Reprinted from BROKER WORLD. September 2006. www.brokerworldmag.com
Used with permission from Insurance Publications. Subscriptions $6/yr. 1-800-762-3387

The Five-Minute LTCI Sale

If they understand, they buy.

If they care about their families, they buy.

If they acknowledge the reality of the math, they buy.

If they have been touched by an angel by coming in contact directly or indirectly with caregiving issues, they buy.

Perhaps in our passion to sell LTCI we have over-complicated our approach. Perhaps in our desire to educate and illu-minate we have reached out for too many "soft" answers.

Conversations about personal freedom, dignity and choice are not inappropriate — they are real and critically significant. However, they are by definition more abstract and often purely conceptual in nature. Their eventuality is distant and nebulous. The effects defy finite measurement. They are issues which will affect you by degree. They simply cannot be adequately quantified.

We also spend an inordinate amount of time and energy arguing against the machinations of the notorious bogeymen in the closet: Medicare and Medicaid. Trying to correctly explain the ever-changing minutia of government largesse is often like trying to capture a mirage in the desert.

Let me explain one more time: Medicare does not pay and Medicaid pays for exactly what you don't want — custodial care in a government-controlled nursing home.

In addition to the above-mentioned false starts, opening an indepth discussion of policy benefits does represent the proverbial release of the contents of Pandora's box. Companies have spent 15 years attempting to differentiate their sales effects. To suggest that we may have an over-abundance of policy benefits is a cosmic understatement. I am not convinced that lengthy conversation about home modification, restoration of benefits, respite care, bed reservation and multiple pools contributes to sales success.

I am, however, absolutely convinced that the primary value proposition of long term care insurance can be explained in five minutes or less. That it is possible to separate those with a predisposition to buy from those who are simply not yet ready. That understanding how a policy works, how to file a claim and various categories of benefits is a process that for the most part needs to take place when a policy is delivered rather than when you get the sales commitment. An awareness is growing that the sales process can be simplified, that cost can be reduced, and that potential clients can quickly understand the relationship between the premium they will pay and the benefit they will receive.

The time has come to transform the sale and the needed product for that sale. Those companies and agents who recognize that money solves problems and that all we are really selling is a large future reservoir of indemnity dollars can anticipate the great-est sales success.

If you wish to cut through the accumulated clutter and receive a clear, crisp picture through the white noise that has become the traditional LTCI sale, try this:

Tell the story, tell it straight, make the sale or move on to someone who cares. Immediately.

RONALD R. HAGELMAN, JR. CLTC, CSA, LTCP, has been a teacher, cattle rancher, agent, brokerage general agent, corporate consultant and home office executive. As a consultant he has created numerous individual and group insurance products.

A nationally recognized motivational speaker, Hagelman has served on the LIMRA and Society of Actuaries LTCI committees and is the president of the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance, as well as a master trainer for the LTCP professional designation. He is a principal in the agent sales training company Hagelman-Barrie Sales Training Solutions.

Hagelman can be reached at Hagelman Consulting, 156 North Solms Road, New Braunfels, TX 78132. Telephone: 830-620-4066. Email: ronjr@satx.rr.com.