As an independent life insurance agent, every time you sell a policy to one of your prospects you’re adding to your book of business. Over the years, you’ll add hundreds of clients to that list in your book. What you do with that list will determine your financial future as a life producer.

As an independent life producer starting in the final expense, or mortgage protection market, if you’re working hard, you’re adding on average of 200 clients a year. These two markets present themselves as one visit closes. The adage of “one-and-done” couldn’t be more wrong.

The most important part of Insurance selling is having leads. Regardless of how those are generated, having people to see each and every week is the difference between succeeding or not. The goal of every lead is getting an appointment…period.

The chief mistake I see agents make in appointment setting is over qualifying the lead.

Consumers are no longer willing to settle for a product just because a life insurance professional says it's a good choice. Most customers these days aren't necessarily looking for products at all.

"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black."

This famous quote by Henry Ford reveals his strategy for mass producing the Model T and launching the great industrial juggernaut of the early 20^th century. For almost 100 years, this attitude also defined the baseline strategy of most life insurance sales organizations.

One of the questions I ask myself after giving a presentation in a home is “…what did I do (or not do) to make (or not make) the sale?” After hundreds of presentations I still ask myself that question after each and every presentation. The goal of which is to increase the success of a positive outcome while developing a duplicable process.