Guidance for New Life Agents

[DHK]

Just stumbled onto this video on YouTube. Michael Kitces primarily writes his blog and his materials for the financial advisor/RIA market. However, if you're offering comprehensive life insurance planning and retirement planning with annuities (as taught by the Insurance Pro Shop that I highly recommend or any other selling system/method), this is a FANTASTIC way to craft your professional introduction and bullet points of what you do and who you do it for.

This is my preferred method of prospecting/introducing myself, but I have customized my talking points relevant to my products and what they do for the people I work with.

 

[Rick Deckard]

"Chewie, we're home"

I can't wait to cozy up to an adult beverage and sip on this for a while.

 

[DHK]

Choosing a Market Niche:

Okay, we get this question a LOT on this forum - people who are looking for a job, people looking at companies, IMOs, etc., and just looking for a way to sell insurance.

However, we know that before one can give a company or IMO recommendation, we need to know what MARKET the agent wants to be in. Most newly licensed agents don't necessarily know HOW to think about their "ideal market" or the kinds of products they want to sell. They simply want mentoring and guidance to earn a 6-figure income.

Well, a while ago, I came up with a "model" of the various kinds of insurance markets, based on the classic Monopoly game.

This morning, I finally recorded a presentation on it:



Here's the "Cliff's Notes":

Here's a summary of my monopoly/target market opinions:
- Mediterranean Ave / Baltic Ave = Supplemental Health Insurance (AFLAC, Combined, Colonial life)

- Connecticut / Oriental / Vermont = Group Insurance (Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Disability, etc.)

- St. Charles Place / States / Virginia = Senior Market (Medicare Supplement & Final Expense, with generally limited opportunities to cross-sell annuities and long term care)

The only designations that I think may matter to this point, may be the educational content of the CSA or Certified Senior Advisor designation for the senior market. Check with your state insurance department to verify if the designation itself is allowed to be used. (It is not allowed in California.)

- St. James Place / Tennessee / New York Ave = Middle Income Market with fixed insurance products only (Whole life / UL / IUL, Disability, Critical Illness, rollovers to fixed and fixed indexed annuities)

- Indiana Ave / Kentucky Ave / Illinois Ave = Middle Income Market with Series 6 & 63 securities licensing (same as the orange property group but adding mutual funds and variable life and annuity products)

- Atlantic Ave / Ventnor Ave / Marvin Gardens = Retirement Market with Series 7 & 66 OR a Series 65; wealth management, annuities, and other products. Most investment firms, such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are firmly in this space here.

- Pacific Ave / North Carolina Ave / Pennsylvania Ave = Business Owner Planning Market; buy/sell, key man, executive comp, 401k, and other planning.

- Park Place and Boardwalk = Premium Finance cases; borrowing money to pay the premiums because of an illiquid estate or other business situations.

Through this point, I think that financial planning designations along with the skills and ability to simplify financial concepts would be very helpful. CFP, CLU, ChFC, and perhaps other "post-CFP" designations for various specializations.

- Railroads = Term and Disability Insurance

- Utilities = product specialists that work with other professionals, such as long-term care and life settlements

I am not affiliated with the Insurance Pro Shop or Wayne Cotton, aside from finding great value in what they teach and sell.

 

[DHK]

Just found this on YouTube. It's Ben Feldman and a CLIENT on stage at MDRT discussing "The Anatomy of a Sale". If you listened to the other recording from 1978, I'm reasonably sure this is the client he has insured for $50 million of whole life insurance... and you can hear from HIM why he bought when Ben Feldman presents.




And I uploaded this one myself. This was the free mp3 from the old 'John Savage System' website. I turned the mp3 into a video and uploaded it. And it really is "The Best of John Savage".

 

[DHK]

I just found THIS video of Marvin Feldman (son of Ben Feldman) and right now, I'm about 20 minutes into it.

Here's the weird thing: Notice how many EMPTY CHAIRS there are! I'm surprised that his session isn't packed! If I was there, I'd be in the front row taking notes.

 

[blmarsh1]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[DHK]

Whose Job Is it?

The image below is copied from one of the mentors at the Insurance Pro Shop, and I agree with it, and disagree with it. The second paragraph says this:

"Contrary to what you may believe, the vast majority of insurance companies, IMOs, agencies and brokerage firms are not going to spend a lot of their time and money training and coaching you on marketing and sales! Their main focus is on recruiting agents and product training. It's not their job to make you a super star salesperson. Their job is to provide you with the best products and each you how they work."

Based on most company's recruiting practices, it SHOULD be the company's responsibility. They say "We'll train you"... but it's simply incomplete training. And there's no "holding companies accountable" for not delivering on recruiting promises for 'top tier training'.

How do these companies rationalize these practices? Well, this is a video from an OLD friend of mine (I've lost touch with him about 20 years ago) and he's "big" in network marketing, and in this 3 minute video, he explains how GUILT almost knocked him out of network marketing.



That's how they rationalize all this: "Our job is to give them the opportunity and it's their job to see what they can do with it. If YOU can't do it, it's not our fault. We'll just find another person." And with the low barrier of entry, and a "project 200" method of marketing, it's no wonder that recruiting can be "churn and burn" in and of itself - even if everything else is on the 'up and up'.

Of course, you have two options: You can quit... or you can keep going 'until'. That's the ant philosophy that Jim Rohn talks about. Ants keep going... how long? Until they find it, or until they die.



John Savage says the secret to this business is to last. And of course, ongoing personal development and learning. It's up to YOU. That's the REALITY of this business. It's up to YOU to go searching for the answers that work for you and how you plan to work and build your career.

 

[DHK]

I just discovered this podcast with Sandler Trainer Glenn Mattson (brother of Dave Mattson who is CEO of Sandler Training).

Glenn specializes his sales coaching to the financial industry and I've found this to be a great session. The way that he talks about working your "warm market", I think is great. I don't agree with his stance regarding referrals being a "choosing between two evils" (because Sandy Schussel has great training to make referrals easy).

Sales with Glenn Mattson – You're A Financial Planner; Now What?

 

[nimrod5]

That's a killer post. Thanks for sharing. I have been selling marketing to FE agents for the last couple of years and it seems there is always something new to learn!

 

[DHK]

In post #131 in this thread, I posted my reviews of Claude Whitacre's books available on Amazon. (If you can't afford $3 per kindle book, go quit and get a paper route - if they still have those.)

In that same vein, Dave Duford (Rearden on the forum) INTERVIEWED Claude Whitacre on the ULTIMATE way to get referrals and introductions. And this interview is FREE on YouTube! I think it's GREAT!

Now, I still think that you'd get a little more details and some better wording from Sandy Schussel's referral training for $37... but this interview is also great. I think Sandy's is best if you're doing a two-call process in most cases, and Claude's best if you're doing one-call closes (such as Final Expense sales).