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Who says it's not personal?
By Job de Ojeda, President,
IIS, LLC
Email:
Job@MyMostTrusted.com
 Today I got my first call for a claim on the life of
one of my own clients. I guess, I’ve been lucky; I’m in my seventh year in the
business and this is the first one.
I’m not ashamed to admit I cried.
Now, I’m not one to be very
emotional. Hey, I often poke fun at my fiancée when she gets emotional over a
movie or book. After all, being in the life insurance business, death is an
everyday subject. Even so, I sat alone at my office desk and cried, just as if
I’d lost a personal friend or family member. Tears still well up in my eyes as I
write this later in the day. -And yet, this was someone I’d never met; not in
the traditional sense anyway.
I never met Keat
Keat was referred to me in June
2002 by someone who received one of my past fax-blast marketing ads. I’d just
recently changed my insurance business to working in direct response selling. He
was nearing retirement from a long career as an investigator with the State
Attorney’s office and wanted a life insurance contract that would allow him to
keep the higher payout on his pension plan, the one with no survivorship
benefit, and have the insurance protect his wife in case he died. He was
scheduled to retire July 1st 2005.
We spoke on the phone many
times. Even though Keat was someone who in his line of work probably worked
around some of the toughest people, he was still one of the nicest people to
talk to. A soft spoken man with a southern drawl, he always had some words of
appreciation and encouragement for me on the good work that I was doing for him
and how I helped him get a better rating on his policy by showing him how to
improve his cholesterol through good diet. “I’m very happy and impressed with
the way you do business, you’ll be very successful this way” he often told me
when we spoke. We never met face to face –I never even knew what he looked like-
and still we had a great relationship just as if we’d met many times.
Today I find out Keat has moved
on. He came so close to the retirement for which he planned so well; my
voicemail has his wife’s message giving me the news, and tears are welling in
my eyes. –I’ll miss you Keat.
Remember, you can make this
business as personal or impersonal as you like. I like to keep it personal.
- Job de Ojeda
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