I developed my sales idea during the past few years as I worked with professionals who are in solo practice.
To realize the full value of his practice, the professional has to sell it while he is alive. In most cases, the surviving spouse cannot obtain full value, because the practice is not a going concern or because the market will place a significant discount on the practice’s value after the professional’s death. Some medical practices lose their value completely when the physician dies.
My approach is simple: We need a buddy! I ask whether my prospect knows someone who would be interested in buying his practice. In turn, my prospect would buy the other professional’s practice if the other professional died or was disabled permanently. After we establish the partner or buddy, we enter into a buy-sell agreement, which creates an insurable interest.
I created the buddy system as a marketing tool to sell both life and disability insurance to prospects who believe that they have covered everything.
Editor’s note: The preceding Million Dollar Sales Idea was originally published in the January 1996 issue of Life Insurance Selling.