Paying for Leads

[Cash]

Excellent post, Newby.

That's the same speech I have heard from the real estate industry, Legal Shield, the timeshare industry, and let's not forget, the Wellness industry. All very valid points!

You are overlooking one critically important part of being a business owner. MARKETING! MARKETING! MARKETING!

You must brand yourself. Let me repeat, You Must BRAND Your self. Every Mastermind group you attend. Every networking event you attend. At volunteer meetings. Family gatherings. You must let everyone know that you are, "The Final Expense" guy/gal. Referrals that you obtain from those you know will stay on the books 100% longer than someone playing around on the Internet.

In order to be successful, people must KNOW you, they must LIKE you, and most importantly, they must TRUST you. This doesn't happen by an Internet lead, nor a business reply card. This happens through trusted advisors, and those who see you as THE source for final expense.

A dog can sniff his own tail, and continue to go in circles, or he can put his nose forward and sniff out something new.

If money is your motivator, and the people you serve comes second, you can earn all the money you want. It still won't buy you a good night sleep. That's why people come into, and quickly drop out of, this industry. For a quick buck. For the three, six, nine, month advance. Most final expense agents don't want to get paid as earned, because honestly, they don't plan on being around that long.

When we received the life and health license, we were given the opportunity to sell more than just one type of insurance. I say this about Medicare. I say this about Term Insurance. And I will say it now about final expense. If this is your one trick pony, with the licensure that you have, you are not only cheating yourself, but cheating your clients as well. And if that's true, shame on you.

So, in addition to buying the leads, and talking to people who don't know you, like you, or trust you, but will give you business, get out there and BRAND yourself, so you can get referrals of people who Do know you, who Do like you, and most importantly, who DO trust you.

I believe the leads are the "marketing" you speak of.

No one has to brand themselves if they don't want to. A lot of people do the sell to friends and family thing but a lot don't, especially guys selling to middle class, lower class, and to businesses.

That whole "shame on you" is a little crazy. If you know one thing well then you could be doing harm by selling something you don't know about. No shame in not selling that.

Money is THE motivator. Nobody is doing this for free. Earning your money is a great way to sleep at night. To pretend otherwise is naive.

I appreciated Newby's post.

 

[rousemark]

When we received the life and health license, we were given the opportunity to sell more than just one type of insurance. I say this about Medicare. I say this about Term Insurance. And I will say it now about final expense. If this is your one trick pony, with the licensure that you have, you are not only cheating yourself, but cheating your clients as well. And if that's true, shame on you.

Why SHAME ON YOU?.. A doctor has a medical license that allows him to practice in many different situations but most of them specialize and not only work in one specialty but one subset of their specialty. I am glad that my heart surgeon only does heart surgery day after day and does not run around doing general surgery even though he is licensed and qualified to do General Surgery.

Just becasue I have both a life and health license does that mean I should be selling all products and all markets. From family insurance to complicated pension and estate planning and Final Expense? And to go with it Major medical, Medicare Supplement, Med Adav, Voluntary Benefits, Disability, etc. in the family market, small business market and major corporate market?

The best lawyers specialize in their practice... The best doctors specialize in their practice .. the best realtors specialize in their markets and the best insurance agents specialize in their markets. Why shouldn't one of those areas of specialization be FE?

 

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

Wow!

I love it when people ignore 98% of what I type, and concentrate on one sentence in the whole diatribe.

In no way do I expect, or even do myself, to sell the prospective client every insurance plan and type under the sun. What I meant was if you save them some money with their Medicare supplement, then you have the opportunity to help them invest that difference in the final expense plan. I am in NO WAY suggesting that you pull out the Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, and the Long Term Care insurance while you're sitting with them.

Just as your heart surgeon would know when to bring in the cardiologist, or the phlebotomist, you should have a working knowledge of most of the insurance types, so you can bring in a specialist. That strengthens your relationship with your client, and dramatically decreases the chances of a chargeback.

That is what I meant by my statement. If you require further clarification, please post, and I will go deeper, if necessary.

NOW, any comments on the rest of my post?

 

[Jbbarea]

Thanks Captain Obvious, have you seen your sidekick Apparent Boy?? .......

That's was funny. See? you do have a sense of humor..... Look; Selling insurance is Hard. I've had weeks where I haven't done a thing and spun my wheels. But there is always a way. Other people do it. And they aren't geniuses or they wouldn't be selling insurance. . It's a process. If it's not working something is wrong with your process. I'm only trying to pump you up man. With all that money invested don't quit now!

 

[Newby]

Excellent post, Newby.

That's the same speech I have heard from the real estate industry, Legal Shield, the timeshare industry, and let's not forget, the Wellness industry. All very valid points!

You are overlooking one critically important part of being a business owner. MARKETING! MARKETING! MARKETING!

You must brand yourself. Let me repeat, You Must BRAND Your self. Every Mastermind group you attend. Every networking event you attend. At volunteer meetings. Family gatherings. You must let everyone know that you are, "The Final Expense" guy/gal. Referrals that you obtain from those you know will stay on the books 100% longer than someone playing around on the Internet.

In order to be successful, people must KNOW you, they must LIKE you, and most importantly, they must TRUST you. This doesn't happen by an Internet lead, nor a business reply card. This happens through trusted advisors, and those who see you as THE source for final expense.

A dog can sniff his own tail, and continue to go in circles, or he can put his nose forward and sniff out something new.

If money is your motivator, and the people you serve comes second, you can earn all the money you want. It still won't buy you a good night sleep. That's why people come into, and quickly drop out of, this industry. For a quick buck. For the three, six, nine, month advance. Most final expense agents don't want to get paid as earned, because honestly, they don't plan on being around that long.

When we received the life and health license, we were given the opportunity to sell more than just one type of insurance. I say this about Medicare. I say this about Term Insurance. And I will say it now about final expense. If this is your one trick pony, with the licensure that you have, you are not only cheating yourself, but cheating your clients as well. And if that's true, shame on you.

So, in addition to buying the leads, and talking to people who don't know you, like you, or trust you, but will give you business, get out there and BRAND yourself, so you can get referrals of people who Do know you, who Do like you, and most importantly, who DO trust you.

Bob, if you want to be a local Jack of All Trades agent it would be good to be a "brand."

But FE agents don't need that. Not at all. I doubt that many high producing FE agents have sold more than 5% of their policies to people who knew who they were before the agent contacted them from the lead card. After they get going a few years they get more and more referals and repeats but their core business is people who have branded agents all over town but still mail in the blind lead cards.

There is no shame in putting people in a better place with their life insurance.

Lots of shame in selling non-guaranteed UL policies to the unsuspecting masses though. Plenty of "branded" agents out there doing that.

 

[Gooner]

And they aren't geniuses

Well Mensa says I'm a genius

 

[Jbbarea]

Well Mensa says I'm a genius

No offense!!! I was only referring to us normal folks....

 

[rousemark]

Wow!

I love it when people ignore 98% of what I type, and concentrate on one sentence in the whole diatribe.

In no way do I expect, or even do myself, to sell the prospective client every insurance plan and type under the sun. What I meant was if you save them some money with their Medicare supplement, then you have the opportunity to help them invest that difference in the final expense plan. I am in NO WAY suggesting that you pull out the Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, and the Long Term Care insurance while you're sitting with them.

Just as your heart surgeon would know when to bring in the cardiologist, or the phlebotomist, you should have a working knowledge of most of the insurance types, so you can bring in a specialist. That strengthens your relationship with your client, and dramatically decreases the chances of a chargeback.

That is what I meant by my statement. If you require further clarification, please post, and I will go deeper, if necessary.

NOW, any comments on the rest of my post?

No.. still hung on this one sentence in the whole diatribe.. You still seem to say we should be the generalists that call in the specialists... Why not be the specialist that the generalist calls?..

Well, yeah, I will comment on the rest. I agree an agent should "brand" himself.. In fact you even mention an agent branding himself as "THE" FE guy or gal.. In other words, the agent let it be know they are the "go to" person in that market.. You can easily do that with you current clients, Letti them know you are an FE specialist and they should keep you in mind when that subject comes up among their friends.

But then you turn around and seem to contradict that by stating, "If this is your one trick pony, with the licensure that you have, you are not only cheating yourself, but cheating your clients as well."... In other words, if we are an FE specialist that does only FE, we sell both the clients and ourselves short. Which is it.. should we brand ourselves as specialists in our field or as generalists?

Personally, I do not have any desire to sell MA and very little to sell Med Supp anymore.. When I run across those folks, I suggest to them someone that might help them. The same with annuities.

----------

Well Mensa says I'm a genius

No, they said you were a Gnu..

Gnus in Ngorongoro | Moving to Freedom

 

[jdeasy]

Well Mensa says I'm a genius

Are you a Mensa member?

 

[Gooner]

Are you a Mensa member?

Nope. .