AT/LAN and AT Redux 1945


	Cover Story Making the Transition Lighter Side of Life ViewPoint Expert to Expert Sales Solutions Managing Money Web Only Life Lines BizTech One Minute Motivation Life Stories






	• Client Building Via the Internet • Can Retirement Income Last a Lifetime? • MDRT Holds 75th Annual Meeting in Nashville • Estate Planning with Health and Welfare Benefit Plans • Laws of Lifetime Growth










	Advisor Spotlight Media Watch Advisor Spotlight














	Voices From the Field • Chapter 1 • Chapter 2 • Chapter 3 Short Takes LAN and AT Redux • An Advertising Man Looks at Insurance (1945) • Who in the World Can I Talk To? (1964) • Forgive and Remember (1984)

About Us		NAIFA		Resources		Archives		Advertising		Reader Services


			Site Map	Contact

By Arthur F. Sisson

Sometimes the most obvious things are the hardest to see. With that thought as a preface, I would like to share with you some thoughts and observations that come to me as an advertising man looking at life insurance. While I desire to be intelligently informed about life insurance, I am equally anxious to retain my laymen's viewpoint in order that I may look at the product from the angle of the people who buy it. In so doing, I can talk to them in terms they understand.

In most commercial lines of business today salesmen are losing their sales touch through having no goods to sell. There is no shortage of merchandise with life insurance. It is available in quantities today just as great as ever. No government priorities are needed to obtain life insurance; although it is a vital product--vital to everyone's security--it is not rationed. There is no black market; people can buy as much of it as they can qualify for; and delivery is as prompt as ever. The prices of commodities have increased considerably--but what about your product? The basic rate structure is practically the same. Dividends may be a trifle lower, and the interest earned on investment contracts may have dropped one-half of one percent. So, life insurance, by comparison with other necessities, has not deteriorated in quality and is far underpriced today.

I suspect that sales frequently are lost, because salesmen, in their enthusiasm over a particular form of contract fail to emphasize the need for it first.

And then there is the overused expression, "Do you know there is a war going on?" There are too many businesses today that are giving their customers the brush-off by using it. After the war is over I plan to transfer my business from those places where I was high-hatted or clipped, and so will millions of other American's who feel that way. But in the little black book in which America is making mental notes, I doubt that there will be an entry against life insurance or its companies. As far as I can see, life insurance agents and companies are just as courteous as ever, giving unselfish service wherever they can be helpful. Letters are still being answered courteously; claims are being promptly paid; and the entire machinery of life insurance operation is functioning smoothly in its customary friendly manner.

Variety of people to sell
There is a sense of adventure in selling life insurance. You never quite know to whom your next sale will be made. Some sales are easy; some are hard; some take time; others materialize quickly. Sometimes it's the last call of the day, the extra call, which turns out to be most fruitful. If I sell lumber, I must confine my calls to those who use it as raw material. If I sell dress goods, I must call on department stores. If I sell rails, I must call on railroads. If I sell hardware, I confine my conversations to hardware buyers. But you, you can call on anyone--men and women--farmers doctors, engineers, tradesmen, nurses, schoolteachers, barbers, professors, bankers, accountants, lawyers. The list is endless. How very few salesmen ever have that chance! Not only that, but if one segment of your broad market is making money and others are not, you can shift your sales calls and concentrate on those whose fortunes are in tune with the times. How very few salesmen ever have that chance!

Life insurance is sold through feelings, not figures. I suspect that sales frequently are lost, because salesmen, in their enthusiasm over a particular form of contract fail to emphasize the need for it first. Not until you have established a need can you sell the product that meets that need.

Bring life insurance to life
Don't sell me policies, sell me what policies do. Bring insurance to life!

The common selling weakness of most life insurance salesmen is their disposition to assume that their customers and prospects know the answers--even the simplest ones--to life insurance. It's up to you to tell them, and for that they will be eternally grateful. There is one conclusion that you will come to easily, and it is that people do not want dry facts served to them in a dry way. Instead, they want information served to them with an emotional and dramatic touch which mirrors their own lives. The most effective advertisements are not written about products, but about people. If you will use words more skillfully you will increase your sales. Choosing the right words can make the difference between a profitable sale and no sale.

A waiter says to me, "Any dessert?" I say, "No, I guess not today." If he had said, "We have some fresh peaches in this morning, and the chef made up some old-fashioned deep-dish peach pie. I recommend it for your dessert today," well, you would have said yes, too!

Come down to my level. Make me understand. Take my hand and lead me behind the scenes of life insurance mechanics. Show me what makes the wheels go round; I'm interested. Use graphic words--etch the thought in my mind. Ideas said simply sound honest and are believed. Perhaps your speaking technique needs a little streamlining.

Open Book

Voices from the Field

Short Takes