This is a guest post by Liran Hirschkorn. Liran Hirschkorn is the founder of ChooseTerm.com and a life insurance agent. He works with Jeff Root and the EZlife team, where he works hand in hand with some of the best life insurance companies.
I used to leave early and come home late. I’d also wear a suit and tie, but lately I wonder what my New York City apartment neighbors are thinking. How do I pay the mortgage plus the $1000+ maintenance bill if I walk the dog in the middle of the day, check the mail with the senior citizens of the building at 2pm, and pick up my daughter from the school bus at 3:45. All usually in my pajama pants and a t-shirt, and with a scruffy beard because I haven’t shaved in a couple of days.
This is a day in my life of selling life insurance over the phone.
7am – I wake up early although I haven’t gotten much sleep. My usual bed time is around 2am. It’s usually in the late hours of the evening and night when I have uninterrupted time to do the activities I know I need to do – like writing a blog post for my website. I try to write at least 3 or more times a week as this is an important part of my marketing and driving traffic to my website, as well as adding value. I find that at 1 or 2 in the morning with everyone asleep, I get my best work done.
After my wife and daughter are off, I check my email and see if my website has generated any new leads. This morning I find 2, but it’s too early to call. I add them to my CRM so that they get an automatic email, and put them on the calendar to be called after 10am.
Because I woke up at 7 and went to bed at 2, i’ll usually take a quick nap from 8-10am in the morning – not much happens in the mornings anyway, and since I’m on the east coast, the rest of the country is still sleeping. I get woken up twice during my sleep this morning by 2 clients that are in the process of getting insurance. I feel blessed anytime a client calls me, so of course I’m happy to take the calls. The first client has questions on the application that my team emailed them – I answer them, and they sign. #WINNING. The 2nd call is from a guy who got postponed on his app, and we discuss what he needs to get from his Doctor to possibly get approved.
I get back up and make some calls, leave some messages, and have a couple of conversations with prospects. No applications so far today. I strive for at least 1 a day.
12pm -Need to get my car inspected. I’m on my way to the local gas station when I get an email from American General. Correspondance on an application. I submited this application in the beginning of January and have been waiting for an answer – I was expecting a decline – the guy was already declined by Banner with another broker and after discussing with the underwriting expert at Pinney, we applied with American General. Premium is over $13,000. I’m driving and checking my email at the same time, not good, so I decide to call over to the Ezlife team, and have them check the application (instead of getting into an accident on my way to get my car inspected – the irony). The case manager tells me Approved as Applied.
Music to my ears. It was even better when an hour later after getting my car a passing grade on the inspection (Winning again) when I spoke to the client and he told me that me and my team were miracle workers. #NICE! (I’m really into the hashtags these days).
The afternoon goes by without much activity, no new leads coming in, and I’m making some follow up calls without much success in getting people on the phone. I check in with my SEO team, see what they’re doing, I’m googling to find a better host for my website so I can have faster load times (I’ll switched to WP Engine), and checking on the status of current cases, I’m also writing down some ideas for my next blog post and checking the google keyword tool.
No applications today and the day is winding down. But I do have a 7pm scheduled call with a lead from the day before. I texted him from my CRM when the lead came in at 10pm (and it was too late to call) and he texted me back this morning to call him after 7pm. I dial at 7:02 and by 7:25pm I have taken his application, and transferred him to the ezlife team to schedule his exam and email him the app for e-signature. Relief.
8pm – Dinner time. While I’m eating dinner a lead comes in. He lives in California, so I can still call him. I finish my dinner and before I get a chance to call him, he’s contacting me through the chat feature on my website, asking me lots of questions. After about 20 minutes and a thorough grilling about the financial stability of several insurance companies, I ask if I can call him so I can explain better on the phone. 30 Minutes later, App taken.
It’s 8:55 I just finished with the call and an application request comes through the website. It’s east coast, I debate if I should call or not, is it too late? I call anyway, and start the conversation by asking if I’m calling too late. 9:25pm – 3rd application taken.
A late voicemail comes in and a conversation with a man in Texas ends the client portion of the day. Mailed out an application to him for final expense insurance. 4 Apps today and a nice approval makes today a great day. Being in control of my own time makes it priceless.
I spend time with the family for a while and then back on the computer. Everyone is in bed now, its 12AM, just me and the dog on the couch, and I’m writing this blog post.
When I’m done I’ll work on a blog post for my site, and probably read some other blogs and forums on both marketing online and insurance. I’ll wake up tomorrow and start it all over – still in my pajamas.
