Pick Your Mistake

In the long run, not buying DI insurance could cost you everything, or assuredly more than the premium expense.

After presenting the merits of a disability income (DI) insurance program to a prospect, you occasionally will find the only objection preventing you from closing the sale is the actual cost of the program. When this happens, try using the “pessimist approach” to put premium costs in proper perspective, thereby motivating the prospect to action.

To be effective in this approach, you must contrast the premium costs with the potential consequences of opting out of DI coverage all together. In this “pick your mistake” scenario, you will convey that the price of inaction can be steep.

Let’s say you have presented your proposal, yet the prospect remains ambivalent because of cost. He or she is on a tight budget and is having trouble justifying another monthly expense.

Explain that the prospect essentially has two choices:

1. If they purchase the policy and never make a claim, then they have made a potential (insert premium amount) mistake.

2. If they do not purchase the policy and become disabled tomorrow, then they have made a potential (insert total benefit amount) mistake.

The question then becomes, “How big of a mistake can you afford to make?”

Opting out of DI coverage is a risk – or rather a potential “mistake” – the prospect should never consider making. Explain that the client already owns the risk of a disability; the only question is whether they want to transfer that risk to the insurance company.