Reaching Annuity Clients Without Jargon
Annuity Seller Tips! Are you reaching for annuity clients with the industry jargon? The concept of an annuity is based on very human values like planning for retirement and passive income you can rely on, but all too often when it comes to financial matters, people have a terrible time seeing through the jargon and details. Insurance and tax policies tend to come with a lot of unfamiliar multi-syllable words that are downright intimidating. Especially to someone who is thinking about how to plan a reliable grocery and recreation budget for their retirement years. It is important for your clients to understand the kind of financial decisions they are making. So, you want to explain as much as possible in relatable terms rather than technical details. For annuities, cover the central human concepts, and skip the financial terms until the second half of the conversation. Annuity Clients Think About Personal Retirement Everyone wants to retire well, but retirement isn’t what it used to be. Social security only covers so much and company retirement policies often have contingencies. Introduce the idea that a personally controlled retirement plan can’t be revoked, drained, or have the terms changed without their knowledge. They get to know exactly how much to pay in and how much they will get out of it. Lay out the options, but leave the technical stuff to the side or keep it as final points. They will want to know the difference between the variable, fixed, and income annuities. Let them sink their teeth into the human-relatable benefits first. Annuity Clients Thinks About Passive Income Even if a client is not looking for a specific retirement plan, you can sell them on the idea of non-retirement passive income. Most people work for a lifetime contributing to a retirement plan to gain some passive income. Why wait? Explain that some annuity plans allow them to put in either large sums or regular payments into the annuity. The funds will transfer it into a reliable passive income whenever they want it to start dispensing. This is great for people who have a large saving that they don’t want to overspend. Also, people that get paid irregularly that would like to live on a regular supply of money. By highlighting the human flexibility of the plan types, you can help clients understand annuities. That they can be used for almost anything that could benefit from a steady monthly fund. Annuity Client Think About Funding for Loved Ones It is easy to get into a one-beneficiary mindset, but annuities don’t have to benefit your client alone. Most people have at least one person they care for that they would like to see taken care of. Older couples might want to set up an extra income for their surviving spouse. Grandparents can use annuities to make sure there is college money available for their grandchildren. One under-recognized group is the adult children of aging seniors. Think of adults with parents in a retirement home. These adults are often busy with their own children and are worried about being able to care for their aging parents. An annuity in their parent(s) name could create a safety net. This would ensure that their elderly parents will be well taken care of if they can’t handle it in the future. Clients need to understand what each plan has to offer them in terms of life quality, timing, and financial peace of mind. Once have an idea of what they want from an annuity, then they will be ready to talk about taxes, payments, and financial policies. Start with the concepts they know like retirement plans and assured income before you jump into unfamiliar financial jargon. We would love to help you with your annuity sales product needs. Contact Us!
How Mindfulness Benefits Agents and Registered Reps
I never thought I would write a post quoting what Aetna is doing, but life can surprise me! Yes, I know that Aetna is a big insurance company, but it’s also an employer of 50,000 people. I was reading on the Harvard Business Review blog that Aetna introduced mindfulness training to employees and over 25 percent of them participated. “Aetna also calculated the savings to the company, finding that, on average, mindfulness participants gained 62 minutes of productivity a week, which is an estimated $3,000-per-employee increase in productivity for the company each year.” Imagine if you had 63 more minutes each week. You could fit in one or two more appointments with customers (or perhaps 10 to 15 phone calls to prospects). In this post, I want to talk about mindfulness and how it will benefit your day. Why You Need Mindfulness Beyond the extra minutes that you will find in the workday, you could be wondering why you should try mindfulness training. You would go to a mindfulness training or try an app because you want to get the benefits for your mind, body, and spirit. I’m going to put this in layman’s terms instead of going on and on about medical studies. A typical workday has its own stressors. There are the tasks that you must accomplish and the interruptions of phone calls, emails, and people entering your office for which it’s hard to plan. These are factors that you must accept as part of your work-life unless you’re going to let calls go to voicemail, check emails only at certain times of the day, and work from home. However, if you work from home, you will have to spend more time on the road going to meet clients. How Mindfulness Helps You Given all these factors that affect a typical workday, you will have less productivity when you feel a lack of control over them. You will have greater anxiety, higher blood pressure, and you might forget to breathe deeply. With mindfulness, you take time for yourself, diverting your mind from these environmental stressors for a few minutes. You are going to be quiet, close your eyes, and listen to a voice telling you how to breathe in deeply, hold your breath, and then exhale. A guided meditation may also encourage you to calm different parts of your body, to let certain issues or pain points go, or to move you through a series of positive images. Guided meditations by experienced yogis are usually detailed enough that you feel calmer after you follow them. After a few minutes of meditation, you can feel less intimidated by environmental stressors and/or the anxiety that makes your brain go crazy. You will feel your chest expanding and contracting with fewer restrictions and then get back to work. It’s All About Perspective What I love about mindfulness is that it helps us to release anxiety and stress and to focus on our brain’s unlimited power. I will wind up with an example. The other day, an angry customer entered my office. She was disappointed with this year’s return on her annuity, and she suggested I should have sold her a different option. She couldn’t bank on the earnings of the annuity’s yield, and she was sure that she should switch to a new carrier. I hadn’t expected her arrival and I had to prepare for a first-time presentation that afternoon to a community group. Nevertheless, I understood her feelings of helplessness about how a financial product performs. She was ready for a guaranteed multi-year annuity. The next time this scenario occurs, I will excuse myself while an upset customer waits in the lobby. Then, I will do a quick meditation. Afterward, I will resolve the customer’s problem without letting my emotions get out of control. She caught me off-guard, and that was not a good starting point for helping her or for finishing my presentation.
Get prospects to click on you
Many financial advisors are interested in ways to use email marketing to increase leads, but there are many small details to email marketing that can make or break your open and click-through rates. Here are some strategies you can start using today. Use your prospect’s first name. Most e-marketing platforms have a personalization feature which allows you to address people by their first names. Studies show that if a person sees his first name in the subject line of an email, he’s more likely to open it. Furthermore, if a person sees his name in the body of the email, he is less likely to unsubscribe. Be important/urgent. Subject lines and content that is time sensitive (i.e., “webinar starts in one hour”) and important to the reader are more likely to get opened and read. Give your emails the appearance of urgency from time to time to improve results. Make it mysterious. Create a sense of curiosity by using questions and incomplete sentences in the subject line and body of an email. For example, instead of saying “Twitter is the #1 social platform for advisors,” ask “What is the #1 social platform for advisors?” For Full Article Click Here
3 social-media ailments (and their cures)
In the financial world, every opportunity has its risks, and the same is true of social media marketing. Here are three social-media marketing pitfalls and how to overcome them: 1. Negative comments. Of course a business as fine as yours is never deserves a negative comment. However, there may come a day when someone posts something negative about you on your Facebook wall, comments on a blog post you’ve written, criticizes you via Twitter, etc. What to do: Upon seeing these comments, you may feel inclined to lash back or click “delete,” but this is a bad idea. Instead, take the high road and respond with poise and maturity. Promptly (within 24 hours) acknowledge the negative feedback and offer a resolution to the issue. If the situation is too complex for social media, offer an email address or phone number where you can be reached. Remember: on social media, everyone silently eavesdrops on everything you say. It is of paramount importance to make a good impression. For Full Article Click Here
6 great ways to promote your event
As a financial advisor, you’re likely to face the day when you need to plan an event. Whether it’s a wine tasting, a holiday party, a financial seminar or a book launch party, here are six effective avenues for promoting your next event. 1) Landing page RSVP. Create a landing page with an RSVP form on it and direct people toward it. Provide details such as time, date, location, speakers, accommodations, maps and other pertinent information. Weave in calls to action and images to make it flow nicely. 2) Facebook. Create an event page with the details of your event, then invite people and see who is coming. Another creative way to market your event is to develop a cover page specifically promoting the event. This creates awareness for everyone who visits your page. 3) LinkedIn. A LinkedIn announcement is another great way to spread the message of your event. If you belong to a group on LinkedIn, go to “manage” and then “send announcement.” In the announcement, put all the details of your event and a link back to the main event webpage. (I suggest sending the announcement a few weeks in advance.) 4) Twitter. Twitter is another great platform to spread the word of your event. If you want to get PR coverage, consider @messaging local media outlets and news stations. You can also @message or direct message people you want to come or know about the event and keep people informed about new sponsors. Throughout the marketing process, ask people to re-tweet so the word can spread. For Full Article Click Here
The Power of Thought: 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Mind
For the past several months, I’ve entertained the notion of hiring a running coach. During the research process, I’ve tested the waters with several running groups and slowly discovered what I was looking for. This week, I finally settled on a decision—Hudson Training Systems in Boulder, CO. For those of you that don’t know about this group, it’s pretty dang solid. Some of the top athletes in the country train in this group under renowned coach Brad Hudson. When I first discovered this powerhouse, I was instantly intrigued, but knew I wasn’t a shoe-end when it came to joining. I danced around the idea for months—teetering back and forth between thinking, “yeah, I can do this” and “what in the hell am I thinking?” After the Denver Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon, I took a plunge and decided to contact Brad. What was the worst that could happen? After a short conversation about my goals and PR’s, he, without hesitation, said that he’d coach me. One day later, I received my training regimen for the next week. Woah, I thought. This is really happening! Yesterday was my first track session with the group. The whole day, I tossed in my seat wondering what it would be like. Every scenario crossed my mind. What if I’m the slowest one? What if I get lost? What if nobody is there? The thoughts go on. Now, let me get this straight. I know I am a good athlete and I deeply believe in my ability. But it’s exhilaratingly nerve-wracking to stack yourself up against people who are exponentially more advanced than you—especially in your passion. Whether you’re an artist, musician, teacher, scientist, writer, entrepreneur, runner, or whatever, it takes a degree of courage to voluntarily become the “the weakest link” in your strongest area. But let’s face it: we’re all the “weakest link” at some point in our lives. Here are a few thoughts that I’ve been focusing on to help me. Be confident. Or at least act confident: Sometimes I’m confident and not confident at the same time. Is that abnormal? Anyways, one piece of advice (again, from Gretchen Rubin) is to act the way you want to feel. In other words, act confident even if you have doubts. Don’t casually undermine yourself in conversation (i.e. “oh, I’m not very good. I’m just trying this out”), or sell yourself short before you even start. This is something I’m trying to consciously work on. But I know I’m not the only one, because I hear people do it all the time. For Full Article Click Here
5 Rules of Successful Email Marketing
Have you ever received an e-mail that piqued your interest? Perhaps it spoke to a relevant business concern or contained an offer that came just in the nick of time. Despite what you might have assumed, this may not have been a coincidence. With segmented or “trip-wire” email marketing, it’s now possible to deliver messages targeted directly to the unique interests and needs of your prospects. Here are a few steps you can follow to develop your lead-nurturing e-marketing campaign. 1. Create offers. Last week, I heard a business mentor’s advice: “If you want people to do something for you, do something for them first.” This is the foundational premise of email marketing. Give your prospects something that is of value to them. But first, get to know a little bit about your target audience. What are they interested in? What do they want to learn about? What are their goals? What problems do they face? Here are some sample offerings: An e-book download A whitepaper A free consultation Access to free calculators A free weekly newsletter with information of value to them 2. Develop calls-to-action (CTAs). Once you’ve created your offers, you must entice your audience to access them. This is where the CTA comes in. A CTA creates a sense of urgency and direction for your audience. An example of a CTA might be “Download our free retirement e-book for a limited time!” Alongside the CTA should be a form. The form is where a prospect must submit his email address in order to access the offer. (It’s up to you if you want to require more information.) Here are some avenues you may consider for your CTA Download buttons (such as the example above) Forms on your website CTAs on social media Landing pages that prompt people to take advantage of your offers. For Full Article Click Here
7 Branding Mistakes to Avoid
In building up their businesses, some financial advisors ignore or underemphasize the importance of branding. As a result, they can make mistakes that erode their positions in the marketplace and adversely affect their bottom lines. Here are seven common branding blunders: 1) Failing to identify your core competencies. It’s hard to convince customers to patronize your business if they don’t know what you’re good at. Without any information about why you’re the best choice, you’re just another product on a shelf or business listing in the phone directory. 2) Trying to be all things to all people. It’s tempting to try to fulfill the needs of every potential customer, especially when you’re just starting out and need the revenue. But attempting to appease everybody in the market will only stretch your resources thin, drive you crazy and ultimately disappoint your customers. Instead, focus on your niche market where your expertise lies. 3) Changing (branding) horses in midstream. Many business owners succumb to the temptation to change their branding message to try to attract the customer base they want at any given time. While allowing your company to evolve is perfectly acceptable, frequent branding changes will create confusion among consumers and ultimately weaken your overall brand. For Full Article Click Here
A 5-Step Guide to Facebook Ads
Have you ever noticed the ads on the right side of your Facebook homepage? I bet it seems like they are directed to you and your interests, right? This is no accident. The efficiency of Facebook ads is made possible by Facebook’s Reaching and Targeting Initiative, which captures specific profile information and ensures your ad reaches the right audience. Eureka! This means that Facebook, the social networking giant, has given you the opportunity to advertise your brand to millions of consumers online with precise targeting. Why should you use Facebook ads? In case you missed the memo, there are nearly 1 billion people worldwide on Facebook. Each month, those billions of connections form a digital map of people’s real-world networks of family, friends, co-workers, hobbies and even products. For an advertiser, profile data is a gold mine for reaching customers. User profiles outline important demographics such as status updates, birthdays, occupations, hobbies, location and relationship status. Because Facebook ads can access this information, you can target exactly the right people. As an advisor, you may be looking to reach engineers 55 and older who like to travel, play golf and live within a 20-mile radius. Facebook can put your targeted message in front of these people. It eliminates the guessing games and puts an end to wasting money by reaching the wrong audience. This opportunity is way too good to pass up, so let’s get started. For Full Article Click Here
Social Media Security & Compliance in Financial Services
Social Media Security & Compliance in Financial Services Social media is changing the way businesses are communicating, including financial services. In order to leverage social media within this heavily regulated industry, it’s crucial for financial professionals to understand how to be compliant. HootSuite University is proud to host Social Media Security & Compliance in Financial Services with Amy McIlwain, Founder and President of Financial Social Media. Learn how social media is being used in the financial industry by exploring… What is social media and why should financial professionals care? Real examples of financial clients effectively leveraging social media How to stay compliant in the social space … and more! For Full Article Click Here