I have quite a few professional clients, and some of them aren’t always that pleasant to deal with when the subject involves insurance. They can be quite bullish and don’t always show us the respect that we show them.

I used to have a client about an hour’s drive north of Brisbane, and I’d go see him occasionally, knowing that he probably was not going to be friendly or forthcoming. Every time I tried to encourage him to take out the appropriate insurance, he would be sort of almost attacking me over the cost of the coverage. It was a good drive up there, but it was the important thing to do. That’s what we do. Go and help people even when we know at times we’re not going to be welcomed. 

Well, between reviews, he’d unfortunately fallen ill and suffered a mild stroke. The next time I drove up, I had a check for about $150,000 that I was dropping off to him because he met the definition for a disability/critical illness. As I stepped into his house, I said to him, “Do you know I’ve been up here about five times, and I’ve never enjoyed the drive up because I always knew how you were going to treat me when I come up here.”

“Well, it’s funny you should say that,” he said. “This is the first time out of the five times you’ve come up as well that I’ve been looking forward to seeing you.” 

So, he was grateful that I persisted with advice about insurance coverage that helped him at the time. His health has recovered, and now he’s a very good advocate for our business and what we do. That’s the difference between clients who have experienced a claim and can see us deliver on our promise and the ones who haven’t seen what we truly can do and how we can help them. 

Peter Byrne is a 15-year MDRT member from Coorparoo, Queensland, Australia. Contact him at pj@weinsure.com.au.