- Hi, I'm Randy Pierson,
Vice President of Life and Annuities for Gordon Marketing.
And today, I've got with me Jim Paris,
one of our top internal life marketers,
specializing in final expense.
And today, we're gonna be talking
about one of the newest aspects of selling final expense,
and that is the telesales process.
You wanna learn more about that, stay tuned.
(upbeat music)
All right, Jim.
Telesales, right?
Selling final expense in a mechanism or methodology
where you are not right in front of the prospect
or the consumer.
Give us a little bit of information on that.
I mean, what's the best process you've seen?
I mean, some of the better carriers?
Talk to us a little bit about
why is that becoming such a hot subject matter
in the final expense industry?
- Well, Randy, thanks for having me.
It has become huge
in the last 18 months.
I think we all know the reason why.
Clients didn't want people in their homes,
the agents didn't wanna be going out of their homes.
Clients still needed insurance.
Agents still needed to make a living.
So the natural adaptation was for telesales.
A lot of carriers do have a fantastic system in place.
It was just having a hard time of identifying
which carrier to go with.
Some of the carriers,
even our (indistinct) process can be cumbersome.
But, I've identified several carriers
that seem to do it seamlessly.
I know one of the best is Royal Neighbors.
Accendo has a fantastic process as well.
Liberty Bankers Life.
When you get down to the guaranteed issues,
you've got a GTL and great Western.
All utilize voice authorization technology.
There is no signature needed from the client.
It's one of the big hangups in that niche
is telling a senior citizen,
"I'm gonna email you over a contract.
Will you sign the application for me?"
- You know, that's one of the things I was gonna bring up.
Clearly, final expense sales involves
advisors agents selling to older age clients.
And I might expect
that agents might get some pushback from consumers.
You talk to agents every day.
Is that what you're hearing?
Do you hear from agents
that they're finding with the consumer
that this is a cumbersome process?
- The ones that are adapting are the ones
that can bring their face-to-face kitchen table presentation
to the client over the phone.
A lot of the agents like to play the numbers game,
run through the questions,
just kind of give up on the client.
In my opinion, taking the time,
still doing the bonding and the rapport,
building the relationship, can still be done over the phone.
You can still do your field underwriting,
utilizing effect finder right underneath you.
You should simply be able to go from there,
find your carrier,
and move right onto the application process.
- So, what I think I hear you saying is
that final expense telesales can be as effective
and profitable for the agent
than face-to-face.
- It can be,
it can be even more lucrative.
And think about how many clients you can speak
with over the phone,
as opposed to sitting at their kitchen table,
getting in your car, driving down the road,
knocking on the door, getting into the house.
Telesales is really taken over.
I'm also finding
the senior citizen clientele is being more acceptable
to giving out information and doing business that way.
I like to laugh about the fact that my 88 year old mother,
when she wants to reach out to me,
she's oftentimes more apt
to reach out to me via Facebook,
than to pick up the phone and give me a call.
So you mentioned Royal Neighbors as being one
of the premier carriers operating in this space.
What are some of the things that they do differently?
What are the things that you like about their process
that agents might not be aware of?
- Well, first of all,
they have extremely liberal underwriting.
If you have a client with diabetes,
and you're going to have clients with diabetes,
I know if you're fore-writing final expense out there,
that's probably gonna be one of your number one diagnosis
that you come across.
Extremely liberal,
except insulin use after the age of 30, that is their niche.
Soon as an agent, you hear insulin,
you should be looking for Royal Neighbors.
They also utilize the voice authorization technology,
do the followup call,
get the client on the phone,
and go through the medical questions again with them.
And usually it's an instant approval or denial right there.
- So, instant approval that really piques my attention.
And it seems to me I heard recently
that they will also send policies directly to the consumer.
So, the agent not only can conduct
the entire sales process virtually,
but the policy would even be delivered,
and the agent never has to see the consumer.
- That is correct.
- So let's talk about the financial aspects to the adviser.
Will the agent make less money
by utilizing this process versus face-to-face sales?
- Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Another grid carrier to look at is Prosperity.
Another great company, utilizing all the technology.
If the client gets bumped down to a graded, modified status,
they're still in our a hundred percent
on that piece of business.
- Wow, so you're going to make a very large commission
even if that consumer is a larger health risk
and gets a modified or graded contract.
That's amazing.
Well, listen.
Clearly, you know, one of the great things about
these selling life and annuity videos is it gives us
an opportunity to, it gives me an opportunity to,
demonstrate the knowledge and the skillset of our team.
Jim is certainly one of the most knowledgeable folks
in the final expense space
and available to aid agents
in helping them expand their business in that market.
So, unfortunately this episode
of Selling Life and Annuities is coming to an end,
but I would encourage all advisors out there
that wanna do more business in the final expense area,
call Jim Paris.
Jim, what's your extension at the office?
- Two zero eight.
- Call him, extension two zero eight.
Email is just jim@gordonmarketing.com.
- It's actually james@gordonmarketing.com
- We're so formal at Gordon Marketing,
james@gordonmarketing.com
Be sure and reach out to him.
I'm confident he can make you more profitable
in the insurance business.
But, for now, we're going to call
this episode of Selling Life and Annuities to an end.
Do me a favor, click subscribe,
and the notification bell at the bottom,
So that every time we roll out with new content,
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But for now, from Jim and myself, happy selling.
(upbeat music)