Help during initial appointment

[Stephen]

Greetings,

I'm new to the business and need help asking the right questions, and the proper way to fact find during an initial appointment. Once I'm in the door, small talk is over and it's time to talk. Where do you start? I hate to sound like I don't know anything but I really want to get answers that start at the beginning!

Any podcasts, books, or articles are also much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the industry and the forum Brandon.

Once you are in the door the small talk shouldn't end , but it should lead to the discussion that you want to be having. Here are some good leading questions:

Tell me about your family
Where do you/ did you work?
What insurance benefits do you have through your employer?

Lifehawk offered some great advice in his post above, the best advice that I can add is to be comfortable and be yourself.

 

[Brandon Sterneker]

Insurance Pro Shop has some really good content. If you're determined to stay in this industry, it is worth investing a little money in some good training that will help you. There are also a lot of good videos that go through mock appointments, that have some good tips. @somarco has a great book in the post above, which is well worth the investment.

If your focus is going to be life, I might encourage you to grab some Medicare contracts, as well. Senior health is big business, and it's an easy market to work. You'll get a lot of good life cases out of it, including final expense, single premiums, annuities, child policies. It's a good market to make you examine cases for the right solution, and really learn about all the applications of life insurance, as well as policy types and carrier placements. Not to mention the underwriting!

I do plan on getting into medicare as well. My focus right now is to learn and make a few life sales and then start learning that market as well. Thanks for the recommendation of Insurance pro shop. I'll check them out.

What age demographic are you targeting for life insurance??

For example:

20 - 40 yr olds, working class folks

50 - 80 yr olds, seniors/retirees

To be completely honest I haven't really started targeting one or the other yet. I would prefer to target younger working class folks for now to get some term sales and because the problems and solutions I can offer seem to be a little less complex. I'm still trying to do research as to how to target these markets as I am still very fresh. My strategy so far has been talking to orphaned policies that my company has as well as door knocking residential and some businesses.

Will definitely check out question based selling that @somarco recommended. Thank you.

 

[Life Hawk]

I'm new to the business and need help asking the right questions,

Brandon - just as a follow-up I have 2 good books for you to read... as you work...

The Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A Freese (helps to formulate your questions and give them substance and meaning.)

How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins (very plain suggestions on selling and phrasing of questions.)

But paramount to all of this is getting out in the field and "failing forward"!

 

[MedicareMillionair]

Greetings,

I'm new to the business and need help asking the right questions, and the proper way to fact find during an initial appointment. Once I'm in the door, small talk is over and it's time to talk. Where do you start? I hate to sound like I don't know anything but I really want to get answers that start at the beginning!

Any podcasts, books, or articles are also much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Brandon, I am currently doing a series of videos that detail every single step of this process. You can catch them on my YouTube channel. There is no cost.

This details everything from knocking on the door to walking out with the check. I just posted step 2 which addresses what to say as you walk through the door and sit down. They will continue over the next week.

 

[Brandon Sterneker]

Brandon - just as a follow-up I have 2 good books for you to read... as you work...

The Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A Freese (helps to formulate your questions and give them substance and meaning.)

How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins (very plain suggestions on selling and phrasing of questions.)

But paramount to all of this is getting out in the field and "failing forward"!

I will put them on my list! Yes I'm a firm believer that the most important education is learning from mistakes and just getting out there and doing it. I had my first appointment a few days ago (which made me want to post this question) and it helped me to think about mistakes and have plenty of questions for my mentor.

Brandon, I am currently doing a series of videos that detail every single step of this process. You can catch them on my YouTube channel. There is no cost.

This details everything from knocking on the door to walking out with the check. I just posted step 2 which addresses what to say as you walk through the door and sit down. They will continue over the next week.

Will definitely check these out! Thanks