I’ve been in practice now for 35 years. I don’t know if I have 35 years of experience, but my objective from the beginning was to make sure I did not accumulate one year’s experience 35 times.

My business has completely changed over time, from what I sell to how I sell and from what I say to how I say it. Our own life experiences will influence us, our families and our clients. When I started in this business, I was a 24-year-old, skinny, brown-haired kid. Today, our youngest grandchild is 4 months old, and our oldest parent is living with Alzheimer’s. Things change.

When I started in the business, we were given an office, and we were provided with someone to type our letters. No one had computers in their office, on their desk or let alone in their pocket. There were six telephone lines that everyone had to share. If all six lights were lit on the phone, you waited and grabbed a line when one of the lights went out. There was no email, Facebook or Instagram. We didn’t have video chat, Zoom or FaceTime. We met clients in person and carried a rate book so that we could calculate their premium. Today, I have a 65-inch smart monitor hanging on the wall for presentations, our files are 100 percent electronic and my CRM is accessible worldwide if need be.

It’s been said that if life is a movie, you are the leading actor and also the projector. Clients see everything. A $500,000/year psychiatrist, who has been a client for 10 years, recently told me, “I remember when I graduated and came to your office. I remember sitting there thinking, Someday I will have a desk like the mahogany one in your office.” I’m selling a policy, and he’s thinking about my furniture.

This brings us to our first lesson: If the rate of change outside your business is greater than inside your business, you are out of business.

Technology is no longer a choice. They say 80 percent of the internet is now video. We see robot advisors; we find advice-free online sales of mutual funds; and what used to be known as identity theft is now known as synthetic cyber identity creation. Technology will not replace advisors; however, advisors who use technology will win over those who don’t.

What does this have to do with retirement? Everything. It’s easy to give clients what they want. In fact, most millennials do their own research online — they shop online, they are the biggest group who buys cars online, they eat organic, and they buy gourmet pizzas. Domino’s Pizza sales are now 65 percent from digital channels, and it employs 15,000 corporate workers, not including the 135,000 who work in the franchises.

Successful companies are not the ones that focus on what clients need. They are the ones that focus on what clients need next.

For example, I was in an advisory meeting with one of our mutual fund companies, and they were asking how to sell to millennials. “Why don’t you build a mutual fund designed especially for millennials and populate it with companies they already know and currently buy from?” A week later it was announced that they were creating such a fund. If a fund company can create a product almost instantly, advisors need to be adaptable too. Bottom line ― it doesn’t matter what you are selling, but to be a leader, stay ahead of the curve. If Richard Branson owned your company, what would he change first?

Before we go any further, I would like to test your awareness. I’m going to show you a sentence. I want you to read the sentence to yourself:

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of many years.

This time I want you to read the sentence and count the number of times you see the letter “F.”

How many saw three? How many saw four? How many saw five? How many saw six? How many saw seven?

There are six.

So here is another lesson: Don’t listen so that you can reply. Listen so that you can understand. My question was: How many “F’s” do you see? Yet most people were listening for the sound of the “F.” In the word “of” the “F” sounds like a “V,” so you missed it.

You can tell what a person is thinking by listening to the questions they are asking.

Reconnecting email. We all have clients we have not touch based with for a long time. In some cases, some clients are just policy owners and don’t even want to meet us at term renewals. Here is an exciting email that you can send. It’s asking to reconnect. It sets the stage to show that you understand that they have been busy, and it offers to reconnect by asking them to accept something for free, which costs you nothing. The results can be dramatic. Here is the email:

Subject: Reconnecting
Michael, it’s been quite a while since we talked about your insurance coverage. I’m sure you are very busy, and I know the coverage is important to you. If it might help, I can send you a summary of your coverage to refresh you with the amounts. If anything else is on your mind, just let me know.
Regardless, it would be great to confirm things are well.
Corry

Nine-word text. Here is a short, nine-word text that is guaranteed to get a response from all clients and current prospects. It is short, personal, inquisitive and easy to answer:

Subject: Quick question
Michael, do you still need help with your (retirement, insurance, savings, other)?