Transcription
What's up, everybody? In this video, I'm going to be going over my script that I've used to sell general life insurance, final expense insurance, and I've taught thousands of other agents how to do the same thing and sell a lot of insurance really simply and really easily. And stick around to the end, and I'm going to explain why this script works so well.
Depending on what you sell, you're going to need to tailor this to what you sell and how the leads come in. It's all about how the leads come in. That's going to greatly affect your script and how you approach the leads is how they're coming to you. That makes a big, big difference. Let me share my screen, and we'll dive in.
So, in any script, you're going to need some sort of intro. I think that should be obvious. In any script, you're going to need some sort of intro. And your intro should vary depending on the front-end marketing, right? So, these are a few different intros. In the intro, what you need to do is you want to make sure that whatever you're saying just makes sense, right? Depending on how the person comes to you, they're going to have expectations, right? And so, you can use those expectations to your advantage.
A brand new lead, uh, usually we're just going to jump right into a question right at the beginning. Uh, this just makes it easier, especially if you're a newer agent. It gives you a lot more call control to do this right from the very beginning, or depending on how your leads are coming to you. You can also confirm a piece of information that you already have, right? Um, "Just needed to confirm here before I get the quotes out to you. It looks like you're in this zip code. It looks like your date of birth is this, right?" And then you move forward.
Uh, this question here, uh, this is just going to help bring down the guard of the prospect. Uh, it also can tell you if they are looking for something specific. Uh, the reason it brings down the guard is because most prospects, when you get on the phone with them, especially for insurance, they weren't wanting to talk to somebody. It's important to remember that when they requested the information, they were probably thinking that they were just going to get it online. And so, what are they going to tell everybody? "Oh, I was just looking. I was just looking. I was just looking." And so, we're including that here so that we can say it before they say it and we can get ahead of that objection. And so, depending on how the lead's coming in, you're going to change your intro.
So, like if it's an age lead, right? Um, "Hey, hey John. Yeah. Hey John. This is just Kaden. I apologize. I'm not sure if you're going to remember this or not. Uh, I'm just trying to get our our records updated here. Uh, hopefully you can help me real quick. I I'm not really sure why this didn't get updated. It looks like you'd put in some info uh about 3 months ago about possibly looking at life insurance. Did did you end up finding something or what happened?" And then you're into it, right?
And so, in that in that intro, we are framing as if we were customer service. And so, it's really important to get into the customer service frame of mind. Uh, because the environment that you create with the prospect, and that's what a good script should do. It should create a really good environment where they don't feel like it's a sales call. That is one of the most important things is the environment that you create. The environment is really, really important because what we have been taught just through society is if it is a sales call, we should say no. And so, if the environment you're creating is a sales call, then people will just say no for no reason because they've been taught to not trust you. And so, it's all about the environment that you create.
Now, once we get past the intro and we're into a conversation from here, we're just going to do some sort of frame. Uh, the whole point of the frame and the reason the frame is important is it's just the same as if somebody told you to walk through a door and you didn't know what was on the other side. If somebody just said, "Hey, go go go in through this door." All you would be thinking about is what the hell is on the other side. Uh, by somebody telling you what is behind that door, your brain is now free from thinking about that. And so, we're just framing the conversation, letting them know what the conversation is going to be all about. And so, this is this is going to be structured as if you were a broker. Uh, makes it really easy to get into the conversation from here.
This is going to be very important if you were doing outbound. Uh, this right here, very, very important. And it's important because if you're doing outbound and you're going for a call to close, a lot of people ask me, should I do a one-call close or a two-call close? If you're doing general life, you should shoot for that one-call close. Close them on the outbound, right? But you are not going to be able to do that 100% of the time. It just is not possible. And so, a really easy way you can test if you are going to be able to go for the one-call close is by doing this. Uh, because if they are busy and they are in the middle of something, they will tell you right here and then, and then you can you can schedule an appointment, right? But you have now scheduled an appointment without them knowing that your original intention was to go for a one-call close. And so, it makes it a lot easier because you're able to maintain your status and create that environment where you are still the trusted advisor. You still have the authority because you never they never had to say, "Oh, I'm busy. Um, can we do this later?"
And so, "Go ahead and grab a pen and paper for me. Let me know when you're ready." I also don't like to turn this into a question. I like to use it as a statement, um, and build a little bit of authority. What I'm doing is I'm testing the person's compliance. I'm seeing how suggestible they are. If they're already doing what I say this early on in the call, that tells me a lot about this lead. Right? If they give me pushback here, then I know I need I have some work to do because this person's not very suggestible. They're not very compliant to what I'm asking them to do. Right now, if they just go ahead and grab the pen and paper, I'm just going to continue. If they're driving or something of that nature, then I would book an appointment here.
From there, we are going to move into our diagnosis or symptom questions. Right? I like to call these diagnosis or symptom questions. They're mainly going to be logical questions. Now, the reason I like to call them diagnosis or symptom questions is because that implies a certain tone. And the tone that it implies is the tone of like a doctor's office, right? And so, you're going to be authoritative. You're going to be really confident, but you're still kind of curious because you're trying to put this puzzle together. Just like if you had went to the doctor for back pain, they're going to ask you some diagnosis or symptom questions before they can give you the prescription or the treatment to actually solve your problem. And so, we want to figure out, do they currently have something in place, right? And so, this this question is usually going to be delivered fairly quickly. Um, and then, "Do you currently have anything in place, or are we starting from scratch on this?" Right? Right?
And if they already have something, uh, at that point, we're typically going to ask them why they feel like that's not enough, or if they were just looking to add on more, or if they were looking to replace that. Uh, because that is going to change our question quite a bit. And if we're starting from scratch, we're just going to continue moving forward.
Uh, from here, we need to get some medical questions out of the way. Now, a lot of people ask me, where do I ask the medical questions? That's going to depend on the type of insurance that you're selling. With life insurance specifically, I'm going to ask these medical questions up at the beginning of the call. Now, the reason why is because they're expecting these medical questions. When people look for life insurance, they're expecting to be asked medical questions. And so, I want to use that to my advantage. The fact that they're expecting them, they know they're coming, that's usually not going to cause a lot of resistance. And then I can use that time that I'm asking the medical questions to build a little bit more rapport. Uh, start to have a little bit uh more of a conversation and get myself into the emotional window, get them into the buying pocket before I move into the really important questions.
And so, if they didn't expect medical questions, like if I was doing health insurance and there was they're not expecting medical questions because most health insurance policies don't ask any medical questions, I'm going to wait until the end to ask medical questions. I'm going to wait until I'm about 3/4 of the way through the conversation, and then I'm going to basically let them know why I'm asking these questions. And so, it depends on how the lead is coming to me, where I'm going to place these medical questions.
Uh, what I like to do is just ask a pretty broad question first. Um, that way I don't have to go through uh just asking yes or no questions. If I ask yes or no questions, that's a little dangerous. I see a lot of people do that in insurance. Uh, that's just dangerous because you're establishing a pattern, right? And the pattern that you're establishing with that person is I ask a question, you give me short answer. And so, after I ask the medical questions, if I do it that way, then I've basically told that person to give me short answers the entire conversation. And obviously, that's not what I want. And so, I like to open I I like to open the medical questions fairly open-ended here. "Any major mild health concerns of any kind?"
If they say no health concerns of any kind, then I'm going to say, "Okay, perfect." And I'm going and what what all have you been prescribed? Because we all know if you're doing general life, if you're doing final expense, they'll say no to that question, even though they do have some stuff going on. So, I can go right into the prescription medications. Now, if they say no to that question, and then they have nothing prescribed, I ask height and weight, as you can see here on the script next, and then tobacco use. And if they have a good height and weight, uh, no no tobacco use, no medications, and they said no to any major uh, health concerns of any kind, then I just assume healthy, right? I might make a joke and and ask them when the last time they went to the doctor was. Um, but I'm I'm I'm going to assume that they're pretty healthy. Now, if they have health concerns, I'm just going to start asking about that, right? Just like I would in in any any setting.
Now, for most of us, uh, the billing that the person is going to use is going to be very, very important, whether you're a broker or captive or or whatever you're selling, right? Uh, whether they have a US bank account, or if they're doing everything with something like a Direct Express card, or Chime, or something like that. Uh, we want to know that. So, this is an easy way to get this question in here. Um, and and see what type of billing they're going to be using. And then right after they answer that question, I like to jump into this question. Like I I almost ask it like a a clarifying or probing question. "Oh, and I I almost forgot to ask. Who are we looking to protect? Like, who would be the beneficiary?" Right?
Um, now, here's where the conversation really is going to get deep. This is going to be very important. Now, through this section, right, a a big mistake that I see a lot of people make, and it it took me a long time to learn to not do this. It it uh kind of embarrassing how long it took, is you don't want to beat a dead horse through this emotional section. As you're figuring out the why or the problem, whatever you want to call it, you don't want to beat a dead horse, right? And what I mean by beat a dead horse is if you can't figure out what the why is and you just stay there and keep asking a thousand questions, the prospect is going to know what you're doing. They can feel you fishing for the information, and then that you change the environment where you are now being looked at as a salesperson, and they don't trust you, and then they say no for no reason. Okay? And so, it's important for this this section to be number one, very concise, get to the point quickly, right? But still get the emotional depth that you need.
And so, to start this section, I'll usually say something like this. Uh, "It'll take a while for it to load here, right? And you you've maybe got 5 to 7 minutes that you can ask these questions. Um, why did you start looking for life insurance in the first place?" That kind of kicks us off, gets things rolling. Uh, I really like this wording "in the first place" right here. Uh, cuz it gives you it you're telling them how to answer with something very specific: "in the first place." And so, they tell you.
Now, from here, what I hear a lot of people do, and I used to do it myself, is I would ask them, "If you passed away right now, how would beneficiary pay for things?" And I've come to do it a little bit differently than that because in my experience, people feel like you're logic boxing them when they when you ask that question, right? Some people, the lay downs will say, "Oh, beneficiary definitely could not do that. They would be absolutely screwed." But the majority of people, even if beneficiary doesn't have the money to pay for whatever they're looking to cover, whether that's income protection, or final expenses, or mortgage, or whatever that may be, right? Even if the beneficiary doesn't have the money to cover that and it would put them in a financial bind, what I've found is usually when you ask it that way, they still say that the beneficiary would be fine. And so, what I like to do, so that I don't create sales resistance, is just give them a binary question here, A or I I give them a couple of options, and then they'll just choose. And what I've found is that makes it a lot easier, and there's less resistance, and it keeps it moving quicker.
And so, "Is it more so that beneficiary could come up with the money on their own and cover things, and you just don't want them to? And to be clear, that's a totally fine answer, right? That is a completely fine answer, and that is what most people actually say. Or is it more so that if beneficiary had to come up with that money, it would put them in a, I guess, a bad spot financially, right?" And then they'll choose. And if it's a bad spot financially, then you can probe into that, and you can figure out the logistics that's happening there. But it's always that they don't want them to, right? People buy life insurance for the identity, right? It's about who they are. There's plenty of people in the world in the same situation as your prospects that don't see it as a problem, right? And that's just because that's who they are. And so, the people that you're talking to that are looking for life insurance, it's usually about who they are, it's not necessarily just about the logistics of the situation. And sometimes it's not about the logistics of the situation at all. Sometimes they want to leave a gift, or they want to just set their family up a little bit better, right? And it's about who they are in the family and who they see themselves as. It's about who It's about how they want people to see them. Right.
And so, they're they're going to say, and then I usually say something like this. Um, "You could share a personal story here if you want to if you want to get deeper. Yeah, I get what you mean. I've seen that happen." And you share a personal story. And that personal story, a lot of times, can get them to start sharing more. Now, with a personal story, if you go that route, you want to keep your story fairly short. You don't want to tell a 15-minute story. Maybe a minute or two. Get to the point. Uh, and and usually that will and they'll start to tell you a story as well, right? And then you could ask them, "How would you feel about them having to do that?" Uh, depending on how much the person is opening up to you. If it's somebody that's been very short with you, they're giving you one-word answers, this question is just going to cause resistance, right? And so, typically, I'll do something like this. Um, "Okay, that makes sense. And so, you're just not feeling great about that potentially happening. it it sounds like you're just not feeling great about that potentially happening." I'm not looking for them to give me a big uh long explanation here. I'm just moving the conversation to the next stage, right? And so, they'll usually just say, "No, I I don't want that to happen."
And here is where I do an identity frame. Now, I'm doing this identity frame for a couple of reasons. Uh, one of the biggest reasons is to is to create social context so that I can then ask them, "How come this is important to you?" Because with most people, if I just ask, "Why is this important to you?" the lay downs will just tell me, right? If I just ask them, "Why is it important to get life insurance for that beneficiary?" the lay downs will tell me. But what a lot of people will do and it will create a lot of resistance is they'll say, "Well, because I love my family, obviously, right?" And and they just act like everybody does that. Uh, because everybody in their life does do that. And so, I want to avoid that resistance. And so, by doing the identity frame and saying, "Hey, some people do this. Your family's lucky to have you." I talked to a lot of people that don't care, though. That creates enough social context that I can now ask them why it's important to them. And that's not a weird question.
And so, what this identity frame is uh is basically I'm going to take the good traits, the good things that they're showing, right? Something that they're doing, and I'm going to link that to a positive identity. Now, after I link that to the positive side of the identity, I'm going to flip it on its head and I'm going to attach it to a negative. Right? You could learn a lot more about this from people like Jeremy Miner, Chase Hughes, Eli Sanchez. Um, those are a few of the examples that I've learned a lot of this stuff from. And so, uh, you know, "your your family's lucky to have somebody like you that's thinking about this stuff and is, um, you know, I guess just reasonable enough to know that while most of us don't really want to think about it, the bottom line is we're all going to die at some point. And of course, hopefully it doesn't happen for a while, but it's like the old saying goes, you know, prepare for the worst and and hope for the best." And so, there, I gave them a little high five. I said, "Good job that you're even looking for this." Right? And so, that reinforces the behavior that I want them to continue. And now I'm going to flip it on its head. I'm going to give them a negative associated with it. The negative is really important. If you end on the positive, this does not work. Because when we end on a positive, natural human reaction for 95% of people is to deflect that. That we deflect compliments, right? But if we end on the negative, natural human reaction is to gossip, right? And so, people want to gossip. They want to talk on other people. And so, you know, I'll flip it after that and I'll say, "It's crazy though. You know, I I talk to a lot of people and I mean, some people, I mean, everyone loves their family. It's not like they're bad people. And so, I I lessen it a little bit so it's easier to attach to. Uh, some people just think of it like, you know, I paid for everything when you're when you were young. It's your turn to take care of me. I you know what I mean? We we we all know somebody like that, right?" And so, this is like an example I could use if somebody was getting the life insurance for their kids. I say that, and a lot of times I never even have to ask this. They just answer, and I can just clarify and probe into that.
Now, I really like to ask this question if it's applicable to the conversation. And the reason I like to ask this question is because we already talked about they're getting life insurance because of an identity, because of how they see themselves, right? And so, this really anchors that identity in their thoughts, and so it makes it very, very difficult to give us an objection at the end. "Have you have you always been that way, or I guess like, where does that way of thinking come from? Have you always been somebody that like wants to get prepared for for things ahead of time, or I guess like, where does that come from?" Now, if I want to ease this and I want to make it more conversational, I could even do this. I could say, "You know, I it took me a long time to to to learn that uh to that you have to get prepared before things actually happen. You know, I I guess I just after being an adult, it took me some time to figure that out. Have you always been that way, or like, where does that way of thinking come from?" And so, it just softens it and makes it a little more conversational. Right?
Now, I want to figure out how long they've been thinking about this. Uh, if they've already answered this question, then I don't need to ask this question. Now, if they again, if they've already told me why now, right? If they've already explained this to me, I'm not going to ask it. Uh, but this is going to help me build some urgency here. I want to figure out why now. And then this question, right? I want to I there's a couple of different ways I could ask it. Uh, and I don't necessarily have to ask it right here. Sometimes I ask this question right here, and sometimes it's up here. And so, you're just saying, "How much easier do you feel like things would be for the beneficiary, them getting a check to check to cover cover everything and not having to worry about money while they were grieving?" And then I'll just shut up. Now, sometimes you can ask that up here, especially if it's somebody that was talking about how things would be really stressful for their their family, right? And because they start telling you why this is important to them, they're going to start explaining that their family would really struggle financially if they had to go through that. And I can ask it in a a clarifying and probing way. I can say, "How much easier do you think it would be for your family if they didn't have to do that?" "Oh, so much easier, right?" And then they'll start to explain.
Now, from here, I'm going to recap. Um, so I'm just recapping. Um, you know, "this all makes sense. It sounds like overall you're just the kind of, you know, person that is smart enough to know how important this stuff is. And really, you've looked at it before. It's just been outside of the budget and the timing hasn't really been right. but you know, you probably should do something because if something happened now, it doesn't sound like things would be very easy." And then I just be quiet. I be quiet right there because I'm trying to get them to explain the cost of inaction without me asking a question. Right now, I like to do that because cost of inaction sometimes can be a question that will uh trigger sales resistance. And so, if I can get them to tell me the answer to cost of inaction with a statement rather than a question, then I never raise that sales resistance, right? And then they'll answer, and then I'll usually do something like this. "And really, you just need to find something that actually makes sense uh that fits into your budget that you can keep and you know is going to protect your family." "Yes." And then, if you need to do cost of inaction there, if they haven't already answered it, you can ask it there. And then you're going to move into the presentation.
Now, the the way I like to structure the presentation is after this, after you've gone through the conversation in this way, right? You've you've really put yourself in an environment where you feel like a doctor. And so, from here, the the presentation, you want to take an educational approach so that they still feel like they're they're in control, but ultimately, what will happen is they'll be looking to you to make the decision. Right now, they're looking to you to make the decision because of the way we just went through the rest of the script. Uh, because of the way we went through this structure, right? They're going to be looking to you because number one, they're going to feel like you understand their problem better than anybody else because nobody else is going to get down to the identity level of why they were looking. And so, you're going to understand a lot more about why they're looking, right? And what's important to them. And by the way you go through the script and the questions you ask and the way that you create the environment, they start to look at you as the person that can definitely solve it, right? Because of the questions you're asking, you're directly you're you're telling their subconscious that I know how to solve this problem because you're asking good questions that that it makes sense for the subconscious to allow you to solve the problem. So, based off of the questions you ask, that is how you get the authority. Okay? That's how they start to look at you. And then at the end, they don't really want to make the decision. They want to lean on you to help them, but they don't want to feel like they're being forced. And so, from here, we can start to do an educational approach and show them uh usually what I'll do is I will explain two or three different options.
So, this will be how I would frame it if I was wanting to sell final expense, right? And so, I would talk about term first. Give them some uh education on term, and you guys can read through this. I'm not going to read a PowerPoint here to you. Uh, but you can read through it. And so, I give them some education on term, and then they naturally decide that they don't want to go with that. And then I give some education on whole life and why most people go with whole life, even though it is more money and you get less coverage, right? And so, now I have all of this education, and I can then get to the pricing at the end. Now, what this allows me to do is now, if something is outside of their budget, we're not discussing whether it's the right policy for them. They now understand all the options, and they can we we can just reduce the coverage if we need to.
And so, then I'm going to I'm typically going to present. Again, this just depends. If at the beginning they told me they wanted a $20,000 policy, I'm just going to quote the $20,000 policy. I'm not going to give them three options. But if they wanted to look at different options, I'm going to give them three different options. Generally, I want the first option to be more than this. This is like every once in a while people will take this, but what I'm doing is I'm price anchoring, right? And so, I'm just price anchoring. I'm giving them a high option. I don't think they're going to go with. I want there to be a little bit of sticker shock to that price. Right? And then I'm going to give them two other options. I'm going to give them the middle option. This is the option I actually want them to go with. And then I give them a low option that is closer to the middle option than the high option because I want it to look like the the low option. What I'm doing is I want there to be so little of a price difference that in their head, it logically makes sense to go with the middle option, right? And so, I'm going to explain that to them at the very end.
Uh, typically will typically will end the three options by saying, "Any questions on any of that?" They say no. "Am I in the ballpark here? Is there anything else that you want to see?" I really like that question. I actually got that question from a a insurance rep that I was training uh probably about a year, year and a half ago. And I really like that question because a lot of times what will happen is they will say they want to look at an option that's between the middle option and this high option. And so, it usually will end up getting you more premium. Right?
And now from here, this is where I'm going to start moving into the close, or whatever you want to call it. So, a big mistake I see a lot of insurance make uh insurance agents make, especially when they're new, is when they when they start to move into the close, they start to overcomplicate things. We're just going to roll into the close. We're going to make it seem like it's normal because it is normal, right? They just explained all of these reasons. They want the insurance. They're telling us which one they want. We're just going to start the application. "Okay, so, which one of those would you lean towards?" "All right. Oh, how how come that one, just so I understand?" They start to reinforce that, right? And then usually right then and there, I just start doing the application. So, it's important that you're able to multitask through the conversation because you already want to have the the application up, and you just want to start it. Okay.
"Uh, no, that that all makes sense. Well, the first step is to make sure that we can even get you qualified. I'm pretty sure we should be able to. Uh, and if we're not able to, then we can, you know, we'll we'll move to the second best option. Uh, but I figured we'd start with this one since it's the most affordable. Uh, now I've got the street address here as that as this. Is that correct?" They say yes. "Is there a middle initial that you want me to put on the forms here? Is this is there a middle initial that you want on the application?" Right? And you just start doing the application.
So, hopefully this helps everybody. Hopefully you get a lot of help out of seeing my script, seeing how we break it down. Again, it all depends on the conversation you have. You have to be conversational, okay? But this is a a very short script. It goes by very quick. You should be presenting right around that 10-minute mark. And that is very, very important that you have a script that moves quickly, especially if you're doing outbound call to close, because people don't have all day. And the longer time you take, the lower chance you have of making a sale. So, there is that happy medium.
So, if you got more out of this, if you like this, uh, subscribe because there's going to be a lot more of this coming. We'll see you guys on the next one.