Insurance Agent Forum

[Markingriffin]

I’m going to tell you a story. I bet this has happened to you, and I’m going to give you an idea from it.

I drove about 1 hour from my office to see a prospect. He was a 70 years old male. He had responded back to a piece of direct mailing, and I had set up a meeting with him. Over the phone, I went ahead and asked him a few health questions, and he said he really wants to get some coverage fast. It sounded like it was going to be easy. I get there and start talking with him. I didn’t have to talk him into the fact that he needed to buy any life insurance, because he knew that he needed some. We quickly determine that he needs about $50,000 of life insurance. He was worried about sticking the funeral expense upon his son, after he died, and he had a few other areas that needed protecting. Next, I started looking through all of my companies and found him a really cheap price. He looked at the price and told me that was really cheap and a good deal. Here comes the problem. He begins to tell me that he lives on a fixed income, and he could not spend anymore then about $10.00 a month. Of course, I start thinking like any agent in the world. “Man, I just lost the sale, and this guy can’t afford it.” At this point, I was ready to give up. But, my father’s insurance training kicks into my head. I hear him telling me that I need to stop and find a way to help my client and not to give up so fast.

Here was the idea that I came up with. I started asking him about his son, which he was going to leave all the money to from the insurance. The light bulb came on inside of my head. I needed to talk to the son about helping to pay some or the entire premium amount.
The son realized that he would be the one that would be responsible for his father’s estate and funeral. The son would clear a little extra money after the funeral. He asked me how much it was going to cost, and then he asked me if we could increase the face amount. Wow!!! I didn’t even see that one coming from a mile away.

Next time you run into a client that just can’t afford the coverage that they need, think about reaching out to the family members. Most of the time, they are the ones that will get stuck with the bills, and they can even end up asking for more coverage.

Mark Rosenthal
Markcrosenthal@aol.com
www.realfastservice.com

[The Rabbi]

Very good post. Same goes for LTC.

[ALG]

Same is true in Health Insurance, My mother in law was 60 divorced and no income to speak of. She had no Health Insurance and simple Medical expense was a major burden for her. The Family helping her bridge the gap till Medicare kicked in made her quality of live and ours so much better.