Final Expense as a Captive Agent, Please Help!

[Victor Barton]

I've been with a captive agency for close to 3 years (Thrivent financial), and I've become an MDRT member by naturally prospecting and getting referrals, so being new isn't the problem. I've recently jumped in the leads rabbit hole. I bought 60 FB leads from Secured Agent Leads, I called them, didn't have much success, so I went and door knocked them. Same sort of things from everyone either uninsurable( on ss disability, pill bottles everywhere, bipolar etc..) or "didn't fill this out". I almost always got into the home, but then they would proceed to tell me the above things. I have not made a single sale... Very discouraging, but I know these have to work from all the videos I have watched on youtube... I am thinking about doing direct mail for mortgage protection.
Is it harder to sell Final Expense as a captive agent that doesn't have a graded or a guaranteed issue product?? I'm trying to make this leads thing work to use as a supplement please help!

 

[TRG1225]

I've been with a captive agency for close to 3 years (Thrivent financial), and I've become an MDRT member by naturally prospecting and getting referrals, so being new isn't the problem. I've recently jumped in the leads rabbit hole. I bought 60 FB leads from Secured Agent Leads, I called them, didn't have much success, so I went and door knocked them. Same sort of things from everyone either uninsurable( on ss disability, pill bottles everywhere, bipolar etc..) or "didn't fill this out". I almost always got into the home, but then they would proceed to tell me the above things. I have not made a single sale... Very discouraging, but I know these have to work from all the videos I have watched on youtube... I am thinking about doing direct mail for mortgage protection.
Is it harder to sell Final Expense as a captive agent that doesn't have a graded or a guaranteed issue product?? I'm trying to make this leads thing work to use as a supplement please help!

Caveat: Medicare guy new to FE...haven't sold a FE policy yet, but pretty sure I'm hooked up to the right people to do well with this.

Short answer: hell yes it's harder, I would think. From what I've been told by people in this field that know way more than me, you can expect at least 30% of your business to be graded or GI...and that's if you're really good with underwriting and have the right selection of products to offer.

Having just one product even with a graded option would assumedly be tough as hell.

On top of that, buying leads can be a crapshoot. I've learned the hard way not to focus on what the lead vendor says or promotes about their leads and focus on what they don't say, as that will be what burns you every time.

I guess, the best advice I would have on the leads thing is making sure your lead form, telemarketer, or however the lead info is attained, makes sure to ask your 'knockout' questions to ensure you don't pay for leads that are essentially worthless from the jump.

It may cost you noticeably more per lead, but your ROI results should be better.

 

[Todd King]

I've been with a captive agency for close to 3 years (Thrivent financial), and I've become an MDRT member by naturally prospecting and getting referrals, so being new isn't the problem. I've recently jumped in the leads rabbit hole. I bought 60 FB leads from Secured Agent Leads, I called them, didn't have much success, so I went and door knocked them. Same sort of things from everyone either uninsurable( on ss disability, pill bottles everywhere, bipolar etc..) or "didn't fill this out". I almost always got into the home, but then they would proceed to tell me the above things. I have not made a single sale... Very discouraging, but I know these have to work from all the videos I have watched on youtube... I am thinking about doing direct mail for mortgage protection.
Is it harder to sell Final Expense as a captive agent that doesn't have a graded or a guaranteed issue product?? I'm trying to make this leads thing work to use as a supplement please help!

It is hard naturally, but if you only have one company...then yeah....it gets super hard at that point. Independent is the way to go so that you can have more companies to pivot to, depending on your situation.

 

[billyb]

30% of leads are not GI. You can usually get the majority of them an immediate death benefit if you have the right companies.

 

[TRG1225]

30% of leads are not GI. You can usually get the majority of them an immediate death benefit if you have the right companies.

Guess it depends on your lead source and how you do it. I'm just going off of what the BGA I'm with reported, and they seem to be doing mighty damn fine.

 

[DayTimer]

so I went and door knocked them. Same sort of things from everyone either uninsurable( on ss disability, pill bottles everywhere, bipolar etc..)

I'd bet 90% of them would qualify for day one coverage with KSKJ or Trinity/Family Benefit, Royal Neighbors for those not quite tall enough for their weight.

 

[shonceman]

@Victor Barton, the FE market is completely dependent on simplified issue underwriting. Does Thrivent have a small face whole life product that issues standard at least to Table 4? If not, mortgage protection would probably be a better market for you.

 

[shonceman]

Same sort of things from everyone either uninsurable( on ss disability, pill bottles everywhere, bipolar etc..) or "didn't fill this out".

FWIW, I've sold every one of the cases you just mentioned at least once in the last 30 days. I've written most of them with a single carrier, but it's a carrier that's geared to the FE market.

 

[DonP]

According to tons of people secured agent leads are terrible . I'm very certain tons of these supposedly very reputable Facebook vendors are reselling these leads . Unless it's an rgi lead were it says reply by this date or your mailing yourself and the vendors sending you the actual return card back theres a big chance at least some of your leads are resold leads . When you go to the door and even 50% of the people say " I told the guy the other week " I wasn't interested or " I just told the guy on the phone I wasn't interested " . When 90% of the leads say " that's my handwriting but I don't remember filling it out or I filled that out 6-12 months ago" . There's many serial mailers but when you here this time and time and time again somethings up .

 

[Newby]

According to tons of people secured agent leads are terrible . I'm very certain tons of these supposedly very reputable Facebook vendors are reselling these leads . Unless it's an rgi lead were it says reply by this date or your mailing yourself and the vendors sending you the actual return card back theres a big chance at least some of your leads are resold leads . When you go to the door and even 50% of the people say " I told the guy the other week " I wasn't interested or " I just told the guy on the phone I wasn't interested " . When 90% of the leads say " that's my handwriting but I don't remember filling it out or I filled that out 6-12 months ago" . There's many serial mailers but when you here this time and time and time again somethings up .

Why would a vendor mailing a hard copy to you make any difference as to a lead being resold? Leads that are sold once or 100 times are sold as PDFs. If someone gets a hard copy and thinks that means his leads are not being re-sold...well I have some great swamp land in Kentucky to sell you.

Honest lead vendors and IMOs don't re-sell leads. But crooked ones do. And they sell them as PDFs. Not hard copies.