“What I Learned From The World’s Greatest Life Insurance Salesman”

In my life, before selling vacuum cleaners, I sold life insurance. I worked for Monumental Life. The office housed a pretty sorry group of salespeople. In 1976 (I had just turned 21) I became the 3rd top selling life insurance salesman out of 2,200 agents. It sounds more impressive than it was. I was averaging about $600 a week in commissions.

Anyway, about 60 miles away, in East Liverpool Ohio lived Ben Feldman. I kid you not, the Greatest Living Insurance Salesman .

He averaged 100 times the production of the top 5% of the agents. He was a short, soft spoken man who spoke with a slight lisp.

I never spoke to him (Stupid, Stupid, Stupid)

But I did write to him. I told him what I was doing, and he wrote back. He told me how to get rich selling life insurance.

He said to go after the wealthier clients because they needed it more. He said to go after self-employed small business owners because they were easier to see, and didn’t have to ask permission before they made every decision.

And he told me how to sell a million dollar policy. With premiums at $500 to $2,000 a month.

Ready?

Reposition what you are selling.

Instead of saying “If you buy this policy for $800 dollars a month, eventually your company (or family) will get the million dollars”…..

He said this; “Someday, you’’ll walk out that door. And you know who will walk in? Bill collectors. You may need a million dollars to keep your family’s company intact.

How will you get that million dollars? Borrow it? Could you repay it for eight hundred dollars a month? Could you even pay the interest for eight hundred dollars a month? Give me the eight hundred dollars, and I’ll pay the million. OK?”

If they balked, he would go on; “How much do you pay the person who empties your trash? About $800 a month? Will he pay the bills? Put me on your payroll for the same amount as your lowest paid person, and I’ll pay the bills.”

I used his method with smaller amounts ($100,000 policies, mainly). Remember, this was 30 years ago.
Why did I bring this up?

Because sometimes it’s just the way you explain something. The customer sees it from a new perspective, and it makes sense.

It’s called an “Apples to Oranges” comparison.

You compare the policy cost to an employee. You compare the insurance premium to the interest on a loan.

I’m increasing the price of my Solar Comfort (brand) heaters from $495 to $595 and extending the warranty from 3 years to 10 years.

One way to explain a 10 year warranty is this;

“With care, this heater can last twenty years or so. And we will warranty it for the first ten years. That’s only $60 a year for the heater. That amounts to less than $1.20 a week. Do you think the comfort & warmth the Solar Comfort will give you is worth $1.20 a week?”

Very hard to say “NO’ to that.

One of the advantage of the extended warranty, is that I can talk about ten years instead of three. That’s why we give our vacuum cleaners a ten year motor warranty. That motor warranty we purchase for a measly $7.95 from a parts company. Call me if you are interested in the phone number.