Napoleon Hill
The third day I was called back again, and this time two
consulting physicians were there to look me over. They gave me the most
searching examination I had ever received or even heard of.
The next day the agent called on me and addressed me as follows:
"I do not wish to alarm you! but the doctors who examined you do not agree on your analysis. You have not yet decided whether you will take ten or twenty thousand dollars' worth of insurance, and I do not think it fair for me to give you a report on your medical examination until you make this decision, because if I did you might feel that I was urging you to take the larger amount"
Then I spoke up and said:
"Well, I have already decided to take the full amount."
True enough; I had decided to take the full twenty thousand-dollar policy. I decided the moment the agent planted the suggestion in my mind that perhaps I had some constitutional weakness that would make it hard for me to get as much insurance as I wanted.
"Very well," said the agent, "now that you have decided I feel it my duty to tell you that two of the doctors believe you have the tubercular germ in your system, while the other two disagree with them."
The trick had been turned. Clever suggestion had pushed me over the fence of indecision and we were all satisfied. Where does enthusiasm come in, do you ask?
Never mind, it "came in" all right, but if you wish to know who brought it you will have to ask the life insurance agent and his four medical accomplices, for I am sure they must have had a hearty laugh at my expense. But the trick was all right. I needed the insurance anyway.
Of course, if you happen to be a life insurance agent you
will not grab this idea and work it out on the next prospective client who
is slow in making up his mind about taking a policy. Of course you will not!
A few months ago I received one of the most effective pieces of advertising
I ever saw.
It was a neat little book in which a clever automobile insurance salesman had reprinted press dispatches that he had gathered from all over the country, in which it was shown that sixty-five automobiles had been stolen in a single day. On the back page of the book was this highly suggestive statement: "Your car may be the next one to go. Is it insured?"