LifeHealthPro, ProducersWeb Brands, Mags Shuttered

I'll tell you guys a funny story about LIS.

I grew up listening to talk radio in the 80s - Bruce Williams, TalkNet, the Ways and Means Committee, etc. What I got from that was "always buy term, do your own investing, the world is full of sharks," etc. so I always regarded the insurance and securities industries with great skepticism.

About 10 years ago I was in SoCal outside a bookstore. Sitting on top of the trash bin was a copy of Life Insurance Selling. It wasn't from the store - it still had the subscriber's label - and I have no idea why that person threw it away there. I picked it up and read it over dinner.

I expected it to be "101 ways to be like the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross" or "here's how to hard sell your marks". But I found that there was actually a ton of information on the complicated world of insurance. A lot of depth and details that would never occurred to me, specialized products, etc. Now I'm not a naive waif and I realize people are in the insurance/financial industry to make money, but it did change my viewpoint a bit.

I'd been in office supplies sales way back in the 80s (before Office Depot, etc. gutted that market) and a lot of it was similar - one part self-motivation, one part technical. But there was also something extra: a focus on understanding the customer's needs. When you're selling office supplies, you're just a rep for a necessary mundane product, but with insurance or financial sales, you have a lot more impact on someone's life potentially.

I dropped the subscription card in the mail and then received LIS for many years until it stopped coming. I always read it every month until it stopped coming...I guess I know why. Maybe I was part of the problem - wasting copies on non players like me :laugh:

Honestly, I find the insurance business interesting and have sometimes thought of switching careers. But I make > 6 figures in my current position, have kids, etc. and a disruptive career change is probably not in my family's best interest...and I'll be retired by the time they're all out of the house so it'll probably wait for the next life.

Still, I find the industry fascinating and wish I still got LIS.

Good luck to all of you!
 
Let me ask - where is the best place to syndicate life insurance articles? I very much enjoyed the above mentioned websites and was thinking of becoming a contributor submitting articles.
 
I subscribed to LIS from 1980 to the end. Good stuff. I wish i’d Kept mine too.
 
The magazines abandoned articles that would address the average agent and made articles relating to the upper income market almost their sole focus. They moved from "agents" to "advisors"..... They need to go back and see what Insurance Selling was doing in the 70s and 80s.
Rousemark, I think you just nailed it. They went from great stuff that appealed to the average agent to high end stuff that I did not read.
 
The magazines abandoned articles that would address the average agent and made articles relating to the upper income market almost their sole focus. They moved from "agents" to "advisors"..... They need to go back and see what Insurance Selling was doing in the 70s and 80s.

Speaking of the old days, when I started in this business I was turned onto Ben Feldman, the greatest insurance salesman ever. He was actually in the Guiness World Book of Records as the best salesman of any industry. I have his book "The Feldman Method" at hands reach all the time. I would highly recommend this as informative and inspirational reading.
 
Back
Top