DECLINED! Now What?

Agents in the crowd, does this scenario have any resonance with your experience:

Worked hard to get the appointment,

Met with the prospect,

Filled out the factfinder and revealed a need,

Presented a product to fill the need,

Found prospect receptive and willing to make an offer/application for the coverage,

Submitted application,

Underwriting does their thing for what seems like 18 weeks (actually 10-14 business days), DECLINED FOR COVERAGE!

Ooof! What the Heck? 

The air goes out of the plan all at once. If you have a heart for the people you meet with this is a huge disappointment. The lost commissions are one matter but the lost opportunity to help the person is the bigger matter.

Let's take a step back from the wreckage to do a little post-game analysis.

The events I outlined really cry out for some early "Plan B" exploration. In fact the overall plan is easier to engage the prospect with if it shows that depth. ("If we have any difficulty getting this application through underwriting, we can approach this from this other angle...") You the agent have now distinguished yourself, set yourself apart from the "product-peddlers" in our industry. The product peddler disapears like smoke upon decline.

I'm finding that I need to have some extra resources in my bag to really help some of these harder cases. I know agents who are contracted with multiple companies to have a maximized number of small face value policies stitch into a 'quilt' to amount to (or close to) the needed face value. I admire the agents who are willing to put shoulder to the wheel and get the client up that hill.

For sure, the 'decline' can be dispiriting the applicant too. No rejection feels good. If you have the resources in place to move to plan B the client should be starting to really understand why having you as their agent in an advantage. 

Everyone has a point beyond which they can not practically go. It's an individual choice. I think that in the long run the agents who err on the side of giving the client too much service do make it up in the end with gaining hard won experience faster and reaching heightened levels of efficiency soon in their career.

I'd love to see a lot of comment on this topic. YMMV and I'd like to know how the other perspectives and experiences play out. Please share.

Show Me You Love Me

I think I really surprised my youngest sister last week.

She asked me (in a rather off-hand way) "So, How's the insurance biz?"

My reply, "Oh, my gosh, I'm loving it. I help people do the most amazing things with their insurance choices."

She was kind of confused by that. She asked me what I meant.

Most people don't understand what we (the agents) find engaging about being insurance agents. They assume that we're mostly in it for the big money. Rake in as much premium dollars as you can, work three days a week and retire early on the residuals from the low value policies you tricked people into buying by exploiting their paranoia... 

Speaking only for my own perspective and motivations, I can tell you I do this work because it is very rewarding to help people use these insurance products to accomplish the things that mean the most to them.

I'm old enough to have learned that in this mortal world we have a few tangible resources. The places you commit these resources say a lot the depth and direction of your love.

Of the products I'm licensed to sell, Life Insurance is the most obvious extension of this course.

One of my favorite cases to date is a guy I met in northern Nebraska. He's a retired gentleman in his middle 60's who lives with his adult daughter and her little children, three of them all under five years of age. He asked about life insurance to do a very specific job. He wanted a policy that could be used to cut the principal of his 30 year mortgage in half if he dies prematurely. This was a simple and sure plan. I ran a couple of projections and we settled on a program that would serve this need and meet his budget.

I took the application and hopped back in my car to head home.

When I’m driving I either engage in some type of distraction (talk radio, sing songs I learned at summer camp, continuing education CDs...) or spend the drive-time thinking. That day I was in thinking mode. I kept mulling over this guys plan and how sweet it was. It wasn't the most expensive policy I've ever sold, wasn't complex or technically cleaver. Just a solid expression of his love and care for his daughter and grand children. What a privilege it is to serve this client.