Increase Your Earnings By $20,000 Or More With A Few Simple Steps

By Edward Hughes

First of all, this is not rocket science, nor is this some get rich quick insurance marketing scheme. In fact, this is probably the simplest thing you as an agent can do to increase your income. But despite the simplicity of this method you'd be surprised how many agents have failed to implement it.

As a sales manager a large part of my job was to shadow agents on their appointments, and to provide feedback on how they could fine-tune their business. Time after time I would see new agents go into the appointment and as soon as they heard the perforation rip and that stiff piece of paper placed in their palm, the would begin to pack up and go.

On one day I turned to the rookie agent and said, "Congratulations on the sale, Jim, but you know, you left $150 sitting on the table."

His eyes nearly popped out of his head and he began pouring through his briefcase, and even checked his wallet.

Again I turned to him and told him these tips to increase his income. He's now using these techniques to get an extra $25,000 per year!

1. When presenting the product first draw a line down a piece of paper (preferably a legal pad). On the left side right the name of the plan you recommend and list all of the features and benefits of these features. At the bottom then right the price.
2. On the right side again right the name of the plan and list all of benefits and features, but also include an ancillary product (life, LTC, etc.). Right the combined price at the bottom of the right side.

Now ask, and the wording of this is crucial: "_______(prospect's name), which one of these do you think is best for you and your family now and in the future?"

About 75% of the time the prospect will point to the right side (the other 25% is usually do to financial issues). You have just got another sale. The key is to do this every time. If you have 8 appointments during the week and you half to get this combo sale, you will see your income soar.

- The Experts http://www.insurancesalesexperts.com

The Experts are a group of veteran insurance pros who have developed a site with the aim of helping new agents succeed. Visit us at http://www.insurancesalesexperts.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Edward_Hughes

Your Essential Energy

By Gary Le Mon

News Flash: Your prospects are more interested in the messenger than the message. It’s you they want to get to know more than anything.

The product you’re pitching is far less interesting than who you are, how you think, the understanding you bring to the table, and the personality you offer the relationship.

Experts agree that 90% of communication is non-verbal. It’s your body language, your gestures, eye movements, tone of voice, vocal variety, accents and pauses that punch up and resonate the words you say. It’s not what you say but how you say it that connects the dots between humans.

If you find yourself missing sales and walking away empty handed after an otherwise perfect product presentation, you need to redirect your attention from the spoken to the unspoken. The one element that bonds all non-verbal communication into a coherent force is a thing I like to call “Your Essential Energy.”

Inside you is a power beyond your own comfort level. Your essential energy is lying in wait like a primal scream. Unsuccessful people deliver mere words, while successful people electrify their words with essential energy. It’s not about shouting. It’s about bringing your words up from the diaphragm, the gut, and transferring them directly into your prospect’s psyche. You can tap into this irresistible power right now.

Here’s a way to supercharge your next sales interview with words that energize and trigger your prospect’s right brain to action.

Schedule an hour with just yourself, a recorder, and a note pad. First, in your usual tone of voice, record the three most important sections of your sales presentation – the introduction (warm up), the high point (that place in the middle when it all comes together) and the wrap up.

Play it back and ask yourself whether the voice you’re hearing energizes, excites and inspires, or sounds like the formation of a stalactite.

Next, write out the three sections of your presentation, word for word. Replace weak and passive words with words that bump and grind. Use words that turn heads, drop jaws and bring sentences to life. Try a little onomatopoeia. Tell a story. Underline all words that need queuing for vocal variety.

Record your script and let your essential energy flow. Let the power of your diaphragm, not your throat, propel your words. Burn a CD so you can listen to your new voice in your car and around the house. Load the MP3 onto your iPod so you can really get to know this dynamic new you.

At your next sales presentation, forget everything you learned in this exercise. Your voice will automatically “remember” the energy points, the words to punch up, the pauses, cliffhangers, expressions, word pictures and money lines. This is real communication.

You will find yourself becoming more alive, more interesting, more powerful. Your sales will come to life as well because effective communication, like outrageous success, is all about letting your essential energy flow.

http://www.Free-Insurance-Leads.com Gary Le Mon is a wholesale distributor of fixed indexed annuities for Allianz, American Equity, Sun Life Financial, and ING. Author, speaker, radio and TV host, Gary pioneers media-based marketing systems including newspaper articles, dinner seminars, radio talk shows, and TV interviews. He is coach, mentor and motivator to over 750 general agents in his insurance marketing organization, InsuranStar Marketing. See also Insurance-Lead-Programs.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Le_Mon

The Why And How Of Writing A Good Press Release

By Gary Le Mon

A press release is a statement written in the third person that is distributed to the media, articulating to a journalist or editor how and why a particular person, company, event, product or service is newsworthy.

Press releases conform to a short but established cookie-cutter format. They are emailed, faxed or snail mailed to media including newspapers, radio and television stations. A press release is not written to be read by consumers. Target readers are reporters, editors and news directors – those who decide what is and isn’t news.

Why submit press releases to the media?

A good press release may be published as newsworthy, which gives you no-cost publicity. A great press release will not only get published but will spark the creative kindling of a follow up story. Maybe even a feature story for print or broadcast. Unlike advertising, news is accepted at face value and delivers many times the impact. This can attract prospects to you, position you as the obvious expert, pre-sell your proposition, and propel your practice to rock star status.

How do you write a press release that gets read, published, and maybe even followed up with a story?

Start by resisting the urge to give a sales pitch. Think like a reporter – just the facts. Remove your ego. Never say “I” or “we” unless it’s in a quote, and remember a journalist has no interest in promoting your business. A reporter’s only goal is to write a story that will make editors happy and readers say, “Hmmm.”

Here, in a nutshell, is the accepted format for a press release:

Company logo goes here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: John Smith
Tel.: 444-555-6666
Email: jsmith@email.com

HEADLINE GOES HERE IN UPPER CASE

Subhead Goes Here: Used To Expand Upon The Headline And Further Engage The Reporter In A Possible Story

The press release Lead goes here and gives the who, what, when, where and how of the story. Remember, no hype. Just the facts. Two to four sentences should do.

Here you add support to the statements made in your headline, subhead and lead. Construct your case with solid material that demonstrates the angle, or hook, you’ve taken. Tell why the reader should care about your announcement. Explain how you solve a problem.

Include a quote by you as president of your company. This gives your release a personal touch and brings your name front and center. Don’t be afraid to add a little “you” to your quote. This is your moment to portray yourself as you want others to see you.

Now begin winding down your release with a sentence or two describing your company and what it is you do. This information is “boilerplate” and may be inserted into all press releases.

Standard code for the end of your press release is three # symbols centered beneath the last line.

In keeping with one of my universal truths that says, “If you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no,” I like to add one final line such as: “To schedule an interview with (your name), please call (your phone number),” just to run the thought of a possible story past the reporter.

To see an example of a press release I use to generate thousands of dollars in no-cost publicity for my company, go to Press Release.

http://www.Free-Insurance-Leads.com Gary Le Mon is a wholesale distributor of fixed indexed annuities for Allianz, American Equity, Sun Life Financial, and ING. Author, speaker, radio and TV host, Gary pioneers media-based marketing systems including newspaper articles, dinner seminars, radio talk shows, and TV interviews. He is coach, mentor and motivator to over 750 general agents in his insurance marketing organization, InsuranStar Marketing. See also Insurance-Lead-Programs.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Le_Mon

One Simple Question You Can Ask To Increase Your Closing Ratio

By Edward Hughes

Despite an excellent presentation and a well groomed appearance too many agents are leaving their appointments without the check. Now there can be many reasons for this, but a major factor is that the agents simply don't know what their prospects' PPF, or Primary Purchasing Factor, is. Knowing what the PPF is will allow the agent to tailor their pitch around what each different prospect.

Obviously you can't ask the prospect, "Hey, what's your Primary Purchasing Factor?" But you can take a different approach with a quick question such as, "Mr. Prospect, what more important to you, less premium or less risk?" The prospect will tell you if he's more concerned with money each month or the prospect of a major claim devastating his finances, this will then be his PPF.

Typically they will go into detail about why it is more important - people often have the need to justify their answers. If your prospect doesn't go into it, ask! That is your job, to get all the necessary information to design the appropriate plan for them.

When you understand their needs and the thinking behind these needs you can use that when presenting the product. For example, if you are presenting a health plan with accident benefit to it, instead of saying, "This plan has an accident benefit for up to $___ a year." Use this instead, "If your children get hurt while playing soccer this year or if you hurt your hand again in your workshop the accident benefit included in your policy will take care of the first $_____. After all, accidents are what you will be using this for the most right?

Edward Hughes Need more help? Visit us @ http://www.InsuranceSalesExperts.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Edward_Hughes

Here is a Great Idea...Think Outside the Box!

Consider doing what the movie stars do. Hire a publicist. If you think that movie starts are the only people then you are wrong. Lots of people do this and for a good reason. It is good business.

Professional athletes, novelists, physicians, marketing organizations, corporations etc., they all use publicists. To you this may seem way out of the normal methods for doing business, but in fact it is very mainstream. Getting your name out there is just advertising and nothing more. If you run an advertisement in the newspaper or pay (costly) for the yellow pages isn’t that just using a publicist in a different manner?

I know what you are all thinking, am I kidding you? No, this is a very legitimate and bona fide method of advertising. I have done it myself and it produced enormous results. In many ways it really launched me to the next level.

I signed a three month contact to be represented by a publicist; the cost was $5,000.

By Bill Broich
Her job was to get me speaking jobs for local charities such as the Lions and the Elks etc. She also did press releases for media outlets and other newsworthy things. I also had her book me into the local radio station as a guess speaker and the local expert. It worked, overnight (3 months) I had become the local expert in my area.

I spoke to over 30 groups at what I called the “Chicken Circuit” (because they always served chicken for lunch), spoke on ½ a dozen radio shows and even wrote a guess editorial for the local paper which I reprinted for handouts. Now that is exposure! I was even quoted in the largest newspaper in our state because of the release sent out by her naming me as a “quoted” expert.

The end result is I became the local annuity specialist with instant credibility and community standing. It became easy for me to attract attendees to seminars because they had seen me in other genres. If you are on the radio or in the newspaper then people associate you with success and knowledge.

Since I have no way of ever tracking specific sales results directly from the use of the publicist I can only guess. I think that for every dollar I paid her I received at least $10 in net sales commissions. The true benefit from using her is now my status is still retained and my business is continuing to grow and thrive but without the cost of paying her.

There are two very important things to remember about the power of advertising and the process of keeping your name and image in the public eye.

• In Colorado there are 88 mountain peaks higher than Pikes Peak!
• The only bad publicity is your funeral!

Think outside the box. It is fun and profitable.

Bill Broich is a 30 year annuity salesman who helps agents generate annuity leads. Visit his website to learn more - Annuity.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Broich