Give me your worst (clients)

I want to hear about your worst clients — and the best ideas you’ve come up with to deal with them.

As the Halloween month approaches, Life Insurance Selling is going to be telling some scary stories about “clients from hell” in our October issue. While some of these will include notorious cases involving murders or attempted murders committed with the intent of claiming life insurance proceeds, we would also like to include stories about particularly difficult and/or unreasonable clients.

Maybe these prospects or clients have lost touch with reality and blame you for trying to bring them back. Maybe they lie about smoking or drug use on an application and try to blame you later. Maybe they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to hide that preexisting condition. Or maybe they are just a “C” client who demands to be treated like an “A” client.

Whatever the case may be, we want to hear about the story — and how you handled the situation. Don’t worry — you do not have to “name names” or reveal anything that would identify anyone specifically. The names can be changed, omitted or you may generically refer to him or her as “the client” (or the “CFH” — Client From Hell — if you prefer). You can choose to remain anonymous, as well.

No clients from hell to tell us about? Maybe you have a good story about an eccentric client who made an unusual request or two or presented an unprecedented situation. Share those stories, too.

What we’re looking to do is compile some interesting, real-world stories that show the wide range of challenges some clients or prospects can present to hard-working life insurance producers who don’t need the aggravation.