In This Issue

Feature Article - "Over The Next 10 Years The Insurance Industry Is Going To Change And Put Most Of The Typical Insurance Agents Out Of Business."

Become Their Trusted Advisor - Start “Branding” You

Coaches Corner - In a sales slump? Find your enthusiasm!

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What Do The Top Life Producers Know That You Don't...

"Over The Next 10 Years The Insurance Industry Is Going To Change And Put Most Of The Typical Insurance Agents Out Of Business."

Dear ~Contact.FirstName~,

Is there any question that everyday more and more consumers are turning to the internet for information before they make a purchase? Then to save time and money, plus avoid meeting with a salesperson, they are buying online?

Will the same thing happen for consumers buying life insurance? Unfortunately, it's already happening.

According to the 2014 Insurance Barometer survey by the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) Foundation and LIMRA, eighty-three percent of consumers would use the Internet to research life insurance before purchasing a policy if they had the option. Currently, according to the survey, face-to-face contact with an agent is the most preferred method for buying life insurance. However, nearly one in four said they would prefer to research and purchase online, if given the option.

For over one hundred years life insurance had been sold primarily by career life agents, captive agents that represent a single insurance company, and by independent agents, who represent several insurers. Now, life insurance is also sold directly to the public by mail, telephone and through the Internet. In addition, in the 1980s insurers began to market annuities and term life insurance through banks and financial advisors, professional groups and the workplace. A large portion of variable annuities, and a small portion of fixed annuities, are sold by stockbrokers. In 2013 independent agents held 49 percent of the new individual life insurance sales market, followed by affiliated (i.e., captive) agents with 41 percent, direct marketers with 4 percent and others accounting for the remaining 6 percent, according to LIMRA.

Here is an except from an 2013 article by Brian Anderson...

"As life insurance agents continue to gravitate toward wealthy consumers, many carriers are ramping up their direct sales efforts and introducing new programs designed to reach the lower and middle markets. You’ve probably heard about MetLife’s Walmart pilot program. The company now has kiosks in about 200 Walmart stores in South Carolina and Georgia - and will likely expand into Pennsylvania soon, as well. Based on what I’ve heard at various industry conferences so far this year, I’d be shocked if we didn’t hear about at least a couple more partnerships between carriers and retailers - big box or department stores - before the end of this year.

Who can blame carriers? Life insurance premiums have been flat for some time, and it’s not like we’re going to have a huge influx of new agents anytime soon that are going to target lower- and middle-market consumers. Knowing this, the carriers are more open than ever to experimenting with selling direct - or at least via a non-traditional retail partner.

New research shows consumers are open to it. Nearly 1 in 5 consumers are willing to purchase life insurance from a retail outlet like Costco or Walmart, according to a study just released in conjunction with the LIMRA Life Insurance Conference in New Orleans, April 15-17, 2013.

The 2013 Insurance Barometer Study from LIMRA and the LIFE Foundation revealed that 17 percent of respondents said they would be willing to purchase life insurance directly from a retail outlet, which seems like a significant percentage given that this is the first time consumers were asked about their interest in purchasing life insurance from a nontraditional distribution channel. By the time the 2015 study comes out, would you be at all surprised if that 17 percent figure has risen to 40 percent?"

Note: A 2014 LIMRA study asked a diverse mix of life insurance executives, distributors, reinsurers and other financial leaders this question: Do you believe an outside source like Google or Amazon will be a disruptive force in the life insurance market in the next five years? Fifty-seven percent said yes. Moreover, a 2013 LIMRA study revealed that 21 percent of middle market consumers would be willing to buy life insurance online from a non-traditional source such as Google or Amazon.

Also Note...

The U.K. has new regulations that ban commission-based selling. These regulations were put into force on New Year's Eve 2012, in the biggest shake-up of the investment and Insurance industry for decades. The Netherlands and Australia also banned commissions in 2013, and now there is talk of a similar ban in the US.

How will this affect you and consumers?

According to a report released in August 2014, by Garry Heath, former director general of the IFA Association (UK), the number of independent and bank channel financial advisors in the UK has dropped by roughly 11,000 since the introduction of RDR (Retail Distribution Review) .

Furthermore, according to Heath, with so many advisors leaving the business, more consumers are without financial advice. Since the introduction of RDR the number of individuals working with a financial advisor has dropped from 23 million to 13 million.

Summary

The the financial services world is changing rapidly. Accordingly, if you are focusing on just selling a product, and you are not offering real help and advice to your prospects, will you survive? Why should people contact you? Can't they get the same information and products online?

Whether you’ve been in this business for 30 days or 30 years, if you want to survive and prosper during the next 10 years and beyond, then you must start working today at becoming a true financial advisor, instead of just the typical product salesperson. You must make the transition from being seen as the typical insurance agent people want to avoid, to becoming the trusted advisor people want to see.

Jeremy Nason
Marketing and Sales Coach

Message to Financial Advisors…
You have the choice to be successful, or not to be successful. It's entirely up to you! You can sit back, do nothing and hope that things will change. Or, you can take action right now to make things change! What have you done in the last sixty days to increase your sales? Why not learn the marketing, prospecting, appointment setting and sales strategies that most of the leading agents, advisors and planners on the planet use?

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Understanding How We Work
And What We Offer

Let's assume you wanted to be a doctor, lawyer or an accountant. Wouldn't you first have to go to college to learn the fundamentals and technical aspects of that profession? That is the information in our Insurance Marketing & Sales Resource Center™. Additionally it serves as your reference library, and source for industry updates.

Then, once you have learned the fundamentals and technical aspects of your profession, you would need to determine your niche, and get the specific tools for that niche. Plus, you would serve an internship or apprenticeship, to learn how to use those tools and apply what you have learned. That is what is in our Advanced Life Insurance and Annuity Sales Success Systems™, with our 3 months of one-on-one coaching.

Finally, if you want to be at the absolute top of your profession, you would seek out ongoing advanced training from the industry experts. That is what you get from our live Trusted Advisor Success Training™ and Trusted Advisor Mentoring Program™.

Updates For Our Member's Only Private Site
 Insurance Marketing and Sales Resource Center™

No one Likes being Sold
One of the main reasons so many agents and advisors struggle with getting appointments and closing sales is they tend to lecture and tell prospects what they should do. They tell the prospect that they have a problem and then they try to provide the prospect with their solution to the prospect's problem. Doesn't a salesperson telling a prospect what they should do create an automatic response from that prospect… of immediate resistance? 

What do YOU Do?  
An audio by Sandy Schussel on creating your elevator speech.

Guaranteed Success Thinking
An E-book by Jim Edwards on how to become a success.  Jim gives his perspective on how the thoughts we have impact our success.  He explains why you are at where you are right now, and how to get where you want to be!

Our members only site is all about you and helping you to become the Respected & Trusted Financial Advisor that people want to see. On this site you'll find the proven marketing, branding, lead generation, appointment setting and sales 'Fundamentals' and 'Insider Secrets' that most agents, advisors and planners... don't know and may never find out! It's all here at your fingertips!

It's really an online Mini-University of Courses and Video Training, with Core and Advanced insurance sales curriculum, designed to help you to constantly deliver a special message of how you are actually dedicated to helping people, so you can dramatically set yourself apart from your competition! This site contains everything you need to start turning you financial services career around in only a few days; telephone scripts, prospecting letters, sales letters, appointment scripts, fact-finding scripts, sales presentations, templates, referral scripts and much more...

Improve Your Attitude And Change Your World

You Are What You Think (Think Wealth!)

In this unique video presentation of The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale "known as the Dean of Personal Development" teaches you why these six simple words have changed the lives of millions.

You Can Double and Triple Your Appointments and Sales, By Learning To Ask The Right Questions!

Important Message From Lew Nason

If you search hard enough and long enough you will always find a few people who need and want what you are offering. As the old saying goes; "Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then!"

However, if you want to make your life much easier and your insurance career much more profitable? If you want to set appointments with almost everyone you talk to? And, you want to make a sale to 9 out of 10 people you meet with, then it is about your ability to help people to see and understand the problems they are facing, so they want to meet with you and take immediate action on your recommendations. And, that is about you improving your questioning, fact-finding and presentation skills.

Consider, you can have hundreds of qualified life insurance and annuity prospects, but if you can't get them to meet with you, or get them to take immediate action on your recommendations, what good are they? Learn More

You Don't Have To Go It Alone!

How To Become The Most 'Trusted Advisor'
In Your Local Community!

Start “Branding” You

I’ve been preparing for my web program on kick-starting your business next week. So, this week, I thought I’d revisit (and shed some more light on) a classic business strategy: branding.

In any practice, branding is a primary way to attract your ideal client. It is an expression of your unique identity to “sell” your services to the kind of people you most want to work with…and then some. But branding isn’t just about showing how you’re different from your competitors. It’s about getting your clients or prospects to see that what you offer is exactly the solution they’ve been searching for.

If I meet someone at a party or gathering, and I tell him during our conversation that I’m a coach for financial and service professionals who want to get to the next level in their careers and lives, and then ask him if he would like to work with me, I’m engaging in direct marketing. If his friend comes across the room at that party and says to me, “I hear that you’re a great work-performance and client-attraction coach and I’d love to work with you,” I’ve successfully branded my business.

But to brand yourself and your work seamlessly, you need to take Three Preliminary Steps:

1. Know your “Target Market“. Who do you most want to work with or for? As a professional, a consultant, or a service-business owner, you will have more success if you become an expert in the needs of one particular narrow target market: teenagers, “Boomers”, families, entrepreneurs, landscaping contractors, retirees, ADD adults, etc. It’s aiming a high-powered rifle at the bullseye, rather than shooting up hundreds of pounds of buckshot in the hope of hitting something wild turkeys.

2. Identify one to three “core needs”. What are their biggest problems, or dreams? Obviously, you want to talk about the needs that you have solutions for. Your typical client may need dental work, but if you have a house cleaning service, this isn’t a core need you can use.

3. Design your unique solutions. Why will people or businesses in your target market buy the services they need from you and not your competitors? Clients like “packages”. If the solutions you provide are not special, start thinking about ways to package them to make them special. If you’re just another white crayon in a box of white crayons, there’s no good reason to use your services. Be the red crayon in the box.

In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote: “If you can, be first. If you can’t be first, create a new category in which you can be first.”

Fedex is the business to use “when it absolutely, positively has to be there over night”. When are you the business to use? Decide who you are, and then, keep REACHING…

You'll Quickly Double and Triple Your Income, When You Become The 'Trusted Advisor' People Want To See!

Coaching Corner

In a sales slump? Find your enthusiasm!
By Dennis Postema

Have you ever wondered why your sales are in a slump? More than likely, it is because you’re not enthusiastic enough about your product or even your business. The fact is, nothing is sold without enthusiasm. Now, I admit some people will already know what they want, they just need to find someone who sells it - and you could very easily be that person. However, those cases are few and far between.

It’s possible you lack enthusiasm because you don’t understand your product enough to get excited about it. If this is true, it could lead to an even bigger problem in which you may not believe in your product at all.

So, let’s stop right there… If you are an advisor and you don’t believe in the products you offer, either find products you do believe in or get out. We’re in the industry of changing people’s lives by protecting their families and retirements, and we don’t have room for non-believers who don’t study their products. If you have done your homework and are a believer, you need to get pumped up and excited that you are the solution to your clients’ problems.

Think of it like gasoline to a car. If you don’t have it, the car doesn’t move. So just like gas, if you are out of enthusiasm, the sales process won’t move along either. Please understand, I am not suggesting you pressure someone into buying. I am, however, suggesting you share the excitement with them. Only then can you truly help them achieve all of their financial goals.

Here’s a fair warning though: Spilling gas all over can be a very bad thing. So make sure you don’t have so much enthusiasm that you are the only one talking and you forget to listen. Listening is just as important, if not more important, than being enthusiastic and believing in your product.

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