Selling Life Insurance: The Reason Agents Fail

We have agents who talk that way about this every day. If I knew 10 years ago and they, they see the opportunity and they do whatever it takes to get there. They understand they have what it takes. And then we have other people who they treat it like it's just going to always be there. Like it's a hobby. Yeah. You know, that's not to get ready. You gotta, you gotta be prepared at some point, especially when you walk into a room. Yeah. That's totally devoted and focused to your success and giving you all the resources and time and coaching for that. And if you're not ready, the lesson you're going to learn is you should have been. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the life insurance Academy podcast. How are you doing Roger? I'm doing fantastic. Chris, how about you? Great, man. We're having the time of our lives. We were just for the last three minutes sitting here in the studio, laughing with our good friend, Adam teaching us other languages. He knows five languages, five very talented languages. Um, guys, first off, very, very first thing I want to talk about is we have people reaching out like crazy to do a virtual telesales event, live telesales event. We want to know who you are. So in this episode, you will see here a sign up, uh, for information about this, uh, these telesales opportunities. So it's a landing page, right? Life insurance Academy, telesales bootcamp. Yeah. We want to do one. Yeah. Are you interested in this? I'm interested. We've been doing your idea. We've been doing them. We've been doing them. And since we've been doing them, it's going crazy. It's, it's blown up. We get so much demand for this so much so that we've got to create a wait list because we can only put 18, 16 to maybe 24 at the very highest end in a room, in a physical on location on site, live telesales bootcamp where we get in, we train, we teach, we coach, we're listening to your client calls. We're whispering in your ear. Client can't hear you. Can you're making money at the events? Yeah. With that. Yeah. You're not just soft whispering in their ears, Chris. I know you do that sometimes, but, uh, I use, you know, I use the software to do it. Uh, anyway, it's a, they're a blast and people come out of there making a lot of money. We just came off one. We just did one in Greenville, South Carolina. Yeah. Yeah. We've been running these for a bit. We've had a lot of fun doing it and we are learning things. Matter of fact, this has evolved for us and how we prepare people and help them win this episode. Uh, we do want to talk about before you go into what we're talking about today. If you're interested in joining us for one of those and we get the, we get DMS social and on our YouTube channel all the time, emails, there's a wait list that link that Chris referenced. Um, that is, uh, information about the bootcamp and you can sign up to be next up to receive information about where and when it's going to be. We offer them virtually and live in person. Live in person is more exclusive of the virtual ones. We can do a few more. Um, but they're going to both be available, but you can sign up on the wait list here. Make sure you get in the list first, come first, serve first in first out. That's how we do it. That's how it works. And, uh, that's how we're processing. So we're going to throw this out for you. It's also in the link below in the notes and the show notes. Yeah. Yeah. We'd love to get with you and help you win. I mean, it's, it's amazing to see people, uh, do this and succeed. I remember we had an agent showed up the first at the very first one crying in tears, ready to quit. Yeah. And now she's one of the top agents in her agency, rocking it out, crushing it. Yeah. So very cool. 200,000 plus producer travels all the time. Yeah. Uh, we had people just in two days this week make a bunch of people made over three grand in just two days. First time on the phone, first time on the phones, made over three grand in just two days. So you want to learn how to do that? Jump in with us. We'll be in there with you. Plus we get to know you in these things. So it's different than just being on, uh, on a virtual, uh, the physical in, you know, the on location ones are, we really get to know you there. Roll up sleeves. I got my sleeves roll up, Chris. I don't know about you. Here we go. You ready? You roll them up. Look at that. You pushing them up. You're pushing them up. I was wanting you to do the role. Yes. I was wanting you to do the role. Um, since we're talking about, uh, these virtual events, uh, like I said, we've learned a lot. We've adjusted, uh, you know, we would, we would start, we'd give them tools and resources, they'd show up and then we'd expect to start selling. And we're like, Holy moly, people are not ready. They are not ready to start their dials. So then we added a day, uh, a week ahead of time to do some training with them to pre pre pre launch training started with one. And then we added one. So now it's two pre-launch trainings for them to come and know exactly, have clear expectations, know exactly what they're in for. And as a result of that, we've seen production increase from these events. And we've seen some really cool stuff. The people who lean in and they're taking notes, they're ready to go. Uh, they, they do well, they learn quicker, they get through the learning curve quicker. Um, and then we, we see some agents who, I don't know how to say it. What would you say? Woeful unpreparedness. Woeful unpreparedness. Yes. Yeah. And it happens. I mean, I get it. What does woeful unpreparedness cause when it meets opportunity, Chris? Um, it's a fail. It causes a fail. It causes a fail. It's like the fail army. That's right. Fail army, man. Fail army. Maybe we got some fail army stuff here, but look at this guy going down a rail on a skateboard. It causes a fail. When preparation and opportunity meets, you have success. When opportunity and woeful unpreparedness meet. Right. It's a fail. It's a fail. Fail army. We should start. Look at this guy jumping off a diving board. Chris is trying to think of things that Adam's going to be inserting into the video. I love it. Woeful unpreparedness. I love this person trying to dive into a quarry off a cliff right there, right there. Oh, tumbling down. Oh, there she goes. There she goes. We don't want that for you. No, we don't. We don't. We don't. We want you to win. And, uh, the thing, the thing we see one of the main reasons, the reason to me, agents typically fail is, um, I don't know if they understand the opportunity, how big a deal it is, what they have in their hands. And, um, they're not ready for it at the moment. What does it mean to be unprepared? Right. Um, in terms of what we're referencing here, what does that look like? So I guess today's session is about things you should avoid. Right. Because it's to prevent you from making the fail army cuts on Life Insurance Academy podcast. Yeah. Cause we don't want to be posting those up because we got some stories about some fails. Yeah. And not just from this week, from weeks and weeks and sessions and sessions. This is a common thing that we see coming up at times. And what are some of the things that you see? Um, there, there are four specific areas and they're revealed in the, in the heat of battle when it's time to perform, you know? So it's okay, guys, go ahead and set up your, your tech, um, your workstation, log into your E app or log into your E apps, get ready to go. Um, I don't have that. I don't have that carrier. That's one. I don't, I've never logged into my E app. That's one. Uh, I don't have my password or code. I didn't, I didn't get those. It's on an email and that's on my other computer at home and my password saved there. And I have my laptop here, so I don't know where my password is. So we'll spend 20, 20 minutes. And I guess I want you to know I'm not picking. I'm just telling you, I'm, I'm trying to help you navigate this. So that doesn't happen to you at one of these events. Or, you know, it's not just the event. You're going to do this yourself or you're going to go out and knock on doors and have conversations with people. It's going to be the same thing. So that's, that's a technology is a key one. That's where I see it. Some, uh, many times. It's not just tech though. I mean, that's, that's one of them. Tech and setting up your, your desktop and your workstation is one, but understanding how to navigate the software. Yes. The underwriting software. Correct. Yeah. Actually going through, uh, uh, sandbox, uh, options like, like, uh, I'll give you one, uh, like Aetna Ascendo has a sandbox option as a care. What does sandbox mean for new listeners? It's a dummy, uh, E app that you can go all the way through. It's a demo app for you to use and practice on. I thought it was spelled dummy, but it's, I guess the O is silent. I'm kidding. Chris is full of it today. Today's Friday. That's why he's ready to go. So it is a demo version, but even if you do not have a demo version, you can submit a one for yourself, somebody for your family. Someone needs a policy or just do a fake version of one. They, they understand call your carrier and ask them. I know there are carriers that we work with who, who allow you to do that, but you have to get through an E application, know what they're experiencing on the other side so that you're not, uh, losing, um, trust confidence. One of the time energy with the client, everything. Yeah. You have no idea why you're not getting the applications. We see so many agents that will get through the script. They work through the process. They get to the E app at the end. And we tell them it's not going to be one of these carriers. It's that one. And they look at us and they say, I've never set that one up. Right. Yeah. They'll copy them. I've never set that one up. How do I do that? Yeah. I said, do you remember the training that we did last week on Monday or the week before when we gave specific steps on how to do that? Yes, I know. But I didn't think I was going to need this carrier, even though we told you. Yeah. Right. And all your wisdom and knowledge, you're just going to do everything with just two carriers. And there's, there's a lot, there's a lot on that front side. So I know, I know stuff gets through the cracks, but this is why we're having this conversation with you guys. You can always go back to this episode and remember, okay, did I have my carrier set up? Did I do my underwriting? If I'm using insurance toolkits that I log in, did I put in some medications? Did I look up common medications? Things, things like that. Because when we do our principled sales presentation, the thing we talk about is trust. And when you, when you're establishing trust on that front side, that's great. You did a great job. You, you showed authority, you showed empathy, but that's not where it ends. Yeah. It has to maintain all the way through. And if you break trust, because it looks like you don't know how to do what you're supposed to do now. And the whole thing breaks down. Yes. We literally have agents that will bail out of the phone call because they don't know how to take the next step. Yes. And that's painful to watch. It is. And sometimes we're actually coaching them in their ear about what to do next, but they're so uncertain about how to do it because they've never done it and they came in unprepared. They would rather get off the phone and try to learn it and then hopefully get the client back on the phone. Yeah. And you got about a 60% chance of never reaching that client again. Because they're wondering, the client's wondering, why did he just hang up on me? Like when we were so far in, that just seemed weird. And he took an hour to call me back. I don't trust that guy. I don't trust that girl. Yeah. And, and you're thinking it's because it was the E-apps issue. Well, it wasn't the E-app. It was you not being prepared for the E-app. Yep. That was, that was the challenge. Yeah. Right. It was a big deal. Yeah. So tech, when I say tech, it is E-apps. Um, it's also, uh, your workstation. It's also, um, the, uh, underwriting websites that you're using, uh, to be able to, to work through. Maybe you're using a CRM with your team or something like that. But, but you don't have to master it. You just have to know how to use it. You have to have done it, had to have done it before you showed up at the event or in front of the client or on the phone with the client or knocking on their door. Correct. That's the key part of this that I really want to get stressed. Yeah. I'm going to show some of my driver's tests and never have actually driven the car. Yeah. Just going to study the notes. Yeah. It'd be very similar to that. Study the notes. I'm going to learn how to park when I'm there. I'm sure it's not that hard. Yeah. I'm going to learn how to parallel park with the instructor sitting beside me. Yeah. And he's going on vacation for the next month. And the next time I can take this test, if I fail is a month from now and I need to drive to Cal, I need to drive to California next week. And it's a semi. Airbrakes and all. Airbrakes. So tech is a big one. 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. 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And, uh, when you're doing that, how Roger, you tell them how, how important is it to, um, I don't, I don't want to load the question. I'll give you two options. Read through it as many times as you can until you get exhausted from reading it or saying it. Or is there another one that's even better? Is this a question? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. So the question is what's the best way to practice your script? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people just read through the script and think I'm good. And they've never actually practiced it out loud or gotten someone to role play it with them. Yes. And so, um, it's so, it's so crazy to see. Uh, we have people that will fly across the country. They'll spend a thousand dollars on leads. They take three days off of whatever they're doing to be with us. And they've never actually practiced the script out loud. And they've only ever logged into one app when they arrive. Yeah. And they think they're going to do the rest when they're there, because there's gotta be time built in when I can do this. When in fact we're jumping in and it's go time. Yeah. And there's not time to do that other stuff that should have been done before you get there. Otherwise you're going to have one of those fail army videos of you tumbling off the cliff. Yeah. Yeah. And throwing all your leads in the water. Ah, paper's going everywhere. What happened? I don't know. I did a face plant right before I got to the end of the phone call. I lost all my leads. That's right. Why did my power plug? Why did my computer shut down? I don't know, Charlie. You know, it's just being unprepared and it's, it's painful to watch because I, you can see the desire of the agents. They want to win, but they just come in unprepared. Yeah. Unprepared. That script piece. I do want to say, uh, I, I like what you said about role playing and you don't have to have an expert to do that. You can tell them, tell them what you did with Lisa. Yeah. So, okay, this is funny guys. Yes. We're going to let you in on some funny stuff. Do you know that his wife Lisa has like at least eight aliases? She does. Ralph Wimerson, Walter Smitherson, Walter Smitherson. That's a famous name I use. Uh, we, I took this very seriously. Do you ever get an email from a Walter Smitherson? It's from Chris Ball. Yeah, that's his alias. It's his alter ego. That's right. Grumpy old guy. Um, or is the tall six foot eight quarterback. Yes. Walter's blonde hair. Walter Smith, that guy, when we were, uh, Roger approached the opportunity, I took it very seriously. Um, I knew this was going to be a dynamic change for me and my family. You were scared. How do I prepare? How do I prepare? And so, um, I had my wife and I, we created a three by five cards and one stack of three by five cards. It was a male 76 year old female, 52 years old, uh, female 76. And then, uh, T or N T next to that. Tobacco, non-tobacco. So it was tobacco or non-tobacco. We shuffled those up. And another pile, we put a series of medical conditions, diabetes, health impairment, COPD. Yes. With medications or no. Um, and then we put medications separate. No, no. We did have a list of medications that she could choose from for that. Correct. Yeah. It wasn't separate. And so, um, knocking on the door, practicing, you know, at your own house. Yeah. And my wife was so serious about it. It like threw me off. She was so serious. I'm like, it's Walter Smitherson with a cigarette. What do you want? I said, why is this so hot? I'm just kidding. Stop it. But, um, stop it. Stop it. No, uh, we, we had a great time doing that, but I want you guys to know that. So like, you can do that with, uh, with a friend, you can do that with, uh, you know, a family member and say, Hey, I'm doing something new here. I'm, I'm taking it seriously and I need some help. So she would actually give you the profile of the client without telling you what was on the car. I had no idea what you had to discover it. Correct. And then you had to underwrite it. Yes. And then you had to get a sale. I had to find the right product. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. What did that do for you? I felt kind of ready. I, I, I wasn't ready some reps. It gave me some reps before the reps. That's, that's what I'm talking about here. So the reason people like, we're talking about practice practice, we talk about practice and it's not like you could say, Hey, I'm coming to this telesales vent and that's the practice because Christian Roger and Zach are there and they're going to whisper in my ear, but you have to be right. The reason you're coming to that is because we're trying to get you sales. We're trying to help you make money at this event. And if that's the case, then you have to woefully over-prepare. I don't know if it's right. Hopefully no. Enthusiastic over-preparation over-prepare for this moment. So you you're on, have some ideas about medications and underwriting that you've been through the E-apps, but you know, your script, like you should know your script well enough that you can go through it. Stumble through it without looking at it. Oh yeah. If you came prepared like that, you'd win. We could do something for sure. You'd win at a high level. Yeah. The other area that we see is is carriers. It's not just the E-app, but it's knowing you don't have to know everything. And even in these, these events, we only recommend two or three carriers. That's it. I think we maybe saw four carriers being written. Yeah. Total. Total amongst everybody. Yeah. And this was a smaller bat, a smaller crew. We probably had 12 to 15 people at this one. And because of our space limitations and it was probably about four, I would say. Yeah. And maybe a guaranteed issue. And very doable. That's that's, that's a couple of days work. Of understanding those carriers. And before this event or starting now over the past three events, we have recommended printing out the paper applications. So, you know, the questions before you come to the event, that way you don't have to be logged in at bed. You can just pull them out, take a look. Okay, great. That means this, this, this. There's going to be some names of health impairments on there that people don't know how to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when you see people trying to say some of the health impairments and they can't say them because they've never said the words before out loud. Yeah. And the client actually has that. And then you can't say it. What do you do with the client? You run. You're breaking trust. Because the client knows that you don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can't say angina or you can't say. Cardiomyopathy. Yeah. Cardiomyopathy. Yeah. Congestive heart failure. What is that? Yeah. What is CHF? What is, you know, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease? And you don't have to know, know them all, but you need to be able to say it. Just say it, get through it. Understand. Google some things. Look up those health impairments. Like you're, you're aware. Like hopefully you're aware. Like diabetes is very common. COPD is very common. You're going to run into those things. CHF congestive heart failure is common. You're going to see that stuff. So with seniors in an older population. Yeah. Yeah. So doing, doing the work on the carrier side, printing out your applications, reviewing those that will change a lot for you because here's why you don't have to think about it. I remember those days when I'm thinking about in the middle of the conversation, then the clients tell me about their daughter or their son. And I'm thinking about, okay, she said, see, like she had some health issues and diabetes and I'm not listening to what she's saying to me, you know? And that's, uh, you're, you're burning calories, big time, wasting time and calories. Yeah. So that's, that's another one. And not knowing your carriers. Yeah. And then you may have another one, but can you talk about leads and being prepared with leads? Because we see that at times too. Yeah. Just on how you're managing your leads. Number one, did you actual follow directions and get your leads set up or ordered from your vendor in time so that you have them ready for when you're ready to start? Um, have you just tried to buy the cheapest leads or have you actually had a consult with somebody who knows what they're doing, who's having success and what they recommend. And if they're having success at a high level and they have fruit on the tree, what are they doing to have that success? And what's their, what type of leads are they running? Invest in that because if you've got somebody on your support team, that's actually winning at a high level with that lead, they're going to be able to help you with the leads, how the leads are delivered, how you receive them, what information is provided. And then are you feeding them into a Google spreadsheet? Are you feeding them into a CRM? Are they coming into a portal? Uh, they coming into one of your platforms. How do you work them from there? How do you dial them? Yeah. Where's the dial, click to dial button in your, in your application, in your CRM or are you manually dialing them all? Do you have a screen that's big enough to see, or do you need to, you know, bring a desktop with you the next day and a laptop the first day? Yeah. Right. Like all these things are a part of setup leads. So how are you managing leads? Where are your leads coming from? How you retire leads, how you dial leads? Yes. Yeah. You know, um, we get people and we tell them we're going to give away, uh, we do these contests, right. And we give away $50 gift cards for the people that have the most dials and it's on an honor system and you got to tally your, your dials. And we only give you one tally once you make a triple dial, not a single dial. Right. And yet invariably at the end of that, they say, well, I made 150 dials. Are those 150 triple dials? So you should have made 450 attempts to reach somebody. Oh no, these are 150 attempts. We'll divide that by three. Now it's 50. So you made 50 attempts to reach somebody. It's just each person three times. Yes. Well, that's not what we said. It's triple dialing. How long does it take you to triple dial? So all your little processes and knowing those things, it keeps you moving, keeps you flowing. Uh, you have anything else to add to that on the lead side? You know, we've had, uh, some groups here where we did talk about time, you know, uh, how important time is. You don't realize how quickly it gets away from you. And they started keeping a stopwatch stopwatch of when they were actually talking to somebody when they were dialing or talking. Correct. And they realized it made them more focused in the work they were, they were doing, but they were shocked at how hard it was to get a full six hours in of dialing and dialing and talking to people on a regular, how much of time was eaten up just moving things, getting ready to get ready. That's it. And this is different. This is a tough episode because we are talking about getting ready, but we're being, it's a difference. We're talking about being prepared for the opportunity. That's the difference. Getting ready for getting ready is not, it's, you're not doing anything. You're moving stuff around. Yeah. You just fooled yourself. Yeah. I was talking to a buddy of mine today and I don't know how much it is now. You probably know better than I do, but back in 2006 or 2008, what do you think? I'm older than you or something. Why are you asking? No, because you know a lot more business stuff than I graduated junior high before I even got there. That's not even true. What are you talking about? It's different in America. That's right. That's right. I forgot about that. In 2008 I had a buddy buying to Chick-fil-A. He got a Chick-fil-A franchise and it was a $5,000. Well, they're not franchises. Chick-fil-A is like a business manager operated, operated owners. Correct. So they're not really buying the franchise. Chick-fil-A owns it, but you get installed as the business operator. Correct. And you can get it for a low price. They're looking more for the quality of the person than the money. Yeah. And it was only 5,000 then. Yeah. I don't know what it is now. I don't know. I don't know. I'm guessing it's 20 or 25. I don't know. Adam can probably Google it. That friend of mine who did it way back then, he was, he was, he was so ready for that opportunity, ready to go, you know, and there were other guys who would measure an opportunity like that and look at it and say, well, maybe I'll do it. I don't know if I'm going to get around to it. And now they're looking at it thinking, Holy moly, if I could have gotten into that back then, how big a deal. We have agents who talk that way about this every day. If I knew 10 years ago and they, they see the opportunity and they do whatever it takes to get there. They understand they have what it takes. And then we have other people who they treat it like it's just going to always be there. They can show up however they want for it. I love that look on your face. You know, I don't know. Like, like, like it's a hobby. Like it's a hobby. Yeah. You know, like if I don't get it all right now, I'll do it next week. Yeah. That's not to get ready. You gotta, you gotta be prepared at some point. Especially when you walk into a room. Yeah. That's totally devoted and focused to your success and giving you all the resources and time and coaching for that. And if you're not ready, the lesson you're going to learn is you should have been what's that old fable with the King has no clothes. It's the Emperor has no clothes. Yeah. And like, he's the only one aware that he doesn't have any clothes on. Yeah. And everybody around him is like not telling him he doesn't have any clothes because he's the Emperor. He's woefully unprepared for the moment. Correct. But he's so unaware that he's woefully unprepared. He's walking around naked. Yeah. And Hey, is anybody going to say something to the Emperor? It doesn't have any clothes. He's the Emperor, right? Yeah. So you don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be the Emperor with no clothes on and not, not really aware of what you're doing because it's going to leave you a little exposed. Yes. And these events, now we're talking about an event that this is real life. There's going to be, maybe you can't get to an event. I don't know why you wouldn't. But maybe you can't get to an event and you're doing this on your own and you're trying to figure it out. Do whatever it takes to be ready to dial. So if your day is Monday, don't wait till Monday to start getting ready. Right. Correct. You got to be ready before Monday. Yes. The curtains open Monday morning and that you step onto the stage. Yes. Are you ready? And have your deadline, have a deadline that it is Monday. So if you're doing a lock in with your team, you're upline. Yeah. And the lock in is Thursday, Friday, Saturday. When you show up, be ready before you show up more ready than anybody else. You know, you're ready. You know, your tech carriers leads. Those were the four things we talked about today. What do we got about being ready? Tech tech, which would include E apps and the, uh, set up your technology. Yes. Script, your scripts, uh, carriers, your carriers, and then your leads, your leads. If you have those things, those four things. Yeah. You're going to win. I would say so. Cool. So woeful unpreparedness is what shuts people down is a fail. Just like this guy who fell off the house or just shot off the fireworks inside of his home. When he put the candle in the can outside the house. Have you seen those guys? Yes. They like the fireworks and they run in their house with the fireworks still on their hand. Boom. Wow. You guys are going to love this. I know. I know. Lots of lots of fun. Don't forget to check out the link. If you are interested and we'd love to have you guys, we have fun. We have, as you can, this is a Friday episode. We have fun with this stuff and we do have fun at the events as well. I know. I know. It's a Wednesday for you or if you listen to on release day, if you listen to any other day, it doesn't matter. But a recording day is a Friday and so it gets a little silly and fun on Friday. So this is a fun Friday episode. Hope Adam has a blast with this one. Thank you guys. Uh, be sure to subscribe and comment below. If you had a good time, something you got to take away, something you're going to implement, uh, before you get started. Love you guys. See you on the next life insurance Academy podcast.