Million Dollar Roundtable is a premier association for financial and insurance professionals and they recently chose Phoenix-based life insurer Brian Greenberg to join them. Only the top 1% of financial and insurance agents are eligible to join the roundtable and this is determined by their commissions and sales volume. The Million Dollar Roundtable also has their own strict ethics code members must abide by.
Greenberg runs True Blue Life Insurance, which got off to an unusual start. He began his career by working with MetLife as a traditional agent. He would spend his time arranging appointments and meeting with potential customers in their homes, but he says that he was never comfortable making a sales pitch to people.
He believes that life insurance is something that should be bought, rather than sold. While many would agree that personal contact is important to many businesses, Greenberg felt differently about life insurance.
There are many people who are uncomfortable about discussing their medical history or having blood pressure tests performed by insurance agents, which is usually needed to get insurance. There were other people who didn’t want to discuss their finances with a stranger, especially if they had lost money. It also takes a lot of time and paperwork to acquire insurance.
Greenberg was a tech-savvy guy in his 30s when he entered the market in 2007 so he did what came naturally to him. He created an online insurance business at www.truebluelifeinsurance.com and he stopped trying to convince people to buy life insurance. He lets anyone who wants to buy life insurance use his site but he doesn’t drag them there. There’s also no need for patients to discover embarrassing health and financial issues with a stranger personally, either on the phone or in person.
Many other companies have chosen to embrace the internet when selling insurance, but Greenberg can see they still follow their old practices. They take some basic information online but still require a phone call where they try to upsell customers. Greenberg doesn’t do this.
Greenberg collects all the information he needs online and sends clients an application form to fill out. They only ever call him personally if they have any questions or concerns. There are also insurance providers who need their customers to sign a disclosure that warns them that they could be contacted by other insurance companies. Greenberg promises to never sell the information his customers provide him to anyone else.
Greenberg is licensed in all 50 states and works as a wholesaler by his partnership with Efinancial. He allows his customers to choose the company and rate that works best for them, and he also shows them the underwriting guidelines tables that an insurer will use to determine premiums; something that is completely unheard of in the industry.
Greenberg also collects feedback from his customers like any other agent does, but he posts the reviews he receives to his website. Most of these reviews are fairly positive and Greenberg has earned an average rating of 4.8 out of 5.
Greenberg started his company to provide customers with an unobtrusive and efficient service that makes them happy. Keeping his customers happy and satisfied is something he needs to continue to survive in the heavily-regulated world of insurance.
He says that he has 50 licenses to maintain and that he would have trouble doing that if there were any complaints made against him. Greenberg has managed to do quite well for himself considering he is in an industry where only one-fifth of new insurers are still going after four years. He got this for by finding his niche and by creating a business model that works for both himself and his customers. He doesn’t sell insurance; instead he provides clients with information, respects their choices, and is efficient.