III.

THE SALES PRESENTATION

BEN FELDMAN

The Package Concept Revisited

Remember Ben’s package concept? “The key to a sale is the idea,” says Ben, “and the key to
selling and idea is to package it.

“When I was just beginning to sell, I would say, ‘You want to be sure your daughter goes to
college? May I show you this idea?’ And what was the idea? It was an education package. It wasn’t
insurance this man wanted: he wanted his daughter to go to college. So I didn’t talk about anything
else. I showed him how we could guarantee that his daughter would go to college. And I used words
and figures he was sure to understand. That was my package.

“I would say to a man, ‘How would you like to retire with a guaranteed income for the rest of
your life? Here’s an idea I have. May I show it to you?’ What he wanted was a guaranteed retirement
income –not insurance. And I showed him how to get what he wanted. That’s all I showed him. I made
it very direct, very easy to understand. And that was my retirement package.

“I had lots of packages for different purposes. I would say to a man, ‘I have a special package
of money designed for people like you.’ Each package was different. I’d have each package worked out
in my head so I could talk about it clearly and a man could understand what I was talking about. I
sold simple packages designed to help a man with his problem.

“The key to a sale is the idea, and the key to selling an idea it to package it.”

“ I’m not doing anything different now than I did 20 years ago. If my package is big, it’s
because the man’s problem has a big price tag. And you know something? Somebody that price must
be paid. It’s true the prospect doesn’t have to pay it. But if he doesn’t pay it –and remember, we’re
talking about big price tags, price tags worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions –if
he doesn’t pay it, his family will have to pay it. And they’ll have to pay it with hundred-cent dollars.
Isn’t it better for him to pay it since he can do so with discounted dollars?

“Whether he buys my package or not, there’s a price tag, either for him to pay pennies instead
of his family paying dollars? So even though the price tag is big, he pays very little for it. A man
need a half-million dollars, but he’ll pay very little for that half-million dollars.

“When you show a prospect all that, when you show him that the price tag is very real, when
you show him that it must be paid, and when you show him that you can pay it for him no matter
how big it is-and the cost to him will be pennies, not dollars –then the man will see that he needs
what you’re presenting. You’ll be on your way to a sale –a big sale.”

Ben’s Interview Techniques

The sales talks that follow represent the ideas and phrases used by Ben in his sales presentations.
Of course, Ben does not give his sales talks on a word-for-word basis. He can easily ad-lib to suit the
attitude and reactions of each prospects. But his interviews do follow an organized pattern: the
presentation of the problem, the goals to make the prospect anxious to do something about it, the lure
of discounted dollars, and the solution in a package that is very easy to understand.

The presentations represent a definite logical and emotional build-up from the pinpointing of the
problem to the solution. Ben may touch on a point, move away from it, come back to it, approach it
from a different angle, hit again, go of on another phase of the problem –constantly repeating,
rephrasing, and reshuffling his facts.

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 The interview is not a monologue. It is a conversation which, no matter how it may wander and
on which tangents it moves, always comes back to the original purpose of the meeting. It comes back
because Ben leads it back.

You know, Mr. Jones, you’ve been running pretty hard now for about 30 years. And in spite of
the tax structure, you’ve built this estate for your family. May I show you what happens in most
estates?

(At this point, Ben shows actual probate records taken from a service he subscribes to. Ben says
he picks out the ones which he thinks will have impact –names people will recognize –and blows them
up to several times the original size. He puts these blow-ups in front of the prospect.)

May I show you what happens to millionaires? You may recognize these names because these
cases are authentic. Look what happened in this estate. The executor went out and borrowed $150,000
to prevent a forced liquidation.

Look at another one. Do you remember Humphrey Bogart, the actor? Look what happened. He
had everything— except money. Now he didn’t owe a lot of money. Lots of men die owing almost
nothing, but the next day they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars –maybe millions of dollars. They
call it taxes.

Here is Gordon Stouffer of Cleveland, Ohio. He had a $2,000,000 estate. How much did he owe
the day before he died? Less than $50,000. How much cash did he have? Not much. Maybe $17,000.
But the day after he died, he owed $550,000! And he still had only $17,000 in cash. How did the
estate get the cash it needed to pay the government? They have a name for this. You know what they
call it? Liquidation.

(“The man I’m talking to,” Ben explains, “has done like many other men. That is, he made a lot
of money and locked it up in one thing or another. He has no ready cash right now to pay the
government. So you show him what happened to various individuals and try to light a fire under him.”
Then Ben presents an estate tax table in color that shows the prospect how much of what he owns
isn’t his and a discounted dollar illustration showing mathematically that “he can buy dollars for
pennies apiece.”)

The interview . . . no matter how it may wander . . . comes back because

Ben leads it back.

Let me show you the part of your estate that isn’t yours.

(Ben does thing, noting that the part could be in six or seven figures.)

Could you write me a check for that amount without it hurting a little bit? I’m not saying it will
break your company, but wouldn’t it bend it? So why do you want to run hard for 30 years and then
have 15 years go down the drain? You know there’s a price if you do something or you don’t do
something.
Most estates fall apart someday –not because you did something wrong, but because you did
nothing— that’s what’s wrong!

(Ben says that the prospect doesn’t want to see his estate fall apart. He shows him that it will
fall apart if he doesn’t take action now because if he waits too long --the man is getting on in years –
he won’t be able to get insurance.)

Mr. Jones, the taxes must be paid from your estate –or for your estate. Let me pay it for your
estate –with discounted dollars. Pulling the amount of cash the tax collector wants out of the estate
leaves a hole in the estate—quite often a big hole –something so big a lot of things fall apart. It’s
better to use insurance to pay the tax collector than take it out of the estate. While you pay $200,000
for the tax, you’ll pay very little for the $200,000.

So put me on your payroll. I’ll work for $500 a month. The day you walk out, $200,000 walks
in. And while you’re paying in premiums, you’re piling up paying in premiums, you’re piling up cash.
When you need it, you can get it.

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 (“ Yes,” Ben says, “put me on your payroll.” Exactly those words. Other companies are
accustomed to putting people on the payroll, he notes. One person more or less doesn’t make much
difference. You know, you could be the most important person on his payroll. The day he walks out,
you walk in with enough cash to pay everything that must be paid.)

Closing This Presentation

Mr. Jones, part of what you own isn’t yours. It belongs to the tax collector. And yet if an
estate is worth building, it’s worth keeping. Even though you paid income tax all your life,
part of what you have left still isn’t yours. And the day you walk out, Uncle Sam walks in
and he’ll want a great big chunk of your estate. Furthermore, he has a way of getting it.

You have a problem. If you don’t do something about it, if you don’t solve it, you simply
postpone it. Someday, someone will have to do something about it. If you can qualify,
I’ve got discounted dollars—dollars for pennies apiece. My dollars cost roughly three
cents per dollar per year. It’ll take a long time to pay in the amount we guarantee to pay
out. I’m sure you don’t want the tax load falling on your family.

Let’s use my plan. Suppose I put it together and you take a look.

A Different Version of Ben’s Estate Talk

You’ll recall we said Ben never gives his sales presentations on a word-for-word basis. They vary,
and even if Ben gives a similar presentation to two prospects in one day, the talks will vary. Here is
another way Ben can give his sales presentation to an estate owner. Notice the similarities –and notice
the differences. The phrasing is different, the pattern is similar, and Ben –it’s the same persuasive,
powerful Ben.

Let’s imagine that Ben has returned to the prospect after a preliminary fact-finding interview. He’s
done his homework, marshalled his thoughts, and is prepared to discuss the problem and offer a
solution.

Mr. Jones, you were good enough to give me quite a lot of information, and I’ve been doing a
lot of thinking about you since our short visit the other day. I’ve tried to put together something
realistic I notice you’re getting some silver up there. You’ve been running pretty hard for 30
years and in spite of the tax structure, you’ve succeeded in building a beautiful estate.

But let me show you how much of that estate isn’t yours. At this point, Ben introduces his tax
table.
Let me show you what part of your estate isn’t yours. And from this point on, every additional
dollar you put into the estate, part of it will be yours and part of it will be the tax collector’s.

May I show you what happened to some estates? Here Ben introduces his copies of the estate
records.
Do you remember these people? One was worth $500,000. Another, $750,000. Here’s another worth
over $1,000,000. These men spent their whole lives building these estates to leave them to their
families. But it didn’t work out that way.

Look at this one. Would you say this man was successful, an estate of $579,000? The day before
he died his inventory in cash was $17,000. He owed only $539

Shouldn’t be any problem there, should there? Shouldn’t be. Yet the day after he died, he owed
$169,000 in taxes, and his cash was still $17,000.

Take this case. He was a member of the original Federal Reserve Board in Washington. He
worked with money all his life, yet the day he died, he had everything except money. He had
$195! The tax collector wanted $210,000-in cash. Or look at this man – the day before he died all the money he
owed in the world was $500.00. The day he died, he owed over $170,000.

And these cases are not exceptions. Look at the others. The story is the same. Look at these

3
 figures -- and these are actual cases—men who lived, worked, spent their whole lives building
their estates, and look what happened to them.

There was enough value in the estates to pay the taxes but there wasn’t any cash.

None of them owed much money, but ironically none of them had much money –in the form
of cash. They had all kinds of other assets –brick, steel land –everything except cash.

But the International Revenue Service doesn’t want bricks. They take only cash. The need for
cash becomes tremendous, but there is no cash. These men had everything except cash. And
yet the only thing Uncle Sam wants is cash. He wants it first, and he wants it fast.

Uncle Sam will take all your cash, and if that isn’t enough –and nine times out of ten it
isn’t –he will simply liquidate the best part of your estate. So you spend 30 years putting
it together –and Uncle Sam takes it apart overnight.

Is there any reason to believe Uncle Sam will treat your estate any differently than he did
all the others?
And Still Another Variation On The Theme
Here is one more variation on the basic theme followed in Ben’s presentation. Ben notes that
“most men who build an estate eventually lose it. They never really owned it. Just leased it . . . and
lost it. They call it taxes.” Let’s follow Ben again:

The day you walk out, Mr. Prospect, the tax collectors walk in. They want money and,
furthermore they have a way of getting it. Either you create cash to absorb the tax impact, or the tax
impact may absorb the estate.

Now let’s take a look at your estate. Let’s see what you tax bill will be. You’re worth
about a half-million dollars. Let’s break it down. . Here’s a breakdown of your Federal Estate Tax.
Minimum
$78,000. And if you don’t get full credit for your deductions, that can go up to $115,000. And that’s
not all. The State of Ohio will want $12,000. So here’s your tax summary --$90,000. And if you lose
your marital deduction, your tax will cost you $163,000! Payable in cash!

Your basic problem isn’t whether or not you’ll pay your tax, because Uncle Sam has a way
of getting paid, but how will you pay it. Have you thought about it?

(Let’s assume the prospect mentions his personal life insurance as a source of cash.)

Yes, you could pay it with personal insurance. But let me ask you . . . it’s personal, isn’t
it? Whom did you buy it for? You didn’t buy it for the tax collector—you bought it for your family.
Let them keep it-- they’ll need it.

“. . . most men who build an estate eventually lose it.”

(Or, let’s say the prospect mentions corporate cash.)

Yes, you could pay your tax with your corporate cash. I imagine that if I should ask you
right now to write me a corporate check for $90,000, you could. It wouldn’t break your
company, but I’ll bet it would bend it. You simply can’t pull $90,000 out of your company
and not hurt it.

Let me pay your tax. I’ll pay it with discounted dollars. I’ll pay your tax with dollars
that cost only three cents apiece once a year. My dollars will never cost you a dollar
apiece. Your dollars have already cost you -- considering our tax structure-- about two
dollars each.

The mechanics are very simple. You set up a special account and put in $300 a month.
My company sets up a special account and puts $100,000 in it. Should something happen
to you tomorrow, next week, next year, we simply trade accounts. You take mine, and I’ll

4
 take yours-- and mine will always be worth more than yours.

Why don’t you let me pay your tax?

A Sales Presentation For The Key Individual

Here’s the approach used when Ben talks to the key individual of a business firm.

Mr. Jones, did you ever take a vacation . . . go away for a couple of weeks? (Yes)

Any problems? (No)

Could you take a month off ? (Yes)

Could you take a year off ?

(He’ll hesitate a little. There might be problems if he took a year off.)

You know, Mr. Jones, no one has a lease on life. One of these days, you’re going to
walk out the door and you’re never coming back. You think that would have a bearing
on corporate credit? Corporate credit is very important to the continuity of your
company and all the people depending on it, including your family. There’s the telephone
Why don’t you call your banker. Call your banker and ask this question: “If you walked
out and never came back, and a short time later the tax collector walked in and took
all the money, would it have any bearing on your company’s credit line? Or would the
bank be willing to go along as they have in the past?’

Do you think your bank will extend the same credit line to the man who takes your place?

A Sales Presentation About The Key Individual

Mr. Jones, your accountant will include even a box of stationery on your balance sheet,
but ignore the individual who makes your company a million dollars. While no one is
indispensable, neither is your equipment, nor your building -- and yet the equipment and
building are insured, because you can’t get a loan without insuring them

Yet machines and buildings don’t make money. Only management—key individual—make
money. When you lose a key person you lose money. Key people should be insured to
indemnify the company.

Your key people are money-making machines. With them here, there are people at work.
With them gone, it would simply be money at work. The contrast would be tremendous.

Compare the earnings on money with the earnings of a key individual. One hundred
thousand dollars will earn $8,000 or $9,000 a year. The same amount wrapped up in
a company operated by a key person may earn $20,000 to $50,000. The value of key
people is many times the value of the money.

The ability of key people means the difference between profit and loss. Insuring them
means insuring profits. They are worth what you insure them for, and should be
insure them for what they are worth. My company offers a policy that costs four cents
per dollar, but returns the dollar plus three cents out of every four.

I’m not saying that a particular person is indispensable. I’m saying only that the loss
of key people can create problems.

You’ve got a good many employees. Why don’t you hire one more? Me. Put me on your
payroll. Ten dollars a day. Set up a special account for me and put $10 a day in it, and
I’ll set up a special account for you, and put $100,000 in it. You know, it’s going to take
a long, long time for you to put in what you’re someday going to take out.

Suppose I put it together and you take a look?

5
 Looking Down The Road

“You can’t always wait until a client has grown to sell him insurance,” Ben says. “You look into
his future and find his problems. Then you sell today the insurance he’ll need tomorrow. I can that
looking down the road.”

Here is the way Ben explains this concept to a prospect:

Mr. Prospect, you need $100,000 to pay the taxes today—and here’s a policy to cover it.
But I know your company’s making money, I know you’re in good health, so I have
another policy—and this is for tomorrow. I’m looking down the road 10 years. Then
you’ll need $200,000 to pay your tax.

And another thing: Your wife has a right to income. So I have one designed for your
salary continuation. It pays her $30,000 a year for 10 years. When you walk out, your
income goes on. Don’t you want to do that for your wife?

As Ben says, “you’re doing your client a great service when you pinpoint the problems ahead of
him and show him how tomorrow his needs go up, but if he waits until tomorrow his rates go up--
and his chance of getting life insurance goes down. Isn’t it better for him to buy now?

“If he can’t afford whole life (and if he’s growing, he may not be able to afford whole life), sell
him term. You know what term is? It’s an option on the future.”

How would this concept be for clients you have already sold insurance to? For which of them
should you look ahead?

Salary Continuation

A man’s family should never be dependent on his business after he’s gone. Many times
it goes downhill a lot faster than it went up. This plan will bail out anyone who walks
out, without drowning the survivor.

You want your family to go on living on the same level you have accustomed them to.
Most of your income is earned income. When you stop, it stops. They go on living. What
with?

Make sure there will be a livable lifetime income for the family. Your widow has no right
to
except the company to pay her an income. Is she performing a service? Can she step into
your shoes and do what you’ve been doing? Will she be eligible to take out salary the way
you’ve been taking it out? No. She owns pieces of paper. They pay no dividend. What will
she do with them?

Your wife has a right to income. I have a plan designed as salary continuation. It pays her
$30,000 a year for 10 years. When you walk out, $30,000 of your income goes on. Don’t
you want that for your wife?

The bulk of your worth is wrapped up in your company—isn’t that right? You’re not paying
much in the way of dividends, just taking out enough salary stops—but your family goes on
living? They will still need income—where do you think they will look for it? Exactly where
it’s been coming from—your company.

So why don’t you make sure your company can do what you will want it to do, and what
it will have to do—take care of your family? My plan makes this possible with no load on
your company.

The Bonus Policy

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Mr. Jones, the biggest assets you have are key people, and yet how can you be sure—if you get on the
wrong airplane, or in the wrong car—and one day you are gone, how can you be sure that these
people will continue carrying your company on for the benefit of your family?

Don’t you think you should try to lock them in, or tie them up in some manner? Don’t you think you
should give them a little something more, so they’ll be a little more likely to stay instead of walking
away.

We have a special plan for special people. We call it a split-dollar policy. It’s an arrangement whereby
these people receive benefits over and above the salary they’re receiving now. You can tell these key
people:

“You look into his future and find his problems.”

“Look, Joe, if something happens to you, I’m going to pay off your mortgage on your home, and I’m
going to educate your children. This is all free. It won’t cost you a penny.”

Then Ben tells the prospect:

Over and above what it will do for the key people, let me tell you what it will do for you. It will pay
your company $100,000 to indemnify for the loss of a key person. It will return to your company all
premiums you paid..

Suppose I put it together and you take a look?

Ben says, “I call it the bonus policy. It’s simply a block of whole life.”

Selling Insurance To People Who Are Uninsurable

From time to time, Ben sells life insurance to people who are uninsurable. Here’s how he does it.

All right, Mr. Jones, I know that you’re not insurable, so I’m not going to sell you insurance. I’m
going to sell you some money. That’s right, I’m going to sell you some money. Why are you going to
need some money? Because you’re a wealthy man.

If I recall correctly, you say that your income exceeds $100,000 a year? Then I assume you have a
partner—Uncle Sam. And he takes a pretty good chunk of that income, doesn’t he?

Do you find you have much money left over that you can, let’s say, put away, save—or does it take
pretty much everything to pay the tax and just live nicely?

(Prospect agrees that this is so.)

So you see, you don’t really have any dollars. The way you become wealthy? You had your money
working very hard. You don’t have it in the bank. You’ve got it in bricks. You’ve got it in machines.
You’ve locked it up. You’re a wealthy man, but you have no money.

Why run hard for 30 years if the net result is 15 years going down the drain? But if the dollar goes
through the estate tax wringer, the dollar may go down to 70 cents—maybe even 60 cents. Estates fall
apart and not because a man did something wrong. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t do anything and
that’s what’s wrong.

Life insurance is the answer, but since you can’t insure your
life. You need money, and I was going to create some so as
uninsurable and I can’t do that. But there’s something else I
I can begin to eliminate the loss by gradually moving money
where it’s not going to be subject to estate taxes.
own life, we can borrow someone else’s
to conserve your estate. But you’re
can do. I can begin to eliminate the loss.
from the taxable portion of the estate to

I’ll use your right to make gifts: The Federal Government levies a tax on your right to make money.
They call it income tax. They also tax your right to transfer what’s left at your death to your family.

7
They call that estate tax. But the Government also gives you a certain right— the right to make
transfers free of tax. This is your gift tax exemption.

You earn six to eight percent on your money. Someday you’ll lose—the tax collector will take --40 to
60 percent, or more. So why not use your tax-free right to transfer to your son rather than the tax
collector?

“.......... you’re doing your client a great service when you pinpoint the problems
ahead of him. . .”

Do you have any problems -- problems running your business? Let me ask you –don’t you think that
you’re the key man in the operation? Don’t you think you’re important to it? Do you think you could
take one year off without leaving some very real problems? Well, someday you’re going to walk out –
and it’s going to be for longer than a year. I’ve never found a man with a lease on life. Have you?

When you walk out, your boy is going to walk in. He’s going to pick up the pieces where you dropped
them. And he’s going to have problems, too. And they’re going to be bigger than yours. Would you
like to know why they’re going to be bigger than yours? Because you started from scratch. But thanks
to your hard running, he won’t start from scratch. He’ll start from maybe $1,000,000 and, you know,
his problems will be three times as big as yours.

So why don’t we begin at the beginning and give him the advantage of a low, low premium. Would
you agree with me that as the years go by rates go up? Your boy is 10 now, and a year from now
he’ll be 11 –and the year after that he’ll be 12.

Let’s do it now. Do you think the tax collector will slow down—a year from now, or two years from
now, or ever? Help him help himself, and you’ll do something for your son worth more than money.

You can build something for him that’s “out of this world.” You can do something for him so
wonderful that he’ll never forget his father. But you must act now; there’s a time limit, a legal limit
prescribed by government regulations. Annual gift tax exemptions lapse each year on December 31.
Either you use them on December 31. Either you use them or you lose them. It costs you nothing to
use the. It costs you a lot if you lose them!

(Ben notes that it’s not only the son’s life that can be “borrowed”. The wife can protect her
husband, too. Or any of the children can do it. Or the entire family. In one family, Ben set up large
amounts of insurance on members’ lives, designed primarily to utilize maximum rights to make gifts.
“We could no longer use life insurance to create,” Ben says, “so we used it to accumulate.”)

Mr. Prospect, how would you like to take some of the money that would normally go down the drain
for taxes and do something so beautiful for your grandchildren that you will never be forgotten?

“Guaranteed To Make A Million Dollars”

(Use of the 5 th Dividend Option-- One-Year Term)

Here’s a presentation Ben uses for the owner of a million-dollar corporation.

We have a million-dollar contract with a premium of only $2,000 a month. The $2,000 will be a
corporate payment. For a corporation that runs into many millions, $2,000 a month isn’t even petty
cash; it isn’t a load for the corporation.

The contract is guaranteed to make a million dollars. You know why? We have a very special rider
attached to the contract which states, in essence, “We will give you back your money -- and a million
besides.”

How can we do this? Because, Mr. Smith, as you pay in premiums, you pile up cash. The rider in the
contract adds enough term insurance to cover the cash. If you were paying $2,000 a month-- that’s
$24,000 a year—20 years later you’ve put in roughly half-million dollars, and the cash value is half-a-
million dollars.

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 “We could no longer use life insurance to create, so we used it to accumulate.”

You wrap your car around a tree, or get on the wrong airplane, and something happens to you; what
we do is first pay the cash value, which is about equal to the premiums. It’s a recovery of cost. You
never put in the amount we’re going to pay out. It has to make a million dollars.

Ben says, “When I make up an illustration, I often use the fifth dividend option to return the
cash value –eliminate the premiums. This way, insurance is ‘free.’ If that sounds odd to you, take a
case and analyze it. You’ll see that it works.

“Take a man 40 or 45 years of age, and analyze a $100,000 block of whole life. You’re talking
of, roughly, perhaps a $3,000 annual premium, and it’ll generate a substantial cash value each year.
You know, we must by contract pay the face value and through the fifth dividend option return the
accumulated cash value. But the cash value and the accumulated dividends—figure it out yourself, it’s
simple --they’re equal to the premiums paid. They’ll think you’re crazy. ‘It’s something for nothing.’
But it isn’t. It’s actuarially and mathematically sound. It’s what I call true insurance.”

More Thoughts On Selling A Million

If a man needs a million dollars or more when he dies, Ben says, he does have a problem!
Here’s what Ben says:

How would you like to be a millionaire? Put me on your payroll for $100 a day, and the day you
walk out, one million dollars walks in. Plus about 75 percent of the amount you paid in. Let me put it
together.

Here’s another way Ben describes it:

We’ve just put $1,000,000 into an escrow account and have written your name on it. If you’ll put me
on your payroll for $2,000 a month, someday I’ll pay your company one million dollars. Your estate
will have to pay $1,000,000 for the tax, but your company won’t have to pay much for the $1,000,000.

Let me put it together.

A Bonus From Ben!

Here’s a bonus. Ben is a great believer in the use of disturbing questions in a sales interview.
His imaginative mind has formed a way of making the prospect see his problems more clearly and of
seeing life insurance as a solution to such problems.
Ben’s Question

Would you like to create a guaranteed market for your company?

How much time would it take to repay everything you owe? How much is that time worth to you?

Tell me, what is the most valuable thing you’ve got? Your company? Want it to continue? Could your
company run without money?
Would you say eight or 10 percent would be a fair return on money? Well, Uncle Sam is a going to
take 30-40 -- maybe 50 percent.
Did you ever have a problem, or does everything run smoothly?

Would you like to buy your partner’s interest for pennies on the dollar?

Why pay taxes out of principal?

Ever stop to think your business will last only as long as you do?

Your boys can start over –but must you compel them to do so?

Do you think your bank will extend the same credit line to the man who takes your place?

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Could you—right now—give me one-third of everything you own?

Tell me—if you were the executor of this estate, what would you do (showing the estate records of
several individuals)?

Why run hard for 30 years, if the net result is 15 years going down the drain?

It isn’t a question of if you’ll pay the tax; the only question is with whose money—yours or mine?

There are two ways to pay your tax: with your dollars or with my dollars. My dollars cost pennies
apiece; your dollar costs two dollars. Why not use mine?

Why not use your tax-free right to transfer to your children rather than transfer to the tax collector?

What will your wife do with the business?

You know, you spend a lifetime plowing money in—shouldn’t there be some way of getting it back?

If you were going to buy your competitor’s company and you knew he had to sell, would you pay 100
cents on the dollar or look for a bargain?

Would you sell your interest for pennies on the dollar?

Let me buy your company-how much is it worth?

How would your family get any money out of the business if you don’t come back tomorrow?

How would you like somebody waiting with cash ready to buy at your price the day you walk out?

Which would you prefer: your family to remain locked in after you’re gone—or when you walk out,
have our money walk in?

Why don’t you capitalize the value of your key people?

If your partner dies, what salary would you continue to pay his widow?

What arrangements have you made for after your insurance runs out?

How much time do you need to complete your plans?

A SUMMARY AND PLAN FOR ACTION

SUMMARY

1. Note Ben’s introduction to this section—‘’. . . you can’t go out from scratch and write a policy
for a million dollars.” A primary reason for Ben’s success has been the confidence his clients have
in him. People buy Ben’s solution because they first buy Ben.

2. As Ben indicates, don’t back a prospect into a corner for a decision. Ask him for nothing –just
time.

3. Ben re-emphasizes the importance of packaging his idea—the key to a sale is the packaging of an
idea.

4. Ben believes in an organized presentation, packed with powerful thoughts, well-expresses. Logic
emotion play equal parts in his presentations.

5. In his Estate Conservation interview, he uses actual probate records and does so with showmanship
and drama. Seemingly minor points, such as using blowups of probate records for greater visibility
and impact, are important parts of Ben’s procedure.

6 A reading of his sales presentations shows how vividly Ben makes his points, how he sets the stage

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 for the eventual solution. Ben understands human emotions, and his knowledge is put to work as
he
sells. No one wants to see a lifetime of work apart simply because there was no planning.

7. As you have already seen, Ben is a master in simplifying concepts. He does not talk about annual
premiums per se; he talks about his dollars costing roughly three cents per dollar per year.

8. Notice his expression, “Let me put it together.” It’s soft and leads to a closing interview.

9. The sales presentations given can be used by you. It’s not necessary to memorize them, but do
study their structure and do start to use Ben’s phrases and ideas. Question: How often have you
seen him asking the prospect to buy life insurance?

10. Review the list of questions. Note how just about each question leads to an intelligent discussion of
the prospect’s problems. These questions make people think.

B. A PLAN FOR ACTION

1. By this point, you should be starting to absorb Ben’s philosophy and starting to use his expressions
when they are natural to you.

2. How are you doing with your “packaging” of your ideas? Have you made up your first package
yet? Have you made plans for a package or packages that you can get enthusiastic about and which
you can present enthusiastically to prospects?

3. Study Ben’s presentations. Which of them can you use with your prospects and clients? How can
you adapt them to your personality and your market? Remember Ben’s comment earlier. “You’re
welcome to use my ideas...... If you work with them, they’ll become your ideas.”

4. Spend more time on your visual sales aids. We mentioned Ben enlarging probate records for better
visibility and more impact. Here’s what he says about his illustrations: “I use good paper. I use
good typing equipment. I use color. I give the illustrations a name. And I put the prospect’s name
on the illustration. An illustration might read : ‘A bonus policy for John Jones.’ Notice the dollar
bill. Why is it there? Because my illustrations are bundles of money. I’m selling money.”

5. “Learn to merchandise,” Ben continues. “But don’t get carried away. Don’t let how you present the
picture complicate the picture. Your illustration must be simple, because unless it is simple, your
prospect won’t understand it. and if he doesn’t understand it—know what happens? He won’t buy
it.”

6. Start working Ben’s questions into your sales presentations. Be prepared to follow up on the
openings such questions will create. A good way to use the questions is to write down the ones
you feel you can work with and read them over frequently. When planning a call on a prospect,
select ones which are most appropriate. The only way these questions will ever become part of you
is to use them, use them, and use them.

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