As a life insurance trainer, entrepreneur, and business coach, Edward Karram has created massive ripples in the corporate world. The Founder and CEO of SELL-U has crafted an entire career training registered life insurance agents in business fundamentals, sales, marketing, and lead generation.
After being put through their paces under Karram’s mentorship, over 1,000 agents from all over the country have 10x’d their book of business, and are now able to earn as much as seven figures per year.
Can anyone become a successful life insurance agent? Edward Karram believes success is dependent on whether or not the agent is able to exemplify certain key traits.
“This may seem derivative, but it’s incredibly important to hone your sales technique,” the businessman says. “As an insurance agent, the one thing you’ll be doing is selling your prospects on your product, your agency or yourself. The quicker you can master this skill, the quicker your career will take off.”
The life insurance trainer goes on to say that this is easier said than done. Like most good things, mastering the art of the sale doesn’t come overnight. It takes a combination of trial and error, mentorship and experience.
“Communication, especially over the phone, is another major skill you’ll need to brush up on,” Edward Karram continues. “Unlike an email, you don’t have all the time in the world to measure each word. When you’re pitching to prospects, you may not realize it, but they are playing close attention to your pace, choice of words, confidence, and inflection. This helps them decide whether they want you as their provider.”
Per Karram, phone conversations are one of the easiest ways to close that sale – if executed correctly. Here, also consider that you only have so much time to convince the listener before you lose their attention.
“This brings us to the next soft skill that agents need to pay attention to,” Edward Karram explains, “time management! This is a mile-a-minute business with cutthroat competition. You have a limited window to capture your prospect’s interest before they get lapped up by someone else.”
He continues, “What separates the good agents from the great ones is the ability to prioritize and manage time right at the onset of their career. Blocking time in your day is essential. So whether you need to use an online calendar or carry around a little black book to keep yourself on schedule, do whatever it takes.”
The entrepreneur has admitted that this is something a lot of agents, including himself at the start of his career, have struggled with. While there isn’t a quick fix to mastering this skill, over time, agents will develop a strategy that works best for them.
Edward Karram touches on another crucial skill that many agents seem to lack.
“Emotional intelligence! This speaks to your capacity to connect, engage, understand and sympathize with your prospects. Seldom is this taught to new agents. It also helps a lot because, once you master this, you will be able to understand why someone says “no” and subsequently, how to work around that,” Karram points out.
More on Edward Karram
Hailing from Alpharetta, GA, Karram’s influence has had a sweeping influence on the nation through his life insurance training program; SELL-U.
SELL-U focuses on imparting up-to-date techniques that help a whole new crop of agents conquer the latest challenges in the field.
It uses a combination of webinars, in-class sessions and one-on-one mentorship meetings with Karram himself, to give agents a 360 view of the field and help them master their craft, to the point where they can generate leads autonomously and 10x their book of business.
