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November 17, 2002 at 07:00 PM
A Top Agents Advice: Dont Let Your Ego Run Your Practice
By
San Francisco
“If mistakes are being made in selling variable life today,” said Stephen B. Wechsler, “its when agents think they know what is best for the client.”
Wechsler, a Million Dollar Round Table member for 28 years and a life member of the Top of the Table, spoke at the variable life conference of the National Association for Variable Annuities here.
“Its easy for big producers to get big egos,” he said. “Theyre always getting showered with awards, etc., by companies. But they shouldnt get so big that they think they know what is best for the client.
“But many agents selling variable life today let their ego get in the way,” he said.
Describing the way he conducts business, Wechsler said, “The client must see the need for permanent insurance.”
Most of his clients are high-net-worth individuals who are owners of small, closely held businesses. Wechsler said that when he meets with a client and his advisors–usually a CPA–the process begins with trying to discover the clients need for life insurance or “the problems that would occur if the client died without it.”
He said he gets the client to talk about his needs and dreams so that the client himself “realizes the permanent need for insurance.”
If the client comes to this realization, he said, “my job is easy.” Then the next step is “determining how much permanent insurance is needed.”
Wechsler said he will talk to the client about the different kinds of permanent insurance and “then I shut up and let the client decide.”
For instance, he said, “some people dont care about the cash value because theyll never touch it.”
What hes found, he said, “is that the best salespeople in this country talk the least.”
In a telling example of how he takes care of clients who have decided to purchase insurance from him, Wechsler said he has “been physically present at every medical of every client” hes had for 34 years.
