The Prospecting Professor: The Selling Legacy of Ben Feldman

Ben Feldman was sustained sales greatness. Over his 50 year career selling insurance for New York Life, his sales volume exceeded $1.5 billion, a third of it coming after he turned 65. During his peak year, he exceeded $100 million. His daily record was $20 million. He didn't live in New York City or Los Angeles, but in East Liverpool, Ohio...a river town of 20,000. His looks were not out of central casting...he was short, stout, and 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 five years you'll do any better?"

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 "cold" without an appointment. Beforehand he would gather standard Dun and Bradstreet reports. He researched his prospects and knew the key players in a business, the values in a company, what each person was doing, and the company's profitability. Ben often called cold with an illustration already prepared for $1-2 million in coverage. He didn't t always close on the first interview, yet he never gave up. 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 out a check for $30 million...and indicated on the check where the family would have to sign, put it in an envelope, sealed it, and gave it to the man's secretary. Soon thereafter he wrote a case so large that one insurance company couldn't write it all.

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. "If I don't have a good idea, he can keep the money." He got in and sold a $14 million policy. A few years later, Ben figured that the same businessman needed an additional $20 million in coverage. But the man, still busy, refused to take the medical exam. Ben rented a fully equipped medical van, and 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 (at 80 years old) was Ben Feldman. Even though he was in Boca Raton recovering from a brain hemorrhage, he worked the phones and recorded sales of $15,150,000.

Ben Feldman was famous for his "power phrases", slogans and sayings designed to woo clients,and inspire himself. Some examples:

"Doing something costs something. Doing nothing costs something. And quite often, doing nothing costs a lot more."
"The key to a sale is an interview, and the key to an interview is a disturbing question."
"You'll have the same problems when I walk out as you had when I walked in...unless you let me take your problems with you."

Ben Feldman died in 1993 at 81. A few years before his death he was asked about the largest policy that he had ever written. "I can't say. I haven't written it yet."