I know of a lead generation system that is totally overlooked. It really works and it is virtually unused. So much money is spent trying to market annuities and agents overlook this simple, cost-effective method that is often right under their noses.

I very much enjoy receiving the marketing ticklers from all those FMO’s that want us to work like slaves for them. You know what I mean, you know who they are. They are the ones who can’t sell so they invent. They invent the latest and greatest new system. Sometimes they use celebrities and sometime they use retired football stars but in the end they are all the same. Just a reinvention of another rehash of the same old thing, the secret selling system!

Sometimes it comes in the form of a webinar to learn the “secret” or sometimes it is the CD containing the information we all so desire. The other day I received a phone call from a marketer who wanted to share the “secret” with me and if I would just sign one contract he would share it. Because of my production level I was firm and would never move anything without knowing what was going to happen. So he took a chance and told me his secret and I am sharing it with you… READY? “Lobster!” Offer free lobster and you can fill the seminar room. I thought I would die from laughing…lobster!
But I do have a lead generation system that I work with my other sources and it really works and for absolutely nothing I will share it with you. Here it is…

Mortgage protection leads. They work especially well if you have been selling annuities in the past. These leads are for a perceived need and any good salesperson can expand it to a fact finder and with a fact finder the opportunities for selling an annuity increase.

I use these occasionally to break up the monotony of doing constant seminars. There is nothing that will keep you sharper than not knowing what is on the other side of the door. The uncertainty of the sales process makes you sharper and much more experienced. It doesn’t matter what level of sales you have attained, mortgage leads will make you better. Try it and grow your sales numbers.

There are tons of mortgage lead generation services and systems available. I prefer to use the direct mail approach and make my own appointments. The appointment language I use contains the term “I am going to be in your area and would it be a bother if I stopped by at 3:00 to visit with you about the information you requested?”

It works and it will get you into a large number of sales selling opportunities that will add energy and compensation to your life.

By: Bill Broich

The last year saw major catastrophes, occurring in the travelling industry. Several airlines closed down, tens of thousands of travellers were left stranded overseas as a result, and travel agents were found to be using “misleading sales tactics” to sell holiday goers with their travel policies.

As of January 2009, travel agents will need to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) or become Introducers or Representatives of an FSA-regulated company in order to sell travel insurance.

Misleading advice
The travel insurance provider, Sainsbury’s has welcomed the change in the law, and also warned that several people are still at present falling victim to underhand and misleading sales tactics used by some unscrupulous travel agents to ensure that their policies are purchased. This has resulted in thousands of people wrongly being sold travel insurance by travel agents every year.

The insurance provider also revealed that five per cent of travellers, who claim to have bought insurance from travel agents in the past 12 months, – as many as 407,000 people – were wrongly told that they could not book their holiday, unless they also took out the cover being offered by their agents at the time.

Sam Marrs, Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance Manager said: “This is an alarming finding, but it will be much more difficult for rogue travel agents to do this once they are regulated by the FSA. Our research shows that up to as many as 8.14 million people could have bought insurance from travel agents over the past 12 months and the new regulation will provide consumers with valuable much needed protection.”

Moreover Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance’s research also reveals that travel insurance policies sold through travel agents could potentially leave thousands of people with inadequate cover. Some 16 per cent of those who have purchased travel cover from travel agents this year claim they were not asked about any pre-existing medical conditions, slightly down from 17 per cent last year. However the problem of travel agents failing to outline what insurance does and does not cover has become worse, affecting 17 per cent of customers purchasing cover from travel agents in the past 12 months, up from 13 per cent last year”.

Rescue plan from Saga
In the light of all the disruption and distress that failed airlines cause to travellers, the travel insurance provider, Saga Insurance, which specialises in insurance policies for older people; has introduced a new policy that provides cover in the event of an airline failure.

A large and increasing number of older people travel independently. Saga Travel Insurance has stated that it has protected around 2 million holidays, since its inception and the breadth of cover has developed over the years in response to holiday trends and customer feedback. It was following such feedback from our intrepid over 50s customers that Saga Travel Insurance has introduced extra protection covering scheduled airline failure.

In the event of the scheduled airline that the traveller is flying with goes into administration, the new cover provides up to £1,500 for each insured person, for the costs of flights paid in advance, or the cost of return flights to the UK.

This cover comes into effect for new Single Trip and Annual policies purchased from the 2nd January 2009, and on Annual Travel renewals from the 25th January 2009.

Paul Green, the Head of Communications at Saga Group said: “In today’s uncertain economic climate the savvy independent traveller needs to check if their insurance covers airline failure if they want to travel with confidence in 2009.”

By: Ruth Jacob Jacob

Teenagers are bad drivers

Ok, I do NOT really mean that unilaterally. There are good teen drivers. But what I mean to suggest is that their lack of driving experience often causes trouble on the road.

I own an insurance agency in the Phoenix metro area. A client asked if I would teach her 16 year old son to drive.

Knowing there is no father figure in the home, I readily agreed. It would give me an opportunity to get to know this young boy as well and give him some time with a male figure, something I understood was lacking in his life.

As Chris (as I will call him) and I settled into the car I asked Chris if he yet driven. The answer was “Yes”. He and Mom had driven a couple times but she got too nervous to continue.

Chris rounded the first corner and nearly hit a parked car. He did smack the curb around the next corner and almost took out two rather large trash barrels as we moved along the residential street. It was painfully obvious that Chris did not realize he controlled the steering wheel and not the other way around. Another car approached from the opposite direction and it took me pulling the steering wheel to avoid a head on collision. When Chris turned a corner he either pulled too tightly or made a wide loop. Both made me extremely nervous.

Patiently I tried to coax him into driving carefully, looking ahead, planning his approach to oncoming lights and turns. Chris got better. He improved week after week.
THEN I NOTICED A CHANGE.

As his confidence grew, so did his speed. That, I realized, is probably the primary mistake most teen drivers make. They confuse experience with quality.

Chris took off from every green light as if it were a race. He stopped in much the same jolting fashion. I felt like Dale Earnhardt was behind the wheel. My requests for “slow down” fell on deaf ears.
That is until we nearly were involved in a accident merging onto a freeway from an on-ramp.

My advice to Chris and all teen drivers is this: 1) do not drive faster than your experience or comfort level dictates, and 2) do not tail gate.

I wonder how many accidents would be avoided if we all followed those two simple suggestions.

By: Gary Brown