Many a time, I was approached by my fellow young life insurance agents with these questions; "How do we encounter other insurance companies?" or "How to beat the other agents or plans?" or "How to be better than all other competitors?"
I was surprised they asked these questions. The life insurance industry is always remained as one product sold by various insurance companies. Just that different companies market this one product in various styles and approaches. We should not be competitors within ourselves. Our real competitors are from other industries, who make consumers to spend rather than to make them save. When a prospect claims he has no money left or he is financially tight, I would take it that other industry players are working faster than ours. People need to earn but equally they need to spend to make the world market moves. Let see, how other industries sell and market their products.
Look at the motor trade for instance. They spend so much on their advertisement plus incentives to tempt all working people. How to resist the branding of the BMW or the Mercedes! All level of workers would have dreams to purchase such classical cars. Even you might not have made it now, you would still be influenced to buy a brand new Poton for instance. I only drive an old Honda but many of my fellow colleagues are already doubting me. Luckily I still have my wife and girl friends who are still proud to sit in this old junk with me.
What about the expensive new houses available to the taste of those young working couples. They would squeeze their hard earned salaries, borrowed on long term, scarified decent food to meggie mee, just to live in style. When their friends come over to their luxurious home, they pretended to be rich and successful. In fact, they are living in misery, because their accounts are always tight in budget.
Look at the way Malaysian travel abroad. You would be shocked to know the percentage of our tourists against the Japanese going abroad. The Japanese has less than 5% over their population as oversea tourists. Whereas we are at more than 30%. We spend more, when we earn less against the Japanese, who earn more and spend lesser. Frightening!
I can go on to tell you more but the above information are good enough for us to realize the different. Fellow colleagues, our real competitors are not the various insurance companies you are looking at. It is those who sell cars, houses, holidays, etc are our real competitors. So the next round, you meet a prospect who has been approached by another fellow industry colleague, please encourage him to buy from that agent who come first. Unless prospect is not satisfied with him or the company he represented.
Move on to another prospects who might need your help. If we are slow, perhaps the real competitors would easily be able to sell their products faster than us. Their products are tangible and could be seen. Ours are intangible which could only be visualized. We sell hopes, inspiration and promises of the future. We are asking them to save rather than encouraging them to spend. Saving and spending are two different things. Ours are more noble in kind.
I was surprised they asked these questions. The life insurance industry is always remained as one product sold by various insurance companies. Just that different companies market this one product in various styles and approaches. We should not be competitors within ourselves. Our real competitors are from other industries, who make consumers to spend rather than to make them save. When a prospect claims he has no money left or he is financially tight, I would take it that other industry players are working faster than ours. People need to earn but equally they need to spend to make the world market moves. Let see, how other industries sell and market their products.
Look at the motor trade for instance. They spend so much on their advertisement plus incentives to tempt all working people. How to resist the branding of the BMW or the Mercedes! All level of workers would have dreams to purchase such classical cars. Even you might not have made it now, you would still be influenced to buy a brand new Poton for instance. I only drive an old Honda but many of my fellow colleagues are already doubting me. Luckily I still have my wife and girl friends who are still proud to sit in this old junk with me.
What about the expensive new houses available to the taste of those young working couples. They would squeeze their hard earned salaries, borrowed on long term, scarified decent food to meggie mee, just to live in style. When their friends come over to their luxurious home, they pretended to be rich and successful. In fact, they are living in misery, because their accounts are always tight in budget.
Look at the way Malaysian travel abroad. You would be shocked to know the percentage of our tourists against the Japanese going abroad. The Japanese has less than 5% over their population as oversea tourists. Whereas we are at more than 30%. We spend more, when we earn less against the Japanese, who earn more and spend lesser. Frightening!
I can go on to tell you more but the above information are good enough for us to realize the different. Fellow colleagues, our real competitors are not the various insurance companies you are looking at. It is those who sell cars, houses, holidays, etc are our real competitors. So the next round, you meet a prospect who has been approached by another fellow industry colleague, please encourage him to buy from that agent who come first. Unless prospect is not satisfied with him or the company he represented.
Move on to another prospects who might need your help. If we are slow, perhaps the real competitors would easily be able to sell their products faster than us. Their products are tangible and could be seen. Ours are intangible which could only be visualized. We sell hopes, inspiration and promises of the future. We are asking them to save rather than encouraging them to spend. Saving and spending are two different things. Ours are more noble in kind.
In life, there are more people who would ask you to spend than to save. I could only think of two types of person who would sincerely advise you to save on a long term basis. The first would be our parents who would never fail to encourage their children to save for the future. Next would be a committed life insurance agent who replaces the parent's role.
To be a sincere and committed life insurance agent, lets us follow the words from Napoleon Hill:
"It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be servicing or the class of people served."
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