Draw back your bow
Sometimes a client may not be motivated to make the decision to pay a premium right now. Here’s the metaphor that I use to motivate them. “Imagine you are an archer. You have a clear goal, which is the bull’s-eye. If you want to hit it, you have to use your strength to draw the bow. The bull’s-eye is your financial goal, and drawing the bow is the premium you paid.” It works magically.
—Chen Gifford, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, 8-year MDRT member
Phrase your question
Whenever talking to clients about life assurance, retirement planning or similar, asking the questions in this way: “If you had died yesterday …” or “If you had retired yesterday ...” ensures the client is in the right mindset to think about their needs. Otherwise, the event is always in the future, and decisions can therefore be put off.
—Simon John Gibson, Dip PFS, Newmarket, England, UK, 22-year MDRT member
Funny birthday video
I have my own YouTube channel, where I hide a video of me performing “Happy Birthday” on the trumpet. In the video, I wear big, fun glasses and a cone party hat. Also, I don’t play the trumpet very well! On a client’s birthday, I send them a congrats text message with a link to that funny YouTube video. Clients get a good laugh from the video and appreciate my effort.
—Hoyeol Jeong, Seoul, South Korea, 8-year MDRT member
Movie box
We make a list of clients with children who already have life insurance or major medical expense insurance, and every Friday we send a “movie box” to their house with a bag of caramel popcorn, canned soft drinks and sweets. The package comes with a note: “At GTCONSULTING, we want you to have a spectacular Friday in the company of your family. Enjoy it because together we are more.” Clients reach out to thank me, and that serves as the pretext to talk with them, see how they are doing during the pandemic and schedule an interview via Zoom to review their insurance policies and supplement what they need.
—Guadalupe Elvira Ayala Arredondo, Mexico City, Mexico, 18-year MDRT member
The top 20%
It takes courage to ask for referrals. Fortunately, there’s no need to ask all your clients for referrals. I only ask the top 20% of my clients. Then in five years, you’re in a different circle of clients. When you ask the right people for referrals, your income grows.
—Douglas John Bennett, Dip PFS, Crawley, England, UK, 14-year MDRT member
Segment your gifting
How do we decide what to gift our clients? We categorize each of them into either the “delight” or “appreciation” group. Members of the “delight” group receive gifts that make them happy. It could be a festive treat or a hard-to-get ticket to an event. This can be given to centers of influence or prospects. Those in the “appreciation” group get appreciative gifts for doing business with us. It can be a small gesture like a thank-you card or a small cake from the local bakery.
—Cheng Huann Yeoh, ChFC, CLU, Singapore, 9-year MDRT member
Aromatherapy
Most of us want our clients to know we care about them, their families, their experience with us and their general happiness. In my firm, that experience begins the moment they walk through our doors. Oils are diffused at our reception desk to immediately welcome the client’s senses. Lavender, peppermint, and sometimes cinnamon or eucalyptus are diffused. Each aroma is intended to help the client feel welcomed into the space.
—Terri E. Krueger, Syracuse, New York, USA, 7-year MDRT member
Three messages
Humans have the capacity to hold only three to four big ideas. Don’t bombard your clients with too much information. Keep it to three details they need to know. Give people three benefits of an insurance plan that you’ve put together or three reasons to take your financial advice. Complex information requires simple communication, and the rule of three is a good way to keep it simple. Ask yourself, What are my three supporting messages?
—Carmine Gallo, 2021 MDRT Annual Meeting Virtual Event speaker
A simple budget
Younger clients generally don’t think they have enough money available to save for retirement or spend on insurance, as money is generally tighter for a young family. We created a straightforward, traditional budget template that I share during my first meeting to get them to start thinking about what is coming in and going out on a monthly basis. It is surprising to see the number of clients who find out they really have more available cash flow than what their bank account is showing. By including the cost of an insurance premium and a monthly contribution to a retirement plan in the budget, the client will typically never realize they are spending any extra. Though the amount they are budgeting for may be small to start, the people who stick with you and listen to your budgeting advice could have the potential to be your best clients.
—Brandon Heckert, AAMS, San Jose, California, USA, 4-year MDRT member
Social solutions
Open an account on Instagram and TikTok and start clicking. Share example cases on 60-second videos, and younger clients will come to you.
—Jesus Guevara Flores, Monterrey, Mexico, 7-year MDRT member
Prioritizing payments
During the pandemic, a lot of clients were facing difficulties in making renewal premium payments due to income freezes and/or an inability to make payments online. Here is where I stepped in, helping them understand the economic situation, plan out their personal finances and prioritize their payments. I also helped them convert their annual premium payments to monthly or quarterly modes due to their money constraints. In extreme cases, I assisted them with stopping premium payments in investment insurance policies temporarily, but made sure they paid for their term plans, which are very important.
—Nikhil Shah, LUTCF, AFP, Kolkata, India, 16-year MDRT member
Embrace tough conversations
Most advisors don’t like the tough conversations with clients. Of course, we all want to report double-digit growth within an investment portfolio, to interact with clients when the economy is strong or to take advantage of a change in legislation which might prompt them to make a positive financial decision — but that’s not what happens in reality. Consumer sentiment is not linear; it ebbs and flows as a reaction to what’s happening in their lives at any given point. It is the challenging times that inevitably produce those moments of self-reflection, when we get a chance to really prove ourselves as financial professionals.
—Alessandro M. Forte, FCII, FPFS, London, England, UK, 23-year MDRT member
