200K Per Year with an 8th Grade Education...

[medicarebenefitsdirect]

Yesterday I met a man in his 50's that never made it past the 8th grade. He has been selling final expense for about 10 years. He has been with one company. His manager showed me the numbers for the week and he was already at 3000k annualized premium on Tuesday. He had an award hanging on the company wall for doing 35,000k in one month. So, I tried to pick this guy's brain. Here are some of the results.

Me: What are your favorite lead sources?
Agent: I do not care where the lead comes from. I work harder than anyone. I sometimes call lead cards 10 to 15 times. I have sold lead cards a year old. Give me a lead and I will make sales.
Me: How do you get referrals?
Agent: I try to leave the house with 5 names. I tell the client that they have to have 5 friends who need the same coverage. After doing that for 10 years, you would be amazed at the number of sales.
My observation is that he works hard, does not complain about leads, makes no excuses and finds a way. Oh, by the way he has about 5 agents writing under him now that are doing very well. I am the first to complain about leads. Maybe I need to spend less time complaining and more time calling old leads!

 

[insuranceexec]

Yesterday I met a man in his 50's that never made it past the 8th grade. He has been selling final expense for about 10 years. He has been with one company. His manager showed me the numbers for the week and he was already at 3000k annualized premium on Tuesday. He had an award hanging on the company wall for doing 35,000k in one month. So, I tried to pick this guy's brain. Here are some of the results.

Me: What are your favorite lead sources?
Agent: I do not care where the lead comes from. I work harder than anyone. I sometimes call lead cards 10 to 15 times. I have sold lead cards a year old. Give me a lead and I will make sales.
Me: How do you get referrals?
Agent: I try to leave the house with 5 names. I tell the client that they have to have 5 friends who need the same coverage. After doing that for 10 years, you would be amazed at the number of sales.
My observation is that he works hard, does not complain about leads, makes no excuses and finds a way. Oh, by the way he has about 5 agents writing under him now that are doing very well. I am the first to complain about leads. Maybe I need to spend less time complaining and more time calling old leads!

I was told in the beginning of my sales career that:

"NO only means that they need to KNOW more."

 

[G.Gordon]

Back when I ran leads I viewed them as nothing more than a name and number and not as an invitation to come write some insurance. I think I can remember ONE time when I showed up at the door and they literally said... "We need some life insurance to pay for our funerals."

 

[Joe Moore]

Yesterday I met a man in his 50's that never made it past the 8th grade. He has been selling final expense for about 10 years. He has been with one company. His manager showed me the numbers for the week and he was already at 3000k annualized premium on Tuesday. He had an award hanging on the company wall for doing 35,000k in one month. So, I tried to pick this guy's brain. Here are some of the results.

Me: What are your favorite lead sources?
Agent: I do not care where the lead comes from. I work harder than anyone. I sometimes call lead cards 10 to 15 times. I have sold lead cards a year old. Give me a lead and I will make sales.
Me: How do you get referrals?
Agent: I try to leave the house with 5 names. I tell the client that they have to have 5 friends who need the same coverage. After doing that for 10 years, you would be amazed at the number of sales.
My observation is that he works hard, does not complain about leads, makes no excuses and finds a way. Oh, by the way he has about 5 agents writing under him now that are doing very well. I am the first to complain about leads. Maybe I need to spend less time complaining and more time calling old leads!

Sort of reminds me of my 2nd convention in Hawaii in 1992. A fellow from California, been in the Final Expense Business 15 years, working out of a funeral home. Monday and Tuesday he would park his car in a modest neighborhood and knock on doors until about 2 o'clock, only setting appointments for Wednesday and Thursday. He would go back to the funeral home and take care of his business in the later afternoons and Friday mornings. He made it a point to never work weekends.

With this simple method, he took the funeral home from around 70 funerals a year 15 years ago to around 800 in 1992. He was making around $400,000 per year, and the funeral home honored him with a "Presidential" type office.
He said he very rarely worked a lead, unless it was a referral.

He told me he knew there was something fishy about this business when he only collected $8 monthly premium, and the insurance company sent him $46 dollars as his commission. I don't think he really ever understood percentages, but he was very well pleased with how his low dollar sales amounted to big dollars.

 

[Todd King]

This is my own little thing when it comes to leads. You have to T.A.L.K.

Timing- Did you catch them at a good time, a bad time? What is occurring in their life right now?
Appearance - (even over the phone you should smile) I've always been told, "Dress for success". It always worked for me. Or at least in my mind it did and that's important...my mindset.
Likability - You have to be likable or they just won't buy... period! Listen to them find out what they are like and mirror them. People like people who are similar to them, don't you?
Keep on - Keep on working like you are looking for your first sale. Remember your 1st sale? You probably sold it more out of enthusiasm than product knowledge! Where did that enthusiasm go? Find it, Keep it, Own it!

 

[insuranceexec]

That is good stuff Todd; thanks for sharing.

 

[florida]

Imagine a guy with an 8th grade education getting a insurance license. He must have been smart.

 

[HarryRenard]

He didnt say 8th grader.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Was he from Thomasville,Ga.?

 

[crons79]

I met a guy once to talk about a medicare advantage plan. Turns out he never made more than $8 an hour his entire life, but he managed to have $800,000 in investments! I was totally blown away. Facinating appt.