How to use a Free Living Will Kit to get your foot in the door and make some sales.

My goal of using a living will as a prospecting tool is to get my foot in the door to start with. Half of the job of selling insurance is to get your foot in the door. The other half is talking them into buying it. I use the living will to get the client to talk about death, their families, and to talk about what if something happens to them. No one likes to think about death and the unknown. The living will gets the client in the right mind set, to talk about buying life insurance and thinking about their families. By, default, no person wants to buy anything when someone approaches them to do it. There is a real problem with most of the people I run into not having a living will, or not understanding why they need one. I can just say the name Terry Schiavo and start a conversation with just about anyone. We all saw her story on the news. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo Most of us have an opinion on whether she should have been left on life support or unplugged. I believe that we should have done what ever her wishes would have been. The problem was she didn't have a living will to tell us her wishes. If she had a living will, you never would have heard her name. I personally don't want to be the next Terry Schiavo, so I have taken the simple steps in making my wishes known in a living will. You will be surprised that over 70% of Americans don't have a living will. I have personally been affected in my own family, on this matter. I share my on personal story with my clients.

Let me take a break and share with you the story of my grandfather Gene Rosenthal's Death. My grandfather was going through a red light when he had a massive heart attack, and went off the road and hit a tree. They didn't get him out of the car in time, and his brain didn't get the oxygen it needed in time. I'm not saying that he would have lived with oxygen, but this did cause him have brain damage. He was rushed to the hospital where he was placed on life support. My grandfather had two children, my uncle Rod and my father Greg. My grandmother had died years earlier. So when we got to the hospital, it was not clear who was in charge of making medical decisions for my grandfather. The first day, he was on life support, they really didn't know if he was brain dead or not and there was hope. They did some kind of test that told us that he had brain damage, but didn't tell us to what degree the damage was. I asked the doctor if my grandfather was brain dead and the doctor looked at me and asked me what brained dead meant to me. I guess I had never stopped and thought about what it meant. The doctor asked me if I was talking about him every waking up again, being a vegetable, or not have the same quality of life he used to have. The doctor did some more tests on my grandfather. The doctor told the family there was an 85% chance he would never wake up again, but still wanted to run some more test. Looking back on it, he had really good health insurance, and I now question if they were just running the bill up on him. It was not long before my family started fighting on what to do. Gene was Catholic, so my uncle said that he would have never wanted to be unplugged for any reason. He said that would be like suicide. My father and most of the family said that he would have not wanted to live like this and we needed to unplug him. To be honest with you, I was second guessing myself on what to do. Gene had 3 different doctors that could not agree on anything. His kidneys had stopped, so they placed him on dialysis on the fifth day. That was another family battle. My uncle wanted it, so it was done. My uncle had told the doctors that he was in charge, and that is what the doctors went by. On the 9^th day, after searching my grandfather's house, we found a living will dated in 1978 which gave my father Greg power of medical attorney. He had done this on his 1^st heart surgery and we found it. We also found a letter that he had written to the family in case he didn't make it through the surgery in 1978. It was clear in this letter, they he was ready to meet the Lord if something went wrong and he was clear that he does not wish to ever be on life support. On the 9^th day, with Greg having the power, we unplugged my grandfather and watched him died. The 9 days was pure hell on the family, and he died two times. He died once in the car, and once on the 9^th day. The story does not end here. When his estate finally made it to probate court, the hospital bills from him being on life support took most of his estate. He had life insurance to pay for his funeral and gave each grandchild $1000.00 each. That small amount of money meant the world to me. My grandfather was like Terry Schiavo for 9 days. I now know how her family felt. You don't ever want to go through this.

Two more times, in my own personal family, this happened again. In 1998 my step brother Chuck Jackson died at age 26 years old from a car wreck. He made it to the hospital alive and was placed on life support. He had a living will. He clearly stated what his wishes were in great detail. He was in a coma, and the doctor told us he would never wake up. He was unplugged soon after showing the doctor his living will. The family didn't have to second guess what he would have wanted to do, and we didn't fight over it. He even had a donor card in his wallet, so we donated his organs. He had life insurance and his family was taken care of at this time in need.

I am an average person, and at least 5 times I knew someone that could have used a living will. So when I hear that a person will never need to use one, I stop and almost get mad.

I share some these personal stories with my clients. They know that I personally believe in them and believe they need one to save their family members from grief.

I'm going to get back to discussing using the living will now. I offer the free living wills to everyone. On my door hangers, website, business cards, in person, and cold calling. The first thing I do when a client calls me asking me for a living will is to ask them why they wanted a free living will. It will be the same answers to why they need to buy life insurance. They tell me that they wish to protect their families from something bad happening to them and the unknown. Remember how they answer this question for later. I tell them that they have made the right decision and when I leave here today, that their family will be protected. Next I start explaining to them how a living will works. I tell them my personal stories about how living wills affected my family and how I think it can save their family from a lot of pain. I tell them that I'm going to have to get very personal with them and ask them some questions that they really need to think about before answering. http://www.caringinfo.org/stateaddownload is where you can get a free living will. It has instructions on it. We go over the several choices that the living will offers. I make them be very specific on their wishes. If they use words like brain dead then I make them tell me what brain dead means to them on the living will. After we have finished up completing the living will, we go back over the living will plans. We kind of role play, and go over the client's wishes that were just written on the game plan. Here is an example. Ms. Sally, you are driving down the road, and have a car wreck, and become brain dead and you are placed on life support. Your wishes are to be unplugged if you are ever on life support. Next your family member uses your living will to honor your wishes. Let's stop here. We need to tell your family what you have decided today and/or at least tell them that you now have a living will and where it is located. I am willing to keep a copy of the living will in my office, in case they misplace the other copy. I'm willing to call the family members for them and tell them that I have a copy of the living will and even go over the clients wishes with them. Most clients want me to do this and family members turn into referrals.

Let's go over a couple of things. I've made my way in the door. We have talked about death and their family. We have gotten personal with each other and even emotional. They know that I care about them and truly wish to protect their family. I want to tell you, that I don't have to sell them any life insurance. I am doing a great thing in helping them, and getting my name out. Next we start talking about their family and what happens after they are unplugged. We talk about what will happen to the family and about the funeral cost. While filling out the living will, I get to know their family members and get personal with them. A lot of clients never think about the fact that someone will have to pay for their funeral or bills one day. Don't forget that they told us in the beginning that they want to protect their family members and take grief way from them. They need to protect their family with life insurance also. When I leave there everything will be taken care of. I keep getting personal with them. We talk about the funeral and about life insurance needs. 70% of the time, they will buy the life insurance. It does not always matter if you make the sale. Whether you make the sale or not, next you need to call the client's family members that they want you to call and go over with them what you have done for their family members and their wishes. If the client has bought insurance, the client may wish for you to tell the client's family. Example... Johnny this is Mark Rosenthal and I'm out here with your mother Sussie helping her with a living will and life insurance protection. She loves you very much and I want to go over her plans with you if something ever happens with her. We next go over her wishes on the living will. I tell them that if something happens to her that I have a copy of her living will also, and/or help send him a copy. I also tell them about the life insurance policy and that I will be here to help them, if something happens to his mother. Just image someone calling you and doing this service for your mother. I know I would be impressed and happy. It also makes the client feel good; to know that they family members now know they are protected. I next ask them if they have a living will and would they also like for me to come out and help them with their needs. My services do not cost anything. After the client hears from their own family members what I have done to help them. Most of the time, they call me, or set up an appointment. It is like a never ending referral system.

Bottom line is that you are doing a great service to help people and you're getting your name out and you're getting appointments. This system works for me and it can work for you.

IF you have any questions, just contact me.

Here is a new twist to my idea. Buy some Aquarium Tubing. You can get 25 feet of this tubing for $1.99 on http://www.aquariumguys.com/airlinetubing6.html this tubing reminds me of life support tubing. Cut it into little 3 inch pieces. Give them out to people. Have you ever thought about this tubing might be what keeps you alive one day. It keeps a lot of people alive these days. Would you want to be kept alive with it or would you want to be unplugged?

Another idea is to recommend the client write a letter to their family's members and place it along with the living will. It is a love note or good bye letter. I only wished that some of the people that I loved had done this. It is good for the client's family and also will help you get the client thinking about their family and death. It becomes more real to them.

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Organizing Your Personal Affairs

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This is a must have download that goes well along with the free living will system. Call me and ask me how to get 6 fresh leads using this download and system. Every client should fill this out and have this.