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The words uttered in the cinematic world, “If you aim for nothing, you hit nothing,” are an inventive reinterpretation of the renowned aphorism by Zig Ziglar: “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” This saying encapsulates the stark reality of a lack of focus, ambition, or visionary mindset and the subsequent inability to ascertain whether the intended or essential results have been attained.

While we may not be subjected to the exact predicaments portrayed in movies, we nonetheless bear the obligation to focus our intent and strike with accuracy in our personal lives, professional undertakings, and societal contributions.

Embarking on the journey of setting a goal, carving a vision, demands a level of bravery. This could range from setting a personal development goal, nurturing a professional aspiration, or driving a change that you desire to initiate or spearhead. Fixating your gaze on a solid objective demands courage, meticulous planning, and a definitive purpose.

My journey of self-discovery and purpose reached a transformative point when I began to outline my goals. This exercise facilitated the alignment of my actions with my deeply ingrained values, the creation of a concrete plan, and the recognition of what true success meant for me. During the darkest times, my goals served as guiding stars, leading me towards experiences that were nothing short of extraordinary.

As life insurance agents, our journey ideally commences with determining the monthly income required to maintain our family's lifestyle. With the standard life policy, be it for Final Expense or Mortgage Protection, averaging around $65 to $70 per month per policy, one must pose a critical question to oneself: how many policies do I need to sell each month to achieve my financial goal?

With this vital information within grasp, the rigorous planning phase begins. One must ponder over how many policies need to be sold. To sell that number of policies, how many client appointments need to be scheduled? To arrange that number of appointments, how many leads are required? And ultimately, how many phone calls must be made to generate these leads?

Once these data points have been aggregated and your strategic plan has been laid out, the following step is the execution of the plan. At times, pinpointing your goal may prove to be the most daunting part of the process. However, once the target is identified, the remaining pieces of the puzzle start falling into place. The trajectory towards your objective becomes clearer, enabling you to pursue it with unrelenting passion and a well-defined purpose. So, I ask you, what is the goal you're aiming for?

Having a clear vision not only helps one keep their eyes on the prize, but also aids in maintaining focus and perseverance in the face of adversity. It’s important to remember that the path to success is never a straight line; there will be ups and downs, twists and turns, but maintaining your focus on your vision can help guide you through these turbulent times.

We all aspire to be successful, but the definition of success can vary from person to person. For some, it might be financial independence, for others, it might be recognition or professional growth. Regardless of what your definition is, having a vision gives you a sense of direction, a roadmap if you will, that guides you towards your ultimate goal.

The process of planning your route towards your goal might seem overwhelming at first. It requires diligence, strategic thinking, and a keen understanding of your current position and the resources at your disposal. This is where the question of how many policies to sell each month becomes critical.

Not only does it give you a concrete number to strive for, but it also breaks down the rather ambitious goal of achieving financial success into manageable chunks. With each policy sold, you inch closer to your goal, making the journey seem less daunting and more achievable.

And while the journey might seem long, arduous, and full of obstacles, remember, the satisfaction that comes from achieving your goal, from seeing your vision materialize, will make all the hardship worthwhile. So, don’t be afraid to dream big, to set lofty goals, and most importantly, to aim high. After all, as the saying goes, “If you aim for nothing, you hit nothing.” So, ask yourself again, what's your target?

As you’ve probably noticed our email inboxes have been inundated with AEP lead options, carrier appointment solicitations and everything in between. This also marks an excellent opportunity for Life Insurance.

One of the first things to do and often overlooked is contacting your current book to do annual policy reviews. It’s a great way to see if everyone has enough coverage, has the appropriate coverage for their goals, and to see who might be ready for a policy conversation.

If you’ve had the unpleasant experience of joining an unethical IMO, they will be using your book to provide new recruits the opportunity to rewrite your clients with different products. Doing a review with these clients might just save your business from replacements creating chargebacks and Vector’s for you.

If you’re an agent who works AEP, then setting up another appointment to talk about their life insurance is a must. At the very least be sure to contact each one of your new clients after the first of the year to go over their new AEP policy and review what they have setup for life insurance.

For life agents working the Final Expense market it’s time to stop lead campaigns for directmail and reduce digital campaigns. The reason for this is during AEP people often get confused about who they’ve contacted or been contacted about their insurance. You’ll still be able to sell FE it will just take more targeted and qualified leads for the same production level you had prior to AEP.

The best market for life agents to work during AEP is Mortgage Protection and Family leads. These folks are generally a little younger than the FE market and more tech savvy which translates to a better understanding of the lead they have returned and the agent calling on them.

Both the Mortgage Protection and Family markets use simple issue products to achieve the clients’ goal for life insurance coverage. Most often simple issue term products are used to achieve a client’s goals. Be sure to talk about the features and benefits of living benefits that now, come with most all simple issue term products built in without having to add a separate rider.

The presentation is very similar to final expense in that it is a one-call close. As this clientele is more tech savvy they have and use their email. Meaning it’s easier to walk people through remotely signing their eApp.

The premiums for Mortgage Protection v. Final Expense are similar or higher with persistency closer to 85% to 90%. Meaning less time chasing business for premium lapses or NSF’s.

Family leads are the same. Providing additional income protection for newlyweds, college tuition, and spousal retirement income protection should a bread winner pass away.

I’ve seen a significant jump in Go-Fund-Me pages to help families with medical bills and funeral expenses for people that said “…I’ll get it later.” I don’t want any person I talk too to have to beg for money on the internet.

When it comes to delivering your presentation or pitch, agents, especially new agents fresh out of training is to memorize their presentation step by step leaving little room for improvisation.

Some may have been told to acknowledge the objection but keep going. Some acknowledge the objection and deliver a rebuttal. But now their whole game is off stumbling to get back on track. The person sitting across from you “feels” your struggle losing confidence as every minute passes by.

When I first started selling insurance, we had to memorize a three-page script to deliver to every household. It did not take much to through me off. The more I delivered the script the better I got, but it was still awkward to keep going as the rest of script didn’t always make sense.

Then came plan B. For get most of the script and just have a conversation. I learned to reduce the script down to bullet points I knew I wanted to cover. Those bullet points addressed the “elephants in the room” without them being asked by the potential client.

That worked great for Final Expense, not so much for Mortgage Protection. While the products used for both markets are simple issue products the underwriting is much different. It’s not uncommon to run into people that just won’t qualify for a simple issue term policy.

If agents know how to field underwrite a fully underwritten product you could go that route without much interruption in your conversation flow. However, if you are not aware of what conditions will return what table rating then you need to pivot.

Here comes plan C. Have a plan before you walk in the door that prepares you for a client that will not qualify for simple issue term and how you’ll pivot to use a simple issue whole life plan to cover mortgage payments. Hint – that does not include telling a client they do not qualify for term product.

Telling someone they don’t qualify for the plan you just finished building up will shut down an appointment faster than you know what. That means adjusting your conversation right from the beginning. Keeping the focus on providing funds to pay off or pay down mortgage debit for their surviving family.

This same process works just as well when working your leads. If you’ve tried calling them at different times of the day and different days of the week including weekends but were unable to connect, then what are going to do? Door Knock them? Absolutely, if they are local leads, but what if you are working remotely?

More and more agents are working remotely expanding their reach to several states. It’s not always convenient to door knock those leads unless you happen to be in the area. For those situations, have you sent them a text message? Most people in the Mortgage Protection market use a cell phone.

Personally, I would send them a text with a link to my calendar to schedule a time to talk that works in their schedule. I would also make a copy of the lead request and put together a cover letter and mail it to them. Let them know you’ll be calling in the next couple of days or they are welcome to call you.

No matter what you do be flexible in your plan A. There’s an old phrase that says, “When your plan meets the real world, the real-world wins.” You can change that by being prepared for the unexpected and being ready to improvise.

A day in the life of an insurance agent can be a challenging one. While there are many reasons we joined the insurance profession, freedom of schedule without giving up income was an important one for me.

Like some of you, I was not always an agent. My working life began in the restaurant industry where to make a solid living meant working around 60 hrs. a week and most every holiday unless the restaurant was closed. Even though I was more or less a workaholic, that took a toll both on my family and me physically.

Similar to many of you I swallowed the Kool-Aid with the promise of high income and freedom of schedule joining a captive company. It did not take me long to realize that those promises were severely lacking on all points. There had to be something better out there that could deliver on my goals of high income while freeing up time to spend with family.

Moving to becoming an independent life insurance agent was the answer. Having the ability to increase my income based on my work ethic and proficiency. It turns out this was the best decision I could have made.

That’s not to say there were no bumps along the way, there were. One of those was realizing that I needed to set a schedule for myself that my family and I could live with while maximizing income potential.

This led me to also, look for lead generation that could work in the background while I focused on selling without breaking the bank. I tried appointment setters, but finding the right person proved an almost impossible task. The adage of “No one sets an appointment better than the agent” is so true.

I found a life insurance lead generation company that used digital leads but, put those prospects though a funnel starting out with sending a text message within seconds of them completing a form with my contact information and the opportunity to schedule an appointment with me directly.

All that without me doing anything. It’s worked out great, allowing me to focus on sales without having the drop everything to reach out to the client with a text.

The leads were far less expensive than directmail which has seen a steady decline in returns year over year for the last several years. After working out my financial plan and determining my lead budget, I went to work.

My schedule now looks something like this:

Monday:

• What appointments do I have already set for the week?
• Review the good and not-so-good from the previous week
• What phone calls do I need to make to meet my appointment goals?
• Review submitted business for outstanding requirements.
• Deliver inforce policies – in-person, snail mail, or electronically – whichever is applicable.

Tuesday:

• Sales day – running appointments (can be either face-to-face or over the phone/Zoom)

Wednesday:

• Review what has been written so far?
• Determine how many more apps I need to reach my minimum financial goal.
• How many more appointments do I have set?
• How many more appointments do I need?
• Run any appointments scheduled for today

Thursday:

• Sales day – running appointments (can be either face-to-face or over the phone/Zoom)

Friday:

• How did the week go?
• How many appointments do I have for next week (I like to have 7 or 8 appointments set for the following week)
• Do I need to set appointments for Saturday? (If I missed my minimum financial goal, the answer is always yes)
• Run any appointments scheduled for today

I’ve worked this schedule week after week for over a dozen years, and I can honestly say this has met and exceeded my expectations of high income and schedule freedom. Remember, an object in motion tends to stay in motion.