475. HIGHLIGHT: The Questions That Build a Six Figure Life Insurance Career with Van Mueller and Jim Ruta

Your team is having the same conversations every day, and most of them end in NO. That's not a talent problem. It's a training problem.

For 8 years, Weaver Sales Academy has turned untrained producers into closers, over 17,000 of them, generating 200M+ in insurance sales along the way.

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Watch the full episode on YouTube: HERE

What's in this episode:
In this highlight episode, life insurance legend Van Mueller shows insurance agents exactly what to say, and what to cut, in a client conversation. He breaks down the one word that kills trust, the exact question that turned a stranger into an $800,000 case, and why repetition, not talent, builds top producers.
Jim Ruta then walks Michael Weaver through the ICON Protocol: inspiration, communication, organization, and enumeration. It's the four part framework insurance agents and agency owners can use to build a six figure life insurance career that lasts.

[00:00] Van Mueller on why insurance sales is a lonely business 
[01:00] Introducing two life insurance legends, Van Mueller and Jim Ruta
[02:00] The word Van Mueller cut from his vocabulary when talking to clients
[03:00] The grocery store conversation that turned into an $800,000 case
[06:00] Why repetition, not talent, builds great insurance agents
[07:00] Weaver Sales Academy's Summer Sizzle Sale, last call to save $1,200
[08:00] Jim Ruta introduces the ICON Protocol, starting with inspiration
[09:00] Why style beats substance in insurance sales
[10:00] Building an organized sales presentation agents can repeat every time
[11:00] Why enumeration separates top producers from everyone else
[12:00] The full ICON framework recapped for insurance agents ready to grow

Full Episodes:

431. Questions That Sell Life Insurance Without Pressure with Van Mueller: https://youtu.be/aS_0e1rJwDU

429. The Burnout Trap Most Life Insurance Agents Fall Into with Jim Ruta: https://youtu.be/O62RP9pV_q4

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Being an insurance agent's a very lonely business. And you're on your own, and you are responsible to somebody above you, and you're responsible to somebody below you. You need to have somebody that listens to you and supports you.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

And here's the point that if you're inspired, you will persist. You see, if I know that what I'm doing really matters, and you say no, it doesn't bother me. No, not you, I'll talk to Courtney. Not Courtney, I'll talk to Jack. If not Jack, I'll talk to Susan. Whatever. I'm not worried. I'm inspired. And that's a huge part of what it takes to be successful in this business.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

In today's highlight episode, we are highlighting two of the life insurance industry's legends, Jim Ruta and Van Miller. If you are wanting to take your life insurance production to the next level, this is an absolute must listen to episode. With that being said, let's start the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

I need for you to all understand that. Being an insurance agent's a very lonely business. And you're on your own, and you are responsible to somebody above you, and you're responsible to somebody below you. It's a really interesting profession. And the ones that do it well, they're having the time of their lives. And the ones that are struggling, which by the way, sad, is 97% of the agents in our business struggle, and it's their fault because they're not availing themselves of somebody like Michael and Courtney Weaver, and you should do it as soon as you can. And they're not availing themselves of instead of trying to show people how smart they are, they're not learning how to get in front of people and show them how smart they are. And can I ask you, you say to the customer, you say, Can I ask you something? I was so excited to meet you, and I can't believe you're not already doing this. And I took the word smarter out of my vocabulary. Never ask a customer if it's smarter to do something ever again because you're attacking their intelligence. Use a word like beneficial. Is it more beneficial to do it this way or more beneficial to do it this way? Tell you a cute story. I'm in a grocery store during COVID. And if you were to see me, my complete body, which I won't show you on this video, I'm overweight. I do all the grocery shopping in my family, by the way. And so I'm in a high-end grocery store in the Milwaukee area during COVID. And I'm shopping, and a woman in her 50s, well dressed, comes walking by and says, Excuse me, my name is Van Miller. I'm an insurance and financial professional, and I'm terrified with everything that's going on in our country right now. I'm just terrified that I'm not asking the right questions. And gosh, you could help me to help a lot of people. And I think you'd even be interested in your own answers. I have a couple of questions I want to ask you. It'll take less than a minute. And if in any way you think this is a uh where I'm interrupting you in any way, I'll be happy to buy you some melons or some grapes, whatever. She said, No, you don't have to do that, but I'd be kind of interested to hear the question. I say, okay, less than a minute. So I said, let me ask you something. Would it be more beneficial for you and your family to take a tax deduction on a small amount of money right now, when taxes are historically as low as they'll probably ever be, and transfer to the future a whole bunch of money that the government could tax at any level they want? Or would it be more beneficial to pay your taxes on a small amount of money right now and transfer it in a vehicle to the future where you could pile in as much money as you want, the government can never get their hands on it ever again. So here's the question: which do you think would be the most beneficial? Would it be the first one or the second one? I swear to God, this is what she did. This is a beautiful, in a woman in her 50s, beautiful, classy, well dressed. This is what she did. She made a face like that and she said, Well, gosh, that's easy. It's the second one. And I said, Boy, doesn't that raise another question? And she said, Well, what is that? I said, Why are you and your husband doing the first one then? And she went, Oh my god, this is the punchline. Oh my god, I didn't realize that's what we were doing. See, you think everybody understands tax deferral? They don't. And by asking them a little story, telling them a little story, they come across it by themselves. And I said to her, Oh ma'am, you've made my day. I was so worried I wasn't asking the right questions. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I turned to walk away and she said, Wait a minute, you can't you can't go away. And I said, Well, what do you what do you mean? She said, I want your card. And I said, ma'am, I was really just trying to find out your opinion. Your opinion was really important for helping me to help a lot of people. She said, I don't care, I want your card. Two days later, her and her husband called me and they gave me 800,000 bucks while I was grocery shopping. And I want you to understand, there's lots of times like that sitting next to somebody at a football, basketball, baseball game, sitting across from a family member on Thanksgiving or Christmas, instead of telling them, ask for their opinion. All of these things are so easy to learn when you make a decision to give up your ego and that everything is about serving, being a servant. And it's easy to learn. Stop and think. Everybody out there, raise your hand who has children. So let me ask you something. When you asked your children to do something, did they do it the first time? No. How do children learn? They learn by repetition. Well, there's no difference for an agent. Nothing different. We learn by repetition. I'm still learning. I'm a work in progress. And so if you make a decision right here and right now that you want to learn to be better, and you want to have coaches, a coach or coaches, that will help you to be better, then I'm telling you, you will become better because all it takes is practice.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Let's take a quick break and talk about something that actually matters in your agency. Your expectations are at an all-time high, yet your team is underperforming. And your team is underperforming because they've never been trained. That's not just costing you money in the future, that's costing you money right now. At Weaver Sales Academy, we are having a summer sizzle sell because it is our eighth birthday. I cannot believe it. We've worked with over 17,000 insurance professionals. We've helped sell over 200 million in insurance sales, and we would love to work with you and your team. Not only is your untrained team hurting your production and business right now, it's also hurting in the future. It's a compounding result. And that's exactly why I want you to click the link below today. Take advantage of the savings. It's over $1,200 savings. Usually to work with us, it's $4,200 right now. It's $29.97. Make sure you take advantage of this summer sizzle sell. Other than that, let's get back to the show.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Well, let me let me go to you mentioned the icon and icon protocol. And like I said to you before, icon is somebody recognized as a representative symbol of that business. Icon is also an acronym for what it takes to be one. And I think this plays right to your question, Michael, because the number one, the I stands for inspiration. Whatever you are selling has to inspire you. You see, if I want to inspire you, I have to be inspired. Van Miller says, my job is to inspire people to buy what they need to buy to help them do what they want to do. I have I inspire people to buy. So something has to inspire you. And by the way, it could be anything. It could be it could be final expense insurance, it could be just mortgage cancellation insurance, it could be big business cases, it could be charitable giving cases, it could be any something that inspires you. Because if you're inspired, you will be inspiring. Inspiring. Now, and here's the point that if you're inspired, you will persist. You see, if I know that what I'm doing really matters, and you say no, it doesn't bother me. No, not you, I'll talk to Courtney. Not Courtney, I'll talk to Jack. If not Jack, I'll talk to Susan. I'll whatever. I'm not worried. I'm inspired. And that's a huge part of what it takes to be successful in this business. That inspiration, number one. Number two is communication. And you really have to know how to communicate in this business. Communication is everything, but that's prospecting. Remember, you'll probably hear this, of course, um, that this is a words, stories, and questions business. Have to know the words, have to listen to the words, have to write them down. You see, there has to be the belief and the soul that has to come through that. Your body language, your tone of voice, the way you lay it out. You know, I used to ask this question all the time when I spoke. I said there's two kinds of advisors. There's substance advisors, facts, figures, knowledge, tax, information, all that stuff, the smart ones that know everything. And then there's style advisors, the style advisors that have a that have the style to get the job done, to deliver that information. Now, between substance advisors and style advisors, and by the way, both of them have to know what they're doing. So let's get that straight. But between those who are noted for their substance and those for their style, which ones do you think get paid the most? Substance or style? Michael?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Style.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Style every time. Let's go. Inspiration, communication. The third part of that is organization. You have to be organized to sell. Now there's a couple of ways of thinking about this, at least two. One is you've got to have an you have to have an organized presentation that you can take your clients, your prospects through. This is critical. You just can't go in there and make crap up as you're going along and just see how this works. You know, you may not have a specific word track, but as I'll tell people, what are the 10 talking points you want to cover in a meeting? Write them down, put them on a piece of paper. I know 10 things I want to talk about. I'm going to take them from where they're at to where I want them to be and where they could be. So you've got an organized sales presentation. But you also have to be organized enough in your own business to be able to deliver all of that stuff, deliver service, get keep track of your business. So CRM programs, all that sort of thing. Finally, the key part to this is numeration, which is the counting. And it counts on two sets at the beginning and as we operate. And like so, so you have goal setting numbers, and you have activity tracking, results, tracking, and then you have results recording at the end. So you need that kind of numeration if you want to be great. He knew how many appointments, how many cases, how many clients, how many prospects, how many appointments. He knew everything. I could talk to the average advisor. How many appointments did you have last week? Uh um uh two? I said, Well, is it one or is it two? It could have been one. One. So you can't remember one, but he can remember 51. See, it's it's like some the top advisors will keep track of their numbers. How much money did you make last year? Van could tell you like this. Knows exactly. Top advisors know that icon protocol, inspiration, communication, organization, and numeration. And numeration is how you improve, right? Organization, by the way, is how you remain consistent in the business. And and and let's there is nothing more important in this business for long term success than consistency of activity, and that's the big problem we see today.