This Sales Phone Script Is Worth $1 MILLION ft. Jalon Talley | Ep26

There's nothing you can say that's going to overcome the objection 100% of the time. No, that's the problem. They think they're going to learn something and they go away forever. I'm like, no, you just go from closing 5% to 8%. You go from 10% to 12%. Dude, over the course of 12 months, you'll print money, but the objections will— you're still getting a majority that you're not overcoming. If you stay consistent with it, you know it works a big enough percentage of the time that you can stick with it. What up, y'all? John Wetmore back with another episode of the Insurance Insiders Podcast. Got my dude Jaylen with us. Everything good over there, bro?

Everything's well, man. Everything's well. It's middle of August, about to head into quarter number 4. I'm excited for it.

I love it. I see success over your shoulder. Yeah, one of the things you're, you're getting pretty damn good at.

I'm trying to, you know, people like—

I have those same signs. I I have 4. What do the other ones say? Scoot over a little, I want to see it. Success, failure, execute, success. I have execute and success, and there's 2 other ones. I have them upstairs. I'm gonna send you a picture of them later. I love, I love stuff like this. Yeah, yeah, keeps me, uh, keeps my head right. I have them all over my office. I like 20 different signs, different things. Keep me, keep me thinking right.

Yes, sir.

Um, but cool, man. Excited to have you on. You're, uh, one of the dudes out there killing it in the industry. You and I have known each other, been a couple years at least now. I don't know, I remember where we first—

was it Ohio?

It was, uh, I feel like it was Ohio.

It was Ohio. Yeah, the, um, one of the road shows.

Yeah, met up in Ohio. You and Mike were there that day, and I don't know, I feel like it's been a couple years ago. Yeah, yeah. And I got to be around you a handful of times now, and always curious, always growing, not slowing down, you know, take— taking the industry by storm and doing big things, helping people win. So I want to, uh, want to dive into a little bit today for sure and see what you can, uh, help some, help some other people watching with.

And I got you, of course. I'll definitely love to do that. You make it easy, you know. Pioneers like yourself in the insurance industry, you give people like us, you know, hope, you know, to be able to keep pushing and keep going even through like the tough times, you know, with agency building, uh, being an agent, you know. We just need people like you for to look up to as like an inspiration and be like, you know what, he did it, I can also do it as well. So all the valuable information you got me in the gym, you gave to me, it's probably going to come out on this call too, because success leaves clues, right? Yeah. You follow somebody who's successful for a long period of time, you eventually get into a room with all of them and they're all saying the same exact thing, essentially.

Yes sir, yes sir. I've been there. You ever look at someone and you're like, so that dipshit can do it, certainly I can figure it out? You've thought that before.

I thought that.

Yeah, yeah, right. I'm like, I just want to be someone else's dipshit, dude. Like, follow me, look at what I've done. I'm, I'm just another dude who was watching other people, and I— same, same path, dude.

Yes, sir.

You know, so you're on, you're on the right road, you're doing the right things. I'm just— I started a little earlier. Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm a lot older.

I don't know, man. I got, I got my beard growing in now.

So is it getting gray yet?

Got some grays up here with this agency building.

You might have to get some plugs in a couple years. Keep at it, bro, I tell you.

Yeah, I'm saying, man. But it's a enjoyable experience, you know, honestly. Yeah.

What's the hardest part about this thing for you? I'll say the biggest struggle.

Yeah, I'll say the most challenging part about the, uh, agency building is learning people. Yeah, you know, like every person has different personalities, knowing how to cater to their exact needs, right? Knowing that, okay, cool, I built the system out that can help all agents be successful, but you got that one agent, those two different agents who— whose personalities are completely different, and trying to form the system a little bit to help them win and grow. And, um, I think that's really been the biggest thing for me, man, is just really knowing how to craft and tailor a system that's meant for everybody to win. But you have those few people who have different personalities to really be able to, you know, follow suit and connect with it. And, um, coaching, you know, coaching agents and being able to be there because you're literally like not only their coach, you have to be their friend. You got to be therapist. Therapist. You got to be all things to all people. And that's been the biggest challenge because people, everybody bring energy to you. And the more people you talk to, they're either uplifting you or they're bringing you down. In most cases, you got agents who are trying to learn something new, and some people take on the negative aspect of things, and you're trying to inspire them and coach them up the whole time. And put your energy into them, and it can be drainful on a coach or mentor in the business. But I do it every single day.

Yeah. How you learning to adapt to it?

Um, just roll with the punches, you know. And, um, I think that what's been working for me is just remembering where I first started in the business. And I was exactly like them when I first got started. Amen. Right? Like, okay, there was a system in place that was working, but I challenged the system to think that my way would do it better. You know, I had a mentor, I had a coach who told me to do exactly what I was supposed to do, but for the first 90 days I challenged him on it because I thought my way was better. But then I come to realize, I'm like, okay, cool, well, it's not working out how I wanted to how I wanted to, let me at least follow some of the things he said. And then I, for some reason, start getting results.

Yeah, imagine that.

So just remembering, like, okay, I was once those agents before, and being able to put myself in their shoes and being able to coach them from there.

Yeah, it's funny. My favorite call is when people call me and they're like, so I did it and it worked. I'm like, yeah. I'm aware, that's why I told you to do it. But they know because they tried to not do it the first 22 times. Exactly. It's funny, man. I remember the journey, dude, and it doesn't change. It continues to get hard. What's your hardest personality type to deal with? Like, what do you have the biggest struggle with? What, what style? Is there something specific? Meaning, I can tell you mine. I'll tell you mine and give you a chance to think about it. So like, there's, there's some type of people who— and this isn't a negative on anyone. Just people are very different, you know. But there's some people who need like validation regularly. They need a pat on the back regularly. They need to be told it's okay regularly, that they're doing a good job, that, you know, I mean, some people need that. Yeah, right. I struggle with that because I'm not good at recognizing that they need it all. I'm like, dude, I just told you in July you were doing a good job. You need me to tell you again in August? They're like, no, I need it on Monday and Tuesday. I'm like, oh no, I'm bad at that. Yeah, so I've had to learn how to, you know, I mean, adapt to some people that just need it differently. They don't take the— like, where's my favorite guy is like when I try to tell a story about when I was new, I did it this way too, and I messed up, and the guy will go like, are you trying to tell me to suck it up and stop being a little bitch? I'm like, yes, yes. He goes, just tell me that next time. I'm like, yes, thank you. You're— I like you. That's That's easier for me than the other guy, you know what I mean? But I had to learn how to be a chameleon and work with both. I just naturally lean toward— because I'm the guy, I'd rather you just tell me because I'll miss all the other signs and I don't need the pat on the back. I like that. I ain't mad at one. Yeah, but I can survive without them.

Yeah, yeah, you know, that's good, good point. I would say that is like, uh, one of my biggest, biggest things as well is, um I'm okay with, like, coaching and doing, like, the mindset stuff that people need, but sometimes it gets exhausting, you know, if you have that agent who comes in and they're not— they're on the calls with you every single week, you're talking to them every single day, but they're not improving because they're looking at you to be their inspiration. They think that's a form of work, and it's not. It's, it's not where the work takes place. The work takes place when you decide to pick up the phone, go door knock, and implement everything I told you to do. But some agents they'll think, okay, I had an hour call with Jaylen today, man, I accomplished something. Yeah, well, probably just a little bit, but you're not going to get better, you're not going to make money from those calls, right? Um, but I'll say the biggest one for me is the per— the people. It's— I'm really not sure if it's a personality type, but like the person who comes in and they're, they were exactly like me. That was my frustration, right? Not everything is— it's ironic, like You got the whole system, you got the whole process. I already told you what to do, but you're questioning it, you know. So people that aren't coachable, people who are not coachable, that's like the biggest thing for me. And for me, I'm the type of person where I'll coach you on it, you know, give you a play, tell you what to do, go run it. And if you question it, you're a 1099 agent, you can do whatever you want to do with it, right? If you want to go run it your way, go ahead and run it your way. 9 times out of 10, you're going to come back to me. I'm going to be able to provide you with the additional support that you need. But go out there and hit your head a couple times, fall on your face, and then come back, and then I'll be willing to, you know, help you out because now you're humbled. Yeah, but that's that. I'll say that's the biggest thing, the biggest one for me, is people not being coachable.

Yeah, yeah. I had to learn how to do that in a way where I would— the thing where you said you realize where you go, like, if you work with me and you tell me, like, I understand that you're 1099, Jane. Like, so I'm saying the same thing. I'm like, you're 1099, you do whatever you want. But you know who else is 1099 in this situation? This guy.

Yeah.

So I don't have to work with you either. Does that make sense? Like, I'm also 1099.

Yeah, that's good.

So because you don't do the work and you call me and complain, I, I'm not obligated to deal with it.

Wow.

I'm, I'm as independent as you are, you know. So I would— I had to learn how to nicely tell people that I expect them to be coachable and I expect them to be, uh, do the things they say they're going to do, you know. And if they don't, all good. But I had one rule: you can never complain to me. So if you do it your way, I ain't mad, you— but you, you're never allowed to call me and complain, you know. And then again, if you're not coachable, I would always go like— not to be— I don't want to sound like an asshole here, but why, why involve me? If you're not going to be coachable, why am I in this situation? You know what I mean? Like, what are we talking?

That's good, that's good. I'm taking that one. Yeah, I'm gonna take exactly what you just said because when we first start agency building and having agents come on board, you know, we used to always say, hey, I don't expect anything from you at all but honesty and integrity. But we come to find out that, hey, as an agency owner, agency builder, you do need to put expectations in place or else there's going to be agents who just come in and free-for-all, you know, and then they're, they're mad that they're not getting results because there wasn't proper expectations that put in place, that were put in place, right? So we actually did start implementing some expectations, a part of the agency, what it looks like and, um, how the relationship should be, you know, between upline and downline. And we started getting some better results from there. So from our first hiring call, you know, I always tell agents now when we be doing a hiring call, and we're about to hire them, I say, hey, before we move forward, right, tell me everything that you expect from me, right? And I'll say, okay, are you sure that's it? All right, tell me everything you expect from me. Hey, I want you to show up, I want you to be there for me, you know, I want you to hold me accountable, I want you to do everything. I'll say, okay, is that it? And they'll say, yes, that's it. I'll say, okay, cool. Well, now you have your expectations for me. I'm gonna sign off on those things. Now here's my expectations from you. So now it's a mutual agreement. And now since we've been able to implement that in our hiring process, now it scares off some agents who aren't going to be really serious, and then it actually brings on the ones who are serious. And, um, it makes the relationship a lot better when there are expectations in place that were set from ground one.

Quick break in the video. This is John Wetmore, one invite you to join my new school community. You will get access to tons of free sales training. There's a community of other insurance agents looking to win. We have hundreds of them already in there, um, where we're giving out answers to questions people have, coaching, guidance, tips on not only selling but building, team, team stuff, um, leadership tips. And I'm personally in there responding to messages, putting out challenges, talking about our wins, our losses, our struggles, and sharing things that'll help you win as well. To join now, go to johnwetmore.com/school, which is S-K-O-O-L. The link is also below. Correct. It's just like selling, dude. You do the same thing when dealing with clients. You set expectations when you're, when you're dealing with them, you know. And what it does— I don't remember the way you worded it earlier, but I call it like, there's like a mental energy that's drained from, from talking to people. You have like a mental energy tank. Yeah. And you can only handle so much before you're, you're zapped for the day. You feel that end of the day, you're like, yeah, for sure, it's like 3:30 and you're like, oh, I can't take another call today, boy, I'm done. It's because you didn't set expectations and you were just taking what people throw at you. You know what I'm saying? So when you set proper expectations and you, you like have, um, what's the word I want to use, where there's like boundaries that you have, you know what I mean? There's this, there's this line, dude. It keeps that tank full and you can actually help more people.

Makes sense.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, that's good.

Y'all are doing good things with it. And it's, it's, it's, it's just like sales and you're, you're obviously killing it there. I remember I was asking Mike about some telesales stuff and he was like, yeah, I'll tell you, but I'm not the guy. You should talk to Jay. That's his thing.

Yeah, he's still in the field, man. Yeah, he's still in the field. Yeah, like, Mike— putting Mike on the phone won't be good for anybody.

Yeah, I'm mad at it. I was that kind of guy. I'm not sure, you know what I mean? Thank God I happened before telesales, because I would— I don't know that I would— I don't know the answer. I never had to really find out. But I would love to get into some of that, man, because people are— people obviously, as you're seeing, some people certainly— it's funny, dude, when it first started, and I still think it's somewhat there, um, but people have this expectation that being able to do remote telesales and work from home in my PJs with my feet up in my recliner, like, it's all rainbows and sunshine. And I'm like, y'all actually have to work the phones a lot harder. You actually get told no a lot more. You actually deal with more objections. It's actually harder to build trust. It's harder to get the social. It's harder to get the bank account. This is harder. It's— yeah, you don't have to drive to someone's house, but dude, I could trip over myself in someone's kitchen and pick up checks.

That's very true.

Yeah, you know, and you've done both.

Yeah, you've done a lot.

You've done a lot in this business, banging on doors. You've done field sales, telesales. So I'd love to hear some, some perspective from you, dude, on, on what's working for you, what you're teaching your agents, what people are struggling with. From— and we can, we can— I might interrupt and ask questions in the middle, but from phone all the way to making sales. Any— I'd love to hear the journey, dude, and for sure give people some nuts and bolts stuff.

Yeah, man, absolutely. Yeah, so I started, um, you know, in phone sales about 2 years ago, and, um, it was a learning process that every single agent has to take. I don't care how long you've been in the business, from field sales to phone sales, it's a completely different sell. And there's some people like, no, sales is all the same. I say, yeah, the principles of sales are the same, but The way of doing it is different, right? I always tell agents, you know, if you're starting this business, I always recommend the field first because you're going to learn it a lot faster and you're going to be able to stumble across results a lot quicker than typical phone agents will. Just because you're going face to face, like you don't have to worry about the client not trusting if you're real or not because you're showing up to their house like you got your license in your hand. You're right there. You're ready to talk to them. You got the lead there. They can physically see you. So that automatically boosts the trust rate a ton, right? Versus phone sales. Now you got to come up with crafty ways to help your client be able to trust you. Okay, let me send you my credentials. Let me send you my badge. Okay, go look me up on the Department of Insurance. All right, you got to do all these extra steps, uh, to be able to start seeing some success. But, you know, once you really get the hang of it down, it really becomes fairly simple. Okay, I'm not going to say it's easy, but it is very, very simple. So when it comes to the phone sales process, man, um, you know, I had a mentor that I had, a coach that I ended up getting, which taught me how to do phone sales. I had to humble myself my first month doing phone sales. You know, John, I was doing $30,000 a month as a producer in the field, you know, working 4 days a week. Not saying that for everybody, but 4 days, 4 days a week. I gave myself 4 days a week to hit my goal because I believed in reducing my time frames, and I just worked extremely hard, working 13, 14-hour days in field. Yeah, my following month, when I started learning phone sales, that next month I did like $5,000 in sales. And I was talking to Mike, I said, Mike, I'm about to transition back into field sales because this is a big, big change. Maybe we can just have a field sales company. And he's like, no, remember why you did it. And the whole reason why I did it was because, you know, I wanted to make sure that the female agent who felt uncomfortable going to houses they can still be able to partake in the business but not have to feel uncomfortable doing it. So I had to figure out how to do it, and, um, I went through the whole process, man. When it comes to everything, I had to learn, okay, what are my metrics? That's the first thing I really wanted to, to get down. Okay, I knew my metrics for field sales, but I didn't know my metrics for phone sales, so I was kind of just shooting a gun, just trying to hoping it land.

And then what were they in field? I want to hear them.

Oh, when you're ready.

Yeah, you want to give them after? Yeah, I want to hear it. I want to compare the two for sure. Yeah, so you know I'm a numbers guy, dude. Yeah, yeah, this is my world.

So in field sales, I knew if I, if I door knocked 20 houses a day, um, because I was just strictly door knocking, I wasn't setting appointments, I know if I door knocked 20 houses a day, at least 6 or 7 people will be there. Out of 6 or 7 people that'll be home, I'll I should easily be able to have 3 presentations. Out of 3 presentations, I said 1 sale. Okay, that was me just door knocking. I didn't set appointments or anything.

Yeah, was it door knocking leads or cold?

Uh, door knocking leads. Cool. So I'll order, um, I was on— this is when the direct mail leads were popping. Yeah, you know, I had a recurring lead order every single week, so I had to make sales. Yeah, so recurring lead order every week, they was pulling out $1,500 every single week, no questions asked. So I kind of put myself against the wall every single week, and, um, I was ordering about 20-25 leads a week. And, you know, I was able to close out of 20-25 at least 30%, so I could close like 6 or 7 deals easily, you know, that way. And then do, uh, referrals. So I was able to close like 8 to 12 deals every single week.

5-10x all day long.

Every— all day long, every single week. For phone sales now, understanding my metrics for phone sales, um, I know now if I order a batch of— and everybody's different because I have experience, but for a brand new agent, right, I always tell them, hey, we base it off of how much money you want to make.

Yep.

All right, how much money do you want to make? Let's start there. Okay, cool. You want to make $5,000 for final expense, the average AP let's just say it's $840 in premium annually, right? Um, let's say your average commission is like 85%, okay? That breaks down to be, after you're advancing, after you're advancing, it breaks down to be roughly around $450 in deposits that you're going to get. So you need to protect at least 17 families to make— well, like 12 families to make like $5,000, right?

Yeah.

So based off of that, I said, okay, cool, you're going to suck within your first 90 days. It's going to happen. A good closing rate for a phone sales agent is going to be around 10% because you just got to go through volume, right?

Leads, 10% of leads, 10% of leads.

Yep. So if you were to— if I know I need to close on 12 families and I'm a really— and I'm good at phone sales, a good agent who has experience, you need at least 120 leads. Now you're going to suck your first 90 days, keep in mind. So you're going to close in at least half of that, let's say 5%. Okay, so you at least need about 180 to 200 leads to be able to close on 5, 5 deals. But you're not going to make a lot of profit off the batch, but you're getting the experience. But we also teach you, um, how to be able to get referrals off of that. You already automatically know, okay, cool, I got the beneficiaries, that's 2 people I can contact. I got the emergency contacts that I can call. right? And then I got the children. So if I sign up 4 people out of that batch every single week, I can easily be able to upsell and talk to referral clients that I get from that client and be able to sell probably an additional 50% off of those people. So I can walk home every single week closing like 8, right, for phone sales. But do agents do it?

Nope. They want to— hey, they want to dip their toe in and buy 22 leads and see how it works.

Yeah, it doesn't work. Like, if you're buying 30 leads as a phone sales agent and you think that's going to work for you, it's not enough volume. It's just not enough. I always tell agents, here's your metrics that you need to have every single week, for every single day: 200 calls minimum. 200,000 minimum will get you at least 10 contacts. Out of 10 contacts, that should be able to get you at least 3 to 4 presentations. Out of 3 to 4 presentations, if you're brand new, you should at least be able to close on one, right? And that's what we teach our agents on, how to be able to, uh, run that play every single day. The agents who do it, they start getting better results, right? And then you have your book, you know, Do More. The more that they do that play, their metrics start to increase. Same activity, but they're, they're starting to get more presentations.

Yeah, both sides of it.

Get more sales. So now you're increasing up to 10%. So now you got 5, 4 presentations, you can close on 50, 75%, right? And you just get better and better over, over time. So that's what I always tell agents. I always like to figure it first, start out with my metrics, try to see what that number is, and then from there I just run the play that my coach gave me. Okay, cool. What's my script? What's my presentation? How does it sound? And Am I role-playing? Am I going through this process with my coach every single day? We have all of our agents send their recordings to us. Field sales and phone sales. Send me your recordings every single day so I can listen to it and give you some valuable feedback. The agents that do it, they get the most of our attention and we give them great feedback and they get better. The agents that don't do it, unfortunately, they typically end up weeding themselves out of the business.

Yeah, that's the no complaining rule, people.

Yeah, exactly.

So you know what's funny is I always try to help articulate to people too, like even 200 phone calls, like if you're making money with it, cool, but I need y'all to all understand that's part-time, very part-time. Yeah, 200 calls ain't a full-time gig. And what I like to let people know is if you only buy 20, 30 fleet, like you physically can't work full-time even if you wanted to. Yeah, you know, again, you make 200 phone calls. I mean, if you're doing an okay pace in 4 max 5 hours, 4 or 5 hours, you know what I mean? And you got a few presentations in there, maybe you're working 6 hours like physically. And I know people use— well, they watched— we're watching your podcast, John, I'm working. You know, I had someone send me their schedule yesterday because I like to let people— I have people send me their schedule so we can see it. And it was like, you know, 7 AM, pray for an hour, which was fine. 8 AM, eat breakfast for an hour, fine. 9 AM to 11 AM, they were doing training. Then 12 to 1, they make phone calls. Then 1 to 2, they take lunch. And then 2 to 3, they do training. And then 4 to 5, they have a break. And then 5 to 9 is family time.

And I'm like, sheesh.

Yeah, I think there's like 60 minutes of work in there. Yeah, yeah, but that's— you see it a lot, obviously. You see that y'all see the same thing.

We see it all the time. We see it all the time. And I'm gonna be honest too, man, like, um, I haven't even worked this business full-time.

I'm so glad you said it, dude.

You know, like, I, I personally haven't, you know. And, um, because you— when we say full-time, it's like, okay, income-producing activities. Yeah, getting on Zoom calls, training, that's not an IPA. Right. Listening to a podcast, although they're still amazing, that's not an IPA. I tell all agents, hey, if you're going to listen to a podcast, do it during times that you're not dialing or that you're not supposed to be dialing, right? It's all presentations. It's easy to pick up a phone or drive in your car and go door knock, but those are not income-producing activities. Only time you're income-producing is when you're presenting to your client. And, um, I would say for me, you know, from when I first started this business I have not worked full-time. You know, when you broke that down for me years ago, I didn't know I did it to you. Yeah, you did. You did a while ago. I'm like, man, that's crazy. Yeah, but yeah, I haven't. And, um, I imagine like if I did do it full-time, where we would be at right now. And, you know, we're doing decent, you know, when it comes to our agency, and I've been able to do fairly well when it comes to the business and producing.

Yeah.

'But if I really went all in and really did this business full-time and focused on IPAs and had a lot of presentations and things of that nature, oh man.' Do you remember what number we came up with when we did it?

Do you remember what it was? How many hours?

Oh man, I was like only working like 24 hours a week or something like that. Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't It wasn't like that, but at that time—

that's high compared to the most numbers I get. Yeah, and the average number I get is like 6. Yeah, and people are like, I work more than 6, and I'm like, all right, let's go ahead.

Yeah, that's because I was like, my presentations in the house for some reason was 2 hours long. Yeah, like, but that's the only reason. Like, okay, yeah, everybody—

how long is the average telesales presentation for the average agent? Not someone that's brand new and sucks, and not you, somewhere in the middle. What's an average?

I'll say about an hour, hour 15.

Okay, so if we got an hour presentation, if you're making 20 presentations a week, that's only 20 hours. And dude, I bet 99% of people watching this ain't making 20 presentations a week, right? And I can give them some credit for— what I add to the presentations is prospecting in the right way. Again, door knocking, does it count? Yeah, when you're banging on the door only. Driving there doesn't count, none of that kind of— like, why, dude? Remember the job you drove to? You still had to work 40 when you got there, you know what I mean? Like, why does driving count? To make you feel good, that's it. We don't count it anywhere else, you know what I mean? So for me, I do count prospecting, um, so— but a phone call's a minute, and in your example, 200 phone calls, 60, 120, 240— that's less than 4 hours.

Less than 4 hours.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, if you're doing a few hundred phone calls a week and you're presenting 10 times, I'm like, did you work in 15 hours a week max in things that make money?

Yeah.

But we tend to tell ourselves, and we know this because we've both done it, we tell ourselves all the other things count to make ourselves feel good, or we call ourselves full-time because we don't have another gig. Yeah, I mean, it's like, I'm full-time insurance agent. Yeah, but how many, how many people did you present to this week?

4.

4. Um, okay. Yeah, you know what I mean? And I, I just, I love to give the perspective because I had it for myself. I remember early on, dude, I was doing— I was booking 12 appointments a week in the field. I sit with 8, would be a lucky week. That'd be a good one, you know what I mean? And I'm our max, you know, and I'm— hell, I'm an hour if I sell the sucker to both a husband and wife. You know what I mean? So an hour was giving me credit for presentation because a lot of them I didn't last 20 minutes. Wow. Yeah, you know, I mean, you get kicked out, you get told no, you get think about it, stuff like that. I mean, I could certainly squat in their house and beg them for an hour and a half, but I wasn't very productive. But again, I'm presenting 8 times a week in a house and I'm making, you know, 150 phone calls. I'm like, yeah, I was working 12 hours a week in things that mattered. And I had that in the book. I talk about the story, like, I did that far too long. Yeah, I had to make those changes. So every time you and I talk, and Mike and stuff, I love— y'all always ask me every event.

Yeah, got to, man.

You got lunch, don't worry about nothing, you know what I mean? Like, let's talk.

We're hoping for it, looking for it, man. So, you know, you got the knowledge and the wisdom that we're, um, that we need to be able to get to that next level, right? So, um, we'll be silly if we go to an event in proximity and you're there and we're not trying to ask questions.

And it ain't just me. I'll do it with others too, you know what I mean? It's like, I think it's the, the personality. Y'all are always trying to get better, so you find people that are further ahead. You get out of your comfort zone. You're not afraid to talk about your mistakes and be transparent. I remember the first time we talked about all the door knocking stuff. I was like, how many do a week? How many? How long does it take? I remember the conversation now that you're— I remember where we were standing when we were doing it in that hallway, you know. Um, but I wish more people would see see it from that vantage point. And obviously y'all are doing a good job explaining it because your team's growing. I mean, y'all are, y'all are getting some traction for sure. I hear your name all the time. Yeah, we're gonna talk to people, see people at events. I hear it all the time, bro.

We're growing, man. I actually had a call with, um, you know, Roger this morning. And, um, you know, every, you know, 2 weeks we typically evaluate our business and see where we're at. And, and, um You know, right now we're in this place where we're like, kind of like stagnant, you know, like we haven't grown much, but we're not going down. But we're just like here, like the last 90 days. And after that call, it humbled me even more because I'm like, man, there's something off that we haven't really caught yet. But it took somebody who can look outside of our— who's outside of our business, who can look within. Who has the results that we look— are we looking for? And they can say, okay, cool, that's the problem that you're having, fix that and address that. And, um, it made me realize, because I was like, I just think, oh man, we got great training, we got great systems, great processes, we got decent leads, all we gotta do is just bring more agents into the, into the, into the mix and we'll grow. And over time you will, but if you can move in with a ship that has holes and patches on the side of it and you don't take time to really nurture and fix it, true, it now becomes your problem and you got to be able to fix those issues. So, you know, after that call this morning with just him, you know, I was like, man, okay, we really gotta step it up even more if we're looking to get to that million dollars a month as an agency. Yeah. So, and it's calls like this that really help out and help us identify those things too.

Yeah, I love it, dude. You'll get— y'all get there. You just need You need some more ships in your fleet, bro.

We're rolling with one ship.

Yes, you are.

We need multiple. Yeah, absolutely correct.

Yeah, give them, uh, give them some actual phone tips, man. Anything once they get on the phones. We've, we've— I think we've taught them they need to work more. That's pretty clear. You know, your stats are cool, but once, once they get someone on the phone, you know, to get the percentages to you know, close that 10%. What are you, what are you doing there? How you working the phones?

And then, um, so we'll get in the sales side too after. Yeah, so when it comes to the sales side of things, I always tell agents like, this is the principles of sales that I always teach them first. I say, hey, you know, the first thing you guys need to understand, the only reason why clients don't buy for you is for two reasons: either due to a lack of trust or due to pricing, right? I can control at least I can control both of those, right? My— the pricing is very simple, just to find, okay, cool, how much can you afford on a month-to-month basis? But the sec— the second half of it, okay, cool, how do I actually start to gain trust with my client, right? And I have complete control over that as well if my presentation and my scripting is down. So our script consists of, for phone sales, a few different parts. We have our approach, of course, right when the client answers the phone. We got to make sure that we're building trust with the client right when they answer, within the first 5 to 7 seconds. So I always tell agents, when you call your client, okay, don't call them as if you're a customer service representative or you're just now meeting them. I call my clients who just requested information like I met them a long time ago, you know. So rather than saying, hey, Mr. John, we just got your request about life insurance Everybody's hitting them with that. Yeah, I give my client a call and when they first answer the phone call, they say, hey, who is this? I say, hey, what's going on, Mr. John? How your day going today, my man? In their mind, they're thinking, okay, where have I met this guy before? Have I talked to him, a guy before? This is my current life insurance agent, is my car sales agent. Who is this? Like, I don't— when I first introduce myself, I'm not giving them a call introducing the product. Yep. For me, I want to call them like I'm calling my grandmother. When I call my grandmother All right, I'm not saying, hey Grandma, this is your grandchild Jalen Talley. No, like, this is stupid. Like, this is unnatural. I give my grandma a call, I say, hey, what's going on, Gigi? You doing all right? Right? If she has some type of like sadness in her voice or she's excited, I match and mirror her energy, right? Because people like to buy from people that they're familiar with. So if I call a client who sound like they just rolled out of bed, I don't want to sound like I'm super excited, right? I want to match and mirror their energy. So when I get them on the phone, if they're super low, like they just rolled out of bed and they're like, hello, who is this? I'm gonna get them on the phone, say, hey Mr. John, this is Jalen, is everything all right? All right. And now they're like, yeah, everything's all right, who is this? Then I can go in and introduce myself because you just asked. If there's curiosity, it creates curiosity, right? And, um, there's The people who are curious are the ones that allow for you to keep pushing forward. Yeah, yeah. If they're super excited, guess what? I'm not going to call them like I'm depressed because they don't want to mess with people who have low energy. So if they're extremely excited and they answer the phone like, hey, who is this? What am I called? What do you want? Right? Or they cuss you out, that's— that I call that excited energy. I don't get mad about it, right? I match and mirror the energy. I'll say, hey, what's going on, Mr. John? It sounds like you're having a great day today. Is that right? Yeah, I'm having an amazing day. Excellent. I'm glad to know. Yeah. Who is this? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I was waiting for you to ask me that question. My name is Jayla. I'm an underwriter here in the state of Ohio. I'm just giving you a quick call back. Um, you filled out one of our forms online about possibly getting some life insurance. I see you're located out there in Columbus. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, perfect. Now I am required to send my credentials over to you. Is this a good phone you can receive text messages on so I can send you my badge? I send them my badge, they look at it, I'm going straight into my discovery. All right, so the approach is extremely important. You want to make sure you're building curiosity. A lot of people spend too much time trying to verify information, and they can kind of make them seem even more sketchy, right? They'll get a lead with like 15 things on it that they filled out, and they'll say, hey, you know, I got your date of birth is 1/10/65, your house is— house address is 1234 Homestead Avenue in Columbus, Ohio. You put here your favorite hobby is golfing. They're verifying the entire form. The client's like, yeah, I know what I requested, but you don't need to verify all of it at first. The only time I verify all the information is if a client tells me, hey, yeah, I don't remember filling that out. Yeah, and that's when you can go in and say, okay, cool, Mr. John Wetmore, that's quite concerning for me, you know, because as an underwriter, my job isn't to sell you anything. It's really just to verify some of this information that was listed because I want to make sure nobody's illegally trying to take out life insurance in your name. And I say, okay, cool, I got your email is this, your home address is this, your favorite hobby is this. And then I'll just say, okay, cool, I can— is that all correct? They'll say, yes, that's correct. Okay, I can imagine you just requesting this because 'You just want to see what this is all about?' They'll say, 'Yeah, absolutely.' Most of the time when a client gives an objection in the approach, it's typically a knee-jerk reaction just to get you off the phone, you know. Um, but if you can really focus on matching your client's energy in the approach, uh, come in and be able to provide them with a valuable solution— the viable solution is, 'Okay, cool. Well, hey, I'm here to be able to assist you with your life insurance request, let them know what it's about, but not sound like every other sales agent. You're going to get a lot further in your presentation and your approach than everybody else. Because one thing to keep in mind is, even if they requested information from you for life insurance, I guarantee you they filled out 15 other forms on Facebook. And guess what? Every single agent is going to give them a call the same exact way.

And then they bitch at the lead vendor and go, you sold it to 100 people, I I thought it was exclusive.

No, no, these clients literally like— we, we self-generate leads right now, you know, for True Wealth. And, um, it has a picture, it has a video of me and Mike speaking about life insurance, right? Yeah. And there are still people that are like, oh, I didn't request that information. Okay, Mr. John, I know for a fact you did, right? Like, you just filled it out, right? But the biggest challenge that I see a lot of agents having is that they come, they come off more combative Yeah, maybe more. Hey, I'm just here to be able to serve you. Yeah, if you're combative with your client within the first few seconds and you're trying to argue with them and fight them with them, they're going to hang up on you. I'm not going to leave any time for rebuttals, right? So if we can just understand, like, hey, not to sound like every single telemarketer or every single other agent, and be able to genuinely care about how somebody's doing and just have a conversation like you're talking to your own mother, your own father, the conversation is going to go through extremely smoothly. So my whole objective is not to get the sale, is to simply just collect the decision. Like, I just want to collect the decision. Tell me yes, tell me no. Other than that, you know, I gotta, I gotta hang up the phone and keep it pushing. And then my other objective is to, okay, how can I turn this client from a complete stranger to, by the end of the conversation, them wanting me to come to their family reunions or their picnics.

Yeah.

And that's where the trust and everything, uh, steps into it. So now we can be able to be able to help that client, and they start to trust you a little bit more. So the next time an agent gets on the phone with them or tries to sell them life insurance, they already got you locked in their phone book as my insurance guy or my insurance lady. Okay.

Um, you have any questions on that, John, or No, it's all clear as day, dude. Smooth, smooth. It's just the— it's just the intentionality. It's nothing. There's no magic to it. It's just your understanding psychology and humans and the way people interact and how to communicate with people.

Simple, simple. Yeah, exactly.

And I think that, um, take reps to identify that and know how to not stumble over your words and see it coming and slow down. Like, there's— it's—

you need reps. Yeah, exactly.

You didn't get— you didn't get to smooth it. And someone, someone watching this trying to steal it which we want you to do. Yeah, it ain't gonna work on the first phone call necessarily that you make after this. Like, keep working on it, keep practicing it, take your recordings, send it to someone who can help you, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah. And that's what I tell agents all the time. I say, hey, you know, um, the reason why you're, you're not getting better with your presentation or your, or your rebuttals is because you'll get an objection and then you will do what I tell you to do for one time and you're like, oh, this doesn't work. And then you go on YouTube Yeah, you know, YouTube, and then you start searching how to overcome this objection. Now you got 50 different gurus on there teaching you how to overcome objections, and that one doesn't work and the next one doesn't work. It's because you just haven't practiced it enough times to master it. Yeah, for it to get comfortable for you. If you can't overcome any objections like second nature, you haven't mastered it just yet. Yeah, right.

And, um, you'd agree with this too, dude. There's nothing you can say that's going to overcome the objection 100% of the time. Never. No, no. And that's the problem. They think they're going to learn something and they go away forever. I'm like, no, you just go from closing 5% to 8% this month, or you go from 10% to 15% is a massive jump. It's a 50% increase for sure, you know what I mean? In, in net result, I know it's 5 for you math wizards, but that's 50% is how that works, you know what I mean? But it's like increment. You go from 10 to 12 percent even.

That's good, dude.

Over the course of 12 months, yeah, you'll print money, but the objections will— don't they— they'll— you're still getting a majority that you're not overcoming. Yeah, you know, so I, I think I wish people would grasp that. It's like, stick with something, do it, and if you stay consistent with it, you know it works a big enough percentage of the time that you can stick with it for sure, you know, versus trying to make it go away completely. I'm like, It's like Maddox playing baseball at 12. It's like him trying to make strikeouts go away in baseball. I'm like, bro, you— that— I hope that's not your goal. Yeah, because they ain't never going away, dude.

Yeah, yeah. And that's why I always tell agents, you know, like, the biggest thing is don't ex— like, you can expect to close on sales, um, in your presentation, but don't make it your overall objective, right? My objective at the end of the day is, hey, I just simply want to collect a decision. And if I added so much value to this client, they're going to see that and they're going— they're going to purchase, right? And that's what I teach all the time. Like, hey, just show up to add value and they're going to purchase from you. And I always tell agents, you know, if you really want to, um, coach yourself— because this is where another form of mastery starts to come in, where you start to look at your situation, the things that you've learned and you can look in the mirror and say, okay, cool, I didn't do exactly that based on what my coach told me to do. Okay, here are some things that I always tell people when you're going through your presentation. You got 4 things that you really want to take a look at and judge yourself off of. The first thing is, um, how was my tone and my tonality through my presentation? Because that breeds feelings and being able to help you connect with the client? How was my pacing, right? Was I moving too fast throughout my presentation? Was I moving too freaking slow or was I moving just right, right? It's kind of like watching like Fast and Furious, right? When it first came out, you know, when Paul Walker was here, it moved perfectly. You know, you'll have times where they're speeding through, they're flying, right? And then they'll be drinking a mimosa at the freaking beach to give your mind some time to relax. Your mind was stimulated the whole time. Yeah. Now you got the Fast and Furious films where it's action the entire time. You probably get one break the entire movie. You're just like, what the heck did I just watch? Yeah, right. It's the same thing when it comes to here. I want to make sure that I'm just adjusting my tone and my pacing throughout my entire presentation. I don't want to move too fast. I don't want to move too slow. There's parts of my presentation where I want to speed up. There's parts of my presentation where I want to slow down. And nurture what the client is telling me. And then I want to judge— and then I want to look at, okay, cool, did I have a pleasing personality? Like, when I'm going through my presentation, was I able to be myself? Not be like other people. Like, was I able to be like myself? Like, for me, I like to joke with my clients and make them laugh. If that's not your personality, don't try to mimic me because it becomes disingenuous and your client can tell, right? So don't try to be like me. Be yourself and Add it to your script in your presentation because you can get a script in hand. I can give anybody my script, but the information is the same. But what brings the script to life is your personality and how you present it, right? And then I always say at the end, you know, was I able to build a genuine connection with my client? If you were not able to do any one of those things, 9 times out of 10, you're not going to close the deal. Right, just because you did not do everything that you were supposed to do to add value to your client's life.

How do you tell them to gain that info?

How do I tell them to get that information? Yeah, yeah, most of the sale is going to happen in discovery.

Yeah, you know, like in a discovery, meaning if they hit all 4, how do you get them to judge themselves on hitting all 4? Sorry, it was a poor question.

Oh, you're good. So how do I— like, can you repeat that one more time?

If I'm, if I'm brand new and you tell me hit these 4 things. Yeah, I'm like, but Jalen, dude, I did all 4 perfect.

Yeah, I was like, send me your recording.

Yeah, meaning, and that's what I wanted you to get to, is like, even if you don't, like, even if you're too scared to send it to Jalen, listen to yourself. Yeah, you can tell, you'll be like, oh, I didn't quite say that the way I thought I said it. Yeah, I didn't quite, you know what I mean? Like, because then my point is people are going to watch it and go, I do all that. Nah, record it and listen. I'm telling you, you'll sound different. You will. You'll be like— the first— I used— I— when I started doing that, dude, it changed our world. One, because I could certainly listen to it and give people coaching. But dude, they would— before they even sent it to me, I'd get a text and they'd be like, yeah, um, so I know why you had me record it now. Yeah, I heard it. I actually suck really bad, you know, where prior to they were— do you see how that little bubble works? That's pretty cool. You thumbs up and you got some balloons that came down as well. I know, that's like when I— I think I do pee, I don't know, every once in a while I get them. I'm like, this is cool.

And that's what I say, you know, we have every agent record their presentations. We have something like during our agency trainings, we have something called, um, um, we, we do essentially a, a training where we do a film day where people would send their recordings to us, and then on a live training, right, all the agents are on there and we listen to like multiple presentations, multiple recordings, and we're listening to them and we're like, hey, give us some feedback on this. Okay, this agent didn't control his pace. Hey, this agent didn't build a genuine connection. Hey, this agent didn't do this. Okay, this agent sounded good, but he wasn't being himself. Okay, why are you from the East Coast and you from New York with a deep accent, but your voice changes, your pitch is extremely high. Like, yeah, we look at those things and agents can easily be able to tell, okay, cool, I recorded my presentation, let me send you my recording, compare it to yours, and then let me know what adjustments you can make, right? Because I like to teach agents— I don't want to teach agents to depend on me, I want to teach them how to depend on themselves. So I want to help agents think, like, because they're just always depending on me to give them an answer. If I'm on out of town or on vacation for a while and I don't have my phone on me, you need to learn how to think yourself through the process and come up with a solution. So I always try to teach agents how to think themselves through the process and through the solution so they can get better.

What up, y'all? Officially releasing my book. You can go on and order it now at johnwetmore.com or click the link below. That's where I go over the 6 basic principles I implemented to go from a struggling agent for my first couple years to issue Nearly a half million bucks a month. And go through stories and examples and exercises that you can do to implement for yourself. Appreciate it. Again, JohnWetmore.com, get yours later. That was one of my— I was going to tell you, that was one of my favorite things you've said today. And I'm glad you pointed— like, you did it intentionally in the sense of, hey, do this and then let me know. Yeah, I love putting the burden of responsibility on others, dude. It's like, do this, you know what I mean? When I'm doing like coaching with people, Um, recording and sending me stuff is definitely one of the things, but it's like, I want them to— it's like teaching people to fish. It's that whole saying, you know, right? Whatever it is, we all know the saying, teach them to fish, they can eat forever, or whatever the hell it is. Um, you know, so it's, it's smart, and you can do that in a lot of different scenarios. It's like, hey, do this, let me know. Hey, do this and send it to me. Do this. Like, it's just putting that burden of um, the things they want to be— that's holding people accountable. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's them doing things that they say they'll do and, you know, continuing to slowly progress in the business.

Yeah, yeah. At the end of the day, it's like, okay, cool, if I do all the work for you, then did you really get better?

You don't learn anything.

No, you didn't learn anything. But I can tell you exactly what you've done wrong. But if you can come to me, listen to your recording, and then tell me with a list of things that you did wrong then that's when we're making progress. Because now in the middle of your presentation, you can catch yourself doing it. Because you already pointed it out, you're already aware of those issues. And now you can start to grow and develop and get better.

Right? You know, to add more ships to your fleet, that's the same thing, right?

See, that's why I need some assistance with—

I mean, just my point is, are you— you got people wanting to build? Yeah, I assume. Or they say they do. Yeah. Are you doing any of these exercises in that lane? Are people sending you recruiting calls? Are they sending you— you know what I mean? Like, are they sending you their recordings of them setting expectations with agents when they get them started and they bitch that, oh man, they just won't buy leads and they won't get on the training? Have you listened to any of the calls where they— where they got that agent started?

No. That's good, that's good. I'm happy to know that you actually just pointed it out. Me and Mike were literally just talking about what can we do to get better in those areas. And you just answered our prayer. That actually just helped out a lot. It actually just like click. Like, when you say like, hey, your agents and sales process is all the same, it really is. When I'm looking at it now, we'll start implementing that now. So that's actually really good.

Yeah. There you go. You're welcome.

Thank you, man.

Million a month right there, bro.

For sure. Absolutely. Free coaching. I needed it, man. Thank you, brother. But yeah, as far as like, uh, the rest of the sales process goes, you know, the discovery is by far the most important piece in any sales transaction. Um, I try not to make the sales sound transactional as possible, but then entire discovery, man, my whole objective is just to figure out why they requested information. And a lot of people stop at, well, I just want to make sure that my son is taken care of. Yeah, no, obviously that's the, that's the reason why you requested information. And most agents stop at that point and then they just proceed. Yeah, well, I just want to make sure my son is taken care of. I just want to take care of my final expenses. Okay, let's dive a little bit deeper into that. Tell me about the time where, back in 2003, where you experienced a funeral from your mother who passed away with no life insurance, and it left you and your brothers financially devastated, and you guys had to pay out of pocket to cover everything, and you guys felt embarrassed because you had to do the GoFundMe, the fish fries, had to borrow money from your church, and had to do donations, and it left a scar with you since 2003, and something just recently just happened that made you start thinking about those times. Tell me about those moments, please. If you're not diving that deep into the discovery Correct. You miss them. You're missing the, the whole point, right? Like, in my discovery, I have, you know, 4 or 5 trial closes that I typically like to get before I even proceed on my discovery. If I don't have 4 or 5, I, I haven't dived deep enough. Yeah, you know what I mean? And, um, the discovery process is extremely important. Your discovery should be so strong where after the discovery you can show quotes and your client will be able to ready to purchase, right? Because that's where the sales transaction is taking place, is in the discovery. Now, do you go straight into the sales after that? No, don't do that, because there's a close process and the education process where you got to be able to educate your client on things. So my— after my discovery, I go through, uh, we have a client worksheet with pre-qualifying health questions to really see exactly, um, if the client— what they can get approved for and qualify for. And we go through and try to figure out what the best company is. And then from there, we educate them on the difference between term and whole life, right? Here's what I always tell agents to do when you're explaining the benefits. If you got a client who requested information about final expense, you got to make term life sound very unattractive. Like, very— like, oh yeah, term, yeah, it's short for terminate. At some point it's going to hit you, Mr. John.

I used to call it a donation.

Yeah, donation.

Yeah, do you just want to donate to the insurance company forever? Nah, no, you don't want to do that, do you?

Yeah, and you said you mentioned your own Social Security, right? Yeah, like this policy here goes up every 5 years and cancels when you turn 80 or 85. You lose all the money that you paid into it. Yeah, by that time the client's all, yeah, I don't want no term. Now when it comes to the whole life, and I think a lot of agents miss this point as well when they're explaining benefits, they just explain the features. But when you talk about the benefits of the whole life or the plan that you're trying to get them it's your job to make the benefits sound appeasing to them, right? Because the clients are always thinking about, hey, what's in it for me? Yeah, but what's in it for them? What's in it for them is the family. They know that their family is going to get a death benefit at the time they're passing, but they're also asking, okay, cool, I got to pay $100 a month, but what's in it for me? Well, hey, Mr. John, not only does this policy pay out a benefit to your family— Lord forbid you passed away— and your son will be able to inherit all the, all the money that you leave behind to them. But it also comes with this cash value feature where after the first year, if you need to access the money for any reason, if you ever fell short on a hard bill or you just need some extra money from your policy, you can borrow from it and you can be able to be— it can be there for you whenever you need it most, right? And it starts to accumulate for you over the time. And it does come with this terminal illness rider which means if you have less than 2 years of life expectancy, you can be able to take 75% of that death benefit out early and handle all your final arrangements. So that way your daughter Sarah doesn't have to worry about going through that financial strain by herself. So I explain the benefits to the agent, to the client, so that way they can actually see how the benefit can work for them while they're even alive. And now they start to see more value in the policy rather than just looking at the policy like, well, I don't get anything out of it. If I pass away, then my son gets it. And that also helps eliminate chargebacks as well. If you explain the benefit to the client and how it can benefit them as well.

Yeah, when it comes time to look at things to get rid of, they'll remember the way you explain that differently than just going, yeah, it comes with terminal illness, heart attack, you know what I mean? Like, you dive in and go, it helps your son not have this, it helps you take care of the stuff so your family don't have— it's just like, like you said earlier, a little deeper, just a little deeper dive. Yeah, you know, it's, it's funny, it's the, it's the intentionality. I was talking to a guy last week and, uh, he was telling me when he starts, he asked people why they filled the form out. And I'm like, really? He's like, yeah. I'm like, don't you know why they filled it out?

Right.

I mean, and you said it loosely, it's like, it's okay to go, hey, I assume you filled this thing out to make sure that, you know, your family's taken care of, taken care of when you pass away. Has something happened to you recently that's made this come to light today? And that's how you get those stories that you talked about. Exactly. You know, and he's like, really? I didn't— oh, I just asked people. I'm like, you must get answers like, I was just checking it out, I was curious, I wanted to know the pricing. You probably get really poor answers.

Yeah, yeah, I try every question in my discovery, and even through my whole presentation, I always tell agents every single question you ask cannot be in vain. Like, every question you ask have to lead you somewhere, and it has to lead you closer to the close. So most of my questions, I have open-ended questions there, but most of the questions that I'm asking are closed-ended questions, right? So One of my first questions is, hey, on the form you only listed your name. Were you just requesting this for yourself, for you and someone else? Why am I asking that question? Well, I don't want to do a one-legger, that's why. Yeah, okay, I was requesting for me and my husband. All right, cool. Let's set up a time where you and your husband are available where we can connect. The conversation ends within a few minutes. Yeah, right. Um, or if they said they requested for themselves, excellent. My second question is going to be, okay, well, when you requested this information, were you requesting it because you experienced a funeral recently because you don't have anything in place at the moment, um, or were you just looking to see what else is out there? Right, most times say, well, I experienced a funeral, or because I don't have anything in place. Perfect. I know what my next questions are going to be based off those responses. Okay, experience the funeral— who passed away? How long ago? Did they have any life insurance in place? No? Oh my goodness, did you guys have to, um, how'd you guys have to pay for the funeral expenses? That's where I start asking those open-ended questions there.

Correct, because now there's a time to deep.

Yeah, it's the time to do it. But my main question that I'm asking is closed-ended, but it's pushing me to the open-ended questions to dive a little bit deeper on those points. And, um, that's the whole purpose of the discovery there.

I love it, dude. Intentional, bro. Intentional. It's key. Crazy. Yeah, I mean, again, none of this stuff is complicated. It's like, but will you put in the reps to learn how to do it and learn when to do it? And You know, it's like if they say this, go this way. If they say this, go that way. And you always have— you have a battle for no matter what the answer is, you've got some— or you just— and sometimes the answer is you just end the call.

Yeah, exactly.

Just move on. Yeah.

But every, every question literally has to move you to the next question. If you just ask in vain questions, it's not going to get you anywhere. And you're going to be frustrated at the end because your client's like, well, I want to think about it, or let me shop around, or, hey, let me, you know, look at some other options. And then I'm gonna phone call with me, and I'm gonna close them every— mostly every single time, just because I know exactly how to navigate the conversation, right? And then, um, I'm not sure how much time we have left, but, you know, the, the last portion is, you know, the closing process, all right? I think outside of the discovery and the approach is one of the most important things to do. And this is all based on layout, right? And I always tell every single agent too, before you show a quote, you have to get all your punches, all your information, all your value out first. Yeah, before you show quotes, after you show pricing, it's a wrap. It's a wrap. Like, don't be trying to go back and explain the difference between term, whole life, or the different benefits that come with the policy because they already didn't got what they came here for.

So now You get the ones when they tell them no. Nah, I'm good. I don't want any of those. Well, Jalen, well, what would happen if you died tomorrow? Then they start asking the deeper questions. It's too late. Yeah, that don't matter now.

It's too late, man. Like, no, all your, all your important questions, like, when you, before you, like, when you show a quote, you literally have to exhaust the pipe and everything is out, right? So I want to figure out what your pricing is, what your budget is, right? I always like to make the close feel less transactional as possible. Because I always, uh, say that, hey, if you put on your— make it sound very transactional, your client's sales antenna and sales resistance— resilience is going to— resistance is going to pop up, and it's hard to overcome a client's sales resistance. So I ask questions like, rather than saying, how much do you want to pay monthly? I'll say, you know, how much do you want to set aside monthly to make sure everything's taken care of for your funeral arrangements? All right, I'll say things rather than saying quotes. I say, hey, here are your options, right? So in my close process, you guys can take my entire close, it can help you guys out. But my close process, John, what I like to do is— am I still coming in okay?

Yeah, you're perfect.

Okay, with my close process, the first thing I like to do is I like to build scarcity, right? I don't care how healthy the client is or how unhealthy. If they're extremely healthy and they're a little bit older, I'll say, hey, Mr. John, you know, based on your— you know, I was able to run a few different options for you, and I know you're a transparent guy Just like I'm a very transparent person, you, you love honesty, correct? Yeah, I love honesty. Gotcha. I'm gonna be honest with you, Mr. John, based on your age, a lot of companies, um, are looking like they're not going to approve you, but we do have a few, few options here, a few companies here that should be able to get you approved, um, for some day one options. Okay, if they're extremely unhealthy, I'll let them know, hey, Mr. John, same thing. I know that you love honesty, you love being transparent. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, cool. Well, Mr. John, based off your diabetes, your congestive heart failure, and, you know, your AFib that was put in place 3 years ago or 10 years ago, I don't care how long ago it was, 10 years ago, a lot of companies are declining the applications, but we do have a few companies here who should be able to get you approved. Now, out of all the options, It looks like Mutual of Omaha, SBLI, and Aflac are going to be the most comparable in price. Okay, but SBLI is going to give you the best benefits and the best rates. So what did I just do? I just eliminated that option. Hey, let me shop around. Yeah, I already did all the shopping around for you. I just told you out of all these options, 35 carriers, out of the 35, these 3 based on your health is going to be the most comparable. But this company here is going to give you the best benefits and the best rates. They'll say, okay, perfect, excellent. And then I'll explain a little bit about the company I decided to go with. The biggest thing that you guys can do and add into the close is comparing and contrasting. So what I like to do is after I do that, I'll go through all the reasons why they told me why they needed life insurance in a discovery. So it's important to always take notes of what the client is sharing with you. So it sounds like this. Now earlier, Mr. John, you told me that, you know, one of the biggest current concerns for you is making sure that your son, um, isn't left with any financial burdens. Is that correct? That's correct. You also mentioned that you experienced a funeral years ago where you and your family members had to pay out of pocket and, um, take care of your mom's funeral arrangements, and you guys had to pay around $10,000. Is that right? That's right.

Okay.

And you mentioned that that left you guys financially devastated, and you want to make sure that your son isn't left with any of those same financial burdens, right? That's correct. Okay, now lastly, you mentioned that you want to— you're ideally looking for around $15,000 and you want to stay around $100 a month, is that right? That's right. So I got them to agree with all the concerns, all the problems that they mentioned earlier, and then I compare it to the benefits. Hey, here's your problem, I'm your doctor, here's your solution, right? With this SBLI policy is going to be a whole life policy. Permanent coverage protects your whole life. Premiums never increase, benefits never decrease. Okay, I know you said you're on a fixed income on Social Security, so you don't have to worry about that policy changing on you at all. Um, it also builds cash value for you, so if you ever need to access it and borrow from it, you can do so while you're alive. And it comes with this benefit here: Lord forbid you pass away, it pays out within 24 to 72 hours upon claim approval. And it starts day one coverage. So now I compare and I contrast, I put them together. Now we're able to proceed to the quotes. Now, based on your options with SBLI, you can do option 1, option 2, option 3. Which one sounds the most attractive to you? I don't ask them which one they want to go with. I say, which one sounds the most attractive? Because if I ask them which one they want to go with, they're like, I don't want to go with any of them, right? But if I ask them— psychology— which one sounds the most attractive, their mind goes to the one that's most affordable for their budget. Well, I want to go with that $60 option for the $15,000. Excellent. Here's your closing question: who will be your beneficiary? After they choose the option, just ask the question, who will be your beneficiary? And just be quiet. My beneficiary is gonna be John. Got it. You go straight into the application and you just proceed and keep going from there and keep going until the client stops you. Most times they're not going to stop you. You just keep pushing. But when you start to say things, okay, cool, who will be your beneficiary? Be John. Okay, cool. Let's go ahead and get the application going. Let's go ahead and get the application started. What are we doing? We doing that today? I don't want to do that today. No, you just keep it going and keep it pushing. Most times the client won't stop you if you just keep it going., and then you'll just submit the application and you keep it going, keep it pushing. So that's, that's my closing process, uh, John, to, to the T, and it works tremendously for, for me and my agents.

Yeah, you've been, you've been printing money for a minute in this business. So if y'all didn't get something out of that, you must have had it on mute. I love it, dude. It's good stuff, man. It's, it's been fun watching you guys grow and, and do big things, so Excited to see you around. I'm sure at some upcoming events we'll cross paths again and we'll, uh, we'll get this thing out to the world. Any— anything you want to end, any parting words for people, get them excited, give them some hope, whatever you want, dude. Just—

yeah, yeah. Um, I always tell people, you know, you know, make sure that you never forget why you got started in the business. You know, it's extremely important. Right? And that's for people who are having extreme and great results and they're hitting their goals, they're getting everything that they hope for. But if you remember why you got started in a business, it humbles you. Because now you can look back and be like, okay, cool, yes, I'm making $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, whatever thousand dollars a month you're making. But it can humble you to a point where you're just like, you know what, I remember when I— where I was when I first got started. Let me humble myself. It just keeps you grounded. But also for the agent who's not getting results as fast within like the first 90 days, even a full year. Like, I didn't make— I made $10,000 my first year, right? It was crazy. But I remember why I got started, you know, and I always remember, okay, cool, well, my family need me, my brothers need me. I got brothers who have felony records, they can't go out there and have the same opportunities that I do. My mom's working 40, 50 hours a week technically at her job, right? And my dad has a disability, and somebody needs to step up in the family to provide a sense of encouragement for them. So I never forgot why I got started, and that pushed me through my first year. And I finally found a coach and a mentor who can pour into me, and I kept going. And then after that, I made 6 figures in 6 months. And then the more I kept growing and growing and growing in my income, I always remember the same reason why I got started. The same reason why I got started 5 years ago is the same thing that keeps me grounded to this day. And I think it's extremely important for every agent to understand that if you can just understand your why and the reason why you're doing it, you're going to have an extreme amount of success in this business.

I love it, my dude. The map to success. It's good. Yeah, I love it, dude. Appreciate you getting on, and thanks for your time. Time, and can't wait to talk to you again, brother. We'll see y'all around. Appreciate y'all watching.