Are you in the market for Medicare Supplement leads? read more

Are you interested in selling Medicare Supplements? read more

In this article, we’re going to talk about the top ways to cross-sell more insurance.

What we’re going to do in this article is start off with the two techniques to cross-sell. These techniques can be used whether you’re selling any kind of life, health or financial product, like final expense or mortgage protection. read more

Are you considering selling insurance part time?

Are you worried that giving up your full-time job is too much to ask? read more

Are you thinking about or currently selling insurance?

Are you looking for guidance on how to sell insurance successfully?

If this describes you, you’ve arrived at the perfect place!

In today’s article, I provide a COMPLETE overview of what selling insurance is really like.

My goal is to break down EVERYTHING about the selling insurance into 10, easy-to-understand modules.

So read the entire article to get a detailed overview on how to have a successful career selling insurance.
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Overview

1. Career Benefits
2. Life As An Agent
3. Top Agent Qualities
4. Compensation
5. Products
6. Markets
7. Sales Methods
8. Commissions
9. Max Opportunity
10. Getting Started

Let’s get started!
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Is Selling Insurance A Good Career Opportunity?

First, let’s discuss WHY learning how to sell insurance is a GREAT career choice.

Working and learning how to sell insurance provides a career opportunity that is second-to-none.

The most successful insurance salesmen experience incredible economic prosperity in combination with living lifestyles most people only dream of.

Let’s break down the top  reasons to start a career selling insurance.
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Working In Insurance Gives You Freedom

In most circumstances, selling insurance is TOTALLY unlike a typical career.

In Corporate America, your employer holds the puppet strings to your career.

You’re told when to work, who to work with, and what to say, regardless of whether or not you believe in the company’s mission and products.

For many people, you are forced to do a job you DON’T like that stifles autonomy, freedom of thought, and merit-based career advancement.

The good news is that a career in selling insurance is a fantastic opportunity, providing the EXACT opposite from a corporate job.

Unlike your job, insurance salesman are business owners.

They decide WHO they want to work with, WHEN they want to work, and HOW they want to run their business selling insurance.
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Decide When And How You Work

Insurance agents LOVE the freedom of deciding how they want to work.

If you like the idea of selling life insurance, great!

Prefer to sell annuities instead? That’s fine, too!

After all, it’s YOUR business. And you have the power to choose how to go about your insurance sales career.
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Flexible Schedule

What about managing your works schedule?

There’s good news here, too.

Whether you want to work part-time selling insurance or full time, Insurance is sold all day, every day, and since you own your own insurance business, you can work around events like your kids’ extracurricular activities with ease.

For example, I have 4 kids that all do activities. Added, I train jiu-jitsu 5 days a week.

While it’s a juggle, I can manage this schedule with a little forethought and planning without negative consequences.

If you value…

• The ability to determine your own schedule,
• Deciding who you want to work with, and,
• Choosing for yourself the type of career path you want,

…A career in learning how to sell insurance allows for much easier than traditional jobs.
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Entrepreneurship

Do you have the “entrepreneurial spirit?”

If so, rest assured that learning how to sell insurance requires entrepreneurial effort from day 1!

Prior to learning how to sell insurance successfully, I owned a personal training business before getting involved in the insurance sales business.

And I can tell you the same entrepreneurial values – hard-work, self-discipline, working on improving – is exactly the same in selling insurance.
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Own Your Own Business

If you’ve always wanted to own your own business… if you’ve wanted the benefits of entrepreneurship provides like freedom and income maximization… the insurance business offers it.

Entrepreneurship is found in various aspects of this business.

For example, you decide who you want to work with. You also can decide which market is best to target. And you create your own business plan.

Further, you choose which insurance companies to partner with, and what products to offer your prospects.
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Market Opportunity

There is an ENORMOUS market of prospects to sell insurance, no matter what product you choose.

And the great thing is that insurance agencies have tested and vetted sales and marketing systems that are proven to work.

All you have to do is plug into the system, put the work in to find prospects, then help them with their insurance needs.

For example, in the final expense business, we have a proven selling and lead generation system that puts interested prospects in front of agents like you, day-in and day-out.

We know who these prospects are and how to target them. There’s no confusion or guesswork involved.
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There Are MILLIONS Of Prospects

All I need are agents to learn my strategy and put it to work.

Believe it or not, there are final expense prospects literally waiting for somebody to show up and help them with their insurance needs.

And the same goes for other insurance products like mortgage protection, annuities, and Medicare.

Currently, millions of people need Medicare Supplemental coverage or Medicare Advantage plans.

Added, the number of prospects for Medicare are projected to DOUBLE from 2020 to 2040.

Plus, 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 for the next decade or two.

This is great as most seniors turning 65 start Medicare coverage, which is the first opportunity to help them with buy a supplementary health insurance policy like Medicare Supplements or Medicare Advantage.

And the good thing is that insurance sells well no matter the economic environment.
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Passive Income Opportunity

Have you seen business opportunity advertisements discussing passive income earning opportunities?

While business influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk understandably give these passive income opportunities significant flack, the truth is the insurance business is the ORIGINAL passive income opportunity.

And while you’ll have to work years to develop a significant passive income, it’s something that IS achievable. 
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What Is Passive Income?

Basically, you earn income without an active effort.

Of course, you do some work upfront, of course. =)

With passive income products and services, as long as you satisfy your clients’ requirements, you continue to earn money.

Final expense life insurance is a first-year commission product.

This means most of your income is paid up front in the first year. There are little renewals coming in each year after that.

In my career selling final expense insurance, I wanted to diversify my income stream with a business model providing passive income.

That business was recruiting insurance agents to sell final expense and other products.
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Recruiting Builds Passive Income

And while there is a VERY active upfront investment training agents to succeed, long-term agents need less help, and the income earned from their production (called overrides) requires less of my active effort.

After 5 years, I earn almost all of my income from the production of other agents in my agency.

This translates into more time to spend with family and leisure activities.
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Recruiting Not Required

Don’t want to recruit agents?

Not a problem!

You can learn how to sell insurance with products that provide significant renewal income.

Medicare Supplements and Medicare Advantage plans come to mind. Same with property and casualty insurance and car insurance.

At the end of the day, it IS realistic – with enough time and dedication – to earn a passive six-figure income from these products for YEARS… without having to sell new insurance policies.
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Wealth And Prosperity

When I say wealth and prosperity, this doesn’t necessarily concern money.

Of course, money and income are why we get involved in this business!

I can tell you, what I didn’t see when I originally started in selling insurance is that wealth and prosperity is MORE than just money.

I’m at a position where I’m effectively semi-retired, and I’m young (35 years old as of February 2020).

But please understand.

The ONLY reason that I’ve gotten to this point is because of the hard work I put in up front. I paid the price!
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I Simply Persevered

Even when I failed out of the business, I persevered. Now, since I’ve stuck with the insurance business for as long as I have, I am harvesting the fruits of my early labor.

I’m able to do this because I’ve committed to the process of what was taught to me when I first got started.

I share this with you because I know that you can see and achieve prosperity, too.

A commitment to learning how to sell insurance may provide you all you need and desire.

That’s the great thing about learning how to sell insurance. It’s more than just a job… and it’s more than just a career!

It can free you to do so much that you would not normally be able to do when you work for somebody else.

As I do a lot of YouTube interviews talking to top producers, I’ve noticed a similar theme in their lives.

Many convey the same points I do when talking about their lifestyle.

 
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A Day In The Life Of An Insurance Agent

Now that you understand WHY the insurance business is great, let’s talk about what a day in the life of an insurance agent is REALLY like.

The goal of this section is to convey what you can expect if you start to sell insurance or decide to get licensed.
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Getting The Day Started

An insurance agent is a salesperson.

This means they’re actively visiting “prospects” (people who are potentially interested in buying an insurance product) on a day-to-day basis.

Prospecting is the MOST important activity an insurance producer can do.

It’s not like sitting in the office processing paperwork and gossiping around the water cooler.

This is a social business, and it is all about seeing the people.
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Scheduling Their Day

Many insurance producers get up very early in the morning, and have their day planned in advance.

In some circumstances, they’ve preset their appointments.

For example, they called their prospects the night before to set up their appointments for the current day.

For many agents, they start seeing prospects around 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
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What An Insurance Sales Call Is Like

During each sales call, we spend time getting to know the prospect.

This is called “rapport-building,” meaning you’re “breaking the ice,” and getting to know the prospect.

After that, insurance agents transition to asking underwriting-related questions.

If you sell life insurance, you’ll ask about the prospect’s health, then present what we have to offer to them.

Then, they decide to buy or not.

If they have objections to buying, we rebuttal them to come to a mutually beneficial outcome.

Finally, whether we sell the deal or not, we wrap up the appointment and then go on to the next one.
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Where To Find Sales Presentations

Now, if you don’t have preset appointments, agents will work purchased or self-generated insurance leads. 

Agents show up at the door unannounced to ask for an appointment on the spot or to set it for another day.

Even to this day, you have agents that will go out and actually prospect cold for appointments, whether that’s house-to-house or business-to-business.

They repeat this process over and over again until they hit their presentation activity goals.
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Activity Is King For Insurance Salesmen!

Let there be no confusion!

Agents LIVE AND DIE off of how many presentations they complete every week.

Why? 

Because the number of presentations determines their financial position over the long haul.

If they routinely FAIL to hit those numbers… then they will fail out of the business.

As a reminder, seeing insurance prospects IS the cornerstone to success of insurance salesmen.
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After The Presentation

Once agents finish their appointments, they go home or to the office and process paperwork and applications.

They ensure their are no errors on the application, then fax or upload the apps to the insurance carrier.

They may even make phone calls and set up appointments for the following day.

If you’re selling non-1-call-close products like annuities, you may spend time after appointments developing proposals for your prospects.
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A Predictable Process

Surprisingly, the insurance business is not unique in terms of the products or the process.

In fact, it’s actually routine and predictable if you follow the process.

What’s unique are the people we deal with. You never know what you’re going to see! Some of us insurance agents have funny insurance stories.

Bottom line, learning how to sell insurance successfully is work!

You have to get up, see prospects, deal with rejection, and on occasion, deal with success. It is an emotional roller coaster some days.

Remember that your biggest competition is the man looking back at you in the mirror.

It is yourself and your mindset!
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How To Sell Insurance Successfully

Now let’s discuss the top 5 qualities of successful insurance agents.

Additionally, I’ll describe qualities that don’t matter much, which may come as a surprise .

There are common traits that will show you how to be successful at learning how to sell insurance over the long-term.

I’ve interviewed dozens of agents on my YouTube channel. And I know agents across the country in different niches that sell different insurance products.

What’s funny is that in doing these interviews for my best-selling book on top producers, I’ve come to find that there is MORE in common with successful insurance agents than there are differences.

My goal is to uncover how top-producing insurance agents succeed at selling insurance in a short, straight-to-the-point way.

That way you can better understand how to mimic those behaviors and experience your own success.
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A Service Orientation

Successful insurance agents believe that what they’re doing is MORE than just a job.

They believe in their heart of hearts they are doing GOOD work.

In a sense, some of the BEST insurance salesmen are evangelists by nature.

They want people to know how insurance helps solve problems. 

Bottom line, they have passion and want to help!
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Empathy Is Important

If you want to be successful at learning how to sell insurance, you must have empathy for your clients.

If you have contempt… if you DON’T like the people you’re selling to… OR if you don’t like people in general…

You’re NOT going to do well in the insurance business.
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What if you’re selling a product or market you don’t enjoy?

My advice is to switch to another line or market IMMEDIATELY.

Switching to a strategy you enjoy makes it easier to retain the necessary service orientation mindset so crucial to success.

In exchange, you’ll get referrals from happy clientele and perform better in sales presentations.
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Self-Discipline

All successful top producing insurance agents are self-disciplined.

Many do not report regularly to a superior.

Plus, they rarely have management directing their day-to-day lives.

Sure, sometimes top producer have mentors. They receive guidance, support, and direction.
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The Buck Stops With You!

But ultimately… the MOST successful insurance salesmen know their 100% responsible for their business.

Self-disciplined insurance agents do not procrastinate. They work, even if they’d rather not.

They understand all the drawbacks of the business. The disappointment we all face, the rejection we experience.

All agents experience this. And top producers discipline themselves to accept that.

They deal with adversity through accepting that it’s normal and continuing the process anyways.
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Consistency

Another vital character trait in selling insurance successfully is to have long-term consistency.

Selling insurance is a battle.

Every day is a battle in the field with your prospects. It’s a battle with yourself, too.

All these daily battles add up month over month, year over year.

At times, you’ll get discouraged.

You can do everything right selling insurance and STILL struggle to make money. 

That is because people are normally taught that if you do things correctly, then things turn out well.

That’s not always the case in insurance sales.

Selling is as much an art as it is a science. And there are circumstances that won’t go our way and are out of our control.

I’ve talked thousands of new agents. And many are flashes in the pan. They write a lot of business at first, but then they run up against difficulties.

They run up against resistance, and they fall off. It happens more commonly than you’d think.

Whereas the agent that consistently cranks it out year over year experiences the kind of success we ALL want.
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Persistence Pays!

My story in this business is that I came in and did well in my first 12 months.

Then, I started to alter what was proven to work (not good =).

I started thinking I was SMARTER than the sales and marketing system that I was taught.

At first, I just did what I was told, like a good soldier.

But then I started to become creative. I started to think of different ways to do things.

Ultimately, I failed out of the business inside of a year.

At my bottom, I had less than $100 to my name with about $20,000-$30,000 in debt. I had a wife, a newborn, and no idea what I was going to do.
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Quit Insurance, Worked In Corporate America

Before selling insurance, I never had a real job. So the whole experience of taking orders from management was new to me.

Working for Corporate America, I found I was selling a product I didn’t like or believe in, but I had to do it anyway to support my family.

Very early in my job, I decided that life wasn’t worth living under those conditions.

While frustrating at times, I decided that selling insurance was still a LOT better than selling something that I didn’t believe in.

When I got back in the insurance business, I vowed that I would follow what always had worked and stop screwing with the system.

Thankfully, I’ve never returned to Corporate America and have experienced success ever since!

Here’s my point: persistence is key.
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You Cannot Give Up!

Count on seriously considering quitting selling insurance at some future point when you decide to sell insurance. Many times this struggle happens early in your career.

I say this because it’s natural for many people to second-guess their insurance career when things aren’t going smoothly.

One top producers once said…

“If you want to be successful in this business, you just have to survive.”

There’s a LOT of truth to that.

Surviving means being persistent despite the odds.

In a way, success in insurance sales comes down to having faith in the system. and faith in yourself!

You have to have faith that if you just keep going, despite everything telling you not to. 
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Great Agents Are Activity-Oriented

Bottom line, learning how to sell insurance successfully is all about how many people you can talk to and present to.

In fat, a mediocre agent whose sales skills aren’t the best but completes 15 appointments a week consistently WILL experience MORE success than the charismatic “Tony Robbins” type of salesperson that can sell ice to Eskimos, but only completes HALF the same presentations.

Top producers are activity-oriented. They understand selling insurance is a numbers game.

That doesn’t mean they’re no good at selling. They work on their sales skills, but understand activity is the driving force behind success.
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Unnecessary Traits For Success In Insurance Sales

It’s important to understand this.

These 5 character traits – a service orientation, self-discipline, consistency, persistence, and an activity-orientation – are all you need to have long-term success in learning how to sell insurance.

So what character traits aren’t important?

For example, you don’t have to be an extrovert.

Personally, I’m an introvert. I grew up shy. As a teenager, I was afraid to order a pizza over the phone.

Luckily, everything is learnable in insurance sales.

You can be a complete dork like I was, and still do great!

As long as you have the capacity to learn, apply yourself, and not exhibit fear when it comes time to testing what you’ve learned.

Regarding my introversion, I taught myself how to display sociability. I’m comfortable talking to strangers.

This is all learned behaviors you can pick up. You don’t have to be an extrovert or innately sociable to experience success selling insurance.

Other unnecessary character traits:

• You don’t have to be a natural closer like the stock brokers in Boiler Room.
• Also, genius-level intellect is unnecessary.

There’s a lot of examples of insurance salesmen with mediocre intelligence doing really well, because they work hard.

They come from a background where hard work is a virtue. They apply themselves with a simple product, see the people, and rinse and repeat.

What about having a network of people? read more

Wonder what life insurance questions to ask clients to sell more insurance?

Are you looking for ways to maximize your insurance sales presentation closing ratio, in addition to increasing your average insurance policy size?

Did you know that what fact-finding questions for life insurance you ask impact your ability to close more cases for larger premiums?

If you’re looking to sell more insurance and make more commissions, knowing what questions to ask about life insurance are VITAL to your success in selling insurance.

Today, we’re covering my top 21 favorite life insurance questions to ask clients to close more policies.

We’ll discuss which life insurance questions to ask clients in depth, one at a time.

And I’ll make sure to cover the reasons WHY you’d ask each question as we go along.

No matter if you sell final expense, mortgage protection, Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplements, or annuities, this training will go far in helping you close more insurance deals.

Insurance Sales Interview Questions Drive The Sale!

Heads up!

Selling insurance consistently is NOT about being a hardcore closer.

Instead, if you want success, you must know the top probings questions for life insurance sales that gather facts and emotion.

I’m a big believer that if you master the craft of asking “disturbing questions,” as legendary life insurance agent Ben Feldman put it.

Disturbing insurance sales interview questions develop all sorts of life insurance opportunities.

Fact-Finding Questions For Life Insurance

Insurance Sales Question 1

“What were your thoughts and concerns when you X?”

This is one of my favorite life insurance questions to ask clients.

When I say “X,” fill in the blank with whatever activity the prospect did to request information on the product. 

This question is commonly used when you’re using a life insurance lead like a final expense direct mail lead. 

This powerful question encourages your client to share their feelings, thoughts, logic, and reasoning as to why they replied for information.

It’s a great primer when you sit down in a preset presentation or after you door knock an insurance lead.

Asking your prospects their thoughts and concerns lead to more understanding as to why they did what they did.

And that allows you to give a more effective insurance sales pitch!

Life Insurance Sales Question

“When you buy a life insurance policy, what do you want it to accomplish?”

This is a great question because it allows the client to describe their goals as to what they really want.

When you get that answer, you more easily can design a customized life insurance policy more suited to their needs.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling final expense, mortgage protection, term life, or income replacement.

Whatever their answer, it’s the ammo you need to sell them a policy.

Let them answer fully and entirely. Don’t interrupt them.

They’ll tell you what they want to buy when you just ask this simple question.

Question To Ask Life Insurance Prospect

“What other life insurance you have in place to pay for X?”

This is a must-ask life insurance questions to ask clients.

The reason you ask this is twofold.

First, it allows you to see if the client has existing coverage.

Knowing if your client has coverage makes a difference in what angle you use to sell.

It’s good when you go into a sales presentation to find out whether or not there’s other coverage in place.

Why? Because it’s difficult to make recommendations without knowing all the facts.

For example, maybe you’re doing a life insurance fact finding questionnaire, and you’re figuring up what amount of coverage makes sense.

Good probing questions for life insurance should take into consideration the client’s employer-based life insurance and any other individual policies in force.

This way, you have these facts ahead of time, which provides you leverage when it comes to proposing a plan.

Insurance Sales Technique

“What assets do you have in place to pay for your X?”

This question is open-ended.

Asking open-ended questions allow you to craft a stronger case for the need of your product.

For example, asking this question allows you to see both the opportunity for life insurance in addition to asset-based life insurance opportunities.

If your client answers “no” to having assets, then there is a possibility to sell indexed universal life coverage as a supplemental retirement plan.

If the client answers “yes,” you may have an opportunity to uncover annuity sales opportunities.

Question To Ask About Life Insurance

“Imagine your spouse passes away tonight. Describe what happens to your life tomorrow financially.”

This is a really good question to ask everybody you see.

This question is great because it forces your prospects to take an uncomfortable look at a question no one wants to think about.

And because the answer is always disturbing, it will naturally flesh out the need for life insurance coverage.

Allow your prospects to describe their thoughts.

While tough, the question sells the need without being pushy. It makes them understand why they need to own life insurance.

Question To Ask About Disability Insurance

“How long can you survive if you become hurt or cannot work? Or, how long can your family maintain their lifestyle if you got hurt or you couldn’t work anymore?”

This is a really good disability insurance question to ask.

It gets your prospect thinking, “What if I do become disabled? How’d my family survive if I can’t go to work for six or more months?”

Usually, with most people, as soon as work stops, income stops. Most people have to work to make money! 

They consider what would happen to their mortgage payments, kids’ activities, and the things that they enjoy and love if the income was gone in a heartbeat.

Always ask this question to gauge if your prospect is a strong disability insurance candidate.

Insurance Sales Interview Question

“What is your philosophy regarding life insurance?”

This life insurance question to ask clients gets to the core of what people think is important about life insurance.

You might have somebody say,

“I think life insurance should really just be straight insurance. I just want it in case I don’t live long enough to acquire my retirement goals.”

You may get somebody who says,

“I think life insurance is a rip off because so much of it cancels. All I see are these plans that canceled at a later date, and to me, that’s just crazy.”

In the first case, you have someone more inclined for a term insurance policy.

In the second case, term would not make sense.

Maybe a permanent life insurance plan would make more sense.

The important thing is not to impose your opinions on your clients’ philosophy on life insurance.

Instead, match the person’s goals with the insurance product that most closely aligns.

Insurance Sales Question To Ask

“How do you feel about life insurance on your spouse or children?”

You may have somebody who in response to asking about spousal or children coverage says,

“You know, I’ve never thought about that.”

Well, what happens if your child passes away?

Would you have the money to cover your kids’ funerals?

What happens if your spouse passes away? Do they work? If not, you’ll still suffer an economic loss.

These are great questions to ask because they may not have considered these things before.

Insurance Sales Technique

“What would happen to your family if the income you were taking in stops today?”

This is a perfect life insurance question to ask clients who are working people and business owners.

It allows for the mind to travel to an uncomfortable area to figure out the answer and work through it.

They may tell you,

“Well, we’ve got savings. But, if I make $100,000/year, and I’ve only got $50,000 saved, then that is only six months of living. That’s not good. Hmm.”

It is disturbing! But the question provides perspective.

What happens if you’re disabled for two or three years? How are you going to make it?

Is your partner going to go back to work? And if they do, they probably won’t make as much money as you.

Now, are they going to take over the business from you? Would that be practical? Will the business run on its own? 

These are questions few people deeply consider. As you can see, they just lead to so much opportunity.

Insurance Sales Pitch Question

“How much life insurance do you have? Why did you purchase that amount?”

Of all the fact finding questions for life insurance, I ask this question a lot.

For example, when selling final expense, I ask,

“Well, why did you purchase $5,000 instead of $10,000 or $15,000?”

And I’m genuinely interested because I want to know what the rationale is.

They might say,

“I purchased $5,000 because that’s all that was offered to me.”

Or,

“I purchased $5,000 because at the time that was all I could afford.”

If you sell a working person, they might tell you,

“I felt that reaching my financial goals, a half-million-dollar policy was sufficient to fund the kind of retirement that I wanted to live.”

Maybe, their lifestyle has changed. They could be making more money now, and they need more coverage.

Either way, it’s good to know why they did what they did.

And then, of course, knowing how much they have fills the gap on what is needed in closing an extra policy.

Insurance Sales Interview Question

“What steps have you taken to enact a retirement plan?”

This is one of the best life insurance questions to ask clients.

You can ask this of your term insurance cases, working people, or business owners.

Asking this question may lead to larger sales opportunities like annuities and IUL cases.

This is because you get people thinking, especially a lot of business owners.

Business owners are so dialed into business that they don’t think of a succession or retirement plan.

They don’t think of what happens when they reach retirement. It is the last thing a lot of them think about.

Insurance Concept Selling Question

“What happens to your business if a key employee becomes hurt, disabled, or passes away?”

If you sell to business owners, you know business owners may have an employee in a key position whose death would adversely change the course of regular business.

This is a great lead into discussing key person life insurance or disability insurance.

These products protect the business against the loss of that person through death or disability.

What if he walks out forever? What happens to the business?

Asking more of these disturbing questions lead to sales opportunities.

Insurance Sales Pitch Question

“When was the last time you met with your insurance agent?”

As you enter the business, you learn the failure rate in insurance sales is high.

It’s common that policyholders that haven’t seen their agents in years don’t have an active agent anymore.

In fact, the agent has probably quit the business.

And without a long-term relationship with his life insurance agent, the client does not receive annual policy reviews.

This means he may lose out on discovering opportunities to add more insurance coverage.

Asking your prospects about the last conversation they’ve had with their insurance agent helps get them thinking,

“Yeah, you’re right. I haven’t looked at this in a while. I think it would be a good idea to do a review.”

Best Sales Pitch For Life Insurance Question

“What are your thoughts on getting a second opinion?”

Think of this questions as if you are diagnosed with a need for a back surgery.

Perhaps you’re not convinced of surgery.

You think physical therapy is all that’s needed. So you consider a second opinion to get a measured perspective.

The same concept applies to insurance.

It’s good to get second opinions. Most people agree!

Plus, it’s free for our prospects.

It’s good to get a different perspective.

Prospects can cross-check against the original proposal and have their mind opened.

Insurance Question To Ask

“Do you plan on dying before 80 or after 80?”

This is a strong question that I ask when selling final expense prospects.

Many final expense prospects unknowingly have term insurance plans that cancel at 80.

I ask this question because it’s a bit silly. It gets the mind thinking about the product that my competition offers.

When I ask,

“Mr. Jones, are you planning on dying before or after 80?”

They look at me, and they’re going to say either one of two things.

“I don’t know” or “I hope not.”

Most DO NOT say, “I hope I die before 80.”

In those cases, I don’t really have much to say!

Instead, most say,

“I hope I live past 80” or “I just don’t know.”

And, the response to that is,

“That’s exactly right. So, why get a plan where the policy may go away before you actually pass away?”

It gets the client thinking about value over price. They consider what really matters within the policy.

Often, these term insurance plans are less expensive, but who cares about the price if their goal is to have something no matter when they pass, right?

It’s a very powerful question that reinforces the value of a permanent plan on protecting for final expenses.

It shows them how much better this is anyway because if you live past 80, you’ve spent all that money for nothing, and you have nothing to show for it.

Insurance Sales Question

“What is the most important asset in your business?”

This is a fantastic question to ask small business owners because most small business owners insure their business.

They insure their factory, land, equipment, and people.

Business owners insure every aspect of their business… EXCEPT themselves!

It’s a great reminder that they spend all this money on all sorts of assets that produce the products they sell on the market.

It’s a practical idea to insure their components to produce whatever goods they’re selling.

But, in reality, the biggest asset in the business is the person in charge.

Think about it.

Why would you not insure yourself – the key factor in your business – above and beyond all else?

The most important component of a business is the BUSINESS OWNER! He is the epicenter of his business.

This drives home the importance of self-insurance. It shows them why they should have life and disability insurance.

Insurance Question To Ask

“Have you ever stopped to think that your business lasts only as long as you do?”

And, that’s a good one, too.

This if from Ben Feldman in The Feldman Method.

What happens when the business goes away?

You are the business. You have this name, you have this company, and you drive this business forward, but what happens if it is gone?

Insurance Sales Question Technique

“It isn’t a question of if you’ll pay the estate tax. The only question is, with whose money? Yours or mine?”

Another great Ben Feldman “disturbing question,” where Ben is proposing the idea of paying for estate taxes with life insurance for pennies on the dollar, versus a fire sale to come up with money to pay the estate tax upon passing.

The proposition is that you can’t get around what the IRS requires.

The question makes prospects consider if they are going to have to convert capital into cash to pay Uncle Sam, or to utilize “discounted dollars” from a life insurance policy.

This is a great setup for the business owner who understands that.

It’s much better to get things at wholesale and at discount, instead of paying retail price out of principal.

Insurance Concept Selling Technique Question

“What arrangements have you made when your insurance runs out?”

This proposes a potential need for life insurance on a permanent basis.

Maybe your prospect has term insurance, and they think of how it’s important to have term. 

But now they’re getting older, and realize they need coverage that lasts forever.

Now they start to think,

“Well, what arrangements have I made when I outlive my coverage?”

When prospects ask this, it gets them thinking about the utility of having some kind of permanent protection in their life insurance portfolio.

Fact-Finding Question For Life Insurance

“How would you like doing all the work and having to share all the profits?”

I really like this question.

This is for a partnership deal where you are in business with a partner and the partner dies or becomes disabled.

While there is still a joint interest in the company, you are now responsible for all the work.

Your disabled partner or his bereaved family still own half the operation, so you must continue splitting the profits.

Using disability or life insurance to fund a buyout is the angle we are working at with this question.

Insurance Interview Question

“Does it sound like I’m hearing what you’re saying?”

This is a question that I ask at the very end of my sales call. I call it “the summarization.”

I think it’s important to make sure everybody’s on the same page BEFORE you present or persuade.

I say,

“Okay, to make sure I understand, here’s what I’m hearing. You don’t have life insurance.

“You WANT to cover the mortgage if you pass away. You WANT to have coverage to replace your income.

“You’re worried that, if you don’t get this stuff that, God forbid, something happens, it will negatively affect your loved ones. And you DON’T want that to happen.

“Does that sound like I’m hearing what you’re saying?”

If they say, “Yes,” that’s, in a sense, like a trial close, meaning you have a good chance of closing the deal.

Also, prospects really appreciate it when you restate what they said using similar verbiage.

Why? It shows you’ve listened carefully.

It shows you’re concerned with their goals, and you understand what they want.

Suggested Books

Here’s two books that contributed much to this article regarding questions. Consider buying both:

Marv Feldman’s Man On A Mission. Marv’s book is an excellent primer for agents starting in the traditional process of selling life insurance.

You’ll learn many great disturbing questions. This book is good for agents focusing on selling business owners.

The Feldman Method by Andrew Thomson.

We can thank Ben Feldman (Marv Feldman’s father) for the concept of selling using disturbing question.

He was a master at it, and it allowed him to sell really big life insurnace cpolicies back in the 60s to the 80s.

NOTE: Both of links above are affiliate links.