 How many people in the room are selling life insurance weekly? Simplified issue, life insurance. How many people in the room are selling Medicare? Anybody selling mortgage protection? How many people are selling final expense? We specialize in those areas in our training. One of the things that I realized about 25 years ago, I'm dating myself, just after I was married, I got into the sales industry because I was trying to feed my family, had two little girls, and was trying to figure out how to make a living. I got into the sales business in the electronic space, and I went out and did my first sales presentation. And that first sales presentation went something like this. I took the script that they taught me. I got in front of the business owner, had to get past the gatekeeper, finally got the opportunity to sit with the business owner, and in sitting with the business owner, I gave him my pitch. And then I got to the end, and I expected the business owner to say, what? Yes, I wanted him to say yes. Now, the script, the pitch they gave me, seemed logical. It seemed progressive. It seemed like it was intuitive that it was leading to a natural close, but I would get to the end and people would say, what's some of the most famous objections we get at the end? Can anybody name the most famous objections we get at the end? I want to think about it, right? I would like to talk to my, yes, someone in their world other than the people that are in the room with you. I don't make decisions on the first day, at first appointment. We would get to these things. I would like to talk to my business partner. I want to think about it. I got to look at my budget. It might come in the next year. I would get all these reasons why people would not buy, and I could not understand what was happening. And so intuitively, I started to look for the commonalities of what was happening in this space and the things that people needed to know. One of the things that I appreciated most about Dr. April, we just got to connect upstairs just a minute ago. She said, when we first meet people, getting pitched straight out of the gate is just the most uncomfortable and awkward thing in the world and nobody wants to be what? Nobody wants to be sold. However, people do want to what? They do want to buy, but they don't want to be sold. So how do we put them in a position where they want to buy? I want to buy from you, Roger. This is the place I want to get my client. And so we want to put them in that position. And so we started to really dive into the five real reasons why people don't buy. Guys, I came to the understanding after a time of getting frustrated and then not making a paycheck to like pay my bills, like I got to figure this out or I got to do something else. I need to go back and get a job, right? And so I had to walk through this. And I understood this. Once I got people to like me, it seemed to go better. And then I realized, well, it's me. I'm the secret. I'm working with this. And they must just like me. So the nicer I am to them, perhaps I'll get more closes. Well, after a while, I was so nice to some people, I'd still get to the end. They'd say, I want to think about it. And I realized it wasn't me. And it was about some fundamental key pieces in the space. And I'm going to rock it through these with you in the next four minutes. And the first one comes down to developing a relationship. And that starts out with a great big word that starts with T and that is developing what? Trust. We have to develop trust. If we don't have the trust with our clients, they will not buy from us. How do we develop trust? Trust is developed primarily in two ways. Number one, we have to show empathy. Empathy. Get to know your clients. Don't go in there with your pitch in mind. If you go in with your pitch in mind, they're thinking I'm being sold and I would rather buy. So develop their trust. And if we develop a relationship of trust in small little micro agreements, connections on common things, your kids, my kids, this is who I am. This is what I like to do. What do you like to do? And I'm developing trust in the relationship and understanding what their needs are. I can start to gain some credibility in this space. And trust is developed two ways. Number one with empathy and number two with authority. Authority. You're the most knowledgeable person in the home when you're talking about Medicare. I guarantee it. You're the most knowledgeable person in the home when you're talking about why they should purchase a mortgage protection plan for living benefits and the death benefit to take care of their family and their kids. You're the most knowledgeable person when it comes to that sad day that's coming for all of us for final expense planning. And how you connect with your clients in developing this trust is fundamental. Number two, the second piece that we need to develop once you've established some credibility with empathy and authority and developing trust. Number two, we have to identify their need because if we don't know what they really want our pitch doesn't matter, our script doesn't matter. And once we identify their need, we can now speak to that need and develop an opportunity to address the need and help them meet it. However, one of the things I learned really quickly is that a lot of people sometimes don't even want to buy the things that they need. How many people have people know people in your life and it's clear that they need to do something. They know they need to do something but yet they still avoid doing it. We all have those people. How many people have been in a final expense home? They have a giant screen, TVs, they have Xbox games, they have the best phones, they have all the services and they smoke a pack a day or two packs a day in some cases and we're sitting with those people and they say I can't afford $39 a month. They need this yet they don't buy it because they don't, what's the next part of that? They may not want it. So how do we help people turn that need into a want? My good friend Chris who's one of the hosts on the podcast, one of the funniest guys you'll ever get to know, one of the biggest hearts of all, has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know, he says this, a need once verbalized by your client becomes a want. If you can get your client to speak their need, that need is resonating from their own lips in their own head, that need becomes their want. So how important is it for you to learn how to ask good questions? See the best sales people are not the best pitchers, they're not the best presenters, they're the people who ask the best questions. So ask yourself what questions am I asking to find out what the client really needs because once they begin to speak that, that becomes a want, they begin to verbalize it, I know I need the coverage, my sister-in-law passed away, they're still paying for the funeral, we don't have enough in place. I can tell that's important to you, isn't it, Mr. Smith? Yes, it is. Tell me why it's so important you take care of this now. And they will tell you that need then becomes a want. No urgency, we've got no urgency, if we don't move the thing along like this talk is coming to an end in five minutes, we've got no urgency, moving the thing along and putting priority on who they are and why they should do it allows you to do that. In the sales process with life insurance, it's about letting them know who you are and why it's okay to continue. And if you make it easy for them, take the roadblocks out for them actually getting the thing that they want, it's creating that sense of urgency and you're able to move them through the process. And then lastly, money, we have to handle the money issues. The money issues are the most important, you have to help them navigate their affordability, their monthly payment, is it gonna be paid through the bank, situating the opportunity so that when you're speaking to them in terms of their affordability, their affordability is spoken of in terms of the benefit for who. It's not the premium of this life policy is going to be. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I wanna show you this plan. It's only $110 a month for this benefit to take care of Susie if something were to happen to you. Is 110 or 150 the best option for you to put in place for Susie? It becomes about the beneficiary, it doesn't become about the premium. And that's how you take care of affordability. Guys, the Life Insurance Academy podcast is that you can actually find it. There's a QR code right here. You can actually subscribe. Oh, I went too far there. You can actually subscribe to the podcast. If you subscribe, there's gonna be some resources that we're gonna give away to you today for free. There's an activity tracker. There's a call control guide for people who are doing phone sales. There's a whole bunch of more resources. We'd love to have you check it out. This teaching and tons more content is available for you. Thank you so much, Cody. We've been working with Cody now for about three years. I met him three years ago. He came to my office. I told him just off stage before he came up. I said, Cody, you finally got me. I'm one of those people that Coach Burt talked about. But Cody kept putting value, kept putting value. And the value came so that now the value is being reciprocated. It's Cody, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Connect with them. They're a great organization. Thank you much for the time. I appreciate your sharing. Roger, short. Hey, if you enjoyed this, I got another one. You're gonna love it. It's right there. Click on it. See you in there. Walk me through that. What did you start? What were you selling? What did it look like? What were some of the struggles you identified and noticed? And what are some things we can focus on that can help that agent that maybe is in the position that you were 30 years ago?