Two sales to make one: agents need to put as much time and effort into preparing a case for the carrier as they do for the client. (Life/Health: Selling Insight).

It's not surprising that the flow of new agents into the life insurance field has slowed to a trickle, compared to what it was several decades ago. Selling life insurance products isn't easy today. With so many investment opportunities available to consumers, making the case for buying life insurance takes extraordinary talent, experience, patience and knowledge.

There's more to the story, of course. Unlike other investments, the life insurance sale's cycle often extends over many months, exposing a case to a variety of threats. This is very much the situation when there are large face amounts, advanced age and medical issues. Just as threatening is the advice from other advisers (including the proverbial hairdresser and omnipresent brother-in-law), as well as doubt-casting associates.

Agents who are capable of keeping a case together in such demanding circumstances are skilled professionals. Although they're adroit at selling creative and even complicated life insurance programs, many agents are far less adept at selling their cases to the other customer, the underwriter.

Their carefully crafted sales proposals win them the order, but their often sketchy presentations to the insurance company negate their efforts.

In effect, agents fail to recognize that it takes two sales to satisfy the customer's needs. They must be as thorough and meticulous with the carrier as they are with the client.

Based on cases I've reviewed for nearly 30 years, it's not a stretch to say that agents do not know how to prepare a case properly for underwriters. This is particularly apparent with impaired risk cases.

Quite often, the cover letter is not simply sketchy or inadequate, it's riot there! Is that so important? The answer is a resounding "Yes." The agent spends hours, days and often weeks getting a case to the point when it can be submitted. Yet, the basic document--the cover letter--is missing.

The cover letter is the single most important document, because everything else submitted with it supports the story told in it. This is the agent's opportunity to transform a client from a stack of forms into a real human being. (if you have trouble doing this yourself, find someone who can help you with it.) Why does the client need this coverage? What is the product? Believe it or not, this is often not indicated. What is the face amount the client needs? What are the medical problems, if any? If there are medical problems, develop a chronology that shows what has transpired, so that the underwriter can see the medical picture simply and clearly.

Trying to cover up or avoid stating the negatives only serves to make an underwriter suspicious. Take time to explain the situation, indicating the positive factors that offset the negatives. To ensure that the final documentation the underwriter receives is thorough, complete, and clear, the case needs to be reviewed--by medical experts, if necessary--so that the issues can be clarified and stated as accurately as possible.

When a case is packaged properly; it demonstrates to an underwriter that agent and client are serious and enthusiastic about having the policy issued. Questions are answered before they are asked.

There are notable benefits to taking this approach. First, cases can move faster because the information is complete and accurate. There are fewer questions, and delays in obtaining additional data are avoided. Equally important, the case is laid out in a logical, easy-to-follow sequence that makes it easy for the underwriter to work on it. Ask yourself, "Why would an underwriter spend valuable time trying to figure out the intricacies of my difficult-to-understand case when his or her desk is piled high with work?"

Second, there are potential pricing advantages. How do you react when you are faced with unanswered questions, confusing and contradictory information, and missing data? Would you want the case to come back and bite you? How would you rate a case where there are medical issues or unusual circumstances that have not been adequately explained? Simply put, the time to go over a case with a fine-tooth comb is before it goes to the insurance company.

All this may seem painfully obvious and unnecessarily elementary. It may be a page out of Life Insurance Selling 101 all over again. If it isn't, it should be, because great life-policy sales are made with both the client and the insurance carrier. Giving the same amount of time and attention to the latter as we do to the former makes for great sales.

Ronald D. Verzone, a best's Review columnist, is president of United Underwriters Inc. of Exeter, N.H. He can be reached at [e-mail].