Are you interested in selling annuities?

If so you’ll want to read today’s article!

I am talking with annuity expert and partner in my annuity agent training program Stephen Burgess in today’s article.

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!).

You’ll discover:

1. How Stephen Fact-Finds For Annuities.
2. How Stephen Spends Less Than $300 A Week On 10 New Annuity Appointments Each Week!
3. How to build rapport and trust with annuity prospects to earn the right to analyze their retirement strategy.

Even if you have zero annuity sales experience, today’s training is perfect if you are currently selling final expense, mortgage protection, or Medicare Supplements, and looking to tap into the lucrative world of annuity sales.

NOTE: Before you read the transcript of the interview, if you’re interested in a detailed discussion of how my annuity training program works for insurance agents new to selling annuities, watch the video below for complete details.

DD: Steve, how does your annuity presentation start when meeting with clients?

SB: Well, how I work is very similar to final expense. You start with a simple greeting – “Hi, how are you doing?”

You want to get a broad idea of what you’re dealing with. You look around. It’s a nice house. You give compliments.

I tend to find people that are family oriented, with family pictures around. Those are always great. Then I know there’s legacy there. There’s somebody that’s open-minded to moving money in order to take care of their kids.

From there, I slowly transition from the meet and greet. If they offer me a cup of coffee, I always have one If somebody offers me hospitality, I accept hospitality. It creates an ambiance that I like.

When I’ve contacted these people on the phone, I’ve told them I’m there to deliver information for all the senior services available in the county. It’s the first thing that I do and it gets me credibility before I ever go into my fact-finder.

The purpose of my visit is to provide the prospect with what the county offers in terms of senior service contact information. Every county has it, all you have to do is go on Google and search “senior services” for that county. It might be a Council on Aging. Somebody will have organized the senior services in that county.

The first thing I do is provide service. I give them that information. Whatever information that I can give them, I start off with that.

I explain to them who I am and what I’m all about. I show them my Florida insurance. I’m licensed and regulated by the Department of Financial Services. I explain to them that I’ve been background checked and finger-printed. That’s mandatory in the state of Florida in order to visit seniors.

I also have continuing education focused on the needs of people over the age of 63. I tell them, “I come out and I help people. Sometimes I’m helpful. If not, you can kick me out, no problem!”

Crack a joke. Make it very jovial.

DD: Let’s talk about your annuity fact finder. You call it a “confidential needs analysis.” How does this work? When you’re in the process of working with the client, what is the intent of doing a fact finder? Why not just ask for the annuity business if that’s what you’re going for upfront?

SB: My confidential needs analysis looks like this. On the front, it has a circle with four different areas I cover in my meeting with the prospect:

1. What kind of health coverage do they have in place?
2. Do they have wills and a final trust in place?
3. Do they have long term care?
4. What type of financial planning have they completed?

The way you get to an annuity is through building credibility and establishing expertise. It’s the prize at the end of doing the job correctly.

Before I get to the point of selling them something, I’m going to be of service. The purpose of the fact finder is to be of service. You start with where they are, how old they are, have they been married before, are they divorced, things like that. You try to be of service.

The nice thing with the fact-finding questions is that they uncover all sorts of potential sales opportunities, for example:

Were you married for over 10 years?

Here, you’re making sure Social Security is maximized.

Do you have any kids? Do you have to travel to go to the kids? Are you on a PPO plan or an HMO plan?

If they have to travel all over the country and they are on an HMO plan, they’ve got a potential problem. When they go visit their kids, they will have an issue with their carriers. If they have a PPO plan, it travels better.

This process helps me to find out if I’ve got business. To find out if I have a client that I can work with.

DD: The fact finder starts to uncover the hidden opportunities of an annuity sale. It naturally leads the prospect to reveal, without any sort of pressure or obligation, what he has. It leads them towards being interested in how you can help them out. Is that how it works?

SB: Yes. And here’s the next part, where it really works in.

The first area of the circle:

When you go to the doctor, what card do you show them?

You are seriously interested in their health. Particularly with people over the age of 63, you go through what their health coverage is.
If they’re confused about it, I ask:

Do you have the card? Maybe I can help you with it.

They reach over and get their Social Security card and their health coverage card.

I’m not interested in selling them health insurance. That’s a detriment. I can sell them a Medicare Supplement if they have too much money, but usually, they’re on health insurance and I make recommendations for what works best in the county.

Now in that process, I’m asking them the health questions that I’m going to find in final expense. I’m gathering that information so I know what I have before I ever get there. Most of the fact finder is set up to gather the information before you get to the question.

The second area of the circle:

Do you have any long-term care policies in place?

If they do, fantastic!

If they don’t,I pull out a sheet called the Medicare Spend-Down Law Overview. And in that part of the fact finder, I explain to them what Medicare is. I explain how long it lasts, when you go off it, when you go into long-term care, and when that event starts draining your account. When that event starts taking your legacy and your money and sending it to the nursing home. The Medicare spend-down law means they can attach the house, the car, the furniture, to pay for expenses.

They can go after cash value in insurance policies. This leads me to my next pivot, but I’m telling them now to highlight annuities being protected as opposed to being exposed. In these first two areas of the fact finder, I’ve done a psychological setup. It makes the person feel very comfortable. I’ve given service. They’ve shown concern. They’ve helped me out.

The third area of the circle:

Are you still paying on life insurance policies?

If the answer is yes, I ask for face value and ask follow-up questions to see if there’s any opportunity. If the answer is no, I do the assumptive close. Is it because those policies are paid up, or that they don’t have any in place? I assume that they have a paid-up policy. If they’re paid up then that’s an asset. It’s a piece of business that I can do. If there’s no policy in place, I’ve still learned something. I’ve learned about their health, and that they don’t have life insurance in place. I’m ready to go to the next question.

NOTE: Interested in getting the SAME fact-finder Stephen uses on his annuity appointments? Send me a message here and we’ll send it over for you to review!

The fourth area of the circle:

Have you thought about funeral expenses? Have you gone down that road? Where I really can be of value is if you have a will or living trust in place.

At this point, I’ve gone through the fact finder. I’m probably 15 minutes into the conversation. Now I start asking about their finances.

If you don’t mind me asking, I’ve got a few questions about your finances.

How much do they get in Social Security? Is there a pension? Is the house paid for? Has it been homesteaded in the state of Florida? CDs. Annuities. Stocks, bonds, real estate investments. And so on. Your final three questions are:

1. “Is there anything that I can help you with?”

2. “Do you have a financial planner or somebody that assists you?”

3. “What can we do today?”

At that point, I have gathered all my information. I’ve folded it over and I’m ready to do a presentation on a recommendation where I’ve found a need. That’s how I work the fact finder.

DD: Thanks, Steve, for some great information there.

I do hope that you enjoyed my interview with Steve Burgess on how to sell and present to your annuity prospects.

Would you like to learn more about how this method works?

We run an annuity sales training program for insurance agents new to selling annuities.

Here’s how it works…

Personalized Training

Steve trains you on all aspects of prospecting and selling annuities. You’ll learn:

1. How to prospect for annuities.
2. Steve’s complete guide to fact-finding for annuities.
3. Personal coaching in custom-tailoring a proposal for your annuity prospects.

While no one can guarantee your success, we’ve recently helped several of our annuity agents close cases from small to large. With Stephen’s help, one agent in the Northeast wrote a $126,000 annuity, and another agent in the Pacific Northwest closed 2 cases for $1,300,000!

Click here to learn more about how you can take advantage of our annuity training program.