Selling Final Expense Via Telephone

matilda654

Expert
55
I am at a crossroads with my career and am thinking of selling final expense insurance. I have looked at many offers and have also started to read some of the info on this forum and I'm at a point where I am so confused and need advice from those of you who have been successful recently. I am looking at one company that sells over the phone but I have to pay them for direct mail leads, then I received an offer from another company that provides fresh internet leads, which I would also sell over the phone. I used to sell mortgage protection insurance for a while and would go out to see customers at their home. I am interested in selling over the phone now. Is selling FE over the phone a good viable alternative? I would truly appreciate anyone that can steer me in the right direction. I read one thread the other night regarding final expense from Hoosier Daddy. It seems like he has a good program available for novices, but I am not sure if the email address he listed is still current. I have not received any response from him. Any help you can give me will be truly appreciated.
 
Internet FE leads are HORRIBLE.

Direct Mail and TV FE leads work well....if the agent knows what he/she is doing.

Free leads with a high contract means the leads are worthless.

Free leads with a lower contract MIGHT mean the leads are OK.

Your best bet for tele-sales for FE is to be trained for about 3 days, get a fair contract, and PAY/BUY leads that will be exclusively yours.

Selling FE over the phone is not as easy as it sounds, but can be more profitable than face 2 face. I know. I did face 2 face for 7 years and have sold over the phone almost 5 years now.
 
Internet FE leads are HORRIBLE.

Direct Mail and TV FE leads work well....if the agent knows what he/she is doing.

Free leads with a high contract means the leads are worthless.

Free leads with a lower contract MIGHT mean the leads are OK.

Your best bet for tele-sales for FE is to be trained for about 3 days, get a fair contract, and PAY/BUY leads that will be exclusively yours.

Selling FE over the phone is not as easy as it sounds, but can be more profitable than face 2 face. I know. I did face 2 face for 7 years and have sold over the phone almost 5 years now.

Are you using the Forester's product with their voice signature? Curious to how well that works.
 
Internet FE leads are HORRIBLE.

Direct Mail and TV FE leads work well....if the agent knows what he/she is doing.

Free leads with a high contract means the leads are worthless.

Free leads with a lower contract MIGHT mean the leads are OK.

Your best bet for tele-sales for FE is to be trained for about 3 days, get a fair contract, and PAY/BUY leads that will be exclusively yours.

Selling FE over the phone is not as easy as it sounds, but can be more profitable than face 2 face. I know. I did face 2 face for 7 years and have sold over the phone almost 5 years now.



I would disagree that it's more profitable to sell over the phone. Even if one is good at it, they will make more money with less lead costs selling face to face and their persistancy will be better too, so, they get to keep more money.

It may be easier to sell by phone if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I would hate it. But, more profitable, it is not.
 
I would disagree that it's more profitable to sell over the phone. Even if one is good at it, they will make more money with less lead costs selling face to face and their persistancy will be better too, so, they get to keep more money.

It may be easier to sell by phone if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I would hate it. But, more profitable, it is not.

I think your opinion is based on speculation rather than facts. But, of course we have people in high places that are setting that example.

The key word in the statement to which you retorted is "can". We have agents that are, in fact, making more money selling FE over the phone than they did face to face and others are not. With enough lead budget an agent can write 3-4 apps per day on the phone. Thats almost impossible four days a week, face to face.

If you think about it, if the persistancy was so low, why are carriers adding phone signature?
 
I think your opinion is based on speculation rather than facts. But, of course we have people in high places that are setting that example.

The key word in the statement to which you retorted is "can". We have agents that are, in fact, making more money selling FE over the phone than they did face to face and others are not. With enough lead budget an agent can write 3-4 apps per day on the phone. Thats almost impossible four days a week, face to face.

If you think about it, if the persistancy was so low, why are carriers adding phone signature?


Yeah, it's part speculation, but, mostly facts. I don't know other people's numbers. I do know mine.

I'm at a little over $130,000 FE ap year to date. I have spent right at $4000 on leads. It's all face to face.

Now, maybe if I had done it by phone I would be at $130,000 ap? That part is speculation. If you go by what the leading phone guy here says, I would have spent over $12,000 on leads to this point to get there.

My 13 month persistancy with my main carrier is 89%. That is a fact. Would it be that if I was doing phone sales? I don't believe so. That is speculation.

I get a lot of referrals doing this face to face. That is a fact. Would I get referrals doing it by phone? I don't believe I would. That is speculation.

My facts do tell the story and they do, of course, shape my opinion. My speculation is not, however, wild ass guessing. I have spoken to many agents over the years that have tried phone selling. I don't of a single one that has been successful. Now, some of them have not been successful face to face either, but, many have have had great success face to face and just wanted to get off the road.

Yes, there are companies that adding phone marketing to their offerings. There are also companies that are taking phone selling off the table.

I love to compete against telemarketers. That is not speculation.
 
I would disagree that it's more profitable to sell over the phone. Even if one is good at it, they will make more money with less lead costs selling face to face and their persistancy will be better too, so, they get to keep more money.

It may be easier to sell by phone if you like that sort of thing. Personally, I would hate it. But, more profitable, it is not.

I agree with you. An agent may be able to write more apps over the phone but it isn't always about how many one writes as it is how many of those are still on the books in the thirteenth month.

The FE that I write stays on the books for a very long time, I still have a lot on the books that I sold in 1993. I only cross sell it to Med Supp clients.

Personally I think FE is much easier to cross sell than to prospect for.

For me, trying to prospect for and sell FE on the phone would rank up there with walking to the junk yard barefooted kicking broken bottles and bricks. :D

I have all the admiration in the world for agents who do that successfully. With their phone skills I can only imagine how successful they would be selling Med Supps and cross selling FE.
 
I think your opinion is based on speculation rather than facts. But, of course we have people in high places that are setting that example.

The key word in the statement to which you retorted is "can". We have agents that are, in fact, making more money selling FE over the phone than they did face to face and others are not. With enough lead budget an agent can write 3-4 apps per day on the phone. Thats almost impossible four days a week, face to face.

If you think about it, if the persistancy was so low, why are carriers adding phone signature?

My phone sales persistency runs about the same as face 2 face. I did 7 years face 2 face and almost 5 years selling over the phone.

I've also spoken with agents who sale face 2 face with Co.'s who have cheaper premiums than my Co. And some of them have horrific persistency. I guess the face 2 face VS tele-sales has no real impact on persistency. I also guess the more expensive premiums for same face value have little impact on persistency. The REAL influence on persistency is the AGENT. Maybe I've just been lucky these last 5 years.
 
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