Don’t think that your career is over if you can’t sell insurance. You can do it if you have more than 18 months experience. You can now rely on your own ability to make a huge step forward. Failure means you lose all your sales. It is possible to beat the odds by understanding that thousands of insurance agents are destroyed each year by using agency leads.
Your career agency will convince you that lead prospecting is the same as insurance sales career endurance. You are clever, deceiving and cunning. These are words you might blurt out after looking at the details. All the four letter words are omitted.
This modern suburban office is home to a career life insurance agency. Is it really? Did you know that your chances of getting an insurance license are 90%? Ask your sales manager tomorrow this question, and wait for their response. I’m sure that the answer will be greatly revised.
Why would they pay a sales manager to help you, and office rent to provide a cubicle for your busy work? They will subsidize your commissions and then release you on your own. Why is it necessary to memorize the sales presentation book visual and canned sales pitch word for word? Variations are strictly forbidden.
What have their 100-years of experience taught them? Choose the one that makes sense to you. My insurance company wants to make as much money from agents and dividends as possible. My insurance company and sales manager will do everything they can to prevent me from falling.
Are they really trying to make you fail? NO COMENT Now, just take a look at the agency lead system. This is what I refer to as “the train to nowhere”, and you will see that it leads to an insurance agent career.
The “100 man list” is first. This form must be completed before you can sell. You will be able to sell half of the product and get 3 referrals for each sale. This is an inexhaustible supply. You might be able to make a few sales from this list, sometimes from a relative who wants to help you. It doesn’t mean that a person is your friend or relative.
Your sales manager should show you how easy it is to sell life insurance. The General Manager gave him his lead for a couple who wanted to purchase insurance. You shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t bring his sales presentation book with him. Keep your mouth shut if the presentation of the sales manager is not exactly what you were expecting. Only sales managers can get real leads, that’s the lesson.
Wow! Look at the leads from owners of bonus policies! The sales manager stated that he has tons of leads to help you boost your production. Each salesperson received 50 leads. Your sales manager states that they would make easy buyers because they are current policyholders. You are now ready to receive your commissions.
This fact is amazing! Sales manager spent the day picking out card information and took the best ones for himself. Why not? It’s what all other sales managers do.
You will see many policy owners who live far away from your preferred driving area if you carefully examine the leads of orphan policy owners. These insurance orphans are named so because the agent who wrote them is no longer with the agency. Most of these people will be over 50 years old, have minimal life insurance, and have medical problems. It is time to take a break after going through 25 orphan leads.
Ask yourself “What’s wrong?” Ask other agents for the truth. The insurance company will print out four times a year orphan policy owner cards. They then make sure that they are only fed to the newer agents.
This group is taken from the “bible of leads”, a new edition of the telephone directory. A 1985-dated official company script manual should be received by all telephone callers. It contains all the information you need to know about insurance companies and how to resolve any objections. It also includes a lot of handwriting of 4 letter words left behind by ex-agents. It should be possible to pull up a white directory and make enough calls to get appointments. Management will quickly point out to you that you should make more calls and learn how to handle objections better if you don’t get enough appointments.
The final lead car arrives. The sales manager offers you a bonus because you have worked so hard. You will receive a photocopied sheet with 50 slots for filling in your names, addresses, and telephone numbers every week. Every week, the agency will send 50 names to you for free. They will also ask people to request information about one of 25 insurance options. Each of these will be followed up as a pre-approach letter. These are not prospects leads, but suspects. You are still on the train to nowhere.
Ask your sales manager what a lead is. Compare the response. A mail or internet response from a qualified prospect list that only contains clients who are likely to need one product is the ideal lead. It must be able to provide a detailed reply. What number of these features does ANY company lead provide?
Get off the death train. Search the Internet for direct mail leads and quality Internet sources. Be cautious with Internet leads at this stage. Start your own lead program. The return on investment for every dollar you spend will often be greater than 5 to 1.
Think like you have a promising career in insurance sales. Surprise your sales manager. You can easily jumpfrog your sales manager’s position by getting on the top of the leaders’ sales board.
