How to sell Big Policies

I don’t have enough potential to meet big clients for insurance? I don’t have enough confidence to meet the big clients! What if they ask me questions which I may not be able to answer? Whenever we think about selling big polices or meeting big clients such pessimistic ideas bang your head and you just throw away the idea of selling big from your mind. This cover story will help you to get out of this phobia. In this issue you will get an idea of, How to sell big polices? Where to get big clients? What should we do to get big clients? And so on. We are going to discuss about only big policies, which will definitely help you to achieve your MDRT, COT and TOT. So, just read every point carefully, you never know which point might click you and fetch you a hefty premium from your client and you become MDRT at a one go! So are you READY!

Now, what do you mean by big sale? In our industry selling sum assured more than 1 crore, where you get a premium of approximately 4 to 5 lakhs in traditional or conventional can be said as a big sale. If you want to sell a big policy the first thing you have to do is ‘Speak in crore’ every time to meet a client. The problem is we don’t dare to speak in crore and try to convince them.

Speak out in CRORE

What do you expect from your prospects, they will come and ask you, “Hey, Mukesh, I want to do a 10 crore insurance! Please come and take away the cheque!” Do you think rich people will come to you like this and take insurance policy from you? The problem is we don’t talk in crore. We never try to convince the clients to buy insurance in crore. Your client will buy or may not buy 1 crore insurance, but, we can at least try and propose him for 1 crore insurance. We need not think that, how he will pay the premium, because it is not our problem. It is his problem. Bolne me kya jata hai! There is nothing wrong in it!

I got a reference from my client. This person was a very rich businessman. It was a very good opportunity to get a good premium from him. These rich people always have reasons for avoiding an insurance agent. Every time I called him he had a new reason to avoid me. I called him around 20 to 25 times for the appointment and he was always ready with novel reasons like, “I am busy” or “I am in conference” or “I am out of station” or “I am not feeling well” and so on. Ultimately, after calling him 20 to 25 times, one fine day he gave me an appointment. The strong reason behind giving the appointment was, my client who gave me his reference was very close to this prospect, therefore he agreed to meet me. My client was also rich businessmen who had given me a hefty premium cheque, so this prospect was unable to refuse me. Therefore, he was indirectly trying to refuse me by saying that he already had a big insurance policy. He told me this several times when I called him. I met him on the said appointment date. I asked him, “May I come in Sir.” No sooner did I enter his cabin, he immediately said, “Yes, yes, please come in and let me tell you, I already have a big policy.” He was making a strong defensive wall for himself as if I am going to attack him by asking him to buy an insurance policy! I kept my cool. He offered me tea. Now, I begin my conversation. I started with topic other than insurance. We should never start talking about insurance immediately after meeting the prospect. I asked him about his business. He said, “Yes, I have an export import business. I am doing quite well in it.

But, I have taken enough policies.” Hey, but I didn’t ask him about his insurance, he had again  started building a defensive wall in front of him to prevent me from talking about buying big policies. I started, “Sir, interior of your office is really very classy. I just loved it. You have done an optimum utilization of space. I saw your furniture, the color combination, it’s just fantastic! I think your interior designer did a marvelous job!” He was now on cloud nine, and said, “Ya, ya, I know, I like to have well designed offices.”

I did nothing, but just followed the steps taught in the basic course. I whole heartedly appreciated him. He continued, “But, really Mukeshbhai I already have a big policy.”

I was not discouraged; I just kept on following the steps. Now, the tea cups were empty. His office peon came, collected the tea cups and left. I asked him, “Sir, can we start now?” he said. “Yes..yes, you can proceed. But, Mukeshbhai I already ……” I interrupted and said, “Sir, I got it, I know you have a big policy!” I paused for a second. We should never get scared if someone says that he has a big policy. I told him, “Ok Sir, so you must be having an insurance of 200 to 250 crore!” he was speechless when he heard 200-250 crore.

“No, no, Mukeshbhai, that is too much! I have only 3 crore insurance!” Now, just have a look at our conversation. When the vessel is empty only then you can fill it with water.

First empty the vessel to fill it with your contents

Here, his mind is like a vessel which was already filled when he said, that he had enough insurance, now, when I talked about having 250 crore insurance, this vessel has become empty. Now, when the vessel is empty, we are ready to fill our contents in it!

The problem with insurance agents is that we think how he will pay such a big premium. But, we forget that, he will be buying the insurance, so let him think about it. Why should we think about it? So, whenever we meet a big client we should talk of amounts in crore till he gets scared about it. We can start with, say, 5 crore, if he is ok with it then it means he has enough money to buy insurance of more than 5 crore. We can increase the amount, “Sir, I think I went wrong somewhere, you should at least have 25 to 30 crore of insurance.” He if he is uncomfortable with it, “No..no.. Mukeshbhai, I think 6 to 7 crore is fine!” there are insurance agents in IIOE who can easily sell policies in crores. So, what is the difference between an ordinary agent and a COT or TOT agent? The difference is they dare to talk in crore and ordinary agent gets scared of talking in crores. Carodo ki baaten kar k toh dekho! When we dare to talk, and when we speak confidently, no one can stop us from bring hefty premium cheques!

You increase their worth when you talk in crores!

Why are we still not able to sell big policies? Some of us are well experienced in this industry, but, still we have not sold a single big policy, why? Because, we have not started speaking with the clients in crores! Unless you speak, how can you expect your client to take a policy from you? You might say we feel awkward to ask the client to take a big policy in crore. What he will think about me? But let me tell you, they would actually feel good about it. I’ll tell you why. There was a time when I did not have a single penny in my pockets. I was standing near the railway platform. One man came and asked me, “Do you have 500 rupees change?” Imagine some asking you for Rs. 500 change and when you are in down and out position. I said, “No, brother I don’t have change. Thank you very much!”  Now, you might think why I thanked him, he too was thinking the same. I said, “Because at least you thought that I might have a change of Rs. 500!” I felt very glad that he asked me, thinking that I might have that much money. The same applies with our clients and prospects. Suppose, by mistake you asked a prospect who is a flat broke or penniless to take an insurance of 1 crore, what would he say to you? He will thank you; because you at least thought him to be a person who is worthy to do that much insurance. So, the main crux here is that when you talk in crores, you are indirectly increasing his worth even though he might not be that flat broke. Till today we were talking in lakhs so we got policies in lakhs, now start talking in crores you will get in crores! It is as simple as it sounds! You have to just make it your habit and things will definitely work! When you start with say 25 lakhs he will get stuck between 10 lakhs to 20 lakhs, on the other hand if you start with 5 crore, he will think about his dignity, if he do in lakhs he might lose his dignity in front of us, so he might decide to take a bigger insurance and get stuck between 1 or 2 crore!

In 365 days you can easily talk about crores insurance to 250 people. From these 250 people, lets us consider 5% is the conversion ratio. So, approximately you are converting 12 people for crore insurance. You will get 1 crore insurance from each of them. You will get approximately 12 to 15 crore business in one year. But, are we making efforts to meet those 250 people.

Beat the competition in the insurance market!

Whenever I meet big clients, I have seen that they sit with presentation given by various private company agents. The idea behind telling this is why LIC agents like us are unable to reach such a height. The private companies are making efforts to reach an untouched market segment, and we are here busy asking for Rs. 1000 rupees, 2000 rupees premium.  In fact these rich people want LIC agents to approach them because they trust LIC more than other private companies. Suppose we sold 100 polices of 1 lakh each. Do you know the administrative expenses incurred on 1 policy? 25 years before a policy of Rs. 5000 sum assured was sold and today after 25 years the expense for sending intimation to this policy has raised tremendously. It would be beneficial for the company if you focus on big polices. It will be a win-win situation for the company, the client and the insurance agent too!

One of my clients had sent me a very terrifying message. The message meant that, “Life insurance contract makes you poor throughout the lifetime, so that you die rich” it was a slap on my face being an insurance agent! I made one SMS and forwarded it to this client.

The SMS read: “In this world any type of contracts……….children’s contract, marriage contract, housing loan installment contract, credit card contracts, all these contracts are making you poor, poor, and more poor. Only one contract i.e. LIC contract makes you poor but, at least makes you rich when you die!”

This client immediately called me, he was laughing very hard, and said, “I have 10 to 15 friends who are insurance agents, I also forwarded this message to them, they did not reply me back, but, I was damn sure that I will get a reply from you!”

I was able to give him a reply because I have realized the importance of insurance. Insurance agents themselves don’t know the worth of insurance. That is the reason why people tell them something and they return back empty handed. You need not make any efforts to tackle such objections, the answers will come automatically when you are sure about what you do and you are confident enough about your profession.

80:20 rule: Be among 20%

You might say that, I don’t have any contacts; I don’t have 250 prospects list! If you don’t have, then make it! Can you see the big cars passing by you, you can see Honda city, Mercedes or BMW cars standing near the signal? A beggar can knock their cars for alms; can’t we knock for their cars for selling insurance? I don’t understand why we have an ego? Begging for alms is also a big business! I travel frequently to various places for courses. Once, I was coming back from Delhi. My flight was around 6 o’clock. There is always traffic near the airport area, even in the early morning. My car was stuck in the traffic. Early in the morning at 5 a beggar came near my car and knocked the glass! I told my driver Yogesh, “Hey look, they start their business so early in the morning.” I was very surprised. I have studied that most of the insurance agents leave their homes after 12 in the noon. If we count the total numbers of agents, among them 80% agents leave their home in the noon. And the other 20% are the real professionals who start doing things at the dawn. There is a principle in marketing called 80:20 principle. In any business this 80:20 principle is applicable. It means that 80% business of our industry is done by 20% people who are top performing people of that industry. And remaining 80% people do only 20% business! This means these 80% insurance agents start their business at noon and the top performing people which are 20% start their business much earlier. It is not only in our industry, this principle is applicable in medicine industry, among chartered accounts, engineers etc. You need to observe to find this ratio. So, check yourselves as to where you fit yourself, among 80% of the people or among 20% best performing people! From tomorrow start your day early and do it regularly, you will find a difference in yourself and in your business too.

Dream Big! Be progressive!

You want to sell big, but have you engraved it in your head! The reason why most of us are unable to sell big is we don’t dream big. We think very small, we are happy with Maruti 800. We don’t dream of buying a BMW or Mercedes Benz, which is where the problem lies. We have become complacent with what we have. Have you ever dreamt of having a 5 storey office of your own? Every floor will have different department- one floor for General insurance, 2^nd for mutual funds, 3rd for health insurance and so on. We never think big, therefore we can never sell big!
One day I asked in a seminar, how many of you are DM club member for continuously 2years, 5 years, 10 years? Many people raised their hands. They thought I would appreciate the people who are doing DM club from last 10 years. But, I didn’t do it. You know what I said, “You are the ones who are sitting in the same class and standard from last 10 years! Don’t you feel like progressing further to ZM, CM, MDRT or COT?” for this, having a vision is important. You have to be progressive to sell big.

Why don’t we feel like selling big insurance? This is because we have never dreamt big. When I did my advance course in 2001, there was an announcement done by Deepak Bhai, he said, “Big agents are visiting Mumbai, because the central office is in Mumbai. They come to Mumbai to discuss their big insurance cases. Those who have four wheelers can submit their names to me. So, whenever any big agent comes to Mumbai, I’ll ask you to pick him up from the airport. This will give you an opportunity to spend some time with big insurance agents and know how they do big policies.” Few people came forward and gave their names. I also had a strong desire to meet big agents but, I didn’t have four wheeler car at that time. I worked hard that year and purchased a second hand Opel Astra car just to pick the big insurance agent from the airport and to get an opportunity to spend valuable time with them. That was my goal at that moment and I achieved it successfully! When you become successful you also have to face the negativity spread by the people surrounding you. My CA explained me, “Why are you spending so much when you don’t have enough to spend. It is good to listen to motivating things but it is not practical.” There are two dogs in our mind, one positive dog and other negative dog. When the CA was explaining me the negative dog in mind started barking with an agreement another negative dog in my CAs mind was also barking at the same time. In such a situation the positive dog in my mind could not help himself from sitting silent as both negative dogs were overshadowing his thoughts. At that moment I quickly decided to leave to prevent the positive dog from dying away. I gave my name to Deepak Bhai keeping the positive dog alive in my mind. I remember I couldn’t drive; I kept a driver for that. Deepak Bhai called me and asked me if I can pick up the insurance agent who was coming to Mumbai. I agreed, I hired a driver for that day just to pick the insurance agent and also to get an opportunity to go to the central office. There, I used to meet the chairman, other big insurance agents, and also used to hear their discussions. Today, I am using whatever I learnt at that time and I am successful today.

Associate with Big people

You should have the hunger to learn something and implement whatever you have learnt in your business; only then one can become successful. Deepak Bhai saw that the people who are meeting such big insurance agents, picking them up from the airports, listening to their discussions are the ones who are becoming successful faster than the other agents who are not. So, only few agents were able to take the benefit from this opportunity. It was then decided to do something which will give other thousands of insurance agents also the opportunity enjoy the company of big insurance agents and become successful. This is how IOE started its first international convention in the year 2005. From that year onwards every year this convention is held. Hundreds of insurance agents have implemented the selling techniques and have become MDRTS within a year or 6 months or even in one month. Today, you have got the same opportunity again with the help of our international convention where you meet a good bunch of successful insurance agents from all over India, who help you to strengthen your positive dog in your mind. They share how they sold crore of sum assured policies, how were they successful in taking hefty cheques from their clients, and many selling ideas which can easily make you MDRT, COT and TOT at a one go! Next year International Convention 2013 theme is “Jai Ho” and the registrations have already started from this year. Immediately book your seats today to get this opportunity!

We have heard stories from Mahabharata. Mahabharata was successful because of two people – Shri Krishna and Shailya. Shailya was maternal uncle of Pandavas. When he heard that pandavas are going to fight against Kauravas, he took his entire army with him and went to support his nephews in the battle. On the way, he met people who were very hospitable. They made arrangements for his stay near the battle field, made arrangements of food for him and his horses too. He was very happy with their hospitality and announced that he was ready to promise the person who made these arrangements anything he wanted to have. The person who made those hospitality arrangements was Duryodhana. Duryodhana asked him to fight the battle from Kauravas side. He had no option but to agree with him because he was bonded with the promise. Shailya didn’t think of this day where he had to fight against his own nephews. At this scene Shri Krishna comes into picture. Shri Krishna had a positive aura; he studied the situation and found an opportunity even in this bad situation. Shailya was the best charioteer the Kauravas would ever have and on other hand Shri Krishna was the best charioteer on the Pandavas side. Shri Krishna said, “This is the best opportunity we could ever have. We should have one person from our side in their army. They will ask you to become charioteer for Karna. As charioteer my job will be to encourage Arjuna to fight the battle and your job will be to demotivate Karna to fight the battle. This way you will be able to keep your promise as well as help your nephews to win the battle.” This is how the Pandavas were able to win this battle.

This story has not changed in Kaliyuga. Today still there are Shailyas and Shri Krishnas but, we fail to recognize them. Shailyas are the ones who demotivate us and Shri Krishnas are the ones who motivate us through their positive thoughts. Our DOs, branch managers and IOE are our Shri Krishnas and other agents who talk negative about our profession are the Shailyas. So, we must decide with whom we need to associate to. In the international convention you will meet number of Shri Krishnas who can motivate you, and give you various selling ideas to become successful in your life.

Let me tell you one more interesting fact. One day I was watching a news channel. They were showing a tallest banana tree in the world of 36 feet. Why this happened? This happened because the farmer by mistake planted a banana tree in between the coconut trees. Due to the shadow of coconut trees the banana tree was unable to receive the sunlight. Therefore, to receive the sunlight it started growing taller and taller. The same thing happened with me. I was growing normally like a banana tree till I got the sunlight. Later after 3 years, Deepak Joshi planted coconut trees like Bharat Parekh, Damani, Rajesh etc. all around me. Being associated with these coconut trees, surprisingly this banana tree also rose in its height equally with the coconut trees and I didn’t know when I got my Mercedes car! This is the real power of association with good and optimistic people.

We have clients who always avoid us or tell us that we don’t have time or I have enough insurance. We keep a follow up for several years but they don’t budge. For them, I have a story which can easily convert them. I always tell this story to my clients if they don’t understand after explaining them for several times. The story goes like this.

There was a Maulvi (honorific Islamic religious title given to Sunni Muslim religious scholars) who used to do bandagi for Allah 5 times a day. He didn’t know what was the problem in his bandage, or in his pronunciation? Allah never accepted his bandagi. Allah also thought that this person was doing bandagi 5 times a day since 20 to 25 years without fail, but I never accepted his prayers all these years, so I’ll at least inform him about the same. So, Allah disguised himself into a common man and met this Maulvi and said, “Maulvi, yesterday Allah came to my dream and asked me to inform you that you are doing bandagi since 25 years but, Allah never accepted your bandagi.” No sooner did the disguised man utter these words the Maulvi started dancing out of happiness. The man asked him, “I think you didn’t listen to me carefully. Allah has not accepted your bandagi!” Maulvi said, “I happy because, my Allah at least know that I am doing bandagi for him. He wants to accept it or not, is up to him. My job is to do bandagi, it is his choice when to accept it.” Allah was very impressed and decided to accept all his bandagi that day itself. I told this story to my prospect and said, “Sir, my job is to explain you every time I come here, and then it is up to you to decide whether or not to take this insurance. Why should I stop? It is my job to do bandagi for you. You are my Allah, you will decide when to accept my bandagi” so, tell me what your prospect would do after listening this story. This story had a tremendous impact on my prospects and has helped me to get heavy cheques!

So, start from today, speak out in CRORE, beat the competition in the insurance market and try to be among the 20% best performing people. Have big dreams which will help you to be progressive in your life and remain associated with successful people to reach heights you’re your lives! If you implement whatever you read now, I am sure Goddess Laxmi will definitely bless you this Diwali with wealth! Happy Diwali! Wish you all the very best for your targets!

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