Though experience, it is known that you first need confidence, selling skills, expert product knowledge, a flexible non-canned presentation, and above all, almost inhuman determination to walk out with an application and payment. You are free to either work off a list of senior citizens you can easily purchase, or have a direct mail company send out brief lead letters to all seniors in a certain area. If you use the mail approach, ask on the reply card what insurance company they currently have coverage with.

Next use an eraser to clear your mind of all previously training given to selling sophisticated life and financial products. Take your bulging brief case and put it somewhere you don't mind it gather dust. Cover your computer if you desire, you won't be using it for work purposes. Buy a binder with pockets and put in a few "guides to Medicare" from the government, along with a legal pad, and a few sales brochures.

Now it is time to look in the mirror. In your shiny suit, fancy tie, and polished shoes, you look mighty dapper. Time for a makeover. You look and smell exactly like a salesman carrying a big sign worded, "I will bug you relentlessly to buy insurance." Put the suit coat, tie, and shoes somewhere in the closet roe when a wedding or wake occur. Now find comfortable pants, shirt, and shoes. If you own both a Cadillac and a Pickup, gas up the pickup.

Never ever sit down and make a call for an appointment. This is 100% selling and 0% prospecting. Never bother to ask for a referral. If the referral is not near the area you are currently working it will only slow you down. Your prime hours of work are from 10:00 in the morning to five in the afternoon. That's better than bankers' hours, plus plan on only a four day workweek.

The Cold Call Moneymaker Presentation:

Take off your seat a "Guide to Medicare Benefits Pamphlet" and a thick stack of senior citizen address cards, with your prospects name card on top. Approaching the door knock loudly. As soon as the door is opened you look at your card, asking if "John" is available. Before either can respond, officially state that you are there to explain their Medicare Benefits and how their insurance fits in. Never at this stage pull out your business card! Ask if it is right time to sit at the table so you can cover their benefits package quicker.

So far you have complete control and you are in. Ask them to get out their insurance policies as you will need to verify them. Using the "Guide to Medicare Benefits" and your legal pad present the benefits they have from Medicare and their present insurance coverage .Use a highlighter to mark the guide pointed in their direction. Never ever use a Presentation Book! Next choose to explain where either their Medicare Supplement lacks or the absence of long term care coverage exists. Ask if they would like their bank account or insurance to cover the gap?

You spent 15 minutes and you know whether to walk or go for the sale. Tell them you have a busy schedule, but you are going to spend 5 minutes showing them how insurance would help. Immediate pull out the sales application brochure and explain how the gaps would be covered. Present both a low price and a high price option. Say "If you were to get this coverage which would you prefer, the lower benefits or higher benefits."

Keep you mouth shut! Listen to the old clock tick. If the man objects, say "oh well maybe you can't afford it". Then keep your mouth shut and focus your attention toward the wife. She at this stage of life usually handles the cash or checkbook. Often she will say to her husband, "we can afford it, and I think we should take the better plan." Don't be surprised if she gets up to go to the back bedroom. She is just getting some hidden cash to pay the annual premium.

Not what was that about Cold Calling? A 60% or higher closing ratio, with no appointment, and an annual premium. Look at your stack of names and find another senior a few blocks away.

While you are taking a long lunch, think of all your insurance associates, sweating with their tightly wrapped ties, desperately calling to get a possible appointment.

Of course the Emailing option sounds better. Instant response, fast contracting, and quick sales add points to the emailing option. Let's delve into why the quick patch to the high up sales kingdom does not and can not work.

Here's what the email blast firm absolutely does not want you to know.

The Email Company does not have a 250,000 investment. The amount is often closer to $20,000. Quite a difference was possible just by applying a couple cheap and deceitful tricks. Only 8 to 12 sales for them and from then on its all profit. Sounds like, "How to Get Rich Quick 101".

There are 2 essential programs the company needs. These 2 easy to obtain programs are a bulk email letter builder with fast emailing capacity, and an email extractor program. A high end quality emailing outgoing message program can be obtained on the internet for a cost of $5,495.00. A top of the line email extractor program varies, but costs much less. Lastly private SMTP hosting servers are purchased. These assist in trying to avoid being caught for spamming.

The firm falsely promotes the email blasting list as an opt-in list of insurance agents. The truth is that the list is not 100,000 insurance agents ready to receive your message. Instead it is composed of 10,000 to 14,000 licensed insurance agents, with all types of licenses have not opted to receive solicitations. The rest include insurance companies, insurance company employees, property and casualty agents, insurance adjusters, insurance software companies and their employees, insurance magazine staff members, insurance book sellers, and the email address of anyone anyway showing on an insurance related website.

All these email names and addresses are intentionally and incorrectly assumed to be insurance agents you are seeking.

For under $500 can even develop a similar "insurance agent" email list yourself. Searching the internet you can purchase 2 inexpensive bulk "all purpose email programs" You plunk down $199.95, receiving an Email Address Extractor, Email Address Spider, Mailing List remover, and more, Next you purchase the anti-extractor for $39.00 . It uses your recipient's mail server without your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to a relay SMTP server. In addition, add $249.00 for two months of technical support. If you are caught spamming using your internet service provider, or are traced, you face possible fines. Much worse, your web host will likely without warning, permanently remove your web site overnight.

There are two optional ways of extracting insurance agent emails.

Email extractor software, once programmed properly will run 24/7, but requires ample of disk space. The first method involves using domain names (names of websites). A word like insurance is keyed in. The program starts immediately searching for any and all website url addresses containing the word insurance. The program spider crawls the site extracting every email address it finds, plus if requested it spiders all the link sites looking for more emails addresses. This is a computer program, not an intelligent human brain. It is only you that assumes that all email addresses found are those of actual life and health insurance agents. The program will run nonstop until you decide you have procured enough emails.

With the second method, a search term or phrase such as "insurance agents" and then picking a search engine like Google. Google shows 7,000,000 matching pages (yes that number is correct -check it). In website ranking order, Google starts pulling every email addresses found in the website. Like the other url method it uses the same extraction process. But this method starts with the top listed sites first. In the top 60 Google website listings we found insurance company home offices, insurance associations, and only 6 possible life agents/agencies. The percentage rate of finding life/health insurance emails improved, but accuracy remained astonishingly low.

When the email list company has an "insurance agent" email list becomes outdated. they simply start the extracting process over again. Wham! A new bulk insurance agent email list is born, ready for more profits and emailing blasting.

It is not uncommon for "insurance agent" recipients of bulk email blasting to receive a hundred insurance advertising offers every few weeks. Some internet service providers (MSN, AOL, etc) automatically blocks out any emails using spam blocker words like "free, $, click here". Other annoyed agents, add their own blocker words, like "insurance", "life", and "annuity" .to stop the onslaught of insurance email blasting from reaching them. Detailed studies show over 65% of all bulk email messages actually reaching the email recipient are being "deleted" before read.

Assume that every possible method was used by a honest firm to hand compile a fairly accurate list of annuity, life, and health agents. Out of 1,500,000 new and experienced life and health agents nationwide the number would stop around 250,000. Now try to find that honest firm.

The alluring word with sizzling power, is the word Free.

It should be an absolute requirement to use it in your leads/attendance generating sales piece. You are already spending upwards of $30.00 to $150 dollars per each salesperson to attend. Mention in your recruiting letter that each attendee has a chance to win a top grade prize. There is no need to mention the prize, especially the grand prize. Your list mailed to professional insurance agents offering something free, can make it too tempting to resist attending.

Just can't resist. Announce shortly into your presentation that every attendee at the end of the seminar will receive a gift. All salespeople appreciate knowing that receiving something for free is worth enduring your seminar.

Sales training CDs, presentation videos, easy to use software, sales books, illustrative reports, nice pens, unique sturdy key chains, pocket knives, and tiny flashlights work. These items are worth every penny, and more. Announce shortly into your presentation that every attendee at the end of the seminar will receive a gift. Wisely spending on "glad you attended freebies" bucks might just assist in recruiting the salesperson superstar you are looking for. There is no need to send the additional price of having your name imprinted on the item. Since they might give it to their spouse, associate, or child, attaching your business card to the item is more effective.

Every good agent that produces sales for you should be worth a minimum of $2,000 in profits. The superstar producer can easily increase your net income $10,000 or more.

Nail the superstar! Offer a grand prize choice of a couple items. Items that stimulate excitement are an I-Pod, $60 gift certificate to a local steak & seafood restaurant, or a $100 gas card. Mention that only those that sign a contract today are eligible for the grand prize. See how many more sign up! Reach your seminar goal of profitable results the easy way.

If signing an additional producing sales person isn't worth spending another $100 to you, then you are in the wrong profession.

Should you ever get a chance to attend an introductory car show of next year's models and concept cars, make sure your butt is there. You have a front and center chance to observe the paying attendees stand in line at a both inside. Some are wearing $500 suits, others earn a six figure income, standing right among the solid blue collar workers. Observe why they are willing to waste 15 minutes or more. Energetically they wait to receive the dollar promotional item the company is giving out. Everyone from children to millionaires, like to get a free bonus.

The "F" word works, start using it.

Warning, there is one exception where you should never use the free word. Instead of obtaining maximum impact you will get maximum rejection. Every person nowadays has automatic spam blockers built into their computer email receiving program. Unless the agent personally removes it, the word free is considered by most email reader programs to be a spam word. Your email will automatically be sent to spam before the agent has a change to read your message.

Emailing to a large list of insurance agents at a very low cost sounds like a marketers or recruiters dream. Now it is time to bust the dream bubble and head back to planet earth.

Yes when email is used in the proper manner, and for the right circumstance it is certainly a bonanza. However when email is improperly used, you may be completely destroying your reputation. Email blasting insurance agents is usually the latter. If you spent all day searching the internet with different search engines searching for insurance email list firms, you will come up with about 24. Many firms offer the identical list, but at a different price.

Have you ever been to the county fairgrounds, where a hustler was energetically promoting and exaggerating, enticing more and more people to get in line to see the half-man half-alligator, and the amazing cow with two heads? The price was right, so you joined in. After entering you found the half-man half-alligator composed of wood, and the two-headed cow was an unborn, partially developed calf head preserved inside formaldehyde. You didn't spend much, but neither did you get what you expected.

Once you are suckered, your money is gone. Everywhere you go, everything you do, people are more than willing to take your money.

Email blasting firms have already attacked the internet long before realizing the large market potential of insurance recruiters looking for the cheapest way to acquire agents. The field of dreams was started by firms with absolutely no knowledge of insurance marketing, but with a burning desire to put easy dollars into their pockets. Build a list, and you will come to the low cost dream field. Their scheme continues to work..

This new form of agent media, commonly called insurance agent email blasting sounds great! And why not? With email blasting insurance agents you save dollars galore in printing and mailing costs. In addition your direct responses are virtually instant! All it takes to put insurance email blasting in effect is an upfront fee, and you designing a short advertising piece. In a couple days you could reach thousands upon thousands of insurance agents

When agents check their email there is your enticing offer to easily respond back to. No stamp or phone necessary, how convenient. Want your offer to reach 100,000 agents or 700,000 agents, no problem according to the email list owner. This sounds like the least costly, and certainly the easily way to reach recruiter's heaven. One key phrase of wisdom however still prevails: "When something sounds too good to be true it probably is".

It turns out, that to get in line for success, money has to disappear from your wallet usually in an amount of $1,500 to over $10.000 dollars. This depends upon the vendor that hustles you in. Sure it only costs you a penny to a dime each, depending upon the scalper, to have your message sent out. There are too many insurance and marketing firms wanting to see the unbelievable. Now why do these get rich easy schemes usually only benefit the bulk mailer?

A successful marketer knows that success does not come easy. You must use time proven methods to build up your sales. The 20 to 1 odds of reaching the right vendor should deter even the semi-successful experienced marketer or recruiter.

Why does insurance agent email blasting not deliver as hyped up to be? The user of the service (you) failed to apply common knowledge sense of why rarely it could work.

How did the firm easily obtain hundreds of thousands of the agent emails for the list? Did these agents really (opt-in) requesting information be emailed to them about insurance related products? How many times a day or week will the firm mail this agent, with another competitors offer. Will they put it their answer in writing? How many of the recipients use spam filters? How often are the email addresses updated, as the total counts rarely seem to change? Looking for a guarantee on an email blast to insurance agents is unattainable. Also unavailable for you to receive is the list of agents emailed to. (and for an extremely good reason)

Here are the two main questions to ask, and listen closely to the reply so you are not hustled in! Were the names obtained by using an email extractor device? Its doubtful you will get a straight answer. Now remember to ask the absolutely most critical question. How do you know that these email receivers are currently licensed insurance agents? Personally I have only once had an email blaster answer enough of these questions honestly.

There is no proof of a living two-headed cow. What about the miracle insurance email blasting? Despite all the hype and negatives, too many insurance marketers and insurance products marketers still blind all them out. The title of an old song by the Kinks, "Who'll be the next in line", applies here. After reading this are you the next in line?

There are two main reasons why the turnover in insurance agents is so high. The first reason is that agent recruiting managers are not qualified to identify the difference between an order taker salesperson and a salesperson who can quickly adapt the talents to sell insurance. 44% or the agents with sales ability are also going to drop out because they don't how to save themselves. The lifesaver is simply understanding the false type of leads, then proceed only with what is proven to work.

1. The 100 man list lead. This is a list your agency manager forced you to complete before you could start selling. On it are 100 names, addresses, and phone numbers of friends, friends of friends, neighbors, relatives, and businesses you patronize. The form is such a mind boggler you probably added names from a local directory just to fill finish the agony..

The 100 man list is not a true lead list of prospects. Instead they are people you try to coax into buying insurance, even if they don't desire more. A few will buy because they feel sorry for you, or want you to start your career on the right track.

2. Referrals. Your sales manager explains you should easily get two referrals from each appointment you make, and even more if you make the sale. On top of this you are expected to have your prospect immediately call for you and set up the appointment. The high pressure is over boiling! This is not a way of getting leads, but how to lose friends.

3. Company leads of orphan policy owners. Originally these do sound like leads, until you look at the information. Usually it is an older client whose original agent long ago dropped out of the business. The clients name is given to different new agents every few months.. He is not interested, and has said no over and over again. What a time and gas waster.

4. You are handed a phone directory and a canned sales speech that is suppose to handle every objection standing in your way of getting an appointment. What is your chance of blindly calling someone in the market for buying insurance? After days and days you have the answer. Your answer is slim to none.

5. The company manager sees you struggling. He has gotten "special permission" from the head of the agency to provide you a can't lose method. On a form sheet you are allowed each week to submit 50 names and the company will mail them information about one of their products. You get the leads, plus get to phone follow up on the sales pieces sent out. The result is an occasional (spin the roulette wheel) response, and marginally improved phone responses.

So far, in the eyes of the insurance agency this is the analysis. All of these company supplied methods of obtaining leads has provided you ample opportunity to sell their products. Getting financial desperate, you feel the blame is you, and maybe you should look for another occupation. Switching to another agency, you will find yourself in an almost identical cookie cutter situation.

None of these so called company supplied lead methods were truly lead generating techniques to begin with. You were tricked into believing the tools to success had been given.

A lead is a positive response from an interested individual wanting to know more about a certain product, possessing the health conditions to quality, and the ability to pay the premiums. Nothing less, and nothing more. Use this as a measuring stick to your current lead procuring methods.

Chances are you will rarely be supplied a true lead from the insurance agency. You already know that telephone book prospecting is a waste, and submitting sales pieces to the wrong clients is unproductive.

You must quit trying to be a jack of all products and master of none. Determine what specific product you want to specialize in selling. Next use the internet to find a list compiler or list broker who can find you this list, with at least some phone numbers included.

Write a short sales letter why your client needs your product, and how it will benefit him. Spend about 4 fours, and even outside help, until the headline and body are irresistible. You must compel enough of these carefully selected potential clients to respond. Expect a total cost around $600.00 of outlay per 1,000 names sent out by utilizing bulk direct mail. And do not expect your agency to reimburse you.

You may get back only 10 responses, but these are hot leads. If you can sell, now is the time to show off your presentation and selling skills. During the week make 50 telephone calls following up. Be bold! Simply asking them when is the best time of 2 different times for you to explain your product. Totally, you will get your $600.00 back plus a substantial return. Put another $600 to $1200 back in, and let it roll again.

Finally you are spending very little time prospecting, and considerably more time on making presentations. Congratulations you have graduated from rookie to sales professional!

John J. Healy, CEO of NAIFA, recently called attention to the industry's admission they need to change their approach when it comes to providing professional development, education, and sales training. Amen. This has been an industry-wide dirty little secret far too long resulting in many good people failing out of the business.

Say "goodbye" to outdated prospecting methods and "hello" to prospecting techniques that work. Cold calling using phone scripts from the 80's is an exercise in futility. No one needs to suffer that much rejection when you could attract ideal prospects to you gaining their attention, and getting them to reach out to you.

Never again will you use coercive manipulative language intended to trick someone into buying from you. You hate it your client's hate it and it's completely uncalled for. Instead, look into a future where you and your prospects have a mutually enjoyable relaxed conversation. Imagine a future where you help them discover how to fulfill their needs. A future where you actually are a trusted adviser rather than simply calling yourself one while behaving like a pushy salesperson.

Hoorah, the canned "presentation" is dead. Not only was it a complete waste of your time to memorize a "presentation", but the instant you pulled it out of your attaché you alienated the prospect. Sales is nothing more than a conversation where you're seeking to understand. You don't need a "presentation" to do that.

No more one sale and you're out. Never again will you position yourself as an insurance sales person. You'll hold the honored position of a trusted adviser. From this point forward you'll work to make connections leading to long-term relationships providing you the financial stability you need to thrive in this industry.

Put an end to clients walking out the door as fast as you can drag them in. You now understand you are a business owner not an unpaid sales minion for the insurance companies. These are your clients and it's your responsibility to put their best interests ahead of the insurance company's. Your clients understand this about you and that's why they wouldn't think of taking their business elsewhere. You're the first person they recommend to their friends and peers.

Yes, this is the future that could be yours once you stop selling insurance the hard way. Once you understand how to position yourself for productive prospecting, follow through with a co-creative sale process, and build life-long relationships. I'd like to close by asking you a simple question, "if the industry admits they've failed in these areas do you have time to wait for them to get up to speed?" What would happen to you and your business if you took responsibility and got the help you need to succeed now?

Increase earnings immediately for a salesperson instantly rise using the "domino effect." The options of skepticism or delay are not viable options to you. Otherwise you will be thrown among the masses of salespeople facing the 20 to 1 odds of avoiding failure.

Determination to succeed separates average from exceptional.

The laws of sales survival say breaking traditional company sales rules points in the direction of salvation. In insurance or any other sales, do not envy the successful ones. They have discovered how put the odds in their favor. Applying the domino effect introduces from ground zero the ultimate pieces that few salespeople have grasped.

There are only 3 pieces used in creating the domino effect. All must be applied in order for you to triple your insurance sales earnings. The three domino pieces are (1) a working leads system, (2) increasing by repetition your sales skills, (3) confidence enhancement producing a higher closing ratio and increasing premium policy size. One piece leads directly to the next. If one piece falls so do all the rest, along with you.

The First domino you must turn upright is named "leads". For most salespeople is the hardest, yet most critical.

A genuine lead is rarely company provided. The true lead is an interested qualified person requesting information on a product you are experienced in selling, residing in a reasonable driving distance. For the ground zero domino to stay upside, you should start with 2 or 3 good lead appointments daily. The average career insurance person is lucky to acquire two or three valid leads, covering a portfolio of products, during a week's time.

Personally spending $600 or so, allows sending out 1,000 piece bulk mail sales letters. You must make sure the carefully written sales letter only goes out to prospect clients matched to a product you are familiar in selling! This introduces receiving accurate prospect lead responses. In reality a minimum of $2,000 in commissions or profits is reasonable. Immediately take $600 out of this return, and repeat the process over.

This pops up the second domino, simply marked "selling skills".

Seeing more people by paying for good leads, automatically builds up skills. Yes practice does lead to selling. Your sales presentation starts flowing naturally, and you see your prospects intensely listening to your offering. But you can't stop investing in leads, or both dominos will tumble over.

The last domino suddenly springs upward, almost on its own. Your selling skills have elevated the "confidence" domino to spring into the third slot.

Confidence is rarely born, but usually earned. Use your knowledge to mastering the streamlined products used most often. Increasing and repeating sales presentations, along with product knowledge earns you confidence. No more jitters, no more income fears. Instead you should almost transparently see your ratio of sales increase, plus notice a rise in the average sales amount.

All three dominos are standing tall and so are you. Don't take any shortcuts or implement any major changes or you will be back to ground zero in a flash.

Let's summarize the domino effect. Quantity and quality of constant leads + sales skills enhanced by more presentations + boosted confidence to consistently close more sales = a net income that can easily triple your current earnings. Plus you get all the credit for personally writing your own ticket. As Frank Sinatra sang, "I did it my way".

P.S. By the way, the domino effect not only applies to insurance salespeople but to the direct marketing firm recruiter representatives of insurance product selling, and those selling outside products to insurance agents.

No kind of advertising to agents will be valuable if you cut costs on your list. Purchase the list chosen to get insurance agents to reply must use pinpoint targeting. This is achieved by matching the agent's qualities with your offering. Numerous marketers and recruiters attempt using a list of agents costing a penny each. The downside is that usage of this cheap list is likely going to cost them their career. Paying only another seven cents per name would have turned their pennies into dollars.

You need to eliminate the countless pawns, and spend your money and strategy entirely on capturing some Bishops, and Rooks but ideally the Queen, and King. If you ever played chess where all your pawns were already removed your competitor's king would make his final stand in moments. You removed the restrictive, unnecessary players. One king is worth innumerable pawns. A small targeted list has solely targeted the higher value prospective agents..

Using a large cheap list resembling a phone directory is like throwing darts at 50 feet away. So why are you wasting your valuable time hoping you can hit a winner. Ask yourself what your occupation really is. Are you a telephone solicitor spending 80% of your costly time pawning through lists of rookies trying to find a prospective agent lead? Your role should be that of a skilled recruiter with a steady lead flow of insurance agents, providing ample time to recruit and service these new recruits,

Making telephone calls may be inexpensive, but your time should not be. You could spend hours with zero results. Take the same easy route that successful agents take. Open your wallet and spend money to have potential clients responding back to you. A quality refined list has always outperformed a massive one. If your goal is to earn $100,000+ this year, start now by using the proven highest percentage return lists versus "saving a few bucks" that will bite you in the end..

You have to set your goal on checkmate, and reaching it the easiest way. Ignore the recruiters that try to turn pawns into kings. Few if the pawns or recruiters will be around 18 months from now. It all starts with the player pieces you are looking at. Starting with half as many pieces (but all of high quality), means capturing your competitors' queens and kings faster.

Go into any career sales office with more than 30 agents. Observe that almost any seats occupied are by a newer agent. This projects rather strange and spooky feelings. (Almost like a funeral parlor). Are not insurance agents supposed to be out on appointments with potential clients writing new business applications? Numerous agents are conducting idle chatter with their associates. The strong hearted ones with rent or mortgage payments upcoming are becoming more tense each passing day. The bright big bubble is bursting.

The truth sinks in if you are a new agent. The agency or company are not going to provide you with enough leads. Your sales manager has chewed you out for not getting referrals from the last sale or not talking to enough acquaintances about insurance. You are told to get your homemade list of potential clients or the phone directory and start calling for appointments. Should you be unsuccessful at setting up enough appointments, chastisement comes from the sales manger for you not being able to overcome objections.

The strange part of all this is that you never observe the sales manager practicing what he preaches. The General Agency Manager supplies the sales managers with all phone and mail in leads that come in. Effectively determining selling abilities and hiring agents that can not sell is the number one reason for agent failure. The remaining agents that can sell, eliminate themselves because of a shortage of sales appointments. This is directly correlated to a lack of acquiring true prospect leads.

Back when I was a new agent I can remember spending 80% of my time prospecting, and the rest on learning or on sales appointments. At my final career stages of selling, 10% was spent on prospecting, and the remainder on sales presentations.. Early in my career I realized it wasn't me, but the company that was holding me back. Fortunately I found an agency where a fair number of fair quality leads were supplied. It was a simple formula of fair number of leads + decent quality = more sales presentations = more sales income.

Atter 5 years of excessively hard work and average performance, the choices were to increase sales or second mortgage the house. No insurance company manager ever explained (or knew!) how a sales lead program worked. An insurance agent with marvelous production sank reality into my thick skull. Thereby, igniting the fuse to my skyrocketing sales production by injecting quality leads.

If you want to make money in insurance you have to spend money out of your pocket. Plus time lost on prospecting is time lost on selling. When both factors are converted to realism, a sales career entirely changes. Prospecting is done in mass by writing a carefully prepared lead getting letter. This is followed by purchasing the highest quality list to reach the preferred clientele. Unfortunately your wallet pays the expenses. You have to help yourself to survive and prosper. In a very short time period, you l discover your lead cost is outweighed by increased sales, higher closing ratio, and enlarged premiums on policies you write.

The career insurance company is going to do virtually nothing to truly save you! Your ship will not suddenly come in! Make yourself the captain now.

Start your personal, out of pocket, lead program right now. Grab a lead life raft tailored to perfection, and you will ever sink out of sight.

Florida is the #1 state for drawing agents to a seminar. The answer as to why is included in the logic given below. Here's a key factor that outweighs all others. Veteran insurance agents with 25 to 30 years of proven experience decide to end their productive selling career, and get away from the cold and snow.

After visiting for many years, they are ready to call Florida their new home. The state with the southern sun, and all the fun. But after awhile, this former insurance pro starts to get antsy. Playing shuffleboard and eating early buffet dinners are a long way from the challenge only a good insurance sale provides.

He looks at the menu of available choices where he can get hired. These include supermarket bag boy, shopping store greeter, restaurant busboy, or independent insurance agent. The choice is easy; he gets licensed again, giving him thrill, independence, and a semi-retirement. These new, but very experienced, Florida insurance agents have so much product knowledge and selling skills. Their "part time" efforts often far exceed those of full time career agents.

Plus this gives them time to attend sales recruiting seminars, and further their insurance education. Face it, if you don't have spare time, chances are you will not take the time to attend a seminar. Seminars have become a tremendously tailored method for talking to agents face to face. Draw agents with be a strong reason, other than just your product to attend. Offer continuing education credits just for attending, along with a bagel and tube of sunscreen lotion.

When direct marketing to acquire agents to attend the seminar, you have a variety of excellent state locations. The largest and probably best counties for conducting a seminar are these five. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, and Pinellas comprise 43% of the total Florida agent residences

An added bonus applies to Florida insurance agents. The response rate for insurance seminars exceeds that of most other states. You have a great chance of contracting the agent immediately. Rock the market of quality Florida Insurance agents by target marketing the best brokers in their class. There are 52,000 experienced Florida insurance brokers waiting for your seminar invitation or product offering.

How do you define agent? The dictionary has three definitions I'd like to share with you and then explain the difference those definitions reflect in your mindset. Those differences in mindset have a dramatic impact on your outcomes.

The first definition describes an agent as a person who officially represents another in business. This is the classic unpaid sales force definition. You work for commission and only get paid after you produce the goods, in your case a policy holder.

A second definition describes an agent as a person who provides a particular service for another. Now that's getting a little better. Another way to state this definition would be to say you act as a client advocate.

The final definition describes an agent as the means by which a result is produced. This definition moves you into a power position. This definition places you in a position where you have far greater control over your destiny than the first definition.

Now let's uncover the subtle differences in mindset between these three definitions. If being an agent means you're a commission only sales person then you are a victim. You have to depend on the company, and their actions for your success. The company has the power, and the only way you gain power is through the company. This is equivalent to an employee mindset.

The second definition reflects your role as a client advocate. As a client advocate you're developing long-term relationships with your clients. You have a responsibility to those clients to act on their behalf, and place their best interests ahead of your own. Attorneys and accountants are among the most respected client advocates. You can place yourself in a similar position when your actions demonstrate your intentions.

The final definition reflects the mindset of a business owner. As a business owner you hold yourself accountable. You lead yourself. You are never a victim. The power to success is entirely within you. You are fully responsible for you and your actions.

When your mindset is the mindset of a business owner you realize even though you may "represent" one or more companies those companies are nothing more than vendors for you. Your success is determined by your ability to:

* attract highly qualified prospects
* gain the attention and interest of those prospects helping them to enter your sales funnel
* help those prospects to buy thus moving them through your sales funnel and out as clients
* build life-long relationships leading to repeat business and referrals
* get the most value from your time allowing you to enjoy a life beyond the business

As the business owner with full control over your success you have the power to make your future a reality. As you look at your business where do you see the gaps? What actions will you take to close those gaps? How would it impact you and your business if you closed the gaps? What, if anything, is keeping you from taking action and closing those gaps now?

Are you beginning to understand why those who think of their insurance business as a business, and themselves as business owners almost always make money with insurance when others don't? Ditch the employee mindset and develop a business owner mindset and notice the impact on your results.

The immense Florida insurance database is scrutinized looking for trends, statistics, and numbers, and facts. Contributing analysis is compiled information on usage and lead results, and contracting figures. This comes from insurance company recruiting directors, regional recruiters, brokerage firms, wholesalers, independent marketing firms, and state managing general agents. Florida insurance agents were analyzed over and beyond normal boundaries in preparing this marketing report . For accuracy it is necessary to factor in economic, demographic, and educational data. Over 30 different factors contribute to the final determination.

For insurance agent recruiting, Florida is the number one state without any doubt. Here are two key reasons. The total number of Experienced Florida insurance agents compared to the total citizen population is on the low side when looking at figures of the other states. Secondly is the constant influx of new residents. The high middle income of senior citizens arriving the Midwestern states, sweeten the huge, yet constantly increasing potential client base. Studies have shown that for Midwestern states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, Florida attracts a higher percentage of retirees than any other state. New York and the Northeastern states, have Florida pegged as the number one retirement state also.

State population in 2004 was 17,397,000, an increase of 8.8% just from 2000.On top of this Florida ranks number one in the nation on the percentage of senior citizens. Over one of six residents are a retiree, plus numerous retires have AARP card toting spouses. The senior retiree is ideal for investment annuity and financial planning, insuring that their savings last long enough. Not surprisingly, the need for quality long term care insurance is also a necessity.

Another key factor is also that Florida insurance agents deal with a base of younger than average work force, which is rarely unionized. The amount of employer paid health plans are sparse, making major medical and supplemental products a ready made market. Please keep in mind that often the spouse of a retiree may not be eligible yet for Medicare. This makes spouses prime targets for nice premium individual major medical polices.

Florida ranks sixth with its 52,000 experienced brokers, yet rises up to third in marketing demand. The competition for recruiting experienced brokers is split among annuity marketing, life brokerage, and health and senior market recruiting. The insurance market in Florida remains ripe for so many different products. This diversification nullifies any major competition impact for the recruiting of Florida insurance agents. There are so many quality Florida insurance agents, why chance money on the want to bees?

There are 3 rules for successfully marketing to agents selling senior citizens. First, you need to know how many of these special agents are located in your territory. Second, you need to know where in your territory to find them. Third, you have to use different methods to get the agent selling senior citizens to respond.

A recent study covered almost 1/3 of the total licensed agents in the United States. This required drilling deeply into a compiled insurance database. Inspecting and analyzing accurately the data history of 450,000 active licensed life and health insurance agents was required. The research revealed 195,600 agents that broker insurance policies with an outside carrier. This could be some form of life or health business. Further investigation into this group provided a count of 65,100 senior market brokers. That translates to be around 200,000 nationwide.

All states however are not equal in proportion and can vary up to 40%. For definition purposes look at the policies the agents sell. Senior market agents actively sell long term care insurance also know as ltc, Medicare supplements, cancer coverage, supplemental health policies, Medicare Advantage, and burial insurance. Now you know how few of these agents there are, compared to the total licensed agents.

Next is where these agents are found. Easy answer here. Look for suburban areas farther away from the metropolitan cities, and use a map or zip code directory to locate the rural areas in your territory.

The last one is the hardest for senior market insurance agent recruiters to swallow. The correct advertising medium must be used or your results suffer You don't have a lot of options like you might normally have. You can completely skip trade magazines and printed media, as few senior agents or broker subscribe. Attempting to email blast insurance agents in this category is a disaster. There is no known Quality email source targeting this small market segment on a trusted basis. Telemarketing phone solicitation to senior market agents will do nothing but waste hours and hours of your time. These agents often stay overnight in motels, and work strictly daytime hours.

The solution is two-fold. The first is to purchase the most refined list of senior market brokers and agents you can find. A large unrefined list is stupid to use, unless you are satisfied making pennies instead of substantial dollars. Next direct mail these agents with a short tantalizing message. An option is to follow up with a Few phone calls to known prospective brokers.

In Part 1 of this article we discussed three principles underlying the art of persuasion - (a) give and take in the Law of Reciprocation, (b) price difference in the Law of Contrast, and (c) the mentality of the herd in Law of Social Proof. But there are other laws governing the art of persuasion.

Law Of Commitment And Consistency This law states that people are basically trained to be consistent with themselves. In a sales setting, the law states that if you can get a person to take a baby step in your direction, then it's easier for him to take big steps in your direction. By progressing from the baby steps to the big steps, you are able to tell the other person that he is being consistent with himself.

If you can convince someone to buy a term life insurance policy from you, then it is much easier for you to convince him to buy a hybrid life insurance and savings program from you.

Law of Scarcity This law focuses on the tendency of humans to want, and pay a lot, for things that are rare, hard to get or both. Seasonal items, collector's items - these are all premium items that many people are willing to spend so much money on.

It's no wonder not that many people are not that willing to pay a lot for insurance - there's just too many selling them. If you are an insurance agent, there are only very few ways that you can create a sense of scarcity in insurance products especially health insurance products, which is why you're better off signing up with insurance websites that offer free health insurance leads. The leads are often warm leads and have been identified to need the product and can afford it. In some cases, the lead may already be an old client, you only need to sell a new product.

Law of Authority

This law basically states that people that people would be inclined to follow the recommendation of someone who is perceived as an authority figure. Take the case of toothbrushes - most likely we will buy a brand that has been recommended by a dentist or a group of dentists.

In this case, insurance experts who recommend a "BUY" are an agent's best friends. But of course, insurance agents can always create an air of authority around themselves, so it becomes easier to persuade and influence prospects. Some people are able to do this quite easily while others need to make a lot of effort in this direction. In any case, it is always worth spending time to set oneself up as an authority -it simply cuts the time to influence another person by half.

Now the laws of persuasion are by no means cast in stone - they are simply the observations made by psychologist Robert Cialdini. Whether they hold true in real life actually depends on your own experiences in selling. The important thing to do is to find out how you can apply these laws in your own field of experience.