AT/LAN and AT Redux 1964


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	• 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










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	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)

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By E. William Griswold

When I entered the business 11 years ago, my first task was to answer the question that plagues all new agents: "Who in the world can I talk to about buying life insurance?"

In an attempt to solve this question, the activities of older, more experienced agents were studied. Several were apparently quite successful in dealing with professional men such as dentists, attorneys, engineers, etc. I decided that, as a frustrated physician with an interest in medicine, I would be happy working with the medical field.

It soon became apparent, however, that I didn't have enough experience to talk to the established doctors who had money to buy large amounts of life insurance. I decided therefore to concentrate on those at the educational and financial level closest to my own--doctors still in training.

Lists of these prospects were obtained from the various colleges, universities and hospitals in the area. Next I invested a great deal of time and money in direct mailing memo books, letters, pictures and advertising material so that the doctors and students would know who I was when I called.

When I finally reached them on the telephone, the suggestion was made that they would some day be interested in buying insurance, and therefore some education along that line might be of value to them now. I tried to sell an interview with a young doctor on that basis alone.

I decided therefore to concentrate on those at the educational and financial level closest to my own--doctors still in training.

The interview was built around a simple analysis of the various types of insurance coverage and programming on a future needs basis. Then I attempted to sell protection on the basis of what their future needs would be.

Plenty of prospects
The biggest success that I had was in the number of people that I was able to see--from 10 to 20 per day, six days a week. In a market such as this, if you see one or two people a day, your sales ratio will be insufficient.

I worked almost every evening and all day Saturday, averaging 12 to 14 hours a day on the job. In periods where there were no appointments, the time was devoted to scheduling future meetings and filling up the prospect book with the names of people who might be contacted later.

All this is hard work, especially when discouragement sets in. It's doubly difficult to stick to a schedule like this after you have gotten a "no" from 10 people in a row. But I kept telling myself that each refusal brought me that much closer to a "yes" and the end result was that I did write a lot of cases.

As a result of this effort, I now have a tremendous backlog of clients and the referred leads they give me. But, even so, I find it necessary every once in awhile to get out into the field and meet new people in order to make up for normal client mortality.

One thing is certain: The average new agent cannot be successful unless he sees a lot of people. To make the grade, you should see 50 to 75 prospects per week and ask them to buy. Breaking this down, you should have at least 10 appointments during the day and some each evening. If you must travel several miles between appointments, however this is obviously impossible.

Consolidating calls
If this appears to be too difficult a regimen, you should consider the possibility of working in "nests." As you undoubtedly know, a "nest" is composed of a number of prospects at one location. Such a concentration enables you to go from one to the other without spending too much time in opening and closing your briefcase, getting into and out of your car, and driving to the other side of town. Obviously, you can only see two or three people a day if you have to go from one end of a metropolis to a suburb on the other end of town to make the next call. But if they are all in one building or one small area, you can see four or five times as many each day. If you can arrange a schedule of stops before and after the call in the same general area, even if the appointment itself falls through, a sale may result with one of the other people seen in transit.

Because of my large volume of renewals, I don’t have to work as hard now as I did several years ago. I see very few people in the evenings, and I don't work at all on weekends. But a man who operates this way at the beginning of his career is only trying to reap the rewards without doing the work. He must be willing to sacrifice a certain amount of time in the first three or four years so that later on he will be in a position to produce more business with about half the effort.

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