My name is Richard, and although this is my introduction post, I have been lurking and absorbing the vast amounts of knowledge and wisdom in this forum for the past 8 months. When I first found it I was simply looking for a new lead source and had no idea I was going to completely change the way I did my final expense buisness.
This will be a little long but I want to give some of my back ground and maybe help people that have been in my same shoes or similar. I started selling final expense in 2013 with a call center. I was freshly licensed and we took press one leads and I found a passion for phone sales. At the call center they taught close everyone no matter what and sales were all that mattered.
They did not even care about lapses or not taken as long as you wrote big numbers. It was great for awhile but the company ended up closing the doors due to those reasons. Soon after I tried working for an organization from home selling final expense. At the time they had me on 60 percent contracts with unlimited free live leads. During this time I had my first child and did not have the drive to do it on my own at home. I went to work at a call center selling health insurance for a year but truly missed life insurance. I called Americo to get appointed as I had written them at a previous call center. They reccomended me to a broker, my upline there gave me great contracts but had very little knowledge on final expense. I worked as hard as possible using aged b leads and a dialer with a fronter/appointment setter.
I had to learn all of the hard lessons about pre paid cards and drafting clients on a day they choose instead of the day they get paid ect. I also tried hard to force everyone into a policy and because of this I felt like I was always chasing charge backs. It was not easy but I managed to write 170k in premium and qualified for the Liberty Bankers trip. After about a year and a half the leads I was using started to run short. I had been getting 1000 leads every Monday and then they started sending only 60-80 a week! I called my upline and they had only one suggestion, which was Tele leads. I placed an order and only received 8 in 2 weeks and it was not working. Around this time I found the forums and I read back as many years as I could read.
It seemed to me based on what I read that face to face sales would solve the issues I was having. It seemed to have a much better stick rate and DM was supposedly the best! I tried placing an order for 1000 mailers and I only received 4 leads. I called the 3 of them that had numbers and they quickly told me how uninterested they where in life insurance. I was kind of at a cross road because I could not get the leads I was used to and the new leads I just paid for I got nothing out of. At this time I decided to find a new upline and I tried to reach out to the major players I see constantly debated on these forums. Some of them wanted to scalp me on contracts or already had agents in my area.
I had several prospects when I started reading up on EFES and Ben Boman. He seemed to have a lot of passion and drive in everything he posted. I reached out to him and he immediately called me at 11 a clock at night. He managed to get me fired up and in one phone call with him I decided to drop phone sales and go 100% face to face. My first full week of 20 DM leads with him was on 7/25 and since then I have written 18k a month in submitted premium and could not be any happier with my decision.
The difference in speaking with these clients face to face vs on the phone is night and day! It is not easy with the miles but I rarely have trouble getting social or bank info after a successful presentation, where on the phone that was my biggest battle. I spoke with several great IMOs before I landed with the opportunity that I felt the most passionate about. If anyone is on the fence about face to face I say jump in and enjoy the ride. I think phone sales can be done but you need a great platform and mentor or most of the time you will fail.
Even with those I feel persistence is something you will always be constantly battling. If anyone has any questions about either my phone or face to face journeys please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks everyone for making this forum awesome and so helpful!!
This will be a little long but I want to give some of my back ground and maybe help people that have been in my same shoes or similar. I started selling final expense in 2013 with a call center. I was freshly licensed and we took press one leads and I found a passion for phone sales. At the call center they taught close everyone no matter what and sales were all that mattered.
They did not even care about lapses or not taken as long as you wrote big numbers. It was great for awhile but the company ended up closing the doors due to those reasons. Soon after I tried working for an organization from home selling final expense. At the time they had me on 60 percent contracts with unlimited free live leads. During this time I had my first child and did not have the drive to do it on my own at home. I went to work at a call center selling health insurance for a year but truly missed life insurance. I called Americo to get appointed as I had written them at a previous call center. They reccomended me to a broker, my upline there gave me great contracts but had very little knowledge on final expense. I worked as hard as possible using aged b leads and a dialer with a fronter/appointment setter.
I had to learn all of the hard lessons about pre paid cards and drafting clients on a day they choose instead of the day they get paid ect. I also tried hard to force everyone into a policy and because of this I felt like I was always chasing charge backs. It was not easy but I managed to write 170k in premium and qualified for the Liberty Bankers trip. After about a year and a half the leads I was using started to run short. I had been getting 1000 leads every Monday and then they started sending only 60-80 a week! I called my upline and they had only one suggestion, which was Tele leads. I placed an order and only received 8 in 2 weeks and it was not working. Around this time I found the forums and I read back as many years as I could read.
It seemed to me based on what I read that face to face sales would solve the issues I was having. It seemed to have a much better stick rate and DM was supposedly the best! I tried placing an order for 1000 mailers and I only received 4 leads. I called the 3 of them that had numbers and they quickly told me how uninterested they where in life insurance. I was kind of at a cross road because I could not get the leads I was used to and the new leads I just paid for I got nothing out of. At this time I decided to find a new upline and I tried to reach out to the major players I see constantly debated on these forums. Some of them wanted to scalp me on contracts or already had agents in my area.
I had several prospects when I started reading up on EFES and Ben Boman. He seemed to have a lot of passion and drive in everything he posted. I reached out to him and he immediately called me at 11 a clock at night. He managed to get me fired up and in one phone call with him I decided to drop phone sales and go 100% face to face. My first full week of 20 DM leads with him was on 7/25 and since then I have written 18k a month in submitted premium and could not be any happier with my decision.
The difference in speaking with these clients face to face vs on the phone is night and day! It is not easy with the miles but I rarely have trouble getting social or bank info after a successful presentation, where on the phone that was my biggest battle. I spoke with several great IMOs before I landed with the opportunity that I felt the most passionate about. If anyone is on the fence about face to face I say jump in and enjoy the ride. I think phone sales can be done but you need a great platform and mentor or most of the time you will fail.
Even with those I feel persistence is something you will always be constantly battling. If anyone has any questions about either my phone or face to face journeys please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks everyone for making this forum awesome and so helpful!!
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