When I contract a new agent to train in my agency and we are talking about appointments, the question will arise, “what is your most memorable appointment?” Without hesitation, it was selling health insurance to the owners of a Chinese buffet.
We were sitting in a booth next to the kitchen door as lunch was winding down in the early afternoon. I was struggling with the communication gap, because I am a native hillbilly from East Tennessee and speak English as a second language and unfortunately so did they. However, we did manage to get through the presentation and had filled out the app, when out of nowhere in the kitchen, there was a huge “crash”! My back is to the kitchen, I quickly turned around to witness two small Asian men fighting with kitchen knives and frying pans. I mean it was a scene from ‘Kung Fu Theatre” from the 1970’s! This dude jumped flat footed from the floor to the counter and kicked the other dude in the face. The other dude grabbed a meat cleaver to defend himself. Girls were running out screaming, guys were taking cover and the owners in my booth jumped up and ran in to break it up. I like any good insurance agent, weighed the risk and kept my front row seat for entertainment purposes only. I am being honest, the whole time all I could think was, “damn, I still need to get the check before I can leave”. Don’t judge me. If you are good at your sales job, you would do the same thing.
After sitting there for almost another hour, watching what seemed to be apologies over a girl. Not real sure, because there were no subtitles, I was just reading body language. Everything had calmed down, as the two men wrapped their wounds in gauze and strategically placed bags of ice. The owners, sat down and we finished the deal, which by the way, yielded six more Chinese Buffet Restaurants in sales for me. However, theirs had the best floor show by far.
Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.