Will you survive in forth coming (or current) Economic Recession?

It’s up to you. You have several choices. You can change nothing and allow the recession to ultimately determine your future! Or, you can work harder and longer hours and hope to maintain your current level of income! Or, you can decide to take complete control of your career starting today and learn how to thrive in spite of the recession!

To put it another way… Will you be one of the recession’s victims? Or, will you prosper? The choice is totally up to you!

Learning To Build Trust and Relationships An Easier Way!

When I first entered insurance sales in the early 80’s I was very fortunate to have two mentors, Mike Wood and Phil Urbano, who taught me many things that helped me to thrive during the recession… like persistence, goal setting, keeping it simple, self-belief and total honesty! But the one most important lesson I learned from them was that to be successful in insurance sales, you must take the time to build relationships. People have got to get to know and trust you, before they’ll do business with you.

However, it wasn’t until early in 1985, that I learned the greatest lesson of my career… the ‘Ultimate Key To Success In Insurance Sales!’

It all started the day I actually met Ron Stabile, the Agency Vice President for the Metropolitan Life, Southeastern New England Region. In 1985, Ron approached me, and several other Top Producing agents throughout his region, to work on an exciting new pilot program. He had found a group of innovative producers in New York who had put together a revolutionary new program to sell cash value life insurance. It involved helping people to maximize their eligibility for College Financial Aide… i.e. ‘Qualify For Free Money For College!’

When Ron briefly explained the program to me, I jumped at the chance to learn more about this ‘College Education Funding’ program, because I had a sixteen-year-old daughter in a Catholic Parochial School who was planning to go to college. And, my wife and I were already wondering how we were going to pay for it. So, I saw this as a great opportunity to help myself, as well as help other parents with the same problem.

During the next few weeks, with Ron Stabile’s mentoring, we learned how to… ‘Help Families to Fund Their Children’s College Education, Without Them Going Broke!’ We learned how to approach families, with ‘High School Juniors’, and help them to ‘find the money’ to pay for college. We were helping people to reposition their assets and modify their spending habits to pay-off debts. We were reducing their income taxes! And, we were removing the equity from their home and legally hiding it in cash value life insurance, to help them qualify for college financial aide! We were truly helping people to see a much brighter and more secure financial future!

After just a few weeks of very intensive training, I was able to present myself as an expert in ‘College Education Funding’ to my clients, friends, family and prospects. And, within a few months I was setting more appointments, closing more sales, making larger commissions and receiving a lot more referrals. The results were incredible.

Over time, I began to realize that these sound financial strategies could be used to help almost every middle-income family to eliminate consumer debt and start saving for their future. We were showing people how they could dramatically improve their current financial situation today, without them spending any additional money or changing their current life style! Eventually we became the experts in ‘Helping Middle-Income Families To Live Debt Free and Truly Wealthy!’

The ‘Ultimate Key To Success In Insurance Sales!’

Have you guessed what the ‘Ultimate Key To Success In Insurance Sales’ is? No, it’s not helping people to qualify for college financial aide! It’s not a revolutionary new product! And, it’s not some hot new sales concept!

It’s solving a ‘unique’, ‘immediate’ problem for a ‘specific group of people!’

If you want to succeed in insurance sales! If you want to do more than just survive during the forth coming (or current) Economic Recession, then you must learn to Specialize! People must begin to recognize you as the expert in a specific area. You must learn how to establish yourself as a specialist in solving a specific problem, for a specific group of people? You must gain people’s trust and respect, so they want to meet with you!

The Key Ingredients to a Specialty Market…

Contrary to what you may want to believe, the whole world is not your market. Even if everybody can use your product or service, there is a specific group of people, with an intense immediate need and want for the benefits you offer. Find that ‘niche’ and focus your efforts on helping those people, and you'll soon discover how profitable your business can be.

‘A Clearly Defined Group Of People To Sell To’

"No business can be all things to all people. You must reach specific people and satisfy their particular needs. You must identify those people and understand as precisely as possible what they want."

Definition Of A Target Market

A target market is a group of people that have something in common, whether it’s a hobby or business or whatever. The people have an interest level in something or other that is cohesive, and they’re all part of the same mind set; they all think the same way.

Characteristics Of A Strong Target Market

• Members of the group have a dominant, immediate need.

• Group members are easily identifiable.

• The group is large enough to make it worthwhile.

• People in the group are easily approachable.

• People who have money that is accessible.

‘Satisfies A Dominant, Immediate Need’

‘If You Want To Get People to See You Today, And Buy From You Today, Then You Have To Find Out What They Want Today!’

One of the most difficult aspects, about the products we offer, is that for the most part they are for future use. Think about it. With most of our products, we explain to our prospects how they’ll be protected in the event that someone dies or becomes disabled, sometime in the future. Or we paint a picture of how important it is to be saving for retirement and how a few dollars a month invested into an Annuity or Life Insurance now, will result in a nice guaranteed nest egg, in 20 years.

While all of these things are true, they can be extremely difficult to sell because they’re future needs, not immediate ones. There is no compelling reason for our prospects to do something today, instead of tomorrow.

Almost everyone these days has a very short-term perspective on life. The only thing prospects really want to buy is something that will satisfy their immediate needs.

If they get hurt, they’ll pay a doctor to heal them. If they get sued, they’ll pay a lawyer to keep them out of jail. That’s why doctors and lawyers can be some of the absolute worst marketers in the world and still make very nice incomes - they are selling immediate needs.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem. All you have to do is find a product or service, which satisfies your prospects most pressing immediate need...

‘Finds And Attracts The People With Money’

‘It’s useless to identify a target market and be able to satisfy an immediate need, if the prospect doesn’t have the money to buy your product or service.’

In today’s world, it seems that none of us has any extra money. We are all living up to, or beyond our means. So, even if a prospect agrees that they really need and want our products and services, it is very often a struggle to find the money to pay for it. It generally means, that in order for them to buy our product, they will have to decide to make a sacrifice, somewhere.

Remember, people hate to make big decisions!

And, they hate to make sacrifices!

The easier way is to look for money that can be moved.

People have their money tucked away in all sorts of places… like CDs, Money Market Accounts, IRA’s, Mutual Funds, 401Ks, Savings Bonds and Real Estate. And, many of them are spending money unnecessarily on lower priority items. They are not averse to moving that money, once they understand how they’ll benefit, and as long as they don’t have to make any sacrifices to their current life style.

I hope that you’ll… ‘Decide Not To Participate In The Recession!’ I pray that you’ll take and use the ideas presented in these four articles to make the necessary changes in your business, to thrive in this recession.

Again, I thank Mike Wood, Phil Urbano and Ron Stabile for their counsel, help, patience and friendship through the years. I miss you guys!

Yours in success,

Lew Nason

‘The Nine Out Of Ten Guy’