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(Complete Show Notes Below)
In the 63rd episode of the Financial Procast:
We are definitely putting out a show that's much more focused toward our listeners that are insurance agents and insurance company personnel. Typically our episodes have a clear objective to educate and help out the consumer–so we warn in you in advance that you may not find this episode as informative.
On the other hand, it may very well give you a little insight into why things happen the way they do from time to time. Or why it seems that every part of the life insurance application, approval, and delivery process is agonizingly slow.
As usual, I'm quite sure there will be those who disagree with us and think we're being a bit unreasonable. That's fine, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Life Insurance Is SOLD…Not Bought
This is one of the first things I was taught when I was a new agent…some 13+ years ago.
Sadly, there's still much of the industry that believes this very thing. It is deeply rooted in the culture of our industry and finds its origin in “The End Justifies the Means” way of thinking.
What do I mean?
If I, as an agent, need to turn the screws on Mr. Jones by reminding him of his obligations to his family, pulling at the heart-strings of his wife etc. to get them to buy a policy–that's just fine. Because…I know what I'm leaving him much better off than I found him even if he bought the policy under duress.
I'll let you reach your own conclusions about that sort of methodology. For me, it never worked.
My general agent and sales manager would contend that I just didn't believe in what I was saying and that I didn't have enough conviction to get the Jones' to do what they should do.
I just thought it was icky.
Brandon agrees with me and that's partly why we enjoy working together. We believe that we should provide accurate information that helps our prospects and clients make an informed decision. It's not our job nor is it our responsibility to make sure they purchase a policy.
We work under the assumption that we're all adults and whether or not you decide to purchase is entirely up to you.
You Can't Sell Whole Life Insurance on the Internet
Yep you're right you can't.
Well, we think you can…in fact we know you can because we do it every day.
No it's not like one of those companies that advertise on television all day long selling nothing but term insurance. The process for designing, applying and delivering any type of cash value life insurance (whole life or universal life) is much more involved, however, we have managed to put together a formula for doing so that works quite well.
Shhh…don't tell anyone.
In fact, the irony is that we don't actually do any selling at all. Our site provides people with a pretty deep pool of information that allow them to determine if the concepts we promote may be a good fit for them without every having to talk with us directly.
To us, this just makes sense.
Why not allow people to learn as much as they want to, at their leisure, sell themselves on the idea and then talk with us more specifically when they're ready? I'm certain that we're not the only ones who find this approach mind-numbingly simple.
And what's more…everybody's happy because nobody's being pushed to do anything and we're not beating our heads against the wall trying to convince anyone of anything.
The Internet Is Here to Stay
Yep, we think it's pretty safe to make that statement. I don't see a world where we all decide that we'd love to go back to being entirely dependent on the USPS to receive our information.
The insurance industry has come kicking and screaming in the internet age. And for that matter into the computer age in general.
For us, the great revelation of technology has not been so much the processing of business…although that has certainly been a by-product. No, the greatest value in our business is that we get to work with people who want to work with us and we are not bound by geography.
We are able to work with those people who like and trust us based on our competency, not because we have class A office space in the right part of town or where custom tailored suits.
Hopefully our clients like us, that's a good thing but more importantly we seek to be the best at our craft. If we're good at what we do, our clients are the ones who benefit most.
Will you show us the rest of the method, of selling online, besides the excellent explanatory blog?
Hi Marc,
We’re working (at least conceptually) on a way to help agents with learning how to best design life insurance policies the way that we do now. If you’d like to talk more in depth about how we can work with you, send us a message on our consult with us page.
Hey Brantley,
Long time no talk. Great job with the podcast guys.
You posed a question in this episode about how good of a job can agents do for their new and existing clients if their doing a high volume of applications.
As you know, I’m that guy you’re speaking about that sells over the phone in volume and have a small staff of agents that sell over the phone as well, so let me shed some light on this.
First of all, I agree that the big call centers like SelectQuote, Accuquote, Matrix etc. don’t do a great job serving their clients on the front end or the back end.
However, myself and many other agents I know that do a high volume life business online have embraced technology and built our businesses on standard operating procedures to make sure the client experience is high (and the same) every single time since we’re doing volume. We couldn’t do this without automating with technology though.
I do believe there is a point of diminishing client experience once you exceed a certain volume of applications per agent, but that number can be pushed with better systems.
Like you, I started at NMFN as well and we’re doing the same personalized sales experience, policy reviews, re-writes and conversions – we’re just having our systems automate some communications and creating tasks to follow up personally.
In a long winded way, what I’m trying to say is that you can do a great job for your clients and do volume – but you need technology (that our industry doesn’t provide) and you need systems. Otherwise, I’d agree with you – an agency doing volume won’t be able to give the kind of service clients deserve.
Hey Jeff,
Glad you stopped by and great to hear more concerning your thoughts on automation and processes. I’ve long admired the systems you have in place and we’re also looking to add processes to our business to improve the client experience.