The Package Concept Revisited
Remember Ben's package concept? "The
"As a rule, you can't go out from scratch
and write a policy for a million dolla rs.
There's something called `confidence'—the
man_ has to buy a little piece of you. While he
may not understand you completely, he must
be sure in his mind that you’re thinking of
that-you're knowledgeable
and that you know what you're doing, that
you do have a solution. He knows that you're
not backing him into a corner for a decision.
Never do that, because he'll not give you a
decision, or he'll not give you the right one.
"So . . . 'let me put it together.'
"Ask him for nothing—just time."
©1981 by Dearborn Financial Publishing, Inc., 520 North
Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610-4354. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without
written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States
of America.
key to a sale is the idea," says Ben, "and the
key to selling an 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 pack-
age. 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 guar-
anteed retirement income—not insurance.
An d I s h o wed hi m h o w t o g et w ha t 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 pur-
poses. 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.
"I'm not doing anything differ ent 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? Someday that

"The key to a sale is the idea,
and the key to selling an idea
is to package it."
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 thou-
sands 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 way—or somebody
has to pay. Isn't it better for him to pay pen-
nies instead of his family paying dollars? So
even though the price tag is big, he pays very
little for it. A man may 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 pre-
senting. 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 _an...A word-for-word basis. He
Can easily ad-lib to suit the attitude and reac-
tions of each prospect his interviews do -----
f011owan organized pattern: the presentation,
-
the goals to make the prospect 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 buildup from the pin-
pointing-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, and go off on another
phase of the problem— constantly
repeating, rephrasing, and reshuffling his
facts.
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
nth_. Meeting,-It-comes-back because Ben leads
it back.
You know, Mr. Jones, you've been run-
ning pretty hard now for about 30 years.
And in spite of the tax structure, you've
built a beautiful estate. Now I presume
you built this estate for your family. May
I show you what
hEstates
appens in most?
?
(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 recog-
nize—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 mil-
lionaires? 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—ex-
cept money. Now he didn't owe a lot of
money. Lots of men die owing almost
nothing, but the next day they owe hun-
dreds 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
The interview.., no matter how
it may wander ... comes back
because Ben leads it back.
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.")
Let me show you the part of your estate
that isn't yours.
(Ben does this, 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 com-
pany, 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 some-
thing 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 get-
ting on in years—he won't be able to get in-
s ur an c e . )
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 _fax collect
r wants out of the estate leaves a
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
cash. When you need it, you can get it.
("Yes," Ben says, "put me on your pay-
roll." 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, some-
one 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 to-
gether 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 pre-
sentation 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 differ-
ences. 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,
marshaled his thoughts, and is pr epar ed
to discuss the problem and offer a solution.
‘ ( ‘
5-
Mr. Jones, you were good enough to
give me quite a lot of information, and
I've been doing a lot of thinking about
c you since our short visit the other day.
I've tried to put together something real-
istic. I notice you're getting some silver
up there. You've been running pretty
hard for 30 years,(and in spite of the ta/
structure you've succeeded in building a
1
,%'beautiful estate.
But let me show you how much of that
estate isn't yours. [At this point, Ben in-
troduces his tax table.] Let me show
what part of your estate isn't yours. end
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
m a n wa s s u c c e s s fu l , a n e s t a te o f
$579,000? The day before he died, his in-
ventory 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 Wash-
ington. He worked with money all his
life, yet the day he died, he had every-
thing 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. The day after 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 figures—and these are ac-
tual cases—men who lived, worked,
spent their whole lives building their es-
tates, and look what happened to them.
There was enough value in the estates to
pay the taxes but there wasn't any cash.
10
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 Internal Revenue Service doesn't
want bricks. They take only cash. The
need for cash becomes tremendous, but
there is no cash. These men had every-
thing except cash. And yet the only thing
Uncle Sam wants is cash. He wants it
f ir s t , a n d h e wa n ts i t f a s t .
\\, c
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. gyou 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? C/C Ii/1,
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 ab-
sorb the tax impact, or the tax impact
may absorb the estate.
11
 Now let's take a look at your estate.
Let's see what your 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 iik„.
surance. But let me ask you . . . it's per-
sonal, 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 ae -v. `" '
if 4 ,
estate eventually lose it."
(Or, let's say the prospect mentions cor-
porate cash.)
Yes, you could pay your tax with your
corporate cash. [imagine that if I should
ask you right now to write me a cor-
porate 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 dis-
counted 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 al-
ready 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 ac-
count and puts $100,000 in it. Should
something happen to you tomorrow,
next week, next year, we simply trade ac-
counts. You take mine, and I'll 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 prob
lems 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 in-
sured, because you can't get a loan with-
out insuring them.
Yet machines and buildings don't make
money. Only management—key indi-
14
viduals—make money. When you lose a
key person you lose money. Key people
should be insured to indemnify the com-
pany.
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 hun-
dred 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 dif-
ference between profit and loss. Insuring
them means insuring profits. They are
worth what you insure them for, and
should be insured 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
15
 time for you to put in what you're some-
day going to take out.
Suppose I put it together and you take a
look?
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
tomorr ow. I call that_loolcing 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 tomor-
row his rates go up—and his chance of getting
life 'insurance goes down. Isn't it better for
him to buy now?
16
"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 depen-
dent on his business after he's gone.
Many times it goes 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 expect the company to pay
her an income. Is she performing a serv-
ice? 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
J 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 in-
come goes on. Don't you want that for
your wife?
17
 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
to live comfortably. Ever stop to think
that the day you walk out, your 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 com-
pany.
So why don't you make sure your com-
pany 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 possi-
ble with no load on your company.
The Bonus Policy
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 com-
pany 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 lit-
tle more likely to stay instead of walking
away?
We have a special plan for special peo-
ple. We call it a split-dollar policy. It's
an arrangement whereby these people re-
ceive benefits over and above the salary
they're receiving now. You can tell these
key people:
18
"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 compa ny
$100,000 to indemnify for the loss of a
key person. It will return to your com-
pany 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. You're going to
need some money. Why are you going to
19
need some money? Because you're a
wealthy man.
If I recall correctly, you say that your in-
come 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 every-
thing 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—
do you know how you become wealthy?
You have 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
land. 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 clown to
70 cents—maybe even 60 cents. Estates
fall apart and not because a man did
something wrong. He _didn't do any-
thing. He didn't do anything and that's
what's wrong.
Life insurance is the answer, but since
you can't insure your own life, we can
borrow someone else's life. You need
money, and I was going to create some
so as to conserve your estate. But you're
uninsurable and I can't do that. But
20
there's something else I can do. I can
begin to eliminate the loss. I can begin to
eliminate the loss by gradually moving
money from the taxable portion of the
estate to where it's not going to be sub-
ject to estate taxes.
I'll use your right to make gifts: The
Federal Government levies a tax on your
right to make money. They call it incomes
tax': They also tax your right to transfer
what's left at your death to your family.
(They call that estate taX. But the Govern-
ment 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
Si.
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
21
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 go-
ing 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
" o u t o f t h i s wo r l d . " Y o u c a n d o
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 regula-
tions. Annual gift tax exemptions lapse
each year on December 31. Either you
use them or you lose them. It costs you
nothing to use them. It costs you a lot if
you lose them!
22
(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 mem-
bers' lives, designed primarily to utilize max-
imum 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 nor-
mally 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 5th Dividend Option-
One-Year Term)
Her e's a pr esentation Ben uses for t he
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
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 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-a-million
dollars, and the cash value is half-a-
million dollars.
"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 con-
tract 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
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t hink y ou ' r e cra zy. ' It 's s omet hi ng f or
nothing.' But it isn't. It's actuarially and
mathematically sound. It's what I call true in-
surance."
More Thoughts On Selling A Million
If a man needs a million dollars or more
when he dies, Ben says, he does have a prob-
lem! 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'l lput me on your payroll for
$2,000 a month, someday I'll pay your
company one million dollars. Your es-
tate 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 inter-
view. His imaginative mind has formed a way
of making the prospect see his problems more
clearly and of seeing life insurance as a solu-
tion to such problems.
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 Ben's Questions
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 con-
tinue? Could your company run without
money?
Would you say eight or 10 percent would be
a fair return on money? Well, Uncle Sam is
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 in-
terest 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?
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Do you think your bank will extend the
same credit line to the man who takes your
place?
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?
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 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?
A. SUMMARY
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: for 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?
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A SUMMARY AND
A PLAN FOR ACTION
1. Note Ben's introduction to this sec-
tion—". . you ca n't go out fr om
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 reemphasizes the importance of
packaging his ideas—the key to a sale is
the packaging of an idea.
4. Ben believes in an organized presenta-
tion, packed with powerful thoughts,
well-expressed. Logic and 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. Seem-
ingly minor points, such as using blow-
ups of pr obat e r ecor ds f or gr eater
visibility and impact, are important
parts of Ben's procedure.
6. A reading of his sales presentations
shows how vividly Ben ma kes his
points, how he sets the stage for the
eventua l solution. Ben unders tands
human emotions, and this knowledge is
put to work as he sells. No one wants to
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 see a lifetime of work fall 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 ta lks ab out his dollar s cost in g
roughly three cents per dollar per year.
8. Notice his expression, "Let me put it
together." It's soft and leads to a clos-
ing interview.
9. The sales presentations given can be
us ed b y you. It 's not necessar y t o
memorize them, but d o study their
str uctur e and d o 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 in-
telligent discussion of the prospect's
problems. These questions make people
think.
30
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 "packag-
ing" 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 pros-
pects?
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? Re-
member 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 pro-
bate 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 illustra-
tions are bundles of money. I'm selling
money."
5. "Learn to merchandise," Ben continues.
"But don't get carried away. Don't let
ho w you present the picture complicate
the picture. Your illustration must be
31
 simple, because unless it is simple, your
prospect won't understand it. And if he
doesn't understand it—know what hap-
pens? He won't buy it."

6. Start working Ben's questions into your

sa les pr esentat ions. Be prepar ed to
follow up on the openings such questions
will create. A good way to use the ques-
tions 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 ap-
propriate. The only way these questions
will ever become part of you is to use
them, use them, and use them.

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