Business News
A Failed Attempt to Copy-Cat
Wondering Why it Didn't Work?
Written by: Paul Bloodsworth
September 23, 2024
[5 minute read]
Bus Load of Agents... Someone forgot to hire the driver...
Summary
Remember our previous article from August 27th when we shared the concept of lapsed policyholders being simply some of the best leads an agent could want?
Click here for a refresher: The Goldmine of Lapsed Policies
Well, in this article, we’re going to share a story related to this topic. And it’s not just a story about how this ex-client concept will accelerate any life insurance agent’s business.
This… this is a tale of how greed in the big IMO world can sometimes foolishly backfire. Albeit, the greedy parties will NEVER admit to it, but the reality exists that “business” decisions don’t always result in successful outcomes.
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
Herman Melville
A Play on Words?
Now, we will never reveal names of the individuals nor business entities involved in this fiasco. However, some agents may recognize that a certain lead type was recently introduced by an IMO as “Restoration Leads.”
Coincidentally, this name was a very close alternative name to the leads we introduced at Excel Media as part of a program we titled, “Ex-client Rehabilitation.”
And it’s not just the IMO involved here. Actually, we didn’t even present our concept to this IMO. As a matter of fact, we demonstrated the concept as an opportunity to a very large life insurance carrier! For the sake of anonymity, we’ll refer to this carrier as “Carrier A.”
Anyone who’s familiar with Carrier A will also be knowledgeable of the particularly close relationship between this carrier and the IMO from our story, which we will herein forth refer to as “IMO F.”
As we have learned, the relationship is irresponsibly air tight. In fact, IMO F is responsible for more than 60% of Carrier A’s life insurance production.
As the story goes, we were having multiple meetings and exchanges with Carrier A’s upper management team. Our concept of utilizing ex-clients as new life insurance prospects simply made sense to the inquisitive carrier’s staff, and the program we built to “rehabilitate” the previous policyholders and convert them into new submissions was seemingly ready to move to the next level.
We explained how ex-clients almost always have experienced what we called a “life hiccup” that temporarily caused financial hardship, but they never seem to take true initiative to become reinsured until years later.
Air Tight Relationship...
NDA, then crickets....
There was also an ongoing chain of email correspondence reciprocating between us and Carrier A under the email subject, “Carrier A - Lapse Rehabilitation - Updates and Questions.”
We kindly answered their basic planning questions and several technical requirements inquiries, but we withheld the proprietary stuff…..
Communication went quiet for a few months after we insisted that an NDA be executed before further program details and strategies were revealed.
Now, let’s reinsert into our story the IMO with the rapacious reputation. An announcement suddenly circulates within IMO F’s agent email blasting. The title of this announcement, “New Exclusive Leads Are Here.”
Included in this email announcement was some very familiar language. The teaser paragraph in the email body mentions that ex-clients often experienced “life events,” but “haven’t been contacted in many years.” Hmmmm. Sounds eerily similar to our "life hiccups" explanation.
We’ll save you the confusion and cut to the carrier connection to this announcement. Two months following the email announcement, the new “Restoration Leads” go out for sale to the IMO’s agent pool, and who but Carrier A provided the ex-clients. To be clear: Not a single other carrier’s previously lapsed policies were included in IMO F’s new lead sale.
Definitely a Play on Words...
Zero Direction for the Agents
So, yes, we’ve been periodically following the performance (or lack there of) of IMO F’s “Restoration Lead” program, and maybe we’ve interviewed a few of the agents who bought into the program. Success just isn’t happening, and we know why….
The proprietary part of our program is absolutely essential in order for this to work. Ex-clients are not to be treated as your typical life insurance lead. Our program required that a retired private investigator with a life insurance license write the program’s strategies. We would never reveal this part of the Excel Blue Ocean Strategy without protections in place.
Metaphorically speaking, IMO F bought the bus, and Carrier A loaded the bus, yet neither thought to hire the drivers….
Read about our Ex-client Rehabilitation Program here: Excel Blue Ocean Strategy
