Eighty-five percent of millennials are not familiar with the insurance industry, according to a global research study, and 65 percent of them think ours is an old-fashioned profession with no innovation and no technology.

Technology gives us amazing tools to find solutions in every aspect of our profession. We can leverage the immense power of the internet to be more powerful, more effective, more productive in order to attract millennials, new generations and all tech-savvy consumers as clients.

There is a whole new world of opportunities in prospecting and approaching new clients through technology. However, to achieve that we must speak in their language because they are digital natives. They were born into technology.

We need to impress them, creating an omnichannel environment and tools and utilizing them to excel in approaching new clients and servicing existing ones.

We can use simple video teleconference systems like Skype and Zoom or WhatsApp and Viber.

I have 70 percent of my meetings via digital tools, and as a result, I can make 10 times more appointments than in the past and continue working as I travel around the world.

As an example, if you send a message to a millennial to come to your office or suggest going to the millennial’s home to give a presentation, chances are low you will get an acceptance. But if you ask the millennial to just press on a link and connect with you so that you can explain in 10 minutes how you can help the millennial, from the ease and safety of the millennial’s home or office, your chances rise dramatically.

You can also use this for servicing existing clients, handling claims or explaining new products, at least to the ones who are fond of using technology.

During these teleconferences, I use a very simple and user-friendly green screen system that creates a virtual camera, and I can have an impressive digital background. Sometimes, I put the picture of the person to whom I am speaking, or the family, in the background, and clients are very impressed.

This way you will look tech savvy, create more trust and save tons of time.

Also, I use webinar systems for prospecting with amazing results. We are organizing free webinars on interesting topics for a group of people, such as parents or entrepreneurs.

We create a digital invitation, such as a one-minute video, and we post it to 300 to 500 digital places (forum blogs for parents, etc.). In our last webinar, we invited a psychologist specializing in kids; the topic was “How you can raise children with self-confidence and skills to win at life.” Most of the time, we have more than 600 people attending.

After the 45-minute expert presentation, I pitch them for 10 minutes on how we can help them. We offer a free consultation session through teleconference or live using an innovative software that we have for a needs analysis.

If they are interested, they only have to fill out a simple digital form with their name, email and phone number, and we promise that we will communicate with them.

On average, we have 200 people who are interested, and we close 140 appointments and 70 new contacts in a two-month period.

But the most impressive technology I use is virtual reality (VR) meetings. Younger generations use these headsets to play games. But you can have a meeting using them in a virtual world that you can shape as you want!

You can be, let’s say, in an “office” in outer space and have a huge projection wall in the universe, make a needs analysis, and show them how an insurance program works.

Do you think that this will impress the millennials big time, make it easier to attract them as clients and brand yourself as an advisor ahead of your time?

It’s an amazing feeling; you have to experience it firsthand to understand how impressive it is.

There are also VR communities and networking opportunities where you can participate as an avatar. I meet new people there, and I approach them as clients. In the next few years, VR meetings will be the new norm.

Also, coming very quickly is augmented reality as well as hologram technology. In the near future, you can be at home or in the office of your client as a hologram. And this technology is already here. I was the first hologram speaker in my country, as you can see in this video. [video]

Last, you can use chatbots on your site and, with a digital marketing strategy, start finding prospects while you sleep!

We must begin playing with these technologies to accelerate our learning curve on their uses to address many well-known challenges, such as prospecting, innovative approach and efficient time management.

We have to be where our customers are, and we have to be where our future customers will be. So, we have to reshape the industry in the next 100 years the way we led the industry in the first 100.

They say, “Adapt or die.” We say, “Adapt and fly!”

By utilizing innovation, technology and science, we can make insurance great again for our professionals and for society.

There is a whole new world of opportunities in the new technology era. We have to convince millennials and new generations that ours is not an old-fashioned profession with no use for technology, as they might think, and change the image of our profession in their minds.

And we can make insurance cool again for generations to come.

We of MDRT must be the pioneers and the innovators. We just have to dare to start, and we can be game changers for our industry!

Panagiotis Leledakis, LUTCF, is a one-year MDRT member from Marousi, Greece. A pioneer with two decades of experience in the industry, he is an expert on millennials, internet marketing strategies and new technologies in the insurance industry. He has invented innovative insurance software by combining the science of risk management, artificial intelligence and extensive neuroscience research. The software received innovation awards from significant organizations like MIT. Leledakis is pursuing ongoing studies at the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA).