by: Mark D. Milbrod, CLU, CLTC-Feb. 2019 Blog
When I first started in the business, I worked at a Prudential district agency. A lot of things were different then. For starters, there wasn’t one grey hair on my head but most importantly, there were not as many distractions around the sale of life Insurance. It was pretty simple, we sold to true need. We sold Life Insurance!
I can vividly recall many of those kitchen table sales and the many lives that were changed by that stroke of the pen. It was always a good feeling when we left a house at 10:00 at night knowing that we just insured the husband who had a wife and two kids that relied on him to keep the lights on.
Some of the old time agents in the office would talk to “the new guys” and tell us that we would never understand this business until we delivered our first death claim. You really can’t understand that until you have done it. Those words, as I learned years later, were so true.
The power of what we do is truly amazing. Today however, I believe that many agents have lost sight of the simplicity of the life Insurance sale. We get smothered by abstract ideas and sales concepts that take away the true meaning of who we are. We are Life Insurance Agents. Be proud of it.
On any given day, we see carriers releasing charts and graphs showing how competitive their particular product is for a 65 year old Preferred buying $1,000,000 of life insurance. We see the IRR calculations, the interest fluctuations, etc. We see complex sales ideas showing financing techniques, white papers and tons of interpretations to justify these techniques. Don’t get me wrong, there are many situations where the esoteric stuff is appropriate and works just fine. But the basic “core” life insurance sale seems to be taking a back seat.
The life insurance marketplace is still one of the most underserved consumer bases out there. If left on their own, consumers can turn to the internet and purchase commoditized versions of life insurance. There are plenty of websites out there attracting these consumers. But the reality is that that they will simply not buy or not buy enough life insurance. They do need someone to guide them through the purchase. After all, life insurance is a product that is “sold” and not bought.
The words of those old Prudential agents about delivering that first death claim hold up quite strongly today. In fact, we can probably add a few words and take it one step further and add…“you won’t understand this business until you deliver your first death claim or facilitate your first Long Term care claim.”
There are plenty of opportunities out there to sell life insurance. Whether it is a plain vanilla sale or one that includes LTC benefits, don’t lose sight of the importance of what it is we do.
There is a virtual never ending market waiting to be sold and most times it is the simple sale that we overlook.
Don’t Overthink It!
Find more of Mark’s Bark’s Blogs on our website: http://www.asglife.com/insurance-view/marks-barks-blog/