25 Reasons to Love Life Insurance - Insurance Selling mag

[Lloyds of Lubbock]

Wow....everyone is entitled their opinion but I strongly disagree with this.
People do want to protect their families , businesses, reduce tax obligations, eliminate or lessen some business risks.
They don't have to have their arms twisted to by life insurance.
By the way if you sell a term policy for $500 and had to meet with the client a minimum of two times at least one to his office or home, how much did you actually make?
Not every sale results in a windfall...not to mention the service.
While renewals get paid, sometimes the service required is way in excess of the work provided.

 

[Life Hawk]

Your assured that you will use it... if you have it.

 

[Robert Barney]

People do want to protect their families , businesses, reduce tax obligations, eliminate or lessen some business risks.
They don't have to have their arms twisted to by life insurance.

Then you are one of the "few" who can sell life insurance successfully. You are a rare cat.

Personally, I never had trouble selling life insurance. To me it was logical and made sense but then everyone on this board will tell you I'm not the average person.

After many years of doing business in this industry, I know that MOST agents cannot do it, MOST who try to sell it fail. It ain't easy and the only people who say it's easy are managers who get paid to recruit.

I agree, a small term premium does not pay a huge amount, but you sell it because today's small premium/client will be tomorrow's much bigger premium/client. I tell this story in my August bulletin, where we are announcing table ratings are coming in the next couple of months:

While drafting this bulletin I had a call from a customer who was trying to replicate a life company quote for a no lapse UL sale he made from our software. The standard premium was $91,816. He said the company had come back with a Table B decision, and that they used 50% for Table B. He used the existing Table Rating function in our software, put in 50% and got $137,724. I asked and he told me the company was quoting $115,927. I point out that the rating is added to the mortality element, and not to the entire premium. I said, in order to calculate the same premium for our software, that you divide the rated premium of $115.927 by the standard premium of $91,816 to determine the percentage. The answer is 1.262574 (rounded). That would allow him to quote the same premium.​

So I realize the subject was not the commission, but where else can you move $90,000 and make the kind of money this sale produced? What other financial product pays you the same amount of commissions on the same premium amount? There is NOTHING that is close.

If it was easy to sell, the companies wouldn't have to pay as much as they do.

 

[WinoBlues]

Then you are one of the "few" who can sell life insurance successfully. You are a rare cat.

Personally, I never had trouble selling life insurance. To me it was logical and made sense but then everyone on this board will tell you I'm not the average person.

After many years of doing business in this industry, I know that MOST agents cannot do it, MOST who try to sell it fail. It ain't easy and the only people who say it's easy are managers who get paid to recruit.

I agree, a small term premium does not pay a huge amount, but you sell it because today's small premium/client will be tomorrow's much bigger premium/client. I tell this story in my August bulletin, where we are announcing table ratings are coming in the next couple of months:

While drafting this bulletin I had a call from a customer who was trying to replicate a life company quote for a no lapse UL sale he made from our software. The standard premium was $91,816. He said the company had come back with a Table B decision, and that they used 50% for Table B. He used the existing Table Rating function in our software, put in 50% and got $137,724. I asked and he told me the company was quoting $115,927. I point out that the rating is added to the mortality element, and not to the entire premium. I said, in order to calculate the same premium for our software, that you divide the rated premium of $115.927 by the standard premium of $91,816 to determine the percentage. The answer is 1.262574 (rounded). That would allow him to quote the same premium.​

So I realize the subject was not the commission, but where else can you move $90,000 and make the kind of money this sale produced? What other financial product pays you the same amount of commissions on the same premium amount? There is NOTHING that is close.

If it was easy to sell, the companies wouldn't have to pay as much as they do.

Bob,

In your world Life Insurance is a grudge buy for people, sold by the questionable. Permanent Life insurance is a suckers bet made by people that could not put themselves where you think they should be, Or, something sold by the same questionable salesmen.

There are more than a few Unicorns that gets inbound calls or online inquiries from people that 'Want Life Insurance' for whatever reason They want it.

You really know very little about being an insurance agent. You may or may not have known more 30 years ago in Canada when you sold Life Insurance.

 

[DHK]

1. Life insurance is a solution to one or more problems.

2. Most people don't even realize the problems that they have that can be solved with life insurance.

3. The skilled agent can help people determine their problems and priorities and then determine if they can be best solved through the strategic use of life insurance... or any other product.

4. People don't buy and keep life insurance policies (of any size) if they don't see how those policies can help them with the problems that were identified.

 

[DHK]

After many years of doing business in this industry, I know that MOST agents cannot do it, MOST who try to sell it fail. It ain't easy and the only people who say it's easy are managers who get paid to recruit.

I'm going to back up Bob on this one... because it's true. It shouldn't be, but it is.

The lack of training in this industry is appalling and it's continuing to deteriorate. Based on my own experience in two different career agencies (Mass & MoO), you are taught how to (try or attempt to) make a sale rather than actually helping the client.

At my MassMutual agency, they had lazy training and essentially "outsourced" it to LEAP Systems and prospecting with e-relationship. (Btw, LEAP seems to be on the mission to simply PROVE that life insurance is a great addition to any situation... rather than simply asking skilled questions.) There was some other training with Sandler Training that could've been done in a group setting... but if you add this all up, it was a very expensive proposition. (LEAP was $2,500 + $600 per group training session because it has a steep learning curve; e-relationship is about $80/month now for drip emails; Sander was $4,000 for group training.)

That MassMutual agency really should've had a better in-house training solution and THEN add these tools as optional programs to aid in the selling process. (MassMutual "cleaned house" in California back in 2012 and fired all the GAs and hired new ones.)

At Mutual of Omaha, it was a basic fact-finding or rather a "modular planning" process. There was a list of 8 common priorities and it was up to the prospect to number them in the order of THEIR priorities... and then you solved each one... one at a time. It wasn't comprehensive, but modular - such as "Survival Needs Analysis" - which promotes a term life sale. Not a bad thing, but permanent life can do so much more than just one facet of planning. However, I will mention that this was before they had come out with their new IUL policy and I wasn't a fan of their AccumUL product. (But at least this process didn't have a high learning curve nor was it expensive.) I bet the most "comprehensive" you could be with Mutual of Omaha based on my training was to combine Disability needs with life insurance to get their combination term life product with DI rider.

At least that manager at Mutual of Omaha had a kind of in-house training... but it was so manipulative that it wasn't a fit for me. (That manager left the industry the next year.)


That's why I constantly promote the resources that *I* like for proper training - the Insurance Pro Shop, Sandy Schussel, and Sid Walker. These resources are the foundation of my training and process, they are inexpensive, and they teach one how to be a far more effective communicator with prospects and of the benefits of life insurance and annuities. Everything else supplements that foundation for me.

 

[WinoBlues]

I'm going to back up Bob on this one... because it's true. It shouldn't be, but it is.

The lack of training in this industry is appalling and it's continuing to deteriorate. Based on my own experience in two different career agencies (Mass & MoO), you are taught how to (try or attempt to) make a sale rather than actually helping the client.

At my MassMutual agency, they had lazy training and essentially "outsourced" it to LEAP Systems and prospecting with e-relationship. (Btw, LEAP seems to be on the mission to simply PROVE that life insurance is a great addition to any situation... rather than simply asking skilled questions.) There was some other training with Sandler Training that could've been done in a group setting... but if you add this all up, it was a very expensive proposition. (LEAP was $2,500 + $600 per group training session because it has a steep learning curve; e-relationship is about $80/month now for drip emails; Sander was $4,000 for group training.)

That MassMutual agency really should've had a better in-house training solution and THEN add these tools as optional programs to aid in the selling process. (MassMutual "cleaned house" in California back in 2012 and fired all the GAs and hired new ones.)

At Mutual of Omaha, it was a basic fact-finding or rather a "modular planning" process. There was a list of 8 common priorities and it was up to the prospect to number them in the order of THEIR priorities... and then you solved each one... one at a time. It wasn't comprehensive, but modular - such as "Survival Needs Analysis" - which promotes a term life sale. Not a bad thing, but permanent life can do so much more than just one facet of planning. However, I will mention that this was before they had come out with their new IUL policy and I wasn't a fan of their AccumUL product. (But at least this process didn't have a high learning curve nor was it expensive.) I bet the most "comprehensive" you could be with Mutual of Omaha based on my training was to combine Disability needs with life insurance to get their combination term life product with DI rider.

At least that manager at Mutual of Omaha had a kind of in-house training... but it was so manipulative that it wasn't a fit for me. (That manager left the industry the next year.)


That's why I constantly promote the resources that *I* like for proper training - the Insurance Pro Shop, Sandy Schussel, and Sid Walker. These resources are the foundation of my training and process, they are inexpensive, and they teach one how to be a far more effective communicator with prospects and of the benefits of life insurance and annuities. Everything else supplements that foundation for me.

While I do not disagree with your post that most do not do much or any planning. Me included. I do not believe Bob was referring to training. Comprehensive or otherwise.

 

[DHK]

While I do not disagree with your post that most do not do much or any planning. Me included. I do not believe Bob was referring to training. Comprehensive or otherwise.

Perhaps. But Bob's impression of "questionable agents" must stem (in my opinion) from the lack of training by the industry in general. If the training and professionalism was higher... well, things might be different (and yet, as he also said, the product sale wouldn't pay as much).

 

[DHK]

Anyway, hopefully the thread can get back on track because @Brian Anderson was looking for quotes for his article. And it's probably okay to have a dissenting opinion for it too.

 

[rousemark]

Perhaps. But Bob's impression of "questionable agents" must stem (in my opinion) from the lack of training by the industry in general. If the training and professionalism was higher... well, things might be different (and yet, as he also said, the product sale wouldn't pay as much).

In Bob's opinion "questionable agents" is any agent who writes permanent insurance..