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Coach: The A. L. Williams Story
In a story rich with details and anecdotes, heroes and villians, Art Williams chronicles how A.L. Williams and it "ragtag army of part-timers" took on a Goliath-sezed insurance industry.
328 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2006
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418 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 31, 2016
The opportunities in this life are abundant. The opportunities to make an impact rarer. Art Williams showcases his tenacity by taking readers through the story of an industry changer. Intertwined with life lessons (such as letting go of bitterness), leadership principles (just do it), and an educational conversation; readers will find the heart of a champion. They will find a newfound respect for insurance. We will all die someday. What legacy will be left behind?
June 22, 2016
Goodreads: https://goo.gl/TxBRC7
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No matter what happened, she expected us to stay positive, "look happy" (even if we weren't), and to never, ever quit.
A strong sense of responsibility to be successful.
Recognition is a powerful force in building a team. If you praise and recognize successful behaviour, chances are a person will repeat the performance.
There is something really powerful with public praise, it motivates the whole group to improve.
I never made a sale on the first interview. I'd tell the couple to "get your hands off your checkbook!" I took an educational approach. I used no pressure. I didn't sell on the first appointment.
A leader is often called on to make hard decisions that affect a small number of people negatively and a large number positively.
Tough decisions rarely come at the "right" time.
Play with your heart with every fiber of your body.
I realized I could beat 90% of the competition just by showing up early! Why relax? Get after the competition. Outwork them.
My goal? Every minute, every day, do what I could to improve, advance and enhance the sales force. Anything else, to me, was just a distraction from winning.
Always, always work within your warm market.
I wanted to dream even bigger, even work harder.
I knew the importance of incentive trips.
I pounded on the podium on warm market referrals. No cold calls, soliciting, or talking to strangers. No passing out to balloons to kids at the county fair, hoping to rope in their parents.
Always be positive, loyal and dependable.
A good coach never lets politics affect who plays and who doesn't - not even for a son, a friend's son, or whoever. You just don't think that way, you can't, if you want to win.
I wanted a company that viewed salespeople as "king", where commissions, products, and administrators supported the sales force, not corporate bigwigs.
Success extends beyond financial principles to mental principles - perseverance, hard work and good choices.
You can help anybody grow and get better... except the person with a bad attitude.
What did I offer them? Total intangibles - hope, opportunity, a chance to be their own boss, a long shot at financial independence.
I had total responsibility now. Up at 5am, I'd hit the road, return home at eight or nine that night with no dinner, with a dozen emergency messages from people demanding I call back. I worked in a "zone". Twenty hours a day, seven days a week, I talked on the phone, met people for meals, visited prospects, new recruits, my team.
Our plan called for 20 licensed people and 25 app the first month. We had 100 licensed people and 100 apps by the end of the first week.
I'd call up people and just sell the dickens out of everything. I'd tell them what we were doing, how great it was, what a great opportunity we had, how we had everything going our way.
There's nothing quite so refreshing as a good laugh at your own expense.
I told folks to use their own good judgement when it came to promoting people in their organization. "Look, this is your business. Promote people when you want to."
One thing we could not do was get down. Bad attitudes would kill us faster than any lesser problem we faced.
Greenies held the key to our success.
Replacement was a perfectly wonderful thing. It forced competition, badly needed and long overdue.
It takes five to seven years before a policy begins to make money.
I didn't tell the sales force. Why mention our fragile state? At meetings, I continued to sell the dream of building it big.
One day, you can hold the world in the palm of your hand. Next day, your hand can be empty.
We continued to sell and recruit with no let-up.
Once Angela did fully understand the crusade and the opportunity, she rolled up her sleeves to help. We worked as a team.
If you want to make a big change in your life then you have to make immediate and exaggerated changes in your activity.
A side-by-side policy comparison sold more term policies than our best agent.
I'd been a little leery of the Opportunity Meeting concept from the beginning. It went against my warm market approach: talking to friends of a new recruit in their home, personally going through the company presentation at the kitchen table. I worried that rushing people in off the street for a one-night Opp meeting would leave them confused, indifferent or misled about our crusade.
Educating means we come back on a second interview, before we ever try to sell them something. That's how we sell. In 14 years in this business, I've never once - ever - made a sale on the first appointment. Never!
Teach and motivate your downlines to be big winners, too. You want more, you give more.
The salesperson is king.
Attitude is everything.
The players have to prove themselves to the coach.
Keep build a big base shop and keep producing successful first-generation RVPs.
But winners do it. What do they do? They do whatever it takes to get the job done. They do it - and do it - until the job gets done.
All you can do is all you can do... but all you can do it enough.
Six strengths of a leader:
1. Loyalty
2. A positive life
3. Creativity in leadership
4. Super intensity
5. A "team first" attitude
6. Mindset that it's more than just a "job".
------------------------
No matter what happened, she expected us to stay positive, "look happy" (even if we weren't), and to never, ever quit.
A strong sense of responsibility to be successful.
Recognition is a powerful force in building a team. If you praise and recognize successful behaviour, chances are a person will repeat the performance.
There is something really powerful with public praise, it motivates the whole group to improve.
I never made a sale on the first interview. I'd tell the couple to "get your hands off your checkbook!" I took an educational approach. I used no pressure. I didn't sell on the first appointment.
A leader is often called on to make hard decisions that affect a small number of people negatively and a large number positively.
Tough decisions rarely come at the "right" time.
Play with your heart with every fiber of your body.
I realized I could beat 90% of the competition just by showing up early! Why relax? Get after the competition. Outwork them.
My goal? Every minute, every day, do what I could to improve, advance and enhance the sales force. Anything else, to me, was just a distraction from winning.
Always, always work within your warm market.
I wanted to dream even bigger, even work harder.
I knew the importance of incentive trips.
I pounded on the podium on warm market referrals. No cold calls, soliciting, or talking to strangers. No passing out to balloons to kids at the county fair, hoping to rope in their parents.
Always be positive, loyal and dependable.
A good coach never lets politics affect who plays and who doesn't - not even for a son, a friend's son, or whoever. You just don't think that way, you can't, if you want to win.
I wanted a company that viewed salespeople as "king", where commissions, products, and administrators supported the sales force, not corporate bigwigs.
Success extends beyond financial principles to mental principles - perseverance, hard work and good choices.
You can help anybody grow and get better... except the person with a bad attitude.
What did I offer them? Total intangibles - hope, opportunity, a chance to be their own boss, a long shot at financial independence.
I had total responsibility now. Up at 5am, I'd hit the road, return home at eight or nine that night with no dinner, with a dozen emergency messages from people demanding I call back. I worked in a "zone". Twenty hours a day, seven days a week, I talked on the phone, met people for meals, visited prospects, new recruits, my team.
Our plan called for 20 licensed people and 25 app the first month. We had 100 licensed people and 100 apps by the end of the first week.
I'd call up people and just sell the dickens out of everything. I'd tell them what we were doing, how great it was, what a great opportunity we had, how we had everything going our way.
There's nothing quite so refreshing as a good laugh at your own expense.
I told folks to use their own good judgement when it came to promoting people in their organization. "Look, this is your business. Promote people when you want to."
One thing we could not do was get down. Bad attitudes would kill us faster than any lesser problem we faced.
Greenies held the key to our success.
Replacement was a perfectly wonderful thing. It forced competition, badly needed and long overdue.
It takes five to seven years before a policy begins to make money.
I didn't tell the sales force. Why mention our fragile state? At meetings, I continued to sell the dream of building it big.
One day, you can hold the world in the palm of your hand. Next day, your hand can be empty.
We continued to sell and recruit with no let-up.
Once Angela did fully understand the crusade and the opportunity, she rolled up her sleeves to help. We worked as a team.
If you want to make a big change in your life then you have to make immediate and exaggerated changes in your activity.
A side-by-side policy comparison sold more term policies than our best agent.
I'd been a little leery of the Opportunity Meeting concept from the beginning. It went against my warm market approach: talking to friends of a new recruit in their home, personally going through the company presentation at the kitchen table. I worried that rushing people in off the street for a one-night Opp meeting would leave them confused, indifferent or misled about our crusade.
Educating means we come back on a second interview, before we ever try to sell them something. That's how we sell. In 14 years in this business, I've never once - ever - made a sale on the first appointment. Never!
Teach and motivate your downlines to be big winners, too. You want more, you give more.
The salesperson is king.
Attitude is everything.
The players have to prove themselves to the coach.
Keep build a big base shop and keep producing successful first-generation RVPs.
But winners do it. What do they do? They do whatever it takes to get the job done. They do it - and do it - until the job gets done.
All you can do is all you can do... but all you can do it enough.
Six strengths of a leader:
1. Loyalty
2. A positive life
3. Creativity in leadership
4. Super intensity
5. A "team first" attitude
6. Mindset that it's more than just a "job".
April 17, 2019
Thoughtful and inciteful telling of the story in true Art Williams fashion. Most of the time while I read I could almost hear Art speaking. Fine example of true success... It doesn't happen by chance, but by hard work and pushing forward through the challenges.
September 19, 2019
Second Time
I love this book. Art Williams is a great guy, loves the Lord and loves his family. He let's anyone who reads this book that you can be successful. Find your passion! See you at the top!
I love this book. Art Williams is a great guy, loves the Lord and loves his family. He let's anyone who reads this book that you can be successful. Find your passion! See you at the top!
August 3, 2018
Seemed to completely gloss over Art Demoss connections with Jerry Falwell which allowed A.L. Williams to infiltrate church networks, later rewarded by a $70M donation to that Baptist University.
April 22, 2020
Its amazing to read the stories from the people who tried to become somebody in life by only keeping up to what they believed and what Art Williams prepared for their careers. Must Read!
March 28, 2023
awesome
Good book should read
It’s a lot of information on insurance companies
An different people in politics
Try it you may like it
Good book should read
It’s a lot of information on insurance companies
An different people in politics
Try it you may like it
February 28, 2017
I got this book back in 2008 and just re-read it (2016). This is a true Cinderella, rags-to-riches story about a football coach that discovers something unethical about the insurance industry and makes it his life purpose to right those wrongs. It's inspirational, to say the least. There isn't much technical jargon in this book, but there is a main message "Buy Term and Invest the Difference" that get's stuck in your head by the end of this book. Art faces many challenges along the way, and it's amazing how (presumably) well he handled it and, of course, the outcome. When a lot of people are making money hand over fist (the insurance industry), it can be hard to stand up to them and tell them that they're wrong, but that's just what he did. I'm sure some would consider him a hero. By the end, I gathered that he changed his entire business model many times in order to serve his customers and his employees better. He kept developing new terms and new methods for getting people the most from their insurance. This is certainly a lesson any business person could learn from.
March 22, 2013
I was a"termite" for a couple of years in the mid-80's, so Art Williams book on the history of the A. L. Williams company was a walk down memory lane for me. I believed (and still do believe) in the "Buy Term and invest the difference" Crusade. Although I knew a portion of the whole story, I didn't know the whole thing - especially why Art sold the company the early '90's. Art's company and leadership style were controversial, but he had the consumer and his employees best interests at heart and his story, though filled with set backs and victories, shows the truth of a Zig Ziglar saying: You can get anything you want if you help enough other people get what they want!"
June 15, 2019
As a Primerican, it is very inspiring and impressive to know how much Art and the ones willing to follow him went through at the beginning of the company. I was already in love with Primerica before reading this book, but the respect I have for Art went up a few notches after this read.
Was he perfect? No! Did he do what was right by him? For the people? Yes :)
Even if you are not a client or part of the company, this story is simply inspiring. David vs Goliath stories are always winners in my books.
I recommand this book to anyone looking for inspiration, good values and motto to live by.
Was he perfect? No! Did he do what was right by him? For the people? Yes :)
Even if you are not a client or part of the company, this story is simply inspiring. David vs Goliath stories are always winners in my books.
I recommand this book to anyone looking for inspiration, good values and motto to live by.
July 25, 2011
A GREAT INSPIRING READ BY INFAMOUS ART WILLIAMS. THIS TESTIMONIAL OF REAL EVENTS THAT INSPIRES US TO TAKE A STAND AND GO AGAINST THE GIANTS OF AMERICA. BASED WITH MORAL AND ETHICS IT DEPICTS HOW ONE MAN MADE A DIFFERENCE IN EDUCATING AND SHARING WITH THE WORLD THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO JUST TAKE WHAT THEY SAY, BUT YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE EMPOWERMENT. HIS JOURNEY TO THE TOP UNPRECEDENTED EXPLAINS "HOW TO WIN WITH YOUR HEART NOT WITH YOUR HEAD" HE QUOTES. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
January 18, 2017
Most of the book is a very good read, maybe a section or two that proved difficult to keep my attention but overall a good book. A classic example of what opportunity and determination can lead too. A classic Haratio Alger story...
November 16, 2010
Such a good book! Haven't yet finished it yet, but LOVE getting to see what the founder of our company had to go through and why the company was originally founded. So motivating!
Read
August 5, 2012Great book by one of the creators of buy term and invest the difference.
April 8, 2013
Great read of business success & what it takes to win in business & life
September 27, 2013
Fascinating story of success. Art Williams was certainly a character to be reckoned with as he battled the traditional insurance world. His model of building his organization is worthy of emulation.
July 3, 2015
Quite a story! Quite a fireball of a man! He was something else when it comes to the basic of principle of initiative...
(all you can do is all you can do)
(all you can do is all you can do)
December 29, 2016
Must read if you want to build a big business against great odds!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews