“There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?”
That is a quote from Woody Allen. Although it is funny, it is an unfortunate stereotype that is often attached to insurance salespeople. If you want to clear a room fast, just say that you sell life insurance. That often does the trick (and a few people may be trampled by others as they make a break for the exit door in the room).
I get it. Selling life insurance doesn’t exactly have people flocking to you to buy it. In fact, the mere thought of talking about one’s mortality is tough and people just don’t want to discuss the subject. I always go back to the beginning of my career. I started, as many of us did, at Prudential. In those early days as a rookie life insurance agent, I was told by some of the old time veteran agents that I would never understand this business until I delivered my first death claim. Well, fast forward six years from that point and wow, I really understood the business. Delivering that death claim check to a 41 year old widow with two young children was quite a powerful point in my career.
It hit me really hard as I now understood the true impact that we, as insurance agents, can have on the peoples’ lives that we touch. As I have moved on in my career, I am now that “old-time veteran agent” that has the wisdom to pass on experiences to others that are either new to the profession or may simply need a reminder.
One of the things that always gets to me is the “Go-Fund Me” social media posts that are telling us about a horror story that just took place. Often it is for a young parent leaving behind a spouse and young children. These Go-Fund Me pages are looking for money to help a family in need. Another young widow similar to the story surrounding my first death claim. I often wonder when I see these posts come up if the family had life insurance. Why are they needing a community to rally around them to put the pieces back together? After all, isn’t life insurance the original Go-Fund Me page?
There are far too many of those stories and although all of the money in the world can’t bring someone back, it’s comforting to know that a life insurance policy can be so many things:
- Instant funds to pay off a mortgage that will keep a family in their homes.
- Replacing income lost from a bread winner’s passing.
- Funds for a college education.
- Provide a secure retirement for a surviving spouse.
- And overall financial security.
Yes, Woody Allen was correct. There are worse things in life than death. And that would be dying without life insurance. Perhaps spending the evening with that insurance salesman is not such a bad idea after all.
