How to Sell Disability Insurance

Seven Time-Tested Tips for Selling Paycheck Protection

1. Say “Paycheck Protection.” Don’t tell me what it is. Tell me what it does! Most
people cannot envision being disabled but they can understand the importance
of protecting the paycheck – their most important asset. Change your client’s
perspective by using one key phrase!

2. Sell the Need with Stats. The likelihood of being disabled during your working life
is much more common than you would think. Use statistics to emphasize the
likelihood of being disabled when meeting with clients.

3. Sell to Business Owners. Insure the Golden Goose! There are many good
candidates for DI, but business owners need the most protection. Protect business
owners’ paychecks with individual disability insurance along with a Business
Overhead Expense (BOE) policy to protect the business. Only 5 percent of business
owners have a Business Overhead Expense policy.

4. Tell the Previous and Potentially Declined, Yes! Height and weight? Abnormal
labs? Heart surgery, diabetes, sleep apnea, hepatitis and multiple medications?
The chances are great that our brokers can find a carrier for your clients with health issues. Health issues are no longer a reason not to seek DI.

5. Sell Multi-Life Cases. Sell three or more lives from the same workplace or
organization, and your clients will receive major discounts. Females can save up to
45% on their annual premiums! Why sell one case if it’s better to sell three?

6. Overcome Price Objections: Compare the Cost of DI to Home and Auto
Insurance. Use our Annual Protection Review (APR) sales script to help clients understand that disability insurance is actually more affordable than home or auto insurance.

7. Ask The Question: Do You Have Paycheck Protection? Most agents don’t sell DI
because they don’t ask the question. Start a dialogue about DI.

DI Plus Accident

12 Key Facts About Classic Car Coverage

Classic car owners are passionate about their vehicles, keeping them as showroom pieces in their homes or driving them around to catch people’s eyes. Whether kept indoors or occasionally driven, however, these vehicles need to be insured against everything from water damage to collisions.
While cheaper to insure than standard vehicles, classic cars has estimated annual premiums of up to $2 billion and is a great nice for independent agents and brokers to break into.

Here are 12 important facts about Classic Car coverage for both insureds and agents alike:

1) Coverage Is Cheap. The premiums for Classic & Collectible Car coverage are much cheaper than Standard Auto policies, with most insureds paying just 25-33 percent of what they would for a comparable policy on a daily-drive vehicle. For collectors with just a single classic car in the garage, worth in the mid-five figures, an average premium is likely to be in the $200-$400 per year range, depending on the liability requirements of the state where the insured resides.

2) Limited Use Expected. The reasons for the substantially lower rates are twofold. First and foremost is that usage of these cars is expected to be strictly limited to special occasions—they are not meant to be used for the daily commute or taking the kids to soccer practice. But in addition to usage restrictions, another factor helps keep premiums low: Insureds tend to take very good care of their cars, treating them more like a painting—or beloved family member—than a mode of transport.

3) Agreed Value Policies. Another key characteristic of collector-car coverage is that policies are Agreed Value, not Actual Cash Value. Markets that play in the space will have a range of valuations they will accept from clients based on the make and model of a car. Clients whose proposed valuations are much higher would need to have the car independently appraised.

4) Indie Agents: Find Business at Car Shows. For independent agents and brokers looking to break into the Classic Car niche, one of the best bets is to attend a local event for enthusiasts of the hobby. Ron Fiamma, vice president/director of private collections for the Private Client Group division of Chartis, estimates there are 10,000 car shows every year—from the popular “Concours d’Elegance” in Pebble Beach, Calif., “to a handful of guys getting together in a McDonald’s parking lot. People are so passionate about their cars that it’s easy for a broker to stroll around and use an icebreaker like asking how someone got started collecting. With only a limited amount of knowledge, a broker can infiltrate this market pretty easily. You don’t have to be an expert.”

5) Racing Excluded (with One Exception). Some carriers allow collector cars to hit the track in very specific and controlled circumstances—basically for a leisurely spin around the circuit. But all carriers exclude actual racing—with one big exception. Six months ago, Chartis made available a new, nonadmitted, physical-damage endorsement “as an accommodation to top clients who race,” says Fiamma.

6) Common Claims. Many classic car claims stem from incidents that occurred on the insured’s own property. “Many claims have nothing to do with collisions, but are related to storage issues—something falls in the garage or there’s flooding or rodents or a hazard from construction going on next door,” says Hagerty. Engine fires are another frequent source of insurer payouts, as well as water-damage and flying rocks when a car is being transported.

7) “Rat Rod” Submissions. Rising. One widely seen trend is an increase in insurance submissions for “rat rods,” heavily modified vehicles that harken back to the designs of 1950s hot rods. The insurance challenge: finding an accurate value. The pros: clients often fix the cars themselves.

8) Billion-Dollar Market. Just how big is the Classic & Collectible Car niche? No one is quite sure, with estimates of annual premium ranging from $500 million to $2 billion—although the majority of industry experts feel $1 billion is a pretty accurate estimate.

9) Good Investments. While an unabashed love of classic cars is what really drives collectors to spend millions or even tens of millions on the hobby, the purchases often prove to be good investments as well. Indeed, given the low returns on more traditional investment plays, some underwriters report collector cars are becoming even more popular these days as buyers view them as a way to park money in a relatively safe investment—while also getting a lot more enjoyment than what a stock or bond provides.

10) An Argument for Combining Regular, Classic Cars. It is highly recommended for high-net-worth clients to combine both classic cars and regular-use vehicles on one policy. By insuring classic cars as part of a personal-lines account that includes regular-use vehicles on the same policy, the insurer has a clearer picture of vehicle usage, resulting in broader coverage for the insured. Other advantages include the efficiency of maintaining one agent, carrier, policy and bill for all cars as well as savings, including the potential benefits to your regular-use automobiles through multi-car pricing.

11) Giant Auto Insurers Play in This Space, Too. Auto-insurance giants are also playing in the classic car space. Among them is State Farm, whose Antique policies are for vehicles at least 25 years old, and its Classic policies are for cars at least 10 years old and produced on a limited basis. As with other Classic Car programs, physical damage is on a stated-value basis and usage is restricted to exhibitions and parades, resulting in low liability premiums.

12) Repairs Can Trump Replacements. Often times, repairing a damaged classic car can cost less than replacing it. A Chartis client drove his Ferrari Enzo—one of 400 made—into a wall, deeming it a total loss. But the client refused payment, requesting he wanted the car back. Chartis paid to send the car to the Ferrari factory in Italy for repairs, and flew the client to Italy twice to oversee the work and test the repaired vehicle on Ferrari’s track. Writing a total-loss check would have cost Chartis two-thirds as much.

Let’s Meet: How to Schedule an Appointment.

Personally, I don’t want to be invited to have a beverage, quick chat or lunch. Recently, I received a have-a-quick-chat email and didn’t respond. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m happy to follow up if I’m informed why I might be interested in such an invitation in either the subject line or the first few lines of an email invitation.

The email I received went on about what a certain insurance policy did and how it worked, and I could not be bothered to read further. If the writer had explained in the first line that he wanted me to refer the insurance company to our clients or offer this insurance policy, I might have responded.

This email came back to mind during a call with one of our agents. Our agent explained that his customer service representative (CSR) was not being very successful when it came to calling prospects for an appointment. I asked the agent if his prospect knew why the CSR was calling.

Our agent said, “My CSR was calling to book a follow-up meeting to an appointment that had already occurred.” The agent went on to say that some of his clients/prospects had asked that he, rather than his CSR, call to schedule the appointment. (I said that I would be out of business if I made every call to schedule client and prospect appointments.) I explained that I thought that this was more about the process (client engagement) than the person making the call.

I told our agent he needed to do a proper needs analysis with the client or prospect that included asking him for the three biggest improvements he wanted to make and his three biggest roadblocks to success. Then, he needed to make his insurance policy the solution to the client’s or prospect’s problems. When the client engagement process is done properly it makes the appointments a lot easier to secure.

I told our agent to send out an email in advance of having the CSR call for an appointment. It could go something like this example, which we use in our business:

Dear Prospect,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing in follow up to our last appointment when we discussed your insurance coverage and protecting your family/business.

Ninety days have passed since our last conversation and I’m wondering how you’re progressing. I’m going to take the liberty to have my customer service representative call you to schedule a convenient time for us to have a conversation.

Kind regards,

Doug Myrick

With a letter such as this, you give your client or prospect a clear understanding as to why you want to have a conversation and you are treating him with respect.

How to Network, Part 1

“Go forth and network” may be one of the most hackneyed pieces of advice you can hear in the business world. Whatever it is you seek—a prospect, a client, a promotion, a new career—networking is usually offered as the answer. But according to Vickie Milazzo, successful businesswoman and author of “Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman,” many people are not networking the right way.

“I see many people investing a lot of time and energy into meeting new people and making those people like them,” explained Milazzo. “The problem is, they’re making connections with the wrong people or they’re approaching the right people the wrong way…or both!”

Milazzo began her professional life as a nurse and later started a company that consults with attorneys on medically related cases. She built up her company by cultivating relationships with a select group of people who could help her achieve success, in her case, attorneys.

“To see good results, you need to know what type of person can help you and where you can meet these individuals,” she said. “You also need to build meaningful relationships once you do meet the right people. It’s all about being smart and being selective.”

Here are five tips from Milazzo on how to network most effectively:

1. Don’t just socialize—select. Traditional networking holds that every new person you meet is a networking contact. But unless you and your new friend have professional common ground, your efforts will be wasted.
2. Make sure your group makes sense. Understand that even among professionals, not all networking contacts will be beneficial. You must build a personalized network of colleagues, clients, consultants, vendors and acquaintances you can call on for advice, information or referrals. “It’s worth it to research the makeup of a group before you join or the guest list of an event before you RSVP,” said Milazzo.
3. Aim higher. It may be comfortable to spend time with people who share your interests, etc., but when it comes to networking you need to get to the people who can help you, and they may not be at your level or share your interests. According to Milazzo, “If you impress someone who is more successful than you are, they’ll have a lot more influence than someone whose position is equivalent with yours.”
4. Know when to cut ties. Don’t waste time mining a dead prospect. No matter how selective you were on the front end, don’t make the mistake of spending time with a group if you aren’t seeing the results you desire.
5. Target your networking efforts. If you cast a wide net, you can catch many potential contacts, but it’s difficult to build a significant relationship with any one of them. According to Milazzo, if you zero in on one or two, you can build stronger, more meaningful relationships. “You’ll get to know their wants and needs and they’ll have a better understanding of yours.”