The greatest insurance salesman in history

Published: Wed, 05/29/24

Updated: Thu, 05/30/24

May 29, 2024

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back to The Quota, the newsletter that’s the antihistamine to your sales stress allergies. In this week’s issue, we’ll take a look at the life of Ben Feldman, arguably one of the greatest salesmen of all time, share a Sales Fail about a fight on the sales floor, and give some tips to a rep whose parents won’t give them privacy to sell. Let’s go.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

75% of sales professionals do not consistently follow their sales methodology.

Source: Salesroom

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A reputed mobster with ties to the Gambino family has reinvented himself as a successful car salesman, according to a recent article in The New York Daily News. Michael Scarpaci is about to begin a 25-month sentence after being convicted of a $20 million securities scam. But he has been working at a Long Island Infiniti dealership and his boss, David Fine, does not want to see him go, as the business has been seeing record sales. You can read more about Scarpaci here.
Why did a 91-year-old woman finance $35,000 worth of solar panels from a Sacramento solar salesperson just months before her death? CBS News looked into the allegations of elder abuse and tracked down the former solar salesman, who claims that his name was forged by the owner of the company, Apricot Solar. The salesman also claims other Apricot Solar workers who were not licensed to sell solar panels were using his login credentials to DocuSign his name to contracts. You can read more about the allegations here.

FEATURE

The story of Ben Feldman, the greatest life insurance salesman of all time

For sales professionals, few names resonate with as much reverence as Ben Feldman, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest salesman of all time, particularly in life insurance. Born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, Ben was one of nine children. Early in his life, the family moved to Salineville, Ohio, where they opened a wholesale poultry business. This early exposure to business and sales set the foundation for Feldman's future career. Eventually, he settled in East Liverpool, Ohio, where he began his illustrious career in life insurance sales with New York Life in 1942.

Work Ethic & Process

Feldman was the definition of a self-starter. He was known for his unrelenting work ethic and setting “unattainable” sales targets for himself. He worked constantly, clocking in 12 hour days seven days a week. His process, which became known as the Feldman Method, was the subject of a 1969 book by Andrew H. Thomson. In what is today practiced by most salespeople, usually unknowingly, Feldman’s process focused on deep research of each of his customers. He would spend hours preparing for sales calls, individualizing the approach and packages for each person he spoke to.

One of Feldman's most famous quotes encapsulates his approach to selling life insurance: "I do not sell life insurance. I sell money. I sell dollars for pennies apiece. My dollars cost 3 cents per dollar per year." This perspective transformed the way he pitched life insurance, making it more tangible and understandable to potential clients. By framing insurance as a cost-effective way to secure future financial stability, Feldman made an intangible product both relatable and desirable.

Remarkable Achievements

By 1979, Feldman had sold more life insurance than anyone in history, a record that remained unchallenged during his lifetime. He achieved a total face value of $1.5 billion in life insurance policies sold, an extraordinary feat that underscored his dominance in the industry. Feldman set multiple records, including the highest value of products sold in a single day ($20 million) and in a single year ($100 million), earning him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most outstanding salesman in history. Nearly a third of his lifetime sales occurred after the age of 65. Near the end of his career, his annual commission exceeded $1 million. When asked what the largest policy he ever sold was, he would reply, “I haven’t sold it yet!”

Legacy

Feldman’s legacy lives on today. New York Life honored him with the naming of the Ben Feldman Auditorium in their New York office. His life insurance company, The Feldman Agency, still exists today and is now run by his granddaughter, Wendy Feldman. Ben Feldman's legacy in the life insurance industry is a masterclass in sales excellence. His principles of deep preparation, simplification of complex concepts, unwavering confidence, innovative thinking, relationship building, and continuous learning offer timeless lessons for sales professionals. And if Feldman were still alive today, you can bet we’d be trying to land an interview!

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

The movie Boiler Room was loosely based on the story of which famous salesperson?

A. Frank Abagnale
B. Gary Veynerchuck
C. Barry Minkow
D. Jordan Belfort

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

My best sales story will never be topped, not for as long as I live. I sell cars in Texas. I’ve been at it for years and have seen everything there is to see. About ten years ago, I was working for a big dealer group as a Sales Manager. It was the middle of the summer and during a weekday, so we were pretty slow.

One of my sales guys got an up (new customer) who was wandering the lot. He looked like a normal working-class dude. Nothing unusual. He was checking out one of our used trucks and my sales guy brought him into the showroom to run credit and talk numbers. His credit ended up being pretty spotty, but my rep told him if he could find a cosigner, we could get her done.

The guy leaves and comes back a few hours later with a guy he says is his cousin. This guy is a bit older than the prospect, but kind of has the same hardboiled been-working-outside-all-summer look. They go to the desk and start running the numbers, everything is copacetic.

All of a sudden, I hear shouting. When I look over, the two customers are literally in a fistfight, swinging at each other and trying to take each other’s heads off. They’re tussling around, banging into desks and trying to take the other one down. We had a lot of big guys at the dealership and a few of them broke up the fight and we made the customers leave (separately so they wouldn’t kill each other out on the lot).

I asked my sales guy what happened, and he said he had no clue why they actually started fighting, but that the first guy that came in had referred to his own wife with a curse word in front of the other guy. Maybe the other guy was an in-law, but we never got to find out. I’m at a different dealership now but every time I see somebody I used to work with, we almost always talk about the Dealership Battle Royale.

Anonymous Location withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- May 2024

WORTH A PEEK

Is sales still the fastest career path to $100k or more per year? This was the topic of discussion on a recent Reddit thread, with some fun and interesting responses. Check out the conversation here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team

I'm a fresh college grad, I just got my first full-time job working as an SDR and I'm fully remote. The company is great so far and I'm excited to have this opportunity. However, I'm really struggling with managing distractions. The problem is I still live with my parents so I'm working from a desk in my childhood bedroom and my parents are acting like since I'm home they can just give me chores and errands to run during the day.

Like last Monday for example, my mother asked me to bring her car to get the oil changed during my lunch break. I ended up wasting 2 hours in the middle of the day driving back and forth and waiting for the mechanic to do the oil change. There's smaller stuff too, like when I'm working with my door closed, my mom will knock on the door once and just walk in to tell me something. She does this all the time and sometimes it happens while I'm on a call with prospects, she just walks in, fully on camera, and starts trying to talk to me. It's extremely embarrassing and unprofessional.

I am living under their roof rent free, and my parents pretty much cover my main living expenses (housing, food, etc.) so I don't really want to push back and tell them "no." But I do need to set some boundaries. How can I put my foot down without being ungrateful or upsetting my parents?

Distracted in Location Withheld

Dear Distracted

Ok, this is one we’ve never heard before. The thing is, it’s their house, and since you’re living there rent-free, you need to accept some level of discomfort, and understand that they have certain expectations for how you and they should interact.

That being said, try having a conversation and explain (kindly) why you need privacy during the work day. Maybe you can put a sign on the door when you’re on a video call that indicates you’re not to be disturbed. Unless your parents are completely unreasonable, there’s no reason they shouldn’t give you the space you need to complete your job in a professional manner.

And if that doesn’t work, then it might be time to move. You’re in the sales world now and your earning potential is pretty much unlimited. Get your own space (maybe you can find something close to your family if they need your help), that way you can focus on getting the job done without any distractions. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D. The movie Boiler Room was loosely based on the story of Jordan Belfort (you can read the source article here)

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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