It was in 1968 that legendary life insurance innovator Al Granum put out his first edition of Building a Financial Services Clientele, The Ultimate Guide to the One Card System.
And despite the growth of the internet, smart phones, YouTube and other social media over the past 50 years, insurance advisors are still singing Granum’s praises and still using his tried-and-true point systems.
Speaker after speaker at the Canada Sales Congress in Toronto in May stood up to thank Granum, in one way or another, for coming up with the method that helps insurance advisors separate prospects from potential clients, tally daily and weekly expenses and emphasize the importance of step-by-step achievement of personal objectives.
While Granum was one of the more famous mentors named, the whole idea of mentorship – either giving or receiving – was a common thread that connected many speakers.
“You will never be successful if you don’t set goals,” said Jaymie Bongard, executive vice president of Independent Financial Concepts Group. “I was raised on the Granum system. It works by assigning points for different tasks.”
Production benchmarks
Granum, who passed away in January 2014, kept records of successful life insurance advisors in his Chicago agency, tracking their productivity. Of crucial importance was keeping tabs on the number of prospects plus those who had already met with an advisor for information-gathering purposes and then following up to determine whether any business was written.
Points were allocated for each activity the advisor performed. Granum and his staff looked through records over various periods and the results ended in his celebrated 10-3-1 result: for every 10 prospects, three would get to the information gathering stage and one would become a new client.
But what was also significant was that 10-3-1 allowed advisors to use benchmarks to determine how much activity they needed to meet their production goals.
Bongard’s goal when he started out was to get 25 points a day, a target he reached every day in the month of November during his first year. “But I had no sales. I was really discouraged. But in December, which was supposed to be the slowest month of the year, I made 14 sales – all because of the hard work I did in November.”
The late Ben Feldman, often described as one of the best salesmen ever, was also recalled. Feldman, who started out making $10 a week selling butter and eggs, died in November 1993, with the distinction of having had lifetime sales of more than $1.5 billion.
His book, The Feldman Method, detailed hard work, preparation and a never-say-no attitude.
Edgar de Souza remembered meeting Feldman when De Souza attended his first Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) meeting. De Souza asked Feldman to tell him the secret of his success. When Feldman asked him how much life insurance he had personally, De Souza told him the truth – $200,000.
“I will never forget what he said after that and I recommend you use this line with your prospective clients. He said: ‘If I write you a cheque for $200,000 right now, will you work for me for the rest of your life for free?’ I said no, absolutely not. And then he said: ‘Then go and buy some more insurance because if you don’t have it, you can’t sell it.’ And guess what? I sold my first million-dollar case right after I got back – to myself.”
Luncheon speaker Jim Burton, chairman and CEO of managing general agency PPI, was a salaried employee in the group insurance division of Crown Life when he adopted the Feldman method of developing the conviction that life insurance was important and viable.
Become an expert
Burton decided to become an expert in tax when a new rule came out in 1971 on capital dividend accounts that provided the ability to transfer life insurance from a company account to a personal one without adding a second level of tax. Moving to straight commission, he studied income tax and then put on workshops for accountants and lawyers and their clients, talking to them specifically about capital gains tax and how Ottawa now owned a percentage of the appreciating value of their company. He bolstered his insurance sales by asking clients: “Which would you rather do? Give your money to the government or give it to your family, leave it as a legacy to your children, your employees or a charity?”
Frank Creaghan qualified for MDRT his first year as an insurance agent and then went on to found Top of the Table. Creaghan, who also founded Creaghan McConnell Group, outlined his three principles of success, which, he said, have made every year better for him than the previous year.
They include the importance of seeking and treasuring mentors, as well as his belief that insurance advisors should become specialists and promote only one product. His third principle was to exercise discipline and establish routines.
Creaghan said he came across his most valuable mentors at MDRT and in the true spirit of mentorship, he, as well as other advisors, outlined some words of wisdom to the 1152 advisors at the Congress.
Creaghan said he believed in the importance of cash value benefits – how tax is deferred while it accumulates, providing reasonable returns and acting as collateral for loans. He acknowledged it can be a tough sell, requiring an advisor to educate and build trusting relationships with clients.
“People don’t buy cash value life insurance because they understand the product. They buy it because they know us and trust us.”
Brad Brain said he concentrates his Fort St. John, B.C. practice on products with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits (GMWB). It’s a term he doesn’t use with clients, preferring instead to call it “a guaranteed income strategy.”
Brain said clients appreciate that they will receive a minimum of 5% a year with GMWB and if markets do well, even more than that.
He said GMWBs can be used as a substitute for fixed-income. “I think at best you are going to get mediocre returns [from many fixed-income products] ... And why people would put, maybe, 40% of their portfolio in something that has such a pessimistic outlook bewilders me.”
Corry Collins, an income protection advocate and author from Halifax, said financial advisors can change their lives by doing something every day that has the potential to earn them $1,000 and then, in true Granum style, write it down and keep track.
“With 260 working days in the year, at the end of the year you will have written down 260 things that have the potential to earn you $1,000 [each]. This has the potential to change your business life.”
Susan Creasy, a chartered life underwriter and author from Kingston, builds her practice through networking, referrals, precise planning and accountable goals. “By setting accountable goals and measurable results, I continue to build a life insurance and investment practice. I use my networking skills, my volunteer involvement and marketing ideas to engage and learn more about my clients, their family and friends.”
Creasy also said she builds key centres of influence and strategic alliances with other professionals. During a seminar, for example, all the professionals invite their own client base, exposing the other professionals to a number of potential prospects.
As a CFP and owner of an MFDA dealership, Sonny Goldstein developed a presentation he entitled The Income Robbers – the four enemies that can rob a person of their income: death, disability, old age (or retirement) and taxation.
Goldstein said he asks potential clients to rank them in order of importance and then listens to what they have to say.
“No matter how long it takes, those prospects will sell themselves,” he said. “They will give you every reason why they see [one of these] as a problem and want to solve the problem. The next step for me is always: if I can show you the best possible way you can solve the problem today, how much can you set aside each and every month to pay for the solution? Always get a commitment.”
Rob Gawthrop was told to aspire to the MDRT – and the former-musician-turned president of Gawthrop Financial Group, did just that.
He “Canadianized” a successful U.S. retirement book, Paychecks and Playchecks, written by Tom Hegna, and promotes guaranteed income as a main way of warding off investors’ fears of outliving their money.
Gawthrop said he learned conviction and principles from the masters at MDRT and encouraged others to follow this example.
“Find a mentor who is willing to share with you and who can help you grow your business. Learn from the masters. If you are someone who is like that and you are not mentoring somebody, try to find someone new in the business and help them.”
