From The Desk Of Pat Wedeking
Hello
Family!
A number of years ago our team entered the brokerage business coming from a
career agency environment. Mike launched a website to serve term life insurance
buyers and I hit the ground running, eager to provide the very best products to
those clients. I proudly boasted that I wrote business with over 20 carriers and
had contracts in place with over 100. Boy, was I going to do a big job!
And then we experienced the joy of paying “Dummy Tax.” We had hundreds of
products to learn, 20 different commission statements to read and account for,
literally no good relationships in place with carriers, and for some reason we
could not get as many cases out of underwriting and into our clients hands as we
would have liked. And I just couldn’t negotiate higher compensation rates like I
thought we could have.
Then I met
someone I learned to like and trust...
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Forget Bait. Find the BEST
Fishing Hole First!
By Mike Wedeking 
A common mistake agents make when entering the on-line world is
when they attempt to market their company, web site or products through
institutional marketing methods. Institutional or conventional marketing is the
kind that simply says, "I'm open for business." It really doesn't do
much. In essence, it simply advertises the mere existence of a business or web
site -- it does not direct its audience in a clear, specific and succinct way to
take some kind of action.
Using these types of approaches agents fail to produce the
results that they seek and then usually wonder why. Institutional marketing is
what marketer Dan Kennedy calls "Goodyear Blimp" marketing -- like the Goodyear
blimp, which hovers over a football stadium filled with cheering fans, the aim
is to instill warm, fuzzy feelings about Goodyear into the mind.
Obviously, the marketing executives at Goodyear are certainly not thinking that
people will leave the stands at half time and rush out to buy their tires. But,
like Dan explains, their strategy is to have people associate -- likely at a
subconscious level -- warm, fuzzy feelings with Goodyear by flying the blimp
during an emotional event. And the next time they are in need of, say, winter
tires, Goodyear is hopefully the instinctive choice.
Click Here to Read the Full Version.... |
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My Wall
By Karl Sorton
Speedy access to underwriting
guidelines and height/weight charts are essential to providing accurate quotes
to your internet clients. Many successful producers I know keep the charts and
guidelines they use most often taped to the wall or a corkboard within easy view
and reach. I like to keep the "core carriers" guidelines and weight charts in
easy view. We tend to focus on West Coast Life, AIG, and Zurich Life and you
can see their guidelines in the picture. Producers should also ask prescreening
questions of every client. I keep a copy of Zurich's prescreening questions on
my wall and often remind the producers in my office to do the same.
I also keep some of the
non-core guidelines handy near my phone. First Colony's cholesterol guidelines
often come in handy when a case gets bumped unexpectedly out of preferred by one
of the core carriers. Having their guidelines handy can help salvage some cases
for you.
Click Here to Read the Full Version...
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Some of the benefits of attending the 2nd Annual OFG Direct Response
Sales Summit Include the opportunity to:
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Nurture life-long, valuable relationships
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Learn cost saving ideas
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Learn things that will increase your revenue
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Learn how successful direct responders handle lead cost
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Meet carrier representatives and learn more about how they work
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Establish relationships with underwriters
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Learn about the new OFG Direct Mailing solution – target your area or
your market, specifically.
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Help our niche in the minds of consumers, carriers, paremed companies
and regulators
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Learn the monetary benefits of LeadBoss and some of its lesser known
features
Share ideas informally with others in your same business
Friends, we are working to develop a bit of an "association" feel such
that we could influence the buying public, the carriers, the parameds,
together. We also want to share ideas and accelerate your learning
curve.
4 days a year is not too much to invest. We know of no other
communication session like this one in the world and if you are serious
about this business, you will want to be there.
We know you will find it a worthy investment of your time. Our company
is dedicating a lot of resources to putting this together for YOU. We
know that what we give comes back in spades and this is our form of
giving to an industry we love so much.
2 travel days and 2 of the most important meeting days you can
experience. If you think you know everything about this business and can
not benefit from sharpening your saw, please stay home. The rest of us
will be gathering, sharing, developing friendships and making more money
than you can shake a stick at.
Don’t let this opportunity slip by; all the top producers will be there,
our core carriers will be on hand, and we have a some special
announcements for those at the meeting.
You need to go to this meeting. Please sign up right now by calling
800-444-ADAM and referencing Only Financial for the discount.
The program will start with a welcome hospitality room Thursday evening,
September 30th and meetings run all day Friday and Saturday. Friday
night is a special evening of relationship developing and fun. Saturday
evening we have our now famous Family style dinner at Buca di Beppos and
departures are slated for Sunday, October 3rd.
We’ll see you at the Summit!
Pat
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LeadBoss Q&A
What Is LeadBoss?
Click Here For More Info
Q:
I’ve heard of
the “automatic up-sell”. What is this and how do I utilize LeadBoss to make this
happen?
A:
The “automatic up-sell” is a
VERY simple method to increase your annual premium by presenting multiple death
benefits or term options in the application packet. For example, within the
application packet you would include a quote for the death benefit that was
requested and you also would include two additional death benefit amounts and
quotes. You would then ask the client to circle the quote which works best for
them (an example of this is located here.) Often what happens is the client will
circle the middle quote. Thus, you have just made an automatic up-sell. Some of
our agents have found this auto up-sell has increased their average annual
premium by $80 per placed case.
Now, as many of you know, LeadBoss gives you the ability to quote various
carriers, email, and print these quotes. To generate the 3 quotes necessary for
an automatic up-sell, you should follow these steps:
Click on the lead for which you would like to quote; up-sell
Get a quote (either “Quick Quote” or “Detailed Quote”) for the death benefit
which was asked for (ex. $250,000)
Check off the boxes to the left “Save for email” for ONE specific carrier you
would like to work with
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save”
Run the quote again with the increased death benefit (ex. $350,000)
Repeat the steps above
Once you have done this three times, go to the “Product Detail” tab and click
the “Email Quote” button
This will take you to the emailing screen where your three quotes with their
three death benefits will be listed
Enter the “auto up-sell” text into the text box and you can then print this out
and include it in your application packet
NOTE: you can also use the “auto up-sell” with multiple
terms. If you use multiple terms, you only need to run the quoter ONCE since you
can select multiple terms (ex 10, 20, and 30 yr) BEFORE generating the quotes.
You would then save the three quotes for each term and mail these three term
options.
IMPORTANT: the auto up-sell works best when ONLY THREE options are given (so
that a “middle” option can be chosen.)
This sounds like a lot of work but it is very quick. It only takes about 30
seconds from the first quote to printing the quotes for your application packet.
Therefore, using LeadBoss, you have made an automatic up-sell. Worth the 30
seconds? DEFINITELY!!!
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"Getting to Know Each Other"
Each month we will profile different
members of the OFG Team. This month, please click on the link
below to....
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Sales Corner
How to get good, free leads.
The key to collecting free
leads (referrals) is to ask. A-S-K, Ask. Ask 100% of the people, 100% of the
time. Before asking for referrals always
ask your client to get out their phone book, or Palm Pilot or whatever they use
to store numbers. You would like to give them your direct line in case they ever
need anything. Tell them to turn to I for Insurance and write your name down and
indicate "Life Insurance". Encourage them to contact you anytime they
ever have a thought or question.
Click Here to Read the Full Version |
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Please Join Us
For Our Biweekly Teleconference's
iShare
A
monthly teleconference of the nations top producers in the Direct Response
Market.
Next Teleconference
Thursday
September 16th
at 12:00 PST
iForum
"Engineered To Make You Money"
A
monthly teleconference of vendors, carriers and the nations top producers in
the Direct Response Market
Next Teleconference
Thursday
October 14th
at 12:00
PST
Open to all
Only Financial Group vendors and agents.
Largest I-Forum of the Year, Direct Response Sales
Summit - Denver, CO
For those
wishing to sit in, contact Brad from OFG at:
reminder emails will be sent
with access number
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Impaired
Risk through
OFG
Easy as
ABC, 123
Has your client been Declined, Postponed, Rated or Refused?
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OFG Press Releases
Take a moment to read
through our press releases, and to learn more about our exciting
services and products which will increase your bottom line!
Press Release Archive |
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