Dear subscriber,
Playing dodgeball with your kids is a lot harder than you think.
First of all, you have to throw them with both hands.
Not easy.
Now, speaking of things that are harder than first imagined, listen to this:
Many salespeople get lured into selling life insurance because of its big commissions, only to find out that selling life insurance is a whole lot harder than they first imagined.
Firstly, you must realize that you’re far better off wielding the sales stick than you are the sales carrot.
That’s not intuitive for most salespeople.
Listen, as far as selling goes, selling life insurance is about as hard as it gets.
Think about it.
You’re selling a product with zero instant gratification.
And… to get the actual benefit of the product, there’s a tiny caveat:
You Have to Die!
Essentially, you’re in the death business.
It really should be called death insurance, shouldn’t it?
A tough sell, indeed.
You know, people love to say (thanks to Frank Sinatra) that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.
Well, I have my own little twist on that saying:
If you can sell life insurance, you can sell anything!
Now, I recently watched a movie called Cemetery Junction. Its main character was a rookie life insurance salesman.
There’s a great line in the movie that reveals a big secret to selling insurance. Wanna hear it? Of course you do.
Well, the rookie insurance salesman is learning at the feet of his mentor who says this:
“When selling life insurance, you want the stench of death in their nostrils.”
Very true.
Here’s another great line about selling life insurance from this movie:
“When talking to the husband, you want the missus thinking, “Good grief, what’s my life gonna be like when he croaks it? Men work, women worry, that’s what you rely on.”
Also very true.
Okay, we’re having fun here, ain’t we? How about I share with you the actual sales pitch delivered by the brilliant sales mentor, huh? It’s a doozy of a pitch.
I’ll set the scene:
The rookie salesman is halfway through a sales pitch and is making a dog’s breakfast of the pitch. He’s making every sales blunder in the book, and his mentor (a veteran salesman) is sitting in the room watching and trying not to spit out his cup of tea in disgust. He glares at the rookie with a “what the hell are you doing?” look.
The rookie sees his mentor’s face and says to his prospective clients, “Excuse me, I just need to speak to my colleague for a moment.”
The rookie and his mentor leave the room and talk in the hallway.
“What the hell are you doing in there?”, snaps the mentor.
“They don’t want a policy”, plus they saving up for a two-week holiday in Paris”, replies the nervous rookie. “They DO want a policy… just not enough to sign the paperwork”, barks the mentor. “You gotta make them want it more! Now watch how it’s done, rookie.”
They walk back into the room with the prospective clients and the veteran salesman takes over.
Salesman: Did you fight in the war, sir?
Client: Yes. Egypt.
Salesman: Well, I’d like to thank you for that, sir. I’d like to thank the good Lord that you came back safe and sound. But, and pardon me for asking this… what’s the point of fighting and surviving… coming back to your wife and building this lovely home if you’re not gonna see the job through?
Client: What do you mean?
Salesman: If you don’t put this money aside… and you die suddenly, then your wage packet dies with you. Your wife will go on living. How is she gonna cope? Is this government gonna look after her? They can’t keep the lights on. They can’t keep the streets clean. They will do nothing and she’ll be on her own. I mean, I’ve sat with so many widows who used to be… full of life. Their husbands died and within a month, they were a bag of bones. They can’t afford to buy food, clothes. They can’t afford to buy soap. Soap. They can’t afford to keep themselves clean. And they beg me, they say to me, “Tell every wife what I now know.” Which is that old age is a living hell if you are old and you are poor. If that happens because you didn’t make provision… then it begs the question: What the hell did we fight a war for? Mrs. Waring, is a two-week holiday… worth 20- years of misery?
The husband looks at his now nervous-looking wife, then looks back at the salesman and says, actually, we’d like a policy. What do we have to sign?
***
Solid pitch.
The lesson here is simple:
Most of your prospects want your product or service, they just don’t want it enough!
So, you gotta get them to want it more! How do you do that? I just gave you an example, Cupcake… but I’ll add my two cents because, hell, I’m a nice guy and like you.
Here’s the deal.
Often, your prospect has a desire to buy, but that desire is not strong enough for them to pony up.
So, you must stoke that fire of desire to a point where their money starts burning a hole in their pocket. You must poke and prod at their pain, and add more pain by letting them see the future disasters that could befall them if they don’t take action.
Okay, my friend,
I hope you see the immense value in today’s email.
If you’d like some of my more detailed sales, copywriting, and persuasion secrets, then you might want to look at this: https://kelvindorsey.com/the-black-bookcol/
Your friend,
Kelvin
Email Marketing Maverick
