by: Mark D. Milbrod, CLU
Principal – Agent Support Group
One of my favorite things about this time of year is the start of baseball season. As a kid, playing baseball was one of my biggest thrills. I was not a bad player but I wasn’t the home run hitter that all kids aspire to be. That being the case, I realized that not everyone can be the home run hitter so I concentrated efforts on making sure I would contribute to the team and get on base and help my team win ball games.
Having that desire to contribute and win, I quickly realized that a great way to do that was to hit singles and doubles, which I was certainly capable of. Scoring runs would win games and it was a simple recipe for success. Getting on base with singles and doubles was the way to scoring those runs and making things happen.
Today, it’s no different. But instead of competing on the baseball diamond for those runs, I find that when working with agents and advisors, that diamond is replaced by sales quotas via applications and paid business. With the number of advisors that I work with, I realize that a lot of them are always trying to hit the game winning home run every day. The problem is that they may not have the ability to do that just yet. They are simply not that “home run hitter.” Sure, eventually they will hit it but for now they have to be concerned with getting on base with singles and doubles.
With the markets that we serve, we know that there are many opportunities to sell small to medium size cases quite frequently. The trick to making consistent revenue in our business is to have a steady flow of those cases that are always in our pipeline. One of best examples to accomplish this is to incorporate Long Term Care Riders in our everyday routine. These types of cases appeal to a wide array of clients ranging in the 45 – 65 age categories. The LTC discussion is a great way to access this market and once you get in the door, there are so many other ancillary pieces of business to write. They can be term sales, buy-sell type sales or retirement supplements. All of these types of sales are the “singles” and “doubles” that are needed to knock in those runs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to not shoot for the bleachers and knock one out of the park every now and again. Home runs come after a number of at bats. The singles and doubles keep you at the plate longer and help you score more runs. Many a game is won by manufacturing runs and most times, no home runs ever leave the park. Don’t forget that the singles and doubles (the cases with average premiums in the $4,000 – $6,000 range) add up and win those ball games as well.
Find more of Mark’s Bark’s Blogs on our website: http://www.asglife.com/insurance-view/marks-barks-blog/