Looking for the best books for insurance sales agents?

I have 31 books today that I’ve read in the past year that are pivotal for the beginning agent.

Let’s get started!

IMPORTANT NOTE!

Many of these books are decades old and out of print at Amazon.

Please try Bookfinder if you find Amazon does not carry the book, or the price offered is outrageous.

Bookfinder searches all the major book sales outlets online and arranges availability of the book you want in lowest to highest price.

I used it for many of the books you’ll see below.

NOTE: Are you an aspiring or new insurance agent looking for more insight on how the insurance sales industry works? Check out my free New Insurance Agent Resource Guide to help answer many of your questions (as well as ones you didn’t know you had!).

Best Time Management Books For Insurance Agents

Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, W. Clement Stone

This excellent book is all about mindset and keeping your head straight.

W. Clement Stone founded Combined Life Insurance and is a prime example of what success looks like in both selling insurance and in life.

No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs, Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy was an early influence on my business career.

Dan does a great job in this book describing what you need to do to make your life more effective and more manageable on a daily basis.

It’s both highly informative and entertaining. Highly recommend you pick that up.

Maximum Achievement, Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy is another favorite author of mine. He’s one of those authors that anything he does is excellent. “Maximum Achievement” is an oldie but a goodie.

Best Autobiographical Books For Insurance Sales Agents

Now let’s transition to some autobiographies or stories about insurance agents.

I think one thing as an insurance agent, especially for you new guys, it’s really important to see the ideal or to see what the model of behavior, successful behavior is in this business.

The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin

This autobiography only covers up to the point where he essentially is just getting into work on a political level and it doesn’t cover anything during The Revolutionary War.

It doesn’t cover anything post Revolutionary War or the founding documents, signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a shame because there’s so much that’s not covered.

But you see Ben when he runs away from home, goes to Philadelphia to start anew, becoming a successful businessman in the printing business. It shows how he runs his life, his daily schedule, and process of self-improvement.

The book is fantastic and it shows how normal he was, but how he applied himself to become great.

The Greatest Insurance Stories Ever Told, Multiple Authors

This has a compilation of different insurance agents across the world. Familiar ones such as Norm Levine, Al Granum, Mr. Mehdi, and my favorite, Bert Meisel.

For new agents, you want perspective and see what’s possible, this book does a great job.

Interviews With Top Producing Insurance Agents, David Duford

Shameless plug for one of my best-selling insurance books =).

I interviewed a handful of direct-to-consumer insurance agents across several niches like final expense, Medicare Supplements, telesales, face to face sales, etc.

You get the inside scoop on how these particular agents became top producers, and their stories of getting there.

Talking With Strangers, Peter Rosengard

Pete Rosengard is an insurance agent in the UK with an interesting background.

He owned a comedy club, wined and dined with famous celebrities, and sold at one point the largest life insurance policy with David Geffen of Geffen Records.

Peter also tried selling to some African warlord a charitable life insurance policy and that’s a pretty funny story if you read that.

You can buy the book here.

Coach! The A. L. Williams Story

Love him or hate him, it’s undeniable that A. L. Williams had a dramatic and deep effect on the insurance business.

In a sense, he’s responsible for the literal inversion of what insurance products are sold.

We can thank Art for the “buy term and invest the difference” mentality that we have now that is professed by our top financial gurus that are on radio and TV.

Read about his company’s meteoric rise here.

Growing Rich, Randall Baskin

Mr. Baskin’s book talks about his start in life, living in a tin roof shack with dirt floors, very poor in middle Tennessee, and how he got his start in insurance.

He describes how he built American Continental and sold out to one of the big-name health insurance companies.

This was a very inspiring book and it shows you that anybody can be successful in the insurance business. Again, highly recommend it.

Insurance Sales Training Books

It’s Getting Easier & The Easy Sale, John Savage

In John Savage’s day, he was a highly-productive insurance agent. And these are great books that show how he sells insurance using “concept selling.”

Also, his commentary on prospecting is fantastic, as he thought cold calling was plain stuipd.

Saturday Always Comes, The Whole World is Out Or Busy & And No, I Can’t Afford It, Burt Meisel

Burt is hilarious and a great writer. He could have been a fiction author if he’d chosen to. Fantastic sales training, especially for business markets.

The Digital Life Insurance Agent, Jeff Root

This is a great book because it basically informs not just life insurance agents, but any agent, how they can develop insurance leads cost-free using the Internet.

Jeff does a good job of laying it all out here on how you can do it, whether on an organic search engine optimization basis or whether you want to do paid marketing.

Speak To Sell, Dan Kennedy

This book teaches the best concepts of giving effective seminars that produce results.

Dan talks about getting your mentality right about that process.

How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling & How I Multiplied My Income And Happiness In Selling, Frank Betcher

Both books provide great mindset training for insurance agents.

The Success System That Never Fails, W. Clement Stone

W. Clement Stone goes through his entire process of how he created and grew Combined Insurance Company.

In his book, Clem discusses the system of selling life insurance he developed, and how he recruited agents to sell it.

It Can Only Get Better, Tony Gordon

Tony Gordon’s book is good. A little harder to find. I think it’s a little expensive. This is a UK based life insurance agent, sells to the business market, and talks about his sales system and how he does it.

Man On A Mission, Marv Feldman

This book is a primer on selling insurance and the financial services career as he likes to call it.

He is the son of Ben Feldman, which we’ll get to his books here in a second.

Selling Is Simple, Karl Bach

Karl was the founding controlling shareholder of San Francisco Life Insurance Company. Great little book. Never really heard anybody talk about this. A great sales system book.

Sales Prospecting, Claude Whitacre

In his book, Claude Whitacre goes into excruciating detail about how to prospect and generate referrals for any kind of business, including insurance.

Claude primarily sells vacuums and he gets all of his business through referrals.

The Game Of Numbers, Nick Murray

Nick Murray is the advisor to financial advisors.

His book is a great fundamental setup book about how you prospect, the mentality you have to have behind it.

Insurance Sales Systems Books

The Official Guide To Selling Final Expense Insurance, David Duford

If you want to learn how to sell final expense, pick this book up.

It does a really good job of explaining sales and marketing behind final expense, what I did to teach it and learn how to teach other people how to do it.

How To Sell Long-Term Care Insurance to Mr. And Mrs. Jones, Curt Vahle

I will say that I believe this book is a bit outdated.

However, this is just a basic system from generating life insurance leads off of direct mail and then presenting long-term care.

The Feldman Method & Create Selling For The 1990s, Ben Feldman

Human behavior is timeless. It doesn’t expire or change and really all sales is, is understanding human behavior and executing on that to make sales for insurance.

The Creative Selling book I felt was more technical in how Ben targets the business market, which is why I included that, whereas The Feldman Method is an introduction to who Ben is, how he’s been successful and what he does to be successful.

Everything Is Possible, Mr. Mehdi

A good book on selling insurance, prospecting, using different sales strategies, and how he sells the estate planning market.

A very good book.

6 Hours To 6 Figures, Brandon Clay

Brandon’s book is a groundbreaking guide created by a 17 year insurance expert and world-class sales trainer.

Essentially, it’s a book designed to teach an agent to be a multi-line senior advisor.

The Encyclopedia Of Disability Income Insurance, Larry Schneider

This is a literal sales and marketing process for disability insurance sales to business owners, for personal disability protection, as well as business related reasons to own disability insurance.

Again, if you’re selling business owners and you’re looking at selling disability, which is a great first year and great renewal product, this will teach you how to do it.