I feel very fulfilled and I do believe he does. I feel that I am helping to do God’s work by meeting with people and opening their eyes to their finances which is so important. 

Q: If someone was considering a career with Thrivent Financial, what would you say to them?

A: First I would ask them :"why?", to see if they have a motive or what their idea is about it. Then I would talk to them about what they would like to get out of the career and what they feel they can offer to the career, to Thrivent and new members.