Mark's Ideas For Agents
Work Your Existing Clients
Be sure and work your existing clients each year and keep in touch with them.
I send my clients a birthday card every year. Two weeks after their birthday, I call them on the phone. I ask them if they got my birthday card that I sent to them and then ask them if they need to update their existing polices. Example, did you recently buy a new home, get married or remarried, have a baby, or need to change your existing beneficiaries, and then I offer some of my new free services. I offer them a free credit report each year and tell them about anything else that I'm offering.
They sometimes tell me that I'm the only one that remembers their birthdays and calls to check on them every year.
Agent's make a big mistake of never contacting the clients again after they sell them.
You Don't Sell Insurance. You Answer Questions.
Most of the clients don't understand insurance and it is your job to explain it to them.
I know of some agents that are teaching seniors about all the different kinds of insurance and then offering their services to them at the end.
Instead of asking do you need to talk to an agent about buying insurance, ask them if they need to talk to an agent about answering some of their questions about insurance.
I want to ask you something but not buy something. That is what a lot of clients think. If you educate them on insurance and why they need it, then they will buy it. It is that simple.
In school I could learn by the book or looking on the internet on many subjects. But a lot of time, I would just go direct to the teacher and ask them to explain it to me. This applies to clients and agents also.
I'm even thinking about making up a survey on a website for the clients to answer and testing them on their answers. The wrong answers would come up after the survey/test and tell them what the correct answers are in my opinion and then of course advertise my services.
Service and teach the client and do what is best for them and it will always pay off in the long run.
ONE EGG OR TWO Story??
I'm going to tell you my one egg or two story. I think this story will help some agents with their sales.
This is based on a true story, but I can't remember the names. But the names don't matter.
One day a very smart sales person (named Mr X) had a great idea on how to increase the profit of Milkshakes sold at one of the biggest milkshake chains in America. This story takes place in the 1950's. Mr X, writes a letter to the company telling them his idea on how to increase the profit of their number one product milkshakes. Milkshakes cost about 5 cent each at the time. He wrote and told the owner how he could charge 8 cent for a milkshake if he would just add an egg to it. The owner decides to try this idea and see if it would work. The owner writes back Mr X and tells him that he tried his idea himself and when he asked the customers if they wanted an egg in their milkshake they all said no. He told Mr X that he had wished that this idea had work, and if it had, he would have paid him 1 cent on every milkshake sold.
Mr X, writes him back and tells him he didn't use his idea correctly is the problem. So the owner if the milkshake place, invites him to his shop to explain what he is talking about. He shows up and tells him, that he would love to show him his idea personally.
So the next customer walks in, comes to sit at the counter and Mr X asks him if he wants 1 egg or 2 in his milkshake. The client says, hmm, I guess I only want one. He charges him 8 cent for the milkshake.
See the trick was not to ask the client if they wanted the egg, but to ask them if they wanted one or two eggs. He didn't give them the option to say he didn't want the egg in his milkshake, but just asked him how many he wanted. Mr X made millions from this simple idea.
Now you're asking me what does this boring story has to do with selling life insurance.
A lot of agents make the same mistake when selling life insurance. You are asking them if they want to buy this plan that you are showing them, instead of which of these 3 plans that I have before you do you wish to buy.
The option should never be, either buy this or don't. Try saying which one of these three plans do you like.
Here is my example.
Client wants you to run him a quote on $200,000 worth of coverage and it cost $50.00 dollars a month. Don't make the mistake of only bring this one quote to the client.
Go ahead and bring three different quotes.
Bring this quote, but also bring a quote for like $150,000 for $40 a month. Also bring the quote for $250,000 for $65.00 a month.
Let the client choose between the three. Sometimes he might chose the bigger policy when he see that he can get more coverage for just a little bit more a month, or he might not can afford what you are showing him and instead of saying he can't afford it and goodbye, he will pick the cheaper plan that he might can afford.
Here is my disclaimer before someone posts a comment on this post. I'm just making up these figures. They are not actually numbers. I'm just showing you the idea.
I hope you can get something out of this story.
Okay, now do you want one egg or two in your milkshake?
A side note is that I tried putting an egg in my milkshake and it was not that bad.
A Big Untapped Market
I want to talk about a big untapped market, the uninsurable market. Or at least that is what they are led to believe, because they can not get coverage. Tons of clients think they can not get any type of coverage because of having a poor or a pre-existing health conditions or for other reasons.
Most agents run away from unhealthy clients and are taught to only focus on the clients that have no health conditions. I want to help to show you how to not only run away from these types of clients, but how to prospect and help them.
I'm going to talk about the clients that you would think are uninsurable. Clients that have had a heart attack, stroke, cancer, d.u.i., or obese clients, just to name a few. You would be right to think that they can't get normal insurance. But many of them do qualify for some type of coverage.
Graded benefit products take about 95% of the clients out there. There is hope for many clients that feel like they can't get any type of coverage. Most graded benefit products are limited in benefit in the first couple of years. After the graded period has past, it has full benefits. If the client dies in the graded period, the client usually gets their money back, plus interest (12% to 24%) or a limit amount of the death coverage. This all depends on the company offering the product. I work with a couple of companies that offer this type of coverage. I believe that this product can be used to help certain clients.
I want to tell you one of my boring stories. I had a friend named David Littleton that found a great deal on a house on 7 acres and had a pond on it for about $62,000. This was a great deal. He went to several banks trying to get a loan, but was turned down by all of them. He had poor credit, due to some credit cards that he never paid back when he was younger. After being told by many loan companies that he would not get the loan, his heart was broken. He found one loan company I think it was Greentree Financial that offered to give him the loan. They wanted him to pay a very high amount of interest. It was over 3 times the interest that I was paying for my home. I thought they were ripping him off with such a high interest rate. But the fact was that he had poor credit and could not get a loan anywhere else. Let me just save some time and tell you that he jumped on the offer. He didn't give it even one day to think about it. After being told many times that you can't have something that you need, and then you are allowed to have it, you will jump on it. No matter what the price.
The point of the story is to show you how the clients feel and think. They know that they have to pay a higher rate if they can even get the coverage to start with. Most clients are thrilled to death to get the coverage they didn't think they could ever get. Most of them have already talked to a couple of agents that have told them that there was nothing they could do to help them.
Graded Benefit polices are great for these types of clients. Let me give you an example. Let's say a client that had brain cancer just one year ago is worried about protecting his family from the cost of a funeral and wants to buy life insurance. He gets out the phone book and calls a couple of agents and most of them laugh at him or tell him that he can't get any coverage. He gives up on getting any kind of coverage until he runs into you. You tell him that you can help get some protection. You show him a graded benefit plan. In this example we will use United Home Life's product. In the first year it offers return of premium and 12% interest. Second year it offers R.O.P. plus 24% interest. After the second year, it offers full benefit. This is not a bad deal. It is better then if he put the money in the bank and got a lower amount of interest. It would be hard to find anywhere willing to give him 12 to 24 percent interest on his money. He understands that he is going to pay a higher premium then someone that is in great health. Most companies Graded Benefit products are non medical and jet issued. Click Here to see an example client brochure to give you an idea on this product.
Okay, I told you that I would help you find people to sell this product to. But I first have to tell you one more boring story. In 2000, I went to the doctor after having bad chest pains. To make a long story short, I found out that I had something wrong with my heart and they thought that there was a good chance that I would not live past age 40. Not a lot was known about this rare condition. My world stopped that day. Everything in my life was going great into this point. I had it all and now this happens. I had a genetic heart disorder. My doctor recommends that I join a support group. I find an association on google of other people that have the same heart condition. They show me where there are local support groups in my area. The support group and association really helped me deal with this issue. A lot of people like me join support groups and associations after getting bad news. Like after having a heart attack, stoke, cancer or other life changing events. In the meetings we mainly talked about our families, finding some answers to our questions and what we are suppose to do now. Many of them did not have any type of life insurance. Now, that they wanted to buy some coverage it was too late. After about one year, I found a product that Americo Life had, that was through College Life that had no health questions on it and took everyone. I started showing this product to everyone and a lot of them jumped on it. So I didn't just stop at one support group, I went and visited some other support groups. I was able to help many clients. I was lucky that I already had life insurance on myself; because that was the first thing I did in this business. I started thinking about how many other support groups there were out there that I could help. You would be shocked at how many you can quickly find.
I want you to look for the clients that have been told that they can not get any kind of coverage. You can do this in two different ways. You can go fishing with a fishing pole or a net. You can try and sell one person at a time, or go after the groups of them. Look for the support groups and the associations. Image an ad that say "have you been declined for life insurance? I can insure anybody".
Let me talk about why this should be one of the niche markets that you use. The clients just about never lapse one of these polices. They are so glad that they have found coverage that they never let it go. The premiums are generally slightly higher then most types of insurance, but the clients understand the higher premiums. There is more good reason to sell these types of product then I could tell you in an hour.
I suggest that you start thinking about tapping into this untapped market. Other agent's declines will now be your future clients. I'm doing great with my heart condition. In 2004, I believe I was cured with my aorta problems by GOD.
Do you want a get well card or a check?
After having a heart attack, stoke or getting cancer do you want a get well card or a check?
While getting many get well cards is nice, it won't pay the bills. How would a check for $10,000, $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 help you?
The truth is that most people don't die after having a heart attack, stoke or getting cancer. Even if you have the best health insurance in the world, you will still have a deductible to pay and other expenses that you may not be considering. Such as you will be out of work and will not be receiving a pay check or your income will go down.
What I want to do is to send you a check, instead of a get well card. I want to make sure if you get one of the following conditions, A,B,C,D, ect, that you will receive a check from ABC COMPANY. Let me help you determine how much you will need if one of these conditions happens to you.
The get well card or check idea works on many different products. D.I. , C.I. or maybe even health insurance.
My mother has had 3 heart attacks. You may ask how she is still alive. She told me the other day that she should be dead after having just one heart attack. The biggest problem is the fact that she didn't die. She has plenty of life insurance. But the question is how much insurance she has besides health insurance, to cover the expenses of having a heart attack. She was out of work for over 3 month with little income. She had to see 3 different doctors that all were far away. She had great health insurance, but it didn't cover everything. She had an 80/20 plan and had a deductible. The bills started pilling in all at the same time and the company didn't understand that fact that she could not work and just had a heart attack.
To make this short, would a check or a get well card had helped her? What I'm selling is protection and a check.
I just wrote this up in a hurry to show you. This is not the letter that I send to my clients. Many insurance companies will give you something to send to the clients promoting these kinds of products, but I would also use this with it. I want to show you the idea and you can make it your own. I'm trying to just show you the concept of the idea.
How many people do you know that could have used a check instead of a get well card?
If you don't have a company to offer this kind of protection, just email me. I have plans that also offer Return of Premium in case they don't ever use this coverage that they will get all of their money back.
Do you ever end up with a client that you just know that you not going to close the sale on??
I had this client named Mike T. and I had spent about an hour on him already. We had figured out that his family would need $350,000 if he didn't come home tomorrow. He had agreed with this amount. I came up with a good price, which I can't remember; I think it was about $100.00 a month.
He told me that he knew he needed $350,000 worth of coverage, but he just could not afford it right now.
This guy was not a poor client; he had a brand new bass boat in his front yard and lived in a really nice home. So I thought he just rather spend his money on other things and thought he would just wait until later to buy the insurance that he knew that he needed.
Now I'm going to tell you how I closed the sale.
Whenever you know that you are not going to make the sale it is okay to make the client mad. What do you have to lose at this point? Sometimes by making him mad you can the truth out of him and then overcome his objections.
I thought about attacking him on the fact that I thought he could afford the insurance or asking him if he really loved his family. But I didn't do this with this client. I remember a trick that my father had taught me.
I told Mike that I wanted to talk about some facts.
Mike the fact is that in 5 mins I'm leaving this house. The fact is that you need $350,000 worth of insurance coverage today and you have agreed to this already. The fact is that it cost $100.00 a month for this coverage.
I want to help you make the wisest decision today.
I took a sheet of paper. On one side of the sheet I wrote $350,000 and on the other side I wrote $100.00. I tore the paper in half in front of him.
In 5 mins the fact is that I'm leaving with one of these two sheets of paper. I'm either walking out the door with $350,000 and leaving you with your $100.00 or I'm walking out the door with your $100.00 and leaving you with the $350,000 worth of coverage. These are the facts.
Which is the wisest decision that you could make today? I know you love your family and want to make sure they are protected today in case something ever happens to you. Mike I know $100.00 is a lot of money, but don't you think your family is worth it and you will sleep better tonight knowing that your family is fully protected.
He went and got his check book and wrote me the check.
Mike you made the wisest decision today, and I thank you.
I got two more referrals from Mike and I left with his check in my pocket and one hell of a sales story to tell.
I have used this method a couple of times on clients. Most of the time it works on them.
Show all of the riders to your clients. Help your clients and increase your premium.
I think a lot of agents are not offering their clients riders when buying life insurance. I think some of the fear is that you have already talked the client into a certain premium and the agent is afraid to ask for any more money. So they simple don't ask about adding riders to policy. I think it is very important to offer all of the riders that the product has to choose from. Show them the riders and explain to them what each of the riders can do to help the client. Some agents only show the Return of Premium Rider and nothing else. Many agents don't show any riders. It is harder for another agent to come and replace your business that has riders attached to it. You will be surprised that some riders do not add that much premium to the cost of the insurance.
I look at it kind of like buying a new car. A new car is nice to have, but after you have decided to buy it, the salesman starts offering you all of the options. G.P.S., dvd players, satellite radio, OnStar and ton of options. I for one added a ton of options to my new van when I bought it. If the car salesman had not offered the options to me, I would have not know about all of the options or picked from them. I'm glad he showed me all of my options and I realized that it would increase my car payment, but I was okay with it.
A client can not pick a rider that the agent does not know about or shows them.
Also do a search on my one egg or two egg post. This has a lot to do with my other post. I don't ask do you want to add riders. I ask which riders you wish to add. There is a difference. I don't ask them if they want one egg or not. I ask them if they want one or two eggs. <--- This will also help with this idea and tell you what I mean by one egg or two.
Next time you run into a client that just can't afford the coverage that they need, think about reaching out to the family members
I'm going to tell you a story. I bet this has happened to you, and I'm going to give you an idea from it.
I drove about 1 hour from my office to see a prospect. He was a 70 years old male. He had responded back to a piece of direct mailing, and I had set up a meeting with him. Over the phone, I went ahead and asked him a few health questions, and he said he really wants to get some coverage fast. It sounded like it was going to be easy. I get there and start talking with him. I didn't have to talk him into the fact that he needed to buy any life insurance, because he knew that he needed some. We quickly determine that he needs about $50,000 of life insurance. He was worried about sticking the funeral expense upon his son, after he died, and he had a few other areas that needed protecting. Next, I started looking through all of my companies and found him a really cheap price. He looked at the price and told me that was really cheap and a good deal. Here comes the problem. He begins to tell me that he lives on a fixed income, and he could not spend anymore then about $10.00 a month. Of course, I start thinking like any agent in the world. "Man, I just lost the sale, and this guy can't afford it." At this point, I was ready to give up. But, my father's insurance training kicks into my head. I hear him telling me that I need to stop and find a way to help my client and not to give up so fast.
Here was the idea that I came up with. I started asking him about his son, which he was going to leave all the money to from the insurance. The light bulb came on inside of my head. I needed to talk to the son about helping to pay some or the entire premium amount.
The son realized that he would be the one that would be responsible for his father's estate and funeral. The son would clear a little extra money after the funeral. He asked me how much it was going to cost, and then he asked me if we could increase the face amount. Wow!!! I didn't even see that one coming from a mile away.
Next time you run into a client that just can't afford the coverage that they need, think about reaching out to the family members. Most of the time, they are the ones that will get stuck with the bills, and they can even end up asking for more coverage.
How I Sell Insurance To Fire Fighters
This is one of my best kept secrets. This is going to be a very long post. I'm going to tell you how I'm selling tons of polices to firefighters and how I'm doing it. I also sell these products to other niche markets.
First step is I call the fire station and ask to speak to the man in charge.
Hi, you don't know me, but I'm Mark Rosenthal. My wife and I were up last night talking about how unappreciated firefighters are. We got talking about 9/11 and I would love to come out and bring you guys some free pizza and some drinks. All I need to know is what kind of pizza do you guys eat and what kind of drinks do you want. What is a good time for me to come out and visit with you?
95% of the time, they say yes and give me a time to come out. Notice that I kept it simple and made it where he could not say no. Before you say anything the answer is no. I didn't tell him that I'm an insurance agent. Why would I give him a reason to tell me not to come out and visit with them?
Firefighters are some of the nicest people that I've ever met and they really care about the public. Trust me they don't do it for the pay. I'm truly concern for their welfare. I'm tired of watching the news after one of them gets killed in the line of duty, and the gov't don't do anything to take care of their families. I'm not talking about 9/11. I just saw the other day where those 9 firefighters fell through the roof and died. All the radio stations like star 94 in Atlanta were trying to raise money to help put the kids through college and take care of the families. Okay, let's get back to my approach before I start going off on the city and gov't.
Let me start by first saying I don't have a script, but a game plan when I go out to see them. They have a real problem and I have the answer to their problem.
I go and buy some pizza and drinks, spend about $30 to $40 bucks. Some cheaper things could also be used, like hot dogs. I show up with the food and drinks. Firefighters are very friendly and easy to talk to. They usually start off by showing me around. I take a tour of the fire station. We start eating the food that I brought. I start asking them questions like this. Are any of you married? What does your wives think about your being fire fighters? Have any of you ever been hurt on the job? Did you know anyone that died in the twin towers? My wife would never allow me to be a fire fighter, she says this is too dangerous and I'm not strong enough also. I can't do what you guys do. Each question, I allow them to spend some time answering. I hear things like, my wife is worried to death that I might not come home tonight and makes me call her after every fire. Is this really a dangerous job? Let me ask you guys something, does the city/county give you any kind of life insurance? Allow them to laugh. They city don't give us crap. Some fire fighters are members to a fire fighter association that each one of them puts money in each month and they give out $10,000 when a fire fighter gets killed in the line of duty. Sometimes, the fire dept does have something to help the families if something happens to them. The bottom line is that you can never have too much protection or leave your family too much money.
Okay, I've heard a lot of good response to my questions and I'm ready to start talking about Life Insurance.
We are about done eating at this point and they are starting to thank me. I feel like one of the guys already. I tell them again why I brought the food and how much I appreciate what they do for us. I'm very concerned about them and their family members and I want to help them. I work for a company called United Home Life owned by Farm Bureau and they are just as concerned about you as I am. They are an A- rated insurance company. Let me tell you how I can help you. I have an Accidental Death Plan that starts with $100,000 worth of day one coverage. It covers firefighters and if something happens to you in the line of duty, then you are covered. The benefit increase each year at least $5,000 a year for 20 years. In 20 years the coverage will have doubled to $200,000 in coverage. The price will remain the same. It only cost $22.79 a month or $245.00 a year. It also has a return of premium feature built into the price. I hope that none of you will ever need to use this coverage and that we will have to refund all of you money in 20 years. Everyone pays the same price. You just have to be between 18 and 60. It does not matter if you are a smoker or non smoker. It does not matter if you have pre-existing health conditions. The only client that it does not take is if you have had a D.U.I. in the last 5 years. How would you like to call your wife tonight and tell her she don't have to worry about not being fully protected if you don't come home tonight. You all know this is a dangerous job, and I have found a company that will cover you. This policy also covers other things. Let's say while driving home today, that you get killed in a car wreck, this policy will also cover all accidental deaths. This policy does also have a free $250.00 nature death benefit attached to it as a bonus. This is a non medical product. That means no blood, no urine, no one has to come out and see you. I can have this policy issued in a couple of days. If something happens to you in while this coverage is going through and you have told me the truth, then you will already be covered. The coverage really starts today.
I hope they will not need this coverage, but the fact is that firefighters do die in the line of duty. I want to be there for their families and bring them a big check in their time of need. I don't want to see them have to put other firefighters at red lights with boots to raise money to help the families that just lost their loved ones.
The big sales point is that this plan has return of premium attached to it. My plan is for most of them to never need this coverage and in 20 years for them all to get their money back and have been coverage for 20 years for free.
Some of them will ask me "What about a plan that covers me if I die of nature causes." I'm glad you brought that up. I also sell those types of plans.
They are never offended that I'm a life insurance agent or think that I tricked them into selling them something. A lot of insurance companies will not take firefighters and cover them.
Even if you don't sell anything that day, you have done a great thing, for great people and it didn't cost you much of anything.
You will on avg. make at least 1 sale every fire dept. You might end up selling 10 polices at one station. It only takes about 3 mins to write each one of them up. I can also do a list bill to the fire dept if need be.
One time, I done this, and the chief told me, that I should go to the city and see if I could get them to buy the insurance for them. He gave me the name and number of the guy to call. So that is what I did. I was very surprised that he told me that the city would love to offer this to all the firefighters. But he also wanted to know if I could offer this to all of the city employees. Like the police officers, water dept people, etc. I was blown away. I hit the gold mine. I was almost overwhelmed. The cool thing about this product is that I can leave it when them and let them fill it out and send it to me. I don't have to be present.
This plan will also take normal everyday police officers. It does not take fbi, cia, bomb squad, dea. It just takes the avg cop. On a side note, this trick does not work the same with cops as it does fire fighters.
I could spend 20 hours talking about this product an how to use it. I'm going to post some more ways to sale this product later. I will teach you how to sell this product to other niche markets later. Let's just start with firefighters today.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio Tape On This Product
Click Here to Learn More About United Home Life
Single Premium Sales
This is something that my father Greg Rosenthal taught me and I wanted to share it with you. I hope it helps you like it did for me. My father wrote this story.
Several years ago, I lived in a small residential neighborhood. I would frequently say "hello" to my neighbor across the fence, Mr. Johnson, but I did not really know him, and we seldom spoke to each other.
One sunny summer afternoon, I was watering my flower garden and the neighbor was doing the same thing, so he struck up a conversation, asking me how I was doing. I replied "just fine, and you?" And we just chatted a while.
I had noticed a nice small fishing boat with an outboard motor had been sitting in his backyard all summer and he had not taken it out to go fishing, so I asked him about it.
He replied "yes, you're right; I haven't been fishing all summer. Fact is, we can not afford to take the boat out and go fishing. The gas for the boat, the truck's gas to haul it to the lake, the bait and all the other expenses of taking the boat fishing, is more than we can afford on a fixed retirement income and social security". I really felt sorry for him, and then he added,"you know what is really a shame? My wife and I have two $10,000 CDs in the bank, a total of $20,000 just sitting there, that we want to leave to our two sons, when we die, and we live like we're poor and I can not afford to go fishing." I agreed with him and said "yea, man that is a shame, having that money and can't spend it". We chatted a while longer about our gardens and fishing and then we both returned to our homes.
When I got home, I got to thinking about my neighbor's situation with the two CDs, and I recalled what I had just learned the week before about SINGLE PREMIUM WHOLE LIFE SALES.
I grabbed my simplified rate book, and ran to his house and knocked on his door.
Upon opening the door, I said, "excuse me Mr Johnson, I hate to bother or interrupt you, but I got to thinking about what you just told me. Did I correctly understand you to say that you have two $10,000 CDs in the bank, to leave two sons $10,000 each at your death?" He answered "yes, that's right". I responded, "Mr Johnson, what about the inheritance taxes they will have to pay on it? I'm not tax expert, but won't they really just get about $7,000 each after taxes?" He replied again in the affirmative.
I then said "Mr Johnson, if you will tell me your age, how old are you, and if you smoke, I might can help you leave them both more than $10,000, or at least $10,000 each that is not taxable, and have money left over to go fishing in your boat"? He asked, "how you going to do that?" And I answered, "have you ever heard of Single Premium Life Insurance Policy? Are you aware that Life Insurance proceeds are non-taxable?" And he told me that he was 66 years old, did not smoke, and was in fair health, with a little hypertension controlled with medication, so I looked it up in my simplified rate book. I was very happy to tell him, "Mr Johnson, for a single payment of $11,850, my insurance company will pay each son exactly $10,000 each, a total of $20,000 Death Benefit from a Life Policy, at your death".
That was not only the first SINGLE PREMIUM that I ever wrote, it was also the first commission check I ever got for over $1,000. I had a 10% contract, and was actually paid $1,185 within two weeks of having that conversation with Mr. Johnson.
I learned to start looking for prospects or clients with CDs in the bank, intending to leave that money to a family member. They are excellent prospects for Single Premium Life Sales.
Greg Rosenthal
Here is the auto tape that my father also made on this story. Click Here
How to use your local newspaper as a prospecting tool.
Your local newspaper is full of prospects that you need to contact.
The best time to talk to someone is during a life changing event. Like getting married, having a baby, or someone that has just lost a family member. The newspaper has all of these things.
I guess this would be part of the buying on emotions that I have talked about before.
I will first talk about the baby announcements. Having a newborn baby is like no other feeling in the world. It is a happy and scary time all at the same time for most parents. Agents have been contacting new born parents for ages about life insurance. Some even go to the hospital and bring the new parents a gift and talk to them about life insurance. I can tell you that this does work also. But I'm going to stick with direct mail pieces at this time. I want you to think just like a new born father thinks. You want the best for you child. You just want to protect that new child from the world and make sure that nothing bad ever happens to the child. You are even thinking about if your child will go to college or not. One thing that you are not thinking about is what will happen to this child future if and when you die. You have a new responsibility to protect this child from this event. If something happens to the new father or mother, the child should still be able to go to college and maintain their current lifestyle. I think it is important for the new parents to buy life insurance on themselves and the new born child. It is something that no parent ever wants to think about, but it does happen. As insurance agents we see this all the time.
Another life changing even would be just getting married. This is in the newspapers wedding announcements section. It is important to protect the person that you just married with life insurance. It is something that we must make the clients think about. A lot of people that just get married also buy a new home. Buying Life Insurance is an important step to any marriage. At least the wife's think so. Trust me; the wife's are already thinking about it. I don't blame them.
Okay, I'm going to talk about the obituaries for a second. I want to stop and say, that this must be done in a tasteful manner. There is no bigger life changing even then losing someone that you love. There is no bigger time that people think about death then at a funeral. The last thing anyone should have to worry about at a funeral is bills. I wish that everyone had life insurance but they don't. We have all been to funerals where they had to pass the hat to collect enough money just to pay for the funeral. It is sad and no family deserves this. I'm also going to stop and say that you want to just write down these names, and have a waiting period before mailing these clients. You do not want to tell them, that you got their names from the newspaper. There are several different methods that agents use. One is to act like you are just mailing them randomly and do not know they just lost someone. Another way is to approach them about losing their loved ones. Again in a tasteful manner. I purchased my own personal life insurance on myself, before I was married or a life agent, when I lost my brother at 26 years old. I thought a lot about dying and death at the time. Every funeral I go to, I think about death. I've even been to funerals where I thought to myself, I'm glad this is not my family that doesn't have enough money to pay for the funeral or take care of the family. I've even heard others say, that the deceased should have bought life insurance so his family would have not had to go through this. If you could be a mind reader at a funeral, there is no telling what thought you would hear. I'm not trying to make a joke on this either. I don't think I need to stop and tell you about emotions at a funeral or losing your loved one to death.
I know someone will ask me, so the answer is yes. I have done all three of these methods in the past. The answer is yes, they all three worked for me personally. This was something that I was trained to do, and at the time the insurance companies would even give us what to mail to them.
A lot of the clients that I helped were grateful that I was there to protect their families and they wanted to make sure, that if something happens to them that their loved ones would not have to worry about money.
I wanted to share this with you all. This may work for someone of you.
Direct mail is the best way to contact these people, but is not the only way.
You can brainstorm with this idea and I hope others agents can add some positive ideas to make this idea even better. I'm trying to bring some old school sales ideas, to some of the new agents. I did not invent this idea, but was taught it in my early life insurance days.
No one likes to think about death, but it is our job to make them. It is also our job to protect them and make sure they have a plan of protection.
Younger clients are not thinking about inflation and buying enough life insurance.
I want to talk about Inflation for a minute. Then I will tell you how it can help you increase your Life Insurance numbers.
What is Inflation? It has to do with the value of a dollar and how it decreases in value. Let me tell you this story to help you understand. 50 years ago, you could buy a coca cola for a nickel or less. Every couple of years, the price of a coke would go up. It just seems like yesterday that you could buy a can of coke for 50 cent. I bought a coke from a vending machine for $1 today in a can. Why does the price of coke keep going up? It is inflation and the value of a dollar.
Let me tell you one more story. I was talking with a client about life insurance the other day. She was 74 years old. She already had life insurance. But the problem was she didn't' have enough life insurance. When she bought the insurance it was more then plenty. She had bought her policy about 40 something years ago. She bought a $15,000 policy. When she bought it she could have bought a new home for under $15,000. A new car was under $5,000 at the time she bought this policy. Before you start blaming her agent for not selling her enough life insurance, I want to stop and ask you are you doing the same thing he did? Are you selling your clients enough insurance? The agent truly believed at the time he sold this to her, that this would be enough coverage for her. Let me give you an example in today's time. Let's say you have a 30 year old male that wants to buy $50,000 or $100,000 worth of coverage. The average agent would not stop for a second to think about inflation on this young man. I bet he has another 50 years of life left in him. In 50 years will even $100,000 be enough? Will $100,000 be like $50,000 in 50 years? Just 10 years ago $100,000 would buy you a mansion of a house here in Georgia. But today, a $100,000 house is a shack. We are losing the value of the dollar every day that goes by.
Now I'm not sure what the % is that you calculate to figure out what you should add to a life insurance premium to count for inflation. I think someone told me 4% a year or something like that. The younger the client, the more of problem inflation will become. Some would even say that you should add 25% coverage to whatever you think you need if the client is younger then 50 years old. I just don't want to see any client, get old one day and all of the sudden the protection that they think they have, is not enough.
Why not just at least bring this up to your younger clients when they are purchasing life insurance from you. It may increase your sale by 25% or whatever you determine the inflation amount will be.
Besides talking about inflation, I'm still seeing clients' everyday that has not bought enough life insurance and think that they have enough insurance. Their agents didn't take the time to do some kind of a planner with them to determine how much they need. But don't allow me to get off the subject of inflation and how we need to talk to our younger clients about it. Inflation and not buying enough life insurance.
Let's us Mark Rosenthal for an example. I don't want to buy decreasing life insurance. I want my dollar amount to stay the same, for ever. I don't care if the kids leave home one day and the house is paid off. I will never leave Leslie (my wife) too much money. She will never say that I left her too much. I understand how the deal works. On my U.L. policy, for $100,000 , at the most I will pay the company $45,000 if I live to be 100 years old. I am more then doubling my investment that I'm leaving to someone that I love. Side note, I have an age 100 guarantee on it. So the premium can never change. Back to my example on me. I am buying the value of x which is $100,000 that I wish to leave my wife upon my death. I already have other policies for the house and kids. But this policy is just for her. Let's say that I don't die for 50 more years. That $100,000 will be worth about $25,000 in value.
Another example. I grandfather left me $1000 in life insurance. It meant the world to me. But...When he bought it, it had the value of $10,000 to him. When he bought it $1,000 had more value then it does today. Over 20 years ago, $1,000 could do great things. His $1,000 that he left each grandchild, if he had died back then, would have been equal to about $10,000 today.
I think I'm leaving Leslie (my wife) $100,000. The problem is I'm young and still have 50 years left in me. So I hope. In 50 years, it will be worth $25,000 in value.
$100,000 = x . Your value of x should never become less then x. It does not matter if you have less bills or don't need the money as much.
Also, inflation is about 4% a year. It does not take long for this to be a factor.
It is just like buying a decreasing term policy. Each year you loss 4% in value or protection. But you think you are getting a level value policy.
It reminds me of my homeowners insurance. Each year, they tell me that it cost more to rebuild my home if something happens to it. So they keep increasing my protection every year. The agent told me that cost of wood has more then doubled and I didn't have enough protectiong and he had to update my policy...$$$$$$$
In what you are saying, why not just buy a decreasing term policy or a whole life or ul that has a decreasing face amount? If you don't care about losing value of your protection.
Also look at it in another way. What if instead of life insurance, the $100,000 is in a saving account. 40 years from now you go to your saving account and there is only $40,000. The bank manager tells you, that you don't need $100,000 anymore, because you have less bills. Would you be mad?
Fake Money in a Briefcase Idea
Image if all the life insurance agents carry around a briefcase of fake money. What if I had $500,000 in fake bills and ask my clients if this was real money, and you just lost your husband or a family member. Could you use this money? Help me make this money real. We can make this money real by buying a life insurance policy. What did you say? You need less or more money then $500,000. Well let's figure out how much money you will need one day and make this money become real when you need it.
Have the client start playing with the fake money and both of you spend it. Go through the money. Okay, we will need $180,000 for the house and take it out of the briefcase. Next we need $8,000 for the funeral. Now we need to put some aside for the kids to go to college.
I bet the fake money don't last long before you need more. Act like it is real money and see how much the client will need. No one ever stops and thinks about how much they will really need.
Preaching to the Choir is easy.
My pastor says it is easy to preach to the choir, but very hard to preach to the non believers.
I feel the same way about insurance. Those that don't already have insurance, you have to prove to them that they need insurance and how having insurance can fix their problems.
But, if you find someone one that already has insurance, you don't have to convince them that they need to have insurance. All you have to do is to show them a better plan then what they have, or a cheaper plan or to show them something better then what they have. It's like preaching to the choir.
Example number 1.
I'm looking for clients that have a normal U.L. Policy. I'm going to show them a U.L. that has an age 100 guarantee. What they have now, can lapse or they might have to increase their premiums one day to keep the policy in force. Most of the U.L. policies on the market are based on current interest rates. Most have a minimum interest rate of 3%.
I know of a lot of clients that bought a policy over 15 years ago with a big company that I won't name. When they bought their U.L. polices, the interest rate was 12.5%. Today they are paying less then 5%. So most of the clients polices didn't have enough cash value to keep the policy in force. The proposal that they were shown when they bought it show projected cash values and should have taken the policy to age 100, if the interest rate had remain the same. Some of the agents even told the clients not to worry about this, and worse that would happen is they have to start paying a couple more dollars a month, to keep the policy in force. Most of the U.L. policy that have been sold out there today, do not have an age 100 guarantee, and the clients do not know why this can become a problem in the future. My wife's aunt Vicky had this problem. She thought she was buying a permanent policy that would never have any problems as long as she paid her premiums. She was wrong, and her policy lapsed. She was really mad at the agent that sold her this junk and didn't explain to her the risk, of this happening. She didn't read the small print on the proposal that the agent had her sign. The company did write her a letter advising her to double her premium to see if that would help increase her cash value enough to fund her policy further.
To keep this simple, all I have to do is find a consumer that does not have an age 100 guarantee on their U.L. policy. There is a good chance the agent didn't explain to them, about the project interest rates and what could happen to their policy. To better explain this to the client, have the client call the company they bought their policy from and ask the customer service dept to project their policy if the interest rates go down just 1%. WOW, this will blow their minds when they find out the answer. Matter of fact, I'm sorry to tell you that most U.L. policy are in danger of not having enough cash value to keep the policy in force full term and long at all. I want to show them a policy that no matter what happens, the death benefit and premium can never change. Now these types of policies general cost more then the U.L. policies that do not have an age 100 guarantee. It is worth the extra money. Why risk it? Ask the client to show you their policy and go straight toward the proposal. Get you a yellow highlighter, and highlight the places that the other agent never wanted them to read.
So in example number 1, we are looking for U.L. clients that don't have an age 100 guarantee and then showing them, how this could be a problem one day. Then show them the plan that they would never have to worry about this problem again if they bought. They need to be fully protected and not chance it on interest rates.
I have another 100 example on how to preach to the choir and how to show the client a better product and walk away with a sale.
I want to always do what is best for my clients. I believe this to be the best for my clients and after I show them the small print and have them call the insurance company they bought it from, and not take my word for it, then it is like selling cake to a fat kid.
I can think of a million more ways to preach to the choir I call it. I will try and post some more example later.
Example number 2.
A policy with no riders.
The next choir to preach to is those that have bought a policy, but the agent didn't offer them any riders to attach to their policy. I find that many agents never offer the clients any of the riders. There are many reasons why they don't offer them. But this is their mistake and leaves room for you to come in behind them, and show a better product to the client. It is harder for another agent to come in behind you and replace a policy that has rider attached to it. It reminds me of buying a car, and the salesman showing you all the options that you can buy with your new car. They are not afraid to show you all these options. It will not make the client; change their minds about buying the car. Even if it will make the monthly payments go up. I hate the fact that I bought one of my new cars, and the salesman didn't show me all the options that I could have bought. Not until I saw someone else same car, did I realize that I could have bought the options that they bought. This idea works on all types of Life Insurance. Learn all of the riders that you companies have to offer.
I have talked many of clients into a new policy by simply showing them a rider that they need to have attached to their policy. But the 1st agent didn't show it to them. That is their mistake and your gain. I don't have to talk the client into buying the insurance. I just have to talk them into the riders. I could spend all day talking about some of the riders that I show them. But if you just show them all the riders and let them pick from them, then you may help the client and make a sale.
It is a Numbers Game
I've got to tell you a story about how a panhandler on the street helped me to learn to sell more insurance.
My father and I were staying at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. We woke up one morning and look at the window and saw a cheap breakfast place that looked like it was just 5 mins away. It turned out to be over a hour walk away.
So we get to walking to the Denny's and on the way I saw what I thought at first was a homeless man holding a sign and asking people for money. The man's sign said why lie, I need more for beer. We had been walking for about 45 mins and I could not walk anymore. I decided to give the man $5.00 bucks. So I rested right next to him and started talking with him. I asked him if he was homeless and he laughed at me. He said he lived in a mansion. I was shocked by his answer. I asked him why don't he get a real job and he told me that this was his real job, that this was his full time job and he made lots of money doing it. There were tons of people walking up and down the strip and I noticed that for every 30 people that he asked for money, that at least 1 would stop and give him money. What if I changed places with him and instead of asking people for money, I just ask them if they need to talk about Life Insurance?
I started thinking about this more and more. If I simply would just ask random people if they would need to talk about protecting their families with Life Insurance, how many would I have to ask before one say yes. I would think that if I just asked 100 people that at least 1 of them would say yes. We all see people all day long out in public.
This simple idea can work, the more people you ask the more chances someone will want to talk to you about insurance. Start giving out those business cards and start asking everyone you see about life insurance. How many people do you see a day that you don't simply give a business card to or ask them if they need to talk about insurance?
I look at every stranger I see in public like a lottery ticket. I can't win if I don't play. The more tickets I purchase the more chances I have of winning. I only need to win one time to make a sale and these tickets are free.
I challenge you to start doing this. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Don't wait on someone to knock on your door and want to buy life insurance. Get out there and start asking people about insurance.
Buying on Emotions
The fact is that no one wants to stop and think about death or dying. They don't want to think about what is going to happen to their families if they don't come home. I for one don't like thinking about not being here for my family. I would rather think that nothing is ever going to happen to me. I like going to bed at night, believe that I will wake up the next day and everything will be okay. I like to think that I will never get have a heart attack, stroke, or get disabled. In order to get me in the right buying mood, you are going to have to get me emotional and thinking about my family.
Let me give you an example. I just bought a French bulldog puppy. The dog cost me $1,500 bucks. I didn't need or want a dog. I can't afford a dog right now at that price. But a friend that sales dogs brought one over to my family and used emotions to sale me this dog. Within 5 mins, my kids were asking me if we could have it and my wife was already falling in love with the dog. I love my wife and kids and would do anything in the world for them. I sold one of my four wheelers and bought the dog. I got emotional and got to thinking about the wife and kids. I loved it when I told them we were getting the dog.
You ask me what this story has to do with buying insurance. It has a lot to do with it.
I'm an avg person. Sometimes you have to make the client get emotional and think about their family, in order to get them to buy life insurance. I would have never bought that dog on my own. We have to get the client to think about something they really don't want to think about. Most of them think it will never happen to them and we have to remind them that it can.
The main reason I bought life insurance, is that I wanted to be able to tell my wife that if I die that her and the kids will be taken care of. I would give up anything in the world for them. I put my life insurance bill on the top of my list because I know it is important to have.
I carry all of my life insurance polices that I bought on myself and my wife with me on all of my life sales. I could spend an hour on why I do this, but trust me, it helps.
I try and make all of my sales personal and share with them some of my life stories. Most of my clients love to share their stories with me. We always talk about their family members and what matters the most to them.
I just wanted to share this random thought I had after buying this dog.
This is meant for the p & c agents that also have a life insurance license.
I'm going to show you how to cross market you clients. We are going to be working your existing clients. My idea is to sell the accidental death product to your p & c clients.
I'm going to use me as an example. I'm an avg car insurance client. I spend over $350.00 a month on my car insurance to insure if I have a car accident, that the car insurance company will fix my car. I have the coverage because I'm worried protecting my cars. People have wrecks all the time. I see a car accident just about everyday. I'm worried to death that I could be in a car accident. That is why I always wear my seatbelt and buy some of the safest cars on the market.
Let's review; I'm spending over $350.00 a month to protect my car in case I have a car wreck. But if I stop and think about it, I need to protect something besides my car if I have a car wreck. I need to make sure that my family is protected in case I don't come home from the car accident. I need someone to remind me that my family also needs protecting from car accidents. People dye everyday in car accidents. But we get so use to see them, that we don't think anything of it. My brother Chuck was 26 years old when he died in a car accident.
If I'm willing to spend $350.00 a month on car insurance to protect my car, why not spend $22.79 a month to protect my family from the car accident? Makes sense after I put it that way doesn't it? In like car insurance, if I don't need the protection, I will get all of my money back in 20 years.
The clients already know who are you and you are already helping them. I have came up with a short sample letter that you could send to your clients that reminds them that they need to also protect their family members and not just their cars.
Dear Valuable client.
I would like to start off by thanking you for you business. If you ever need anything, just let me know.
I would like to also thank you for trusting me to insure your car and making sure that if you have a car accident that I will be there to help you and protect you.
But I would like to do more then just protect your car in the event you have an auto accident and don't come home from it. You already trust me to protect you automobile, but I want you to also trust me to protect your family from the same car accident.
For just $22.79 a month or $245.00 a year, I can give you $100,000 day one coverage that will increase at least $5,000 a year for 20 years. It will end up doubling to $200,000 in year 20. I hope that you will never need this coverage, and the great thing about this plan is that if you don't need the coverage within 20 years, at the end of 20 years we will give you all of your money back.
I hope that you will never need this extra protection, but if you do, I will be there to help protect your family from this wreck. I hope that you will never need this protection.
Look at it this way, if you never use this coverage, you will get all of your money back.
This coverage also covers all accidentally deaths.
I also have normal life insurance polices that cover your family no matter how you die.
END OF LETTER
I'm not saying that you should copy my letter word for word. This is a fast rough draft that gives you the idea.
Mail this to all of your clients. If nothing else you are thanking them for their business and reminding them that you are in the insurance business.
I'm going to end my idea here. I don't want to bore the people that are not p and c agents.
New Home Owners
This is something I did years ago, when everybody was buying a new home. It may still work today, on a smaller level. I wanted to share this with you and hope that you might get some ideas from it.
I used to target new homeowners and find a reason for them to allow me to come and see them. Remember, I say that half of the job is getting your foot in the door.
First, I had to find the new homeowners' information. I first did this by going to the court house. I would go to the probate office and ask to see the land deed property transfer book. It is open and public record for anyone to look at. I would always start in the back of the book, where they just put in new homeowners deeds. I had done this for many years, before finding a better way of doing it. Later on, I used http://www.gaassessors.com/ here in Georgia, to access the local tax assessor's website. I learned how to do a sales search on most of the websites. This gave me a list in excel of everyone that just bought a new home in my area and also showed me their deed info. I knew how much they paid for the house and who is all on the deed. It even has a picture of the house on it, which helps me find the new home. My friend used to own a lead company, and this is how the lead companies get the new homeowners addresses also.
Okay, now I had the new homeowner's information, and I had to think of a reason to contact them and a way to help them. I remember when I first moved into my new home, all of the churches and people around my house came to welcome me. I use to wonder how the churches and the people knew that I just moved in, but now you know how they knew that I just moved in. I decided to be like a one person welcoming committee, and I would offer them help with some of the problems that new families have when moving into a new homes. Think about just moving into a new home, or a new city. I did it, and I can still remember the stress from all of it.
This is what I came up with to help them.
I would start off by calling them. Hi, I'm Mark Rosenthal, and I'm your local insurance agent. I would love to come out and welcome you to the city of Griffin and bring you some free gifts and meet with you. I want to come bring you some coupons for a free Large Papa John's pizza, a free dry cleaning, a free teeth cleaning, a free oil change, 10% off at about 20 places to eat and local services, and a ton of free things. I also brought them a big kit that I had made full of important info that I though could help them. It contained the phone numbers to poison control, the police dept, fire dept, and all the phone numbers they need to have utilities turned on. I also had a secret yard sale book that the lady's loved. I had some fresh homemade cookies that my wife made. I would also stop by Sam's Club and buy a couple of things. Like a free long distance calling card or some free Tide Washing Detergent.
Okay, I know you are dying to know how I got all that free stuff to give to them and I'm going to share my secret with you. I started calling businesses and talking with them about new home owners. Let's start with the dry cleaning place, so that I can show you this example. In Griffin, there are about 10 drying cleaning places. They are all the same to me. The truth is, people stick to the first company they use for the first time. Like me for example, I have been using the same place for years. I'm not even sure they are the cheapest anymore, but I'm too lazy to go looking at other places. Let's not forget that all these business that I call are spending tons of money on advertisements and to target the new home owners. Why not allow me to do the work for them? I tell them what I'm doing, and I would like to bring their coupon to the new homeowner. After using their service one time for free, they will be a customer for life and won't try the other places. The same idea works on all the places. I picked one pizza place and I stuck with it. Have you ever bought a coupon book from a kid doing a fundraiser? The business will do this for just about anyone that is going to help advertise them. All you have to do is ask them and tell them what you're doing. Most of these things didn't cost me anything. I got those important phone numbers out of the phone book, along with the free map of Griffin that I gave to them. But, I made it look nice.
Let's get back to my approach, now that I told you my secret. So far, I had found the new homeowner and had a reason to contact them. After contacting them, I gave them a reason for me to come out and visit them and welcome them. Let's not forget that I did tell them what I do for a living. I'm the local Insurance Man. I bet the only one in town that came out to welcome them and bring them free gifts.
Next I show up to their new home, and I start showing them all of their free gifts. Let's not forget what it feels like to just move into a new home. They don't know anyone, and they don't know how to cut on a lot of services like the trash service. I'm giving them all the numbers to the places I think they will need. I could spend a long time going over each thing that I give them, but trust me they are grateful. I'm going to get back to the insurance part now, and let's not forget I already know what they paid for the house. Most of the time, I'm inside the home and they are showing everyone there what I have brought them. They are always very proud of their new homes and even show me around the home. I start asking them questions. This sure is a nice home; did you get a good deal on it? Where did you move from? How do you like the city of Griffin so far? I ask where they work. I want to know if they both work, to know if it takes both of their income to pay for the home. Notice I don't call it a house, because it is now a home. Most of the time, the people are very friendly and open to my questions. If the husband is not at home, I would ask her what she is going to do if something happens to the husband today. Will she be able to keep the home by herself? I start telling them that I'm in the business of protecting families and making sure that if something happens to either one of them, that the rest of the family can maintain their current lifestyles. I ask them if they have any life insurance yet and start telling them about what I do. Most of the time, I don't try and sell them right there on the spot. I'm just doing some fact finding right now and I need to go back to my office and runs some quotes. I work for a number of life companies to make sure that I'm giving you the best prices and best product. They respect this, and most of them go ahead and set up a future appointment. Not to say, that I won't sell them right then, if I think that is what they want to do. I always have my laptop with me and the apps with me at all times. I'm kind of hitting them off guard, and I want to come back when they are ready for me to sit down and just talk about insurance. I'm not saying you have to do it this way, but it is what I did most of the time. I'm skipping a lot of the sales talk, because most of you know what to say and do and I don't want to bore you with things you already know.
After making the sale, I always asked them for referrals. I did this many different ways. I would ask them what kind of a job I did today protecting them or helping them. Would they recommend me to a friend or family member? Sometimes I would ask them, if my boss called them later, would they tell him that I done a good job. Most of them would laugh and start trying to reinsure me that I done a great job and they loved what I done for them and they would recommend me. I used to work for a company also that had a referral cards, that they client filled out for a drawing to win a big screen television. The more names they gave me the more chances they had to win. I always left them with about 10 cards, so they could give them out for me.
Back in the good days, before all this crap we are in these days, this was the golden market and I did well in it.
I think that one day; this idea will work again, or on a smaller level still work today. Sooner or later things will have to get better and people start buying new homes again.
7179 Jonesboro Rd.
Suite #202
Morrow, GA 30260
Phone:
770.968.5757
877.968.5757
Fax:
770.968.2657
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