Selling tips...
Nineteen years ago, i sold an endowment life insurance plan to Mr Choong who was then a very established lawyer in town. He was successful and he claimed life insurance and saving were in fact not necessary for him. However with some persuasion and encouragement from me, he took it up out of obligation from me. His wife was handling the company finance, she made special deduction to pay the premium from her bank account.
The first thirteen years were pretty a good time for Choong and his legal practices. However with a twist of luck, something went wrong on the fourteen years onwards, when Choong was no longer in his business. He could not be located and was not in practice anymore. There were no premium deduction from his wife's account. I had not seen him after that.
Last Dec 2008, i received a letter and a cheque amounting 88 thousands plus, addressing to this man. I was surprised his policy had matured, when after taking into account all his indebtedness for premium not paid for the last six years, he still had a balance of this saving on his policy. With this cheque in hand, i tried to locate his last written address in town. Nobody around those neighbourhood, knew where this old man and family had left. I referred to his previous bankers and the place he rented his office previously as well. Nobody seemed to know where this missing man was. I instructed my secretary to check the telephone companies for similar names listed on their directories. She called all the names and not one was him. I referred to the death registrar who confirmed this man was still alive. After three months of investigation on my side without success, i returned the unclaimed cheque to my principle company for safe keeping.
Six months later, my company wrote another letter to me, informing that within fourteen days if Mr Choong doesn't appear to claim this payment, the amount would be sent to our Central Bank as 'unclaimed money'. I was sad to read this statement. The next few days, i called all the lawyers i knew in town to seek their assistance, explaining the story behind. To cut my story short, we managed to trace and locate the poor old man.
He was staying with an unmarried daughter in a small apartment. Six years ago, he failed badly with his investment, his wife was suffering from cancer when a lot of medical expenses were spent, he had a coronary artery bypass at the same time when the wife passed away and currently he is suffering from Parkinson. He was a lost man who lost almost everything.
He could not believe to see me, more so to tell him that there is a cheque for him to collect. He had forgotten this policy i had effected for him, moreover there were no payment made for the past last six years from them. He cried in tears, shaking his emotional hand over mine. He said, "Are you God sent?" I told him,"Yes! I am an angel coming in the form of a life insurance agent who delivers my promise today. You had appointed me as your agent nineteen years ago and i had to fulfill my promise no matter what happened". 88 thousands were a small amount for him those days but today this 88 brought him hope and respect. I am glad our promise was fulfilled as what we had planned nineteen years ago. This is what i called Dedication and Empathy in our profession.
Merlin Oisen quoted "The winning team has a dedication. It will have a core of veteran players who set the standards. They will not accept defeat".
Bonnie Jean Wasmund quoted "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you make them feel".
