The high road is paved with double stuff oreos

            Years ago I was working for New York Life Insurance out of Omaha.  I had just finished training and was well on my way to becoming a full blown agent with the company.  The only thing I needed was my first client.  As is the case you start with your family and friends to ease into things, but I wanted a challenge.

            I came home from work one day to see a note stuck to my door.  Apparently I was being served and the county sheriffs office had stopped by.  I was shocked and confused on what was going on so I panicked and called the number.

            A woman answered the phone and told me in a fairly dull tone that she had court papers for me.  Eager to know what the hell was going on I opted to meet her and get the papers sooner than later.  I definitely didn’t want them served to me at my new job, where image was important, so I asked where I could meet her.  “You can meet me at the county lock up downtown…” 

            After a hard swallow and a few heart palpitations later I agreed to meet her down there.  Honestly, all I knew was it was in a bad part of town and I never wanted to be anywhere near that place, so I Googled it.

            I opted to leave work a little early and meet her in the afternoon.  For some reason I felt like that was safer for me and I could just head home afterward to regroup.  I walked into the secure waiting room in a suit and tie with a cashmere overcoat.  Several of the people waiting in the room looked at me like I was either a lawyer or a possibly a detective.

            Pam (name changed to protect identity) was called and I waited a few awkward minutes until she came up.  When she opened the door she was a heavy set African American woman in her 50’s.  She, rather un ceremoniously, handed me the papers in one quick motion. (I was being sued for a car accident from two years ago, it ultimately was just an ambulance chaser trying to get paid.)  “That’s a nice suit…what do you do?”  I told her I sold life insurance for New York Life.  “That’s the building in New York with the gold top right?”  Still in shock I nodded yes  “I need to get life insurance for me and my family…can you help me?”  And with that I had my first potential client.

            We met at a village in down in Bellevue.  I had to take my mentor at the time Steve (name also changed).  Unknown to me Pam was a lesbian and her life partner joined us.  Between the two of them they had 8 kids and 13 grandkids.  Steve did a very “quick and dirty” version of the script I had been given to help me sell.  You could tell he thought this wasn’t going anywhere and wanted to get it over with fast.

            After he breezed through it Pam looked at me and said “what do you think I should do?”  They had a huge need for coverage but didn’t make a ton of money.  Plus her weight and the fact she smoked meant her premium would be sky high.  I suggested the cheaper option of term insurance and she agreed.

            Steve was in the habit of quoting the top rating for clients.  “We’ll just send it in and see what we get”  and with that we wrote up a 500k policy.  I sat between the two women and literally walked line by line through the entire application answering questions as we went.  I could almost feel the relief as we wrapped it up.

            On the way back to the office Steve said “There’s no way in hell she’s getting that policy at what I quoted her!”  He knew her rating would be 4 to 5 times more than what we told her and still wrote it.  “I’ve also go a new nickname for you…double stuff!”  Apparently the sight of me, a heavy set white guy, sitting between two heavy set women reminded him of Oreo cookies.  It took everything I had to not punch him in the face at that moment.

            For the next month the case was in underwriting.  Pam got issued where I expected her to, 5 times what we quoted her.  We went back and gave her the policy and explained how it worked.  I did everything I could to give her an “out” and provided just enough information that she could figure out she wasn’t completely hosed with this deal, but Steve was persistent.

            Pam was excited that she had been able to get a policy and it meant the world to her knowing her kids would be taken care of.  She cried a little and held the hand of her partner.  When we left both of the women gave me, and only me, a hug thanking me for helping their family.  She told me to expect calls from all of their kids for policies in the near future.

            A week or two later I get a call from Pam.  She had looked at the illustration I told her about in the paperwork.  Steve had hoped she wouldn’t notice it so the policy would stick.  “Justin, in 5 years this is more than my mortgage…I can’t pay that.”  We discussed options and ultimately we had to cancel the policy.  Steve was pissed he lost his commissions on the deal and continued to call me “double stuff” for the rest of my time there.

            Pam left the department and gave me a call to roll over her pension several months later.  Steve went with me and tried to write it as a variable annuity so only he could get the case count as I was not licensed for variable annuities.  Her pension was a hair over $2000 and paid out $20 in commission.  Steve was calculating how much he made per mile, per minute, and so on.  Pam ended up cashing out her pension to pay her bills and Steve never got the $20.

            My first client in the life insurance industry was an overweight smoker who served me process papers in a jail.  Pam unintentionally taught me a huge lesson about myself and the power of doing the right thing.  Throughout the entire time we worked together she knew in her heart I had her best interests in mind.  She could see right through Steve and his ways, but knew I was the rookie who had to have him there. 

            Pam was going through a tough transition in life and needed someone to not only listen to her but to be kind to her.  I can only imagine the number of times this kind grandmother of 13 grandkids had been treated poorly serving process papers.  The number of times someone treated her like crap or with hostility.

            At the end of the day Pam needed someone to be kind to her and to have her interests in mind.  Steve faked his sincerity with her.  I remained genuine and from the moment I opened my mouth she trusted me implicitly.  Had I been a man of lower moral fiber I could have sold her a $20 million dollar policy…but she knew better.

            From that policy on I began to put quotes into my policy holders.  I printed out dozens of quotes that were inspirational or compassionate.  Every time I worked with a client I remembered that feeling of relief I felt in a Village Inn between those two women.   Every client I “signed up” from then on got a quote that I felt fit their life…a way to put into writing the relief I wanted them to have.

            I would never have gotten rich off of Pam and her family.  But that wasn’t the point of working with them.  Sometimes you’re in a position that you need to put the salesmanship aside and do the right thing for your customer.  Strangely enough that might be not selling them a damn thing and just teaching them about your business.