How to Sell Life Insurance: Telesales Mistakes YOU Are Making!

It's okay if you have fear. It's okay if you have anxiety. It's okay if you don't know how to do telesales because you're brand new and you're watching videos and podcasts learning how to do telesales. There's no other way around it. And I think that's the issue with the psychology of doing something brand new and that fear of change, right? Our first and foremost reaction is what is an alternate route that I can get to where I wanna go without getting through the fear, the anxiety, the tough things, being uncomfortable, possibly feeling embarrassed? And the answer is you can't. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Life Insurance Academy podcast. We are excited to hang out with you today. Before we get started, I'm gonna ask you guys to do me a solid and no, I'm not gonna ask you to borrow a cup of sugar, but if you would like to, my home address, I'm just kidding. But seriously, we would love it. If you're getting value out of these episodes, like it's helping you get one more application, just think of it, one more, then hit that subscribe button. No cost, it doesn't cost you anything at all. Just hit that subscribe button. It tells us what our content is doing, how it's helping you, maybe some tweaks we need to change. We just wanna help you win. That's our goal, isn't it, Zach? That's exactly right. To be honest, that was so compelling. I was ready to subscribe again right there. Get this man a computer. I'll do it. Get him a laptop. But thanks for joining us today. We wanted to share some thoughts with you. We just came off a telesales event. We do these trainings, we call them bootcamps, and we get some crazy, crazy. Chris, why is it called a bootcamp? Well, I like the idea of bootcamp, because bootcamp, you get muddy, you get torn up, you get exhausted, your hands that are on your knees, you're sucking wind. You got rope burns from climbing the wall. I think of the military type of bootcamp, you know? Now, it's crazy when Zach is screaming at you like this drill sergeant right here. There you go, Ed. Hopefully it's major pain. Major pain, yes, major pain. Screaming at you like major pain. I don't know if it's that intense. We could probably have the people who joined our bootcamp give some thoughts on it. But it is immersive. You come in to good old Louisville, Kentucky, and we listen in on these dials through some technology that we have, and we coach on the call, while they're on the call. Sometimes we pull people aside and do some coaching. This last event, I think we had 13 agents, and somewhere around by the end of the two and a half days, we did $25,000 of production. And a handful of first apps ever, which was really, really cool. Yeah, that was exciting. So, what we wanted to share with you on this podcast, some of the things that we took away from the event that we felt like would bring you value, some of the observations that we had. And I think it's common. These are the things we run into, and we see after every bootcamp. We have a bootcamp this week. I have a bootcamp next week. I can't get enough boots. I'm running out. So, we're probably gonna see these same mistakes that we saw this last bootcamp, and that's cool. That's why we're here. We're here to coach people and help them win. I'll tell you the cool thing about this, Chris, is what we hear over and over again is why agents come to them, right? And we hear time and time again that this is a launch for their new business. This is that extra push they need. This is the agent that is trying to figure it out, that's watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos that have attended maybe four or five different people's live script trainings, but they still can't seem to launch and move forward and really grab a hold of something. This is that forcing function that you're able to come to. You're able to get in a room. You're able to get live feedback. You're able to get live coaching. And more than anything, it's transformation. And I always tell people, and one of my favorite things at these bootcamps is when we finish and say, now it begins, because it's not- It says it in a really cool English accent, though. I do, I do that, but I can't give you, you have to come to the bootcamp to get that. That's why we pay for it. But it begins now. This is the launching point. This is the transformation. You've got the skills. You've got the grit. You understand the workflow. You understand the amount of investment. You understand the amount of hustle and grind you're going to need. And you also understand every area of the sales process that we still need to polish up on. Maybe we need to bring more empathy here. Maybe we need to listen a little better there. And maybe we need to maybe try to understand our client more to help move them to a position that's gonna help them. The one thing I can say, if you're getting into telesales, please pay close attention, okay? If you're coming into telesales, do not do it with a part-time mentality. Do not do it with a part-time attitude. Even if you're doing it part-time, you have to approach it like it's full-time. 100% committed to your success in this. We're gonna dive in here and talk about some of these things. And I think that's a good segue into this, is the very first thing that we see coming into these events, we have some folks who come in and they're locked and loaded and they're ready to go. And some folks who do exactly what I said, they come in not quite ready. That's probably being generous. I'm being nice, okay? They're not ready for the event. When we do these events, we do two trainings ahead of time. One is a training to kind of give an expectation, the technology, all the things that are needed, and we give the script. The next training we do, these are two weeks ahead, okay? The next training we do is a training where we go over our five-principled sales process and we go over the script and how that works together. And then we request that people know the script, okay? That's two weeks with the script at this point. By the time we get to the event, they've had the script for two weeks, okay? From that point, Zach, we're expecting them to be able to do the script without looking at the script. I don't want, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you should know, after you look at the script enough, you can tell our principled sales process what these pieces do, and you should be able to say that script without looking at the script. Before we do that, before we even do that, we do one more session that we recently added to these trainings where Tim and I will jump on and we will do a role-playing for the script and objections and rebuttals. I bet that room of role-playing is bursting with the seams. I bet it is so full. See, that's where it's weird. It's not, it's not. It's the least attended training. That one is the least attended training. Which doesn't make a lot of sense because that's probably the most impactful training. That's the most hands-on training. It's the one training where you can actually get honest and true feedback on what's working with my speed, with my tone, with my pace, not just memorizing or saying the script, but understanding it and almost performing the script. Yeah, yeah, and it is the one because we can call timeouts, we can make adjustments, we can do it again, do it again, do it again, and that's what we do. So this very first thing I want to pay attention to when you're approaching telesales, I don't care if you come to our bootcamp or not, I would love for you to jump in the room and be involved in it, the next one we have, but it's preparation. You have to be prepared. And the one thing we talk about in our telesales is there's a relationship between confidence and competence and the more competent you feel, the more confident you sound. Like if you know it well enough, it's gonna be like you've said it a billion times, but the more you've thought about it, the less prepared you are. Let me explain that real quick, okay? The thing I see how people prepare regardless of how many times I say this, they have gone over the script multiple times, but they've never said it out loud. Like they've gone over it, they read it before bed, they've read it, they've gone over it, they said they've memorized it, but they've never heard their voice say the script. So when they say it for the first 10 times, it sounds like they're reading it every time. Then that's showing up here at the event. So the preparation side is big. And unfortunately, there happens to be each time somebody that is reading the script for the first time at the event, which is surprising as well. But the good thing is, is they do show up. And once they're there, we can really dive into the teaching. And the cool thing, Chris, is what I love about these events. It's not just get on the phones and go. Yes, we have technology to listen to the calls. Yes, we have technology to whisper to the producer to where the client can't hear them at all during the call and give them tips on what to say, questions to ask, which is just super valuable. And if we need to, we have a feature to be able to talk with the producer and the client to help them move in a direction, which is really cool as well. Are you ready to launch your insurance career? Excel Solutions is your go-to leader in life, accident, and health insurance pre-licensed training. Their cutting edge e-learning platform is packed with rich content. Think interactive assessments, engaging videos, and customized learning paths all tailored to your learning style. Being students ourselves, we've trusted Excel now for years to deliver top-notch training, offering high pass rates. Their streamlined prep review courses and the exam simulator are really your secret weapons to nailing the state exam the very first time. Now, you thought it couldn't get any better. Well, it just did. Life Insurance Academy listeners, you guys, you receive an epic 50% discount, reducing the regular course fee from $199 to only 99 bucks. So all you have to do is use partner code LIA at liapodcast.org slash Excel. Now Excel spells X-C-E-L. So don't think about it any longer. Dive headfirst into your insurance career with Excel Solutions Premier Pre-License Training with that exclusive 50% discount just for you. Get the code, get licensed, and excel in your insurance career. The other areas of preparation, do you have any more that come to mind? Don't let fear cement your feet, man. Like that happens every single- Cement your feet. Don't let fear cement your feet. That's good, I like it. I mean, it is because there's so many people and they almost, that fear, that anxiety, that what you feel would make you uncomfortable, which is probably what prevents some people from even signing up. But for even the ones that do come to the bootcamp, they start to feel it, where it feels as if the pressure is on. It feels as if now they have to put up or shut up, or they have to perform, or now it's time to learn. But that's where we see the most transformation. It's okay if you have fear. It's okay if you have anxiety. It's okay if you don't know how to do telesales because you're brand new and you're watching videos and podcasts learning how to do telesales. But that's what we expect. That's what we want. That's what we have passion in, is to really come alongside you and move you to that and get you through that. But instead of, if you look at it this way, as long as we've been in the business, Chris, there's no other way around it. And I think that's the issue with the psychology of doing something brand new and that fear of change, right? Our first and foremost reaction is, what is an alternate route that I can get to where I wanna go without getting through the fear, the anxiety, the tough things, being uncomfortable, possibly feeling embarrassed? And the answer is, you can't. But we think there's two answers. It's let me wait and figure out another alternate route or let me go through it now. But what you find out is when you choose option number one and you're trying to wait and delay to find that alternate route, you just end up wasting time. You end up draining some additional of your funds that provides comfort for you, which now means when those funds are drained that you have extra pressure and you still have to go back to the other option anyways, which means go through it. If I was gonna go through that and I wanted to be uncomfortable and I was gonna push through and learn something brand new, why would I not do it with people essentially holding my hand or have my back that can help me along the way, that can pick up some pieces when I drop them, that can tell me and coach me on things that I'm not hearing because I don't even know what to look for. Like that opportunity is crazy, crazy, crazy valuable. And what we find is at the end of these events, even the people that maybe came in and that weren't prepared at all, maybe the people that didn't even read the script or didn't show up to the practice role play, they're leaving here with feeling proud of themselves, feeling that they went through something uncomfortable, feeling like they understand the ground, they understand the investment, they understand some of their issues and where their fear lies and they at least know how to address it and move forward, which is really, really cool. Yeah, we'll take the wins. Like we're excited for people who are maybe using this as a force function to get into the industry. That's great. And some people use it as a force function to address some personal issues and relaunch. Like, and that's great too. We're all for that. I got something for you, Chris. Talk about the agents that come to their first bootcamp and they end up signing up again and the difference between one, the first time they come to a telesales bootcamp to the second. And I've heard repeatedly from leaders in our organization who have talked about that, that one bootcamp is not the solution. It's two or three. It's really the third one. Those ones who come back and re-enter into this program, they understand the value of preparation. So they're more prepared. They're probably over-prepared at that point and they're coming in ready to go. But man, once you get to that third one, you most are dominating that leaderboard. They're taking it over. So it's pretty cool to see people who have saw the value and take ownership of it, actually take ownership of the room. It's pretty neat to see that journey of an agent who's maybe cried in the room or failed in the room. And started winning. I know we're both pretty big sports fans, but this almost feels like a training camp. This feels like a G League tryout, if you will. And it's really cool because there are agents at certain IMOs that literally have became all-stars. They became all-stars and we remember them struggling to write their very first app at a telesales bootcamp. And now they're writing $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a month and they have a team and they're rolling with it, which is so cool to see that progression over time. But Chris, let's dive into a little bit of when we are at the bootcamps, when we are going through that, what are a couple things that some of the producers may be not fully understanding or maybe they struggle with or some of those areas to where we need to improve because that is directly related to issues we find when people are at home dialing and they're trying to figure this out no matter where they are in telesales. The one that surprised me the most, area of growth for people who come to the telesales events, is doing the actual work of dialing. I didn't expect that. I expected people just to come in and dial, but there are people, and God bless you, you're learning, where you'll start to see people just getting set up and they'll move things around. Like, I'm going to move this there. That guy gets settled and they're professional movers. They're just moving stuff all the time. They're trying to appear busy in a room. I can see it happening, okay? That's the first symptom, all right? The same people, all of a sudden, they have all this stuff pending at the carrier level. Like, they have all these applications that need attention at the bootcamp that they have to call, I'm on the phone. Now, to be clear, you're not saying that they write so much business from the event that they need to work on all these pending items. You're saying that during the event where they're coming to work and hustle and really try something, they choose to spend that time with a bunch of past stuff they have to take care of. Correct, yeah, yeah, I'll see them on the phone and I'll say, are you dialing? I'm on with Transamerica right now. I've got some pending business. You know how it is. That's what happens, man. It's serious, it's the nerves. It's the nerves and it just takes over. And then the other one, and this is a tough one, is the leader who brings people, or mama's little helper. What? I'm kidding when I say that. There's the leader who brings people who feels like they need to lead their people while they're there, and so they're not dialing. They came for that purpose to dial, but they have to jump in and lead instead of dial themselves. And then there's the other person who comes and they aren't even a leader, but they feel like they gotta help everybody and they're mama's little helper. That's what I'm saying. How can I help? Are you mama? I guess I'm mama. I'm mama. It's looking for a distraction almost. Yeah, yeah. From doing the work. Yeah, and I see that as well. And one thing is really important to both of us is to really understand a little bit about the person and their story so we know what they want, how bad they want it. That is key. That is a big piece of it. Yeah, so we can hold that mirror in front of them and say, you told me this is important to you, that you really want this. How can I help you? Even when you're nervous and you feel as if you don't really want help but you really need it, being able to have that conversation and be encouraging because we know what they're going through. We know what it looks like to try to have paralysis by analysis. We know what it looks like to try to distract yourself so it appears that you would have wrote 15,000 at this two-day boot camp, but you have to take care of these things first. But next time, next time, you're gonna be a rock star. And it's not necessarily about that, right? It's trying to help people get out of their own way. And even the people that we don't have a problem with coming in and even the ones that come in and struggle with that, it's okay. Because even at the end of that, we do see that transformation. We do see that they've had that clear path, which is really cool. One thing that I love seeing in these boot camps, Chris, that is really cool to me is being able to really dial in and understand what the wins are. I know you hear that all the time because I say it at every Telesales boot camp, but so many people think that I'm gonna come in, I've never sold an app, I'm brand new, I'm learning Telesales. This is a game changer for me, meaning I have to write a bunch of applications. And the answer's no, right? Let's understand the process. Let's understand what we're trying to accomplish. Let's understand why this demographic or this client I'm going to call even needs the coverage. But let's make small wins. Let's make a couple contacts. First, let's make a ton of dials, right? Just get that out of our way. Let's make a couple contacts. Let's have some conversations. Let's get through the first 30 seconds of the phone, which is a huge win, right? Let's progress and be able to earn the right to start moving into the presentation. Let's go through and make our way of being able to deliver our belief statement, but that we actually believe it, right? Let's build trust with them. Let's communicate the stakes. Let's paint a picture of what happens with or without this coverage, right? Let's present them with the different options, right? And the solution. And it's so cool to be able to move through that. In each step, it may take you, it may take you 10 presentations to break through. But if we can make incrementally advances or progress throughout, that is wins. And that's something that we can't, if we do, let's say our second call ever, we get hung up on 23 minutes in. We're not depressed about that. We're celebrating that, because look at what we're able to accomplish. Now, if we keep listening and being coachable and moving the right direction and understand where we're going with this, the next call, we're on for 35 minutes. The following call, we're on for 55 minutes in almost a nap. The last call of the day, boom, guess what? We wrote our very first app and we're celebrating and we're ringing the bell and we're writing our name on the wall. And then the next day, we pick up where we left off. And now we start to get that little putt-putt engine going, right? We're getting a little exhaust smoke coming out. Putt-putt engine. Putt-putt engine, man. You know, putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt. And we're getting it rolling. And that's where you start to see and celebrate and to where they're leaving here, Chris. They're like a rocket ship. I love it. And I circle that word, celebrate. You know, we're talking about that idea of dialing. Whatever reason you come to the event and not dial, for whatever reason, it's not a good reason. Like, that's the purpose of the event. Regardless of your position, that's the purpose of the event. The other thing I wanted to say, like, we're centering this conversation around a telesales event because it gives us an opportunity to kind of pull the roof off and look down at what's happening in people's lives when they approach this thing called telesales. And this is the event where we're in the room and people are coming the most prepared, ready to do the most work, but they still, we, I'll say people, we, still have to have that push. So this is true for you. If you're doing telesales, this is true for you in your house. We can't peel the roof off and you don't want us to. That is so true because you're already at your own telesales bootcamp right now. Correct. And this is what you're struggling with. If we came in and Chris peeled your roof off, he did work at a roofing company, so he might be able to fix it. But if we were there in your environment, in your home office, this is the same things we would see. Absolutely. The last one we wanted to pay attention to, and you'll see the progress. One is preparation. The one is actually doing the work. And those people who are doing the work, then we can diagnose some issues. That's the cool part because now we get to do the work with them. And the thing that we see the most is a lack of connection with the person and the need. So they, they're so script focused, which is fine. We get it. That was my biggest issues, Zach. I was writing with people and doing a presentation, not a script, but an actual flip chart presentation. And the people who rode with me were close to me. And they would say things like, Chris, you don't sound like yourself. And I'm like, well, I am doing a presentation. What do you know? I'm the professional. And realizing I would get into president business mode. I'm doing business right now, kids. When I'm doing the flip chart, I would turn into a different person. So it wasn't authentic. It didn't feel real until finally, all of a sudden I realized that's, that's where my joke came from. I'm working with this, you know, like I realized, man, I just, people like me, they connect with me. I wound up, why am I not using that? And I think I under, I can, I can relate to that as an agent who's coming into it and getting a tool and depending too heavily on the tool and not connecting as a human being. There has to be a human connection. A hundred percent. Put it this way. If we took the script and a recorded voice and we just send it to everybody, would they buy insurance? It's not a bad idea. No, they wouldn't. They wouldn't. It's that human connection. They want to know that you're relatable. They want to know that you're real, that you deal with the same issues or have dealt with the same issues. That you understand where they're coming from and you understand where their hesitations come from and what are their pain points. If any of your clients you call right now, if they wouldn't buy immediately, you need to know why. What could possibly be those reasons why? Now you're able to connect. Now you're able to understand those pain points and you're able to move through this together. I tell people all the time, when it comes to life insurance, when you connect with your client, they will tell you exactly what they need, why they need it, how important it is to them, what they want it to be used for, who they want it to go to, and they'll even tell you that they're ready to do it right now. Literally, they'll tell you everything they want. That's our goal, right? It's not for us to tell them everything they need and try to get them to sign it and we have anxiety until they click and sign and then we're like, yes! It's not about that. They'll tell you everything. You just have to ask the right questions. I agree. And that connection piece, the trust piece that we talk about is an empathy piece. And yeah, there's authority, but there's also empathy and empathy is having a person-to-person connection. And that empathy is a key to hearing the most important things in their lives and it allows you to open the door to the other conversation, to the need conversation, which is the stakes piece. And if it's treated like you're just going through the script, most sales fall apart because the stakes weren't ever addressed appropriately. You might've acknowledged that there were some stakes together. You might've said, what's most important to you or who are you trying to protect and something like that, but there was never a question of, God forbid if you were to pass tomorrow, if Jade goes into the funeral home and they're asking her those questions about the wishes you guys all talked about, because I'm sure you talked about those things. Daily. And they ask for a check, what will Jade do? Like that type of question allows it to become like a three-dimensional moment where they've never put their brain, they've never actually put themselves into that space. And if we have the emotional connection, we can ask those questions. The real person cares enough to ask that question. So those are three key pieces coming in prepared, doing the actual work and having a real connection to the person and the need. Any last words? Absolutely. One is, guys, we're in this together. We do this because we love being able to help people win. Even if we never have a chance to meet you guys, even if we never get the chance to run into you in real life. But if you need that extra push, if you think it would be beneficial, if you're looking for something to just push you that extra level and know that you have people that support you and that are there for you and want you to win, come join us. Come hang out. Come to a Life Insurance Academy Telesales Bootcamp and come spend some time with us. We'll do everything we can to connect with you, get to know you, help you get where you wanna go. And the entire time, we will walk through principal sales system. We will do everything we can to help you win. And we will hold that mirror in front of you. What you say you want, we will help you achieve. And it will be a lot of fun. It will be tough. You will have a little bit of fear and reservation, but you will be a much better person and a much better agent coming out of the event. And I think it'll be a lot of fun. Thank you guys for listening to the Life Insurance Academy podcast. Again, if you got value out of this, share it. Share it with your family. Share it with your cousins, your pals. Share it with your senators. Actually, just put it out there. If you got value, just put it out there to your team. And also, hit the subscribe button. We love you guys. Can't wait to see you on the next Life Insurance Academy podcast.