Public Speaking for Sales Leaders
To every agent and manager who believes good communicators are simply born that way: public speaking changed my career, and every part of it was learned. It took me from the audience of a Caribbean sales congress to the main platform of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT). The same skill, built with the same discipline, can change yours.
Most of us in this business talk for a living. That is the problem. Because we can talk, we assume we can communicate, and so we lose sales and make enemies instead of friends without realising it. It has a name: unconscious incompetence. I had my own dose of it. I thought I was good. The judges did not see it that way.
Because we can talk, we assume we have mastered communication. That assumption costs us sales every day.
The congress that showed me what I wanted to be
In my second year in the business, a colleague encouraged me to attend the CARAIFA Sales Congress in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Five days at the Rose Hall beach hotel, insurance people from companies across the Caribbean, and speaker after speaker who stirred something in me I never knew existed. Before the congress closed, I knew. I wanted to be a main platform speaker.
I thought the road would be easy. It was not.
Why public speaking for sales leaders is a discipline, not a gift
Public speaking is to the sales leader what prospecting is to the agent: a daily discipline that decides how many doors open. Neither can be left to talent alone.
What does it take to become a speaker people want to hear?
Looking back, the road had five stages. None could be skipped.
1. Earn your story first. Every speaker on that podium in Montego Bay had excelled in their own field. So before anyone would listen to me, I had to be the best in mine. I became the leading producer in my branch and company, then one of the youngest branch managers in the industry, and grew my branch to be amongst the best. Even that was not enough.
2. Take every platform, and watch what it makes of you. I spoke at branch, company, association and industry level. Where a function had no host, I offered to be master of ceremonies. I became so good at humorous presentations that I was known as the industry’s comedian. That cost me. People saw a joker, and they passed me over for serious presentations. Humour is a tool, not the whole toolbox.
3. Create the opportunity nobody is offering. The southern chapter of TTAIFA, the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, held a large annual seminar with the best local and Caribbean speakers. I sat on that committee and was not on the programme. So I proposed a competition for new speakers, with the winner given a place on the main platform, to build future speakers for our industry. The executive agreed. I won, and presented immediately after Tony Williamson of Jamaica, then the Caribbean’s most powerful speaker. CARAIFA later adopted the model for its Caribbean Sales Congresses.
4. Get trained, properly. On holiday in California, my nephews took me to a session in Oakland with an upcoming speaker named Les Brown. About 30 people in a garage, and it changed my life. I asked what he credited most for his success. He named two organisations, one of which was Toastmasters. On my return I joined the club in San Fernando, and I am a member to this day. There I learnt speech structure, body language, verbal variety and the proper use of humour. I won the Caribbean District Humorous Speech Contest twice and was runner-up three times.
5. Keep entering until the judges agree. I won the CARAIFA speaker competition on my seventh attempt. The next year I was a main platform speaker at the Caribbean congress in Grenada. It is the same lesson as what happens when you don’t give up.
Hear the Client Conversation Done Properly
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Watch Now for US$19.95When you outgrow the room
Invitations followed, to company blast-offs and association seminars. Then they dried up. Organisers would say, ” We had you last year; we cannot bring you back this year”, even though no two of my presentations were ever the same. I had outgrown that market.
In 2017 I saw a call for speakers and workshop presenters in the MDRT magazine. I applied for both, thinking that if I did not get one, I would get the other. I was selected for both, and in 2018, at the MDRT Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, I became the first Trinidadian to stand on the MDRT Main Platform. I was called back the following year for a session in the Connexion Zone, and in 2024 I led a sold-out focus session for managers, leaders and executives within an elite MDRT group.
Where to start this month
I am Carlyle Fletcher, a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and MDRT Life Member with over 40 years in the field across Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. Everything I have described was learnt with the same commitment it took to earn the CLU designation. Start now. Join a Toastmasters club or a structured communication programme. Volunteer for the next branch meeting or function that needs a host. And when you do not win, enter again. Clubs help, but proper training builds mastery.
Build Your Communication Skills With Structure
Unconscious incompetence in communication costs agents and managers sales they never know they lost. The Carlyle Fletcher Global Academy is being built for agents, managers and leaders across the Caribbean. Register free for early access and priority notice when enrolment opens.
Reserve My PlaceFrequently asked questions
How did public speaking change Carlyle Fletcher’s career?
It took him from a delegate at the CARAIFA Sales Congress in Montego Bay to the main platform of Caribbean congresses, and then internationally. In 2018, at the MDRT Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, Carlyle Fletcher became the first Trinidadian to stand on the MDRT Main Platform.
What is unconscious incompetence in communication?
It is the belief that because we can talk, we have mastered communication. Agents and managers in this state lose sales and goodwill without realising it, and avoid opportunities out of needless fear. Carlyle Fletcher’s answer is structured practice, honest feedback from competition, and proper training.
How can insurance professionals improve their public speaking?
Take every speaking opportunity at branch, company and association level, and create one where none exists. Join a club such as Toastmasters to learn speech structure, body language, verbal variety and the use of humour. Enter competitions to test yourself against the best, and keep entering until you win.
