My! How Things Change!

[goillini52]

Yeah, I don't know how you guys walked those debits.

JH had a 3" three ring binder rate book. That sucker was heavy also. That worked in my favor once, feeding it to a guy breaking into my truck.

Did he eat the whole thing?

 

[WinoBlues]

Did he eat the whole thing?

He certainly had an opportunity, but didn't stick around to say anything. His buddy met my truck door, twice.

Ah, the good old days. I was fresh out of construction then. This was in Oakland. Some fresh face recent college grad was given that area but was to afraid to run appointments there. I would run them and split the first cases so he had business to turn in.

 

[Todd King]

What was so great about those days was there was so much difference between the products. You could really study them and find the “unusual” underwriting niches.

Continental Life alone had 5-different FE products. Each one completely different. It was an amazing time.

We had to calculate rates with pen and paper and a calculator though. Americo and Settlers were the only two that had any type of a calculator software that worked on the PalmPilots. All the other companies you had to figure out with their rate cards and calculators. Until I created those real early calculators out of spreadsheets that worked on the PalmPilot. That was a game changer for me until ADAM invented the first version of FEXQuotes some years later which brought the whole industry into modern times.

At one point, before the quote engines, an agent could literally figure out the rates of his go-to company quicker than you could pull up some app.

I remember times when I didn't even have to look up the rate...knew it in my head because I had quoted it so many times.

 

[shonceman]

Debit book was good for fending off not so friendly animals.

Usually that worked well. But one time an old German Shepherd came at me from under the porch. He usually just laid there and growled at me, so I wasn’t ready for him. When I stuck that book in front of his face, he grabbed it by the handles, yanked it out of my hand, and flung it across the yard! I had to wait over two hours for the owner to get home so I could retrieve it.

 

[HoosierLife]

Chronically challenged I am.

 

[shooter]

I began on a debt, in the late 70's with Liberty National.

We could get a proposal, or illustration for a whole life policy
by submitting a form via our district office.
It was then sent to the home office, who would print it and return it to
the agent to present to the prospect.

It had to be at least $25 per month premium, on a cash value product.
The turnaround time was about a week.
$25 a month was nice premium for a debit sale in the 70's.

This way you could show the prospect the cash value buildup.

I had been trying to meet a business owner for a few weeks.
He had borrowed money to expand, and I want to sell him life
coverage to cover the loan.

Problem was every agent around had been trying to get his business.
When i saw him and told him why I came by.
He reached on his desk and picked up a stack of papers.
I could tell it was proposals from my competitors.


The business owner just said, (give me a proposal).
I didn't want to wait a week for my illustration to come back.
So, I replied, (will you marry me)?

He stopped what he was doing and gave a look, then
bust out laughing.
Sorry, we didn't get married this was the 70's.
But I did sale my first 100,000 WL policy with 250,000 turn rider.
I was 22 years old, and it was my first year in the biz.
.

Shooter

 

[ehall2]

I started with New York Life in 1983. Around 1986 they made a deal with IBM where we could buy an XT, 5 meg hard drive and one floppy disc, and a dot matrix printer for $6,500 and westinghouse would finance for us. You could take a nap while the computer was calculating and then another nap when you printed the illustration.

 

[LostDollar]

I started with New York Life in 1983. Around 1986 they made a deal with IBM where we could buy an XT, 5 meg hard drive and one floppy disc, and a dot matrix printer for $6,500 and westinghouse would finance for us. You could take a nap while the computer was calculating and then another nap when you printed the illustration.

did you choose the color or monochrome monitor?

 

[WinoBlues]

I started with New York Life in 1983. Around 1986 they made a deal with IBM where we could buy an XT, 5 meg hard drive and one floppy disc, and a dot matrix printer for $6,500 and westinghouse would finance for us. You could take a nap while the computer was calculating and then another nap when you printed the illustration.

HaHa, were those the suitcase-size 'portable' computers and a 9 pin printer?

I remember in the early 90s downloading company software on dial-up. You could start it, have breakfast, check on it, take a shower or run to the store and get back just in time for it to crash. Ahh, the good old days.