Many producers use the “should calamity befall you” argument for selling disability insurance. Brought up in the old method of selling, they safely assume that tactic still works today. However, when Met Life came out with their recent research into how clients react, they showed us that clients react to positive phrases rather than negative ideas. Instead of stating how disability insurance insures against disability, producers can get a better effect by phrasing it as income protection. We can use these phrases to change the conversation.
You say: Imagine you became disabled. You have no income stream, and now you have to rely on the charity of family, friends, and the church.
They think: I already have insurance policies, and I don’t need yet another one.
Instead, say something like this: Your income is the basis of your entire financial plan. It’s the one thing that makes everything else possible. It pays your mortgage, sends your kids to school, and ensures your post-work life. Think of disability insurance more as income protection – something that keeps your larger financial plan intact, no matter what.
Rather than describing the calamity that may befall the client, you’re phrasing it as a source of stability, and creating that stability for the clients – even in the good times! Rather than focusing on the negative of a disability, you’re focusing the clients on the positives of stability, something that affects them regardless of whether they become disabled.
For more information, visit Metlife’s Words That Work playbook. Also subscribe to our blog in the top right corner of this page, if you haven’t already done so.
