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I hate horror movies. I don’t understand why people like them. I hate watching them (and as a result have seen very few).

But, as it turns out, horror stories have a perplexing little speciality in making people buy insurance.

Consider, for a moment, my own experience buying life insurance. I reached out to an ad online and got a call from a salesperson. They weren’t pushy, weren’t salesy, and explained everything fairly well. So far, so good.

This salesperson explained how it worked, what I would have to do, and how much coverage I would receive. So I went ahead and began the process.

The salesperson set up a date for me to visit a clinic to do bloodwork and basic health exam. All normal for life insurance. Somewhat uncomfortable but worth getting coverage.

I fill out all the forms with my personal information and answer all the questions about my family’s health history. I go home and wait for a call.

This is when the sinister organ music begins to play and you hear raspy screeches from down the hall.

I get a call from my salesperson who tells me they have reviewed my exam results and all my forms. They will send me my policy in the mail and I need to sign it and send it back.

So I do that. I don’t hear from my salesperson for a week or so. Then he calls me and says something is wrong. There is a form that has been filled out wrong (I still haven’t figured out if it was my fault or theirs). He says I’ve got print this thing out from an email he is sending, fill it out again, and send it to them.

I am already dreading it. I hate my silly printer that is always on the fritz when I need it. I’ve got to go buy an envelope and stamps because I rarely send personal letters. And then I’ve got to fill out this form once again.

Weeks go by and I get an email saying my life insurance policy quote will expire if I don’t get the form turned in. I mentally commit to doing it, but the time never comes around to make the whole diddly thing happen. A week later I get an email saying my policy quote has expired and if I want to renew it I will have to go get poked by a needle and prodded who-knows-where at the health exam…a second time.

Now that is a horror story. No life insurance seeker wants to go through that. In fact, nobody wants to even think about their life insurance policy much less deal with all the hassle of getting it setup.

About a month later, my car insurance guy calls to check in with me. I ask him about life insurance and it turns out he does that too.

So I ask what the process is like…

Paperless, in-home health exam, he will take of everything, and I can sign for it online.

Now he had no idea about the mess I had just gone through and I didn’t even know the price, but I was ready to buy on the spot.

I was a hot lead. The kind of lead every insurance agent is looking for.

Now, you can’t control what circumstances your prospects go through, but there is something you can do to help coax them into this “hot lead” status.

However you promote yourself, you need to begin using what I call marketing horror stories.

My story above is a horror story and a potential threat to your prospects. They need to see themselves in it and feel the “shivers down your spine” kind of discomfort that I felt get poked and prodded a second time.

The point is not to scare them. Horror stories are meant to push back the branches and show you prospects what might be lurking for them in the forest…and how taking your path will help them avoid all the ghouls and goblins around the corner.

One quick, free tip on how to implement all this…

Build a three-letter snail mail campaign. Each letter with a different horror story. Each letter with a explanation how they can bypass all that scariness by choosing you.

Look out for another blog post talking about the three most important characteristics of a marketing horror story and how you can use them to gain more leads and get more commissions.

Looking for a writer to help you target prospects in the zip codes most important to your office? Need someone to build a message especially crafted for your kind of customers? Give me a shout today at konradholdenwriting@gmail.com to talk about what you need.