"How Disturbing are You to People?"

One of the most renowned insurance salesman to have ever lived is Ben Feldman from East Liverpool, Ohio. It's a small low income community situated in the northeast part of the state known for its' "blue collar" residents.

In his day, Feldman wrote more life insurance in one year than some insurance companies did. In fact, in his lifetime, he wrote over $1 Billion in life insurance and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most outstanding salesman in history."

So when someone of his caliber speaks, people should listen. And according to Feldman, a key to his success was the courage to ask the "disturbing question" of his prospects. That is, he would ask his prospects well thought out, planned questions designed to reveal their underlying need or desire for protection. Although his expertise was in the life insurance realm, his methods and salesmanship technique applies to our efforts as multiline agents.

The disturbing question is the kind of question that "triggers" the emotions, disturbs a person into thinking about circumstances they would normally not consider on their own. It’s a means of provoking thought and bringing about clarity on those issues of life that can easily and suddenly turn someone’s world upside down.That's your challenge. That's your job...and I might add...that's your responsibility and obligation as a professional.

Feldman understood how people think. He knew that people didn't move in their minds from "I have a problem" to "I have a need for your product and service" until they were first made to consider the consequences of the problem and personalize them relative to their own lives.

Until a Thing Becomes Relevant, It has No Importance

Consider the following disturbing questions in regard to Hospital Income and build on these when formulating your own "disturbing" game plan!

Who do you know who has ever suffered from a serious medical problem or has been injured, requiring a significant amount of medical care? When was the last time someone in your family was confined, medically, due to illness or an accident? What happened? Were you left with bills that were not covered by your medical coverage? What kind of expenses were you left having to pay for out of your own pocket…both medical & non-medical? What did you do? Where did the money come from? How did that make you feel? How helpful would it have been to have had a way to pay for those bills without having to pay for them out-of-pocket? What kind of “red-tape” did you have to deal with when it came to your medical bills? How much wasn’t covered? How would you pay for deductibles and co-pays?

Or

Imagine you have been struck ill…a stroke or injury to your back while lifting a supply box onto the conveyor belt where you work at… Consider all the expenses not covered by your major medical plan; deductible, travel expenses, lodging & rent, meals, prescriptions and co-pays. Now how will you pay for these things when that happens? Who is going to help you with paying the bills? How will you be able to meet your mortgage, utilities and pay for gas in the car? When I don’t work, I don’t get paid. What happens when you can’t work due to illness or accident? How will it affect your family? What will they do? What considerations should be made if you were sick or injured and couldn’t earn a paycheck…What will happen? How will you manage? How will your family feel or react if the bills are not able to be paid because of the extra expenses that are incurred as a result of illness or injury? How will not working due to injury or illness affect your ability to pay for your debts, bills, monthly obligations, deductibles and co-pays?

Consider the following examples for Long Term Care:

What plans have you made to protect your assets? What plans have you made to make sure your children will inherit your assets?What plans have you made to prevent having to live in a Nursing Home when your health declines? Has anyone ever explained to you to your satisfaction what happens when medicaid is used for a person’s long term care? Who do you want to inherit your home, your savings? How would you feel if your family had to give your home and other assets to the governemt to pay for your care and your medicaid benefits?Do you know anyone who has needed Long Term Care? How familiar are you with what happens when nursing home care is needed and how it is paid for…or not paid for? How did it change their life? How did it affect their life? What financial burdens did they experience?When your health fails, would you rather have a plan in place that gives you control over your care, or would you rather be at the mercy of your condition?What are your plans for when your health changes?Do you plan to live with your children when your health changes? How will that work? How your children feel about it? What kind of burdens would that add to their family situation? How do you feel about the possibilities of having to live with your children if you were to need nursing home-like care?When your health changes would you like to have your care at home? Why? How will you make sure that happens or is an option for ypou? How will it affect you if you cannot live at home anymore? Where will the money come from?How important will it be for you to maintain the control and choice over your health care in the future? How would you feel if someone else was in control of your medical care and the choices you have for assissted care?When you are not going to be able to care for yourself, what is going to happen? Who will take care of you?

Consider how disturbing the questions can be for a life insurance sales conversation…

If you were to die today, Mark, how would your wife, Melissa, and little Mark and little Melissa maintain the standard of living that you worked so hard to provide for them? How would the mortgage get paid? How would the utilities and all those other bills like food, clothes, utilities get paid for if you are no longer around to earn a living for them? How tragic would it be for them to live struggling constantly to make ends meet and maintain their own self-respect when it comes to being responsible and paying their bills? How would Melissa feel if she had to take just any job to make sure that the bills could be paid? Where would the money come from for little Mark and little Melissa to go to college as you said you wanted them to do? What would happen to their dreams and hopes if they weren’t able to go to college?

Finally, consider the following examples of disturbing questions that can be asked of customers as it relates to auto insurance…

If you were driving down main street, went left of center hitting another vehicle head-on, and the other driver was hurt badly; needing hospitalization. What would you do, Mark, if you were sued? How would you pay for it? What would you do if you were sued and suddenly your savings, 401k, other assets…inheritance, for example, were suddenly at risk in being seized by the courts in settlement of the damages claimed against you for hurting and injuring the other driver?

These are just some simple examples of how a sales conversation might sound. We can debate on the strength of the disturbing questions and scenarios I offer here as examples. I am sure that someone reading this has an opinion about how something can be said better and with more impact…

But the point here is to be disturbing; to be compelling and courageous in getting customers to face the possibilities and the realities of life when bad things can happen.

Be nice, but don’t always try to be nice to a fault, failing to get customers thinking about the things that can happen if they aren't properly insured. Be disturbing. Ask disturbing questions of your customers; your friends who need auto insurance and life insurance. They may squirm in their seats for the moment..But they will thank you and respect you if they ever need your help and the protection they purchased form you.

Not long ago, my good friend passed away of a disease that can only be characterized as heartbreaking. At least that is how I saw it. He was a great guy…one in a million…I had great respect for him and had a lot of fun hanging out with him and his family.

As his disease advanced, I saw how he slowly drifted away mentally & physically. It was just two years before his diagnosis, our families were enjoying a picnic together and I mentioned how he needed life insurance for his wife and two beautiful little girls; a conversation we had had a dozen times before to no avail.

I tried to explain to him the importance of making sure that his wife and girls were taken care of in case something happened to him. But I wasn’t getting through to him. He would often say lightheartedly, “God will take care of us.” My response was always, “That’s true, but sometimes we have to give God something to work with.” He would always laugh when I said that...

Then I said, “How are your girls going to go to college if you were to die? What is going to happen to this home if you die today? What is your wife going to do for money if you die? Right now, she works at home…How will she be able to stay at home with the girls if she needs to work because you are gone?

He finally bought a policy…a bit reluctantly…But, he bought a policy nonetheless. It was a start; something that he could build upon when he had more money and was more financially secure to buy more. I was a bit relieved and so was his wife.

Just before he died, we had a private conversation at his bedside. My friend never cried, he was a tough guy, it just wasn’t his style. In fact, we would kid around about his “no crying” policy all the time…laughing and accusing him of being a soft-hearted guy at the core and how he was just trying to hide it by acting like a tough guy. He was tough…and he was soft-hearted.

He said to me at that bedside with tears in his eyes, “Thank you. Thank you for shaming me into buying that life insurance. Now the girls and my wife will be able to pay the house off. My wife will have to go to work, but at least she won’t have to worry about the mortgage. That’s a big deal, Tony. Thanks for being my friend.”

He died not long after that conversation. I miss him…and I know his family does as well. But he did the right thing for them…He didn’t leave them empty handed with sleepless nights filled with worry about how the bills will get paid. He left a legacy to carry on.

Now, I know this is a case where I had the courage to speak to a friend, someone I had a good relationship with and who I felt I had the liberty to do some straight talking with; disturbing him as to the possible consequences of what will happen without adequate life insurance to pay for the bills.

Maybe it was easier…But that conversation with my friend was not the first one I had ever had with someone. I have been disturbing people for years! I have other stories chronicling the miracle of life insurance. It's just that my friend's story is the most memorable for me.

I’m happy to have disturbed him…to have "shamed" him, as he characterized my appeal to buy life insurance, into buying what he needed to buy for his family. You would have done the same, I hope.

So in closing, I have to ask you, "How disturbing are you to people?" How annoying are you, so to speak, in order to get people to do the things they need to do for themselves? Have you the courage to ask the disturbing questions of life? Or do you dimiss away the need to ask people directly what will happen to them and their family without insurance protection at the sake of being a "nice" salesperson?

It is possible to be "nice" and to be disturbing at the same time.

I hope the answer to those questions is that you are very disturbing...Because in the end, it's the one annoyance people can't live without.