Insurance Agent Forum

[healthagent]

I agree with this. There are very few examples of building and retaining wealth in this country when money was the initial and only goal.

[thespur1]

Guess im in that 8 percent

[healthagent]

Well that's the problem - too many people look at the exception instead of the rule. That's why people are going with what they know and what they love and instead are buying "get rich quick" schemes on 1am infomercials.

I will admit I got into health insurance for the money but found very quickly that I truly enjoyed selling it.

[robliano]

My Dad always says:

"Worry about taking care of the customer and you'll never have to worry about the money, it takes care of itself!"

Originally Posted by healthagent

Well that's the problem - too many people look at the exception instead of the rule. That's why people are going with what they know and what they love and instead are buying "get rich quick" schemes on 1am infomercials.

I will admit I got into health insurance for the money but found very quickly that I truly enjoyed selling it.

[agentexhorter]

My personal production and sales management experience is restricted to life insurance sales only. These comments are meant to pertain to life insurance. Any relevance to any other form of insurance sales may or may not exist.

The reasons so many life insurance agents fail can be grouped into two categories, the life insurance industry itself and the agent in particular.

The life insurance industry is comprised of hundreds of thousands of life insurance agents, working for hundreds of insurance companies, offering essentially the same thing. Look at the yellow pages, look at the mail box of those who just closed on a home mortgage and look at the mail box of people reaching a certain age.

The problem is finding someone to sell to. This is especially true in the life insurance industry where the product is almost always sold rather than bought.

Even when a marketing plan (direct mail, phone solicitation, and/or purchased leads, etc) actually provides a solution to the problem of finding someone to sell to, the limitations and shortcomings of the individual agent come into play.

There are many similar characteristics among that group of agents who fail. There is also a very common characteristic among those agents who succeed and that characteristic is what to focus on. The successful agents discovered what desire existed when the prospect responded to the marketing plan and satisfied that desire.

The problem is that most agents try to sell what the prospect needs and not what they want. People very rarely buy motivated by logic and almost always buy motivated by emotions. This is evidenced by the homes we live in, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear.

LIMRA statistics show that only about 61% of adults have any life insurance and about 50% of those that do only have a group policy where they work. These levels are below where they were before the Trade Towers fell.

In a family of four, the need (logic) for life insurance seldom takes precedence in the family’s budget over the desire (emotion) for cable television and/or high speed interenet.

High commission contracts, competitive pricing and superior training actually only give the life insurance agent a “tool box”. A marketing program that produces interested prospects only produces “leads”. The agent who can focus the prospect on the emotion that triggered the response will result in a family being protected which is the win-win result that produces success.

[robliano]

Great post and I'd like to add this as it confirms the piece of your text below.

People want two things when they make a purchase:

1. Expert service
2. Value

So the service part of it will set you apart from the other agents, be an expert!

And learn to build value in what you offer.

Originally Posted by agentexhorter

The life insurance industry is comprised of hundreds of thousands of life insurance agents, working for hundreds of insurance companies, offering essentially the same thing. Look at the yellow pages, look at the mail box of those who just closed on a home mortgage and look at the mail box of people reaching a certain age.

[djs]

LIMRA statistics show that only about 61% of adults have any life insurance and about 50% of those that do only have a group policy where they work. These levels are below where they were before the Trade Towers fell.

Interesting statistic. I wonder if people figure that the government will take care of them if something happens? Or if there is no connection?

Between donations and the government payment to the families, most of these families 'did okay' financially from this event. I don't want to imply that they took advantage of anything, just curious if it had an impact on the mindset of Americans.

Dan

[JacquesWerth]

Most agents fail to identify and specialize in their best niche market.

They believe that everyone is a prospect. So, they waste most of their time and opportunities on prospects who will not buy from them.

[moonlightandmargaritas]

"In a family of four, the need (logic) for life insurance seldom takes precedence in the family’s budget over the desire (emotion) for cable television and/or high speed interenet."

And there you have the conundrum. Fantastic post by the way, should be required reading.

[robliano]

There are many who disqualify clients instead of qualifying them.

Very often a consumer is a potential client but are passed by, during a disqualification process.

Originally Posted by JacquesWerth

Most agents fail to identify and specialize in their best niche market.

They believe that everyone is a prospect. So, they waste most of their time and opportunities on prospects who will not buy from them.

[arnguy]

Originally Posted by moonlightandmargaritas

....And there you have the conundrum. Fantastic post by the way, should be required reading.

Paul, are you still using conundrums? Don't your girfriends prefer sans conundrums?

[JacquesWerth]

AgentExhorter wrote, in part:
“The problem is that most agents try to sell what the prospect needs and not what they want. People very rarely buy motivated by logic and almost always buy motivated by emotions. This is evidenced by the homes we live in, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear.”
As in the rest of his post, he is entirely correct.

So, if people only buy what they want, why do almost all agents spend their time and resources with prospects who are merely “interested?” Oops, that is a Rhetorical question.

Here are reasons that I think most agents do that.

• They don’t believe there really are prospects who already want to buy insurance.
• They only know how to cold-call, direct market, and network, to find “interested” prospects.
• They don’t know how to find and make appointments with “High Probability Prospects.”

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Originally Posted by arnguy

Paul, are you still using conundrums? Don't your girfriends prefer sans conundrums?

Can't be too careful these days arn....

[YouGotMyMoney]

So how does one find these "High Probability Prospects"?

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Originally Posted by YouGotMyMoney

So how does one find these "High Probability Prospects"?

By doing "High Probability Prospecting".

[bill3173]

Originally Posted by robliano

There are many who disqualify clients instead of qualifying them.

Very often a consumer is a potential client but are passed by, during a disqualification process.

I'm with you on that one, but fortunately, most agents will let them slip by, and that's where we come in.

I probably wouldn't be alive today, if it weren't for my willingness to qualify new clients for something.

There are little things that you can do to make $$ instead of running away from it. I picked up two non resident state appts. last year, not because I wanted to, but because I have referrals in those states that wanted to do biz with me.

One of the appts. resulted in $3k in commission and the other $2.5K. Not a fortune, but why walk away from it. You can't make any money being a lazy jerk in this biz.

[JacquesWerth]

There are a lot of good reasons to attempt to disqualify all prospects.

The simplest, and one of the most important reasons, is that high probability prospects will not allow themselves to be disqualified. Therefore, you spend almost all of your selling time with prospects who will buy.

[YouGotMyMoney]

Jacques, I thought that "High Probability Selling" is most successfully used with cold calling, not with $7 a pop internet leads.

Am I right?

[briko3]

I read somewhere that High Probability Selling by cold calling in insurance doesn't create good numbers. Has anyone used this method and been successful?

[snowman]

Originally Posted by JacquesWerth

Here are a few reasons that most agents fail. Feel free to add your own.

Many agents think that they really are agents. Look up the legal definition of "agent." Then realize you are a “salesperson.” The only thing that you get paid to do is to sell.

The way that most insurance companies and their agencies teach agents to sell benefits the companies and their managers far more than it benefits the agents.

You frequently hear about top producers who earn huge commissions. What you are not told is that, with the exception of managers, the average gross earnings of all agents is about $45,000 per year. So, after struggling for four or five years it is unlikely that most agents that survive will be highly successful.

You also are not told that most really successful agents have spent their own money on excellent sales training and have years of sales experience.

Most agents who fail never learn a complete, modern sales process. So they get stuck doing ineffective things like cold-calling, need analyses, showing prospects their pain, preparing proposals, persuading, and convincing. All that, while trying to get poorly qualified prospects to buy.

By the time most agents realize that they need sales training, they have no ability to pay for it.

Sort of reminds me of this!

J Walter Thmpson - 1924