The Selling Legacy of Ben Feldman

Ben Feldman was sustained sales greatness. Over his 50 year career selling insurance for New York Life, he sales volume exceeded $1.5 billion...a third of it coming after he reached the ripe, old, age of 65. During his peak year, he topped $100 million. His daily record was $20 million.
He didn't live in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles. He lived in East Liverpool, Ohio...a river town of 20,000. His looks were hardly out of central casting...he was short, stout, balding, and spoke slowly and deliberately with a distinct lisp. He was one of nine children of Russian immigrants. He never finished high school...at 16 his father put him to work at $5 per week.

Ben's first sales job was collecting small premium payments from the workmen in the many steel mills in the Youngstown area. Soon he began concentrating on the owners of privately-held companies within an hour's drive of East Liverpool. He didn't stress traditional protection, but emphasized the cash that owners would accumulate. He would say, "Wouldn't you like to save some money? How much have you saved in the last 5 years? Is there any reason to think that in the next 5 years, you'll do any better?

When Ben began his career with New York Life in 1942, the insurer would not insure a single life for more than $500,000. Ben helped push the limit to $20 million. Ben developed a niche target...the owners of small industrial corporations that were flourishing in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, after World War II. He worked 12-hour days, 6-7 days a week. He would set "unattainable" sales targets...and then broke them down into achievable steps.

Ben was a prospecting legend. He dominated his area, no business owner in the region escaped his notice. he would drop in on business owners without an appointment...he was a master of the "cold call." However, he never dropped in unprepared. Before his "cold calls" to business owners, he would gather information about their business from the standard Dun & Bradstreet reports. He would know the key players in the business, the values of the company, what each person was doing, and whether the company was profitable, or not. Ben often cold-called with an illustration already prepared for $1-2 million in coverage. He didn't always close on the first interview, yet he was incredibly dogged and persistent. He never discarded prospects, even after many refusals.

He was brash, even though he was innately shy. His presentation booklet was a big leather binder with a real $1000 bill displayed on the first page. He would say, "These come in packages of 100. How many packages do you want?"

Once, a man with a very large estate wouldn't see him. Feldman had estimated that the man's estate tax would be $30 million. Feldman wrote a check for $30 million...and indicated on the check where the business titan's family would need to sign...put the check in an envelope, sealed it, and gave it to the man's secretary. Soon thereafter, Ben wrote a case so large that one insurance company couldn't underwrite the entire amount.

Ben knew of a prominent Youngstown real estate developer. After weeks of trying, and failing, to get in to see the busy man, Ben asked the secretary to take five $100 bills into her boss, and said "If I don't have a good idea, he can keep the money." Ben got in...and sold a $14 million dollar policy on the first visit. A few years later, Ben figured that the same businessman needed an additional $20 million in coverage. However, the developer was busier than every...and wouldn't take the medical exam. Ben rented a fully-equipped medical van, hired a doctor, and sent both to wait for the tycoon. The man ended up with $52 million in coverage.

In 1992, New York Life marked Ben's 50th year with the company by proclaiming "Feldman's February," a national sales competition. Ben took this as a personal challenge. The winner of the contest was...you guessed it...Ben Feldman. At 80 years-old, while recovering from a brain hemorrhage in Boca Raton, Ben worked the phones and recorded sales of $15,150,000.

Ben Feldman was famously known for his "power phrases," slogans and sayings designed to woo clients and inspire himself. Here are some examples:

"Doing something costs something. Doing nothing costs something. And quite often, doing nothing costs a lot more."
"The key to a sale in an interview, and the key to an interview is a disturbing question."
"You'll have the same problems when I walked out as you had when I walked in...unless you let me take your problems with you."
Ben Feldman died in 1993 at 81. At few years before his death he was asked about the largest policy he had ever written. He responded, "I can't say. I haven't written it yet."