When I entered the insurance business over 30 years ago, I decided I was going to specialize in life insurance as my main source of income.
I was pretty skinny in those days – my sales were inconsistent and I didn't have as much money to put food on the table because I was only specializing in life insurance.
There were good days and bad days.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have structured my business differently. If you’re struggling to fill your insurance book of business, we’ve got solutions to help drive your revenues quickly.
Keep reading to find out what I've learned.
The challenge in the life insurance business
The insurance business is hard enough, but when you first start out, it's a real challenge.
Very few people make it beyond that one-year mark.
The attrition in the life insurance business is incredibly high. If I had to guess, I'd say one out of 10 make it, which means nine out of 10 life insurance producers don't.
And that may be generous.
Most producers scramble during that first year, meaning they will sell anything to stay alive and stay in the business. Then, if the agent makes it beyond that first year, it's a great hurdle, but there are other hurdles to get over.
The two-, three-, and five-year benchmarks are also important as they relate to, not only succeeding in the business, but also determining what types of insurance solutions a producer ultimately focuses on.
It may be life insurance, but it may also be health insurance, disability insurance, investments, or property casualty or commercial insurance.
How to expand the services you offer
But here's a dilemma. Clients aren't easy to come by, so when an opportunity comes up, most insurance producers don't want to pass it up.
So what happens when a client or prospect asks about insurance that the agent doesn't specialize in, like long-term care insurance, annuities, or disability income insurance?
- Does the producer pass it up and tell the client s/he doesn't handle that line and leave it to the client to fend for themselves? That doesn't help the client or the producer's bank account.
- Another alternative is for the producer to refer the client to another producer and work out some type of compensation-split agreement. That has pros and cons, but some producers might be cautious about doing it. They end up giving away control of the client relationship and wouldn’t want to jeopardize it with someone else’s involvement.
- Finally, many producers might prefer to work it themselves but would like to have the expertise and support of someone else – just to make sure that they're providing the best advice they can to their client. If you go this route, you’d need to have an organization that has people who specialize in each insurance discipline.
Enter the LWT Solution Center.
We created this department specifically for these kinds of opportunities.
Producers are busy enough and would prefer to spend their time efficiently. And if that means making one phone call as opposed to several in order to provide additional insurance solutions to their clients, most would prefer it.
Leisure Werden & Terry's main office specializes in life insurance. But many of our agents also want to support their clients with long-term care insurance, annuities, and disability income insurance.
We created the Solution Center for those three important insurance product lines. If you have a potential need for those services, a simple call to 800-998-3382 puts you in touch with an expert who can guide you through illustration design, case processing, and policy service.
This enables you to offer a wider breadth of solutions to your client – without having to outsource it to other producers or organizations. This one-stop shop approach gives you, the independent insurance producer, confidence that you’re doing the very best for your prospects and clients.
For more information on long-term care insurance, annuities, and disability income insurance, contact the LWT Solution Center at 800-998-3382.
Originally published 5/17; updated 3/21
