Pick Your Mistake

Skipping disability income (DI) insurance rarely feels like a decision. It feels like avoiding one. But over the long run, going without coverage can cost a client far more than the premium ever would.

You've walked a prospect through the case for a DI program. They understand the risk. They agree it matters. And yet the one thing standing between you and the sale is price.

When cost is the last objection, the "pick your mistake" framework can help. It doesn't argue the client out of their budget concerns. It simply widens the lens, so they're weighing the premium against the real alternative: no coverage at all.

Reframing the Cost Conversation

The technique is straightforward. Once a prospect has seen the proposal but hesitates on price, walk them through two possible outcomes:

1. They buy the policy and never file a claim. In hindsight, that's a mistake worth the premium they paid.

2. They skip the policy and become disabled tomorrow. That's a mistake worth the full benefit they would have received.

   
   

Then ask the question directly: How big of a mistake can you afford to make?

Framed this way, "no thanks, it costs too much" isn't really a decision to avoid risk. It's a decision to accept the larger of two possible costs, without the option to choose which one shows up.

The Risk Was Never Optional

The most useful shift in this conversation is helping the client see that they already own the risk of disability. It exists whether or not they buy a policy. The only real choice is whether they keep carrying that risk themselves or transfer it to an insurance company built to absorb it.

Positioned this way, DI insurance stops looking like an added expense and starts looking like what it is: a decision about who bears a risk that was already there.