68. I am not an "investment guru"!

 

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your overwhelming support for my up and coming "speaking gigs" career ha ha ha

This early in the year, I have already grown the number of my engagements by more than double of what I have done last year, could have been more had I accepted all invitations

Before I accept any invite, I would inquire as to who would be the audience, the topic and scope of coverage for my talk and the objective of the gathering

I normally declined invitation to speak on the investment aspect of the market, analysis of its current state and making fearless forecasts for the year, some of my "investment management expert" friends would be better resource speakers

If you take a look at the brief outline of my 25-year career, you will notice that my most meaningful years are focused on the SALES and DISTRIBUTION of financial products and services

I am not an "investment guru"!

I am basically a sales trainer if you will, using market insights to guide financial advisors on how to identify market opportunities to grow their practice, while I may discussed investment concepts like portfolio and asset allocation strategies, these are meant to provide financial advisors with ways and means on to help clients mitigate market risk and optimize returns

As your Sales and Distribution resource, I can help you and your team formulate sales strategies on how to reach a wider segment of the market, supported by research and careful analysis, I can help create a more effective approach using "financial advisory narratives"

I always believe that financial products are great in helping people achieve financial security, but great products should be supported by great "stories" to gain wider acceptance

Thank you my friends, stay safe and productive this 2022!

67. A tribute to Ben Feldman - one of the most prolific life insurance agent in history

 Ben Feldman (1912 – November 7, 1993) was an American businessman and one of the most prolific salespeople in history.

As early as 1979, Feldman had sold more life insurance than anyone in history.

He sold life insurance policies with a total face value of about $1.5-billion for New York Life from 1942 to his death in 1993. He once held the world record for the most products sold (by value) by a salesman in a career, a year ($100,000,000), and in a single day ($20,000,000). Near the end of his career, his annual commission totals were over $1,000,000 per year. At the time, these sales totals were equaled only by the entire sales forces of other insurance companies, though they have long since been nominally surpassed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Feldman_(insurance_salesman)

Here are some of my favorite quotes from him, may it inspire you as much as it had inspired me, all the best my friends

66. Why is it easier to buy an iPhone than a Life Insurance Policy?

The iPhone 12 is one of the fastest selling iPhone model, reported to have sold over 100 million units just seven months from launch, what makes it so desirable?

First is the iPhone gives the buyer instant gratification, never mind if he has to line up for hours in an apple store just to get his unit. in contrast, the gratification provided by a Life Insurance Policy is often delayed to an uncertain time in the future greatly reducing purchase satisfaction

Second, having an iPhone is a social status symbol, among peers and friends, the one using an iPhone is generally seen as someone who can afford (entry models starts at around Php 35K) and maybe by association - maybe more successful ? A Php 35k price tag is already enough to secure a basic life insurance coverage with a decent face amount. But can you imagine bringing your insurance policy to a social gathering and telling anybody who cared to listen you bought one? may not be exactly a good conversation starter he he

One of the key attractions of an iPhone is its extreme usability, most features are intuitive by nature and the user experience can still be enhanced by millions of supplementary apps available in the apps store. To a lot of people, Life Insurance Benefits and what it can do to help financially secure policyowners are often vague and not fully appreciated 

I can still hear some comments that life insurance benefits can only be availed if someone dies, this may not be exactly true now as Life insurance products have already evolved, benefits can include "living" benefits like protection against critical illness, maturity values can be used to supplement retirement funding, programed withdrawals can also be applied to fund the education expenses of a child and so on

One useful tool for financial advisors is to have clear and concise "financial advisory narratives" that would best illustrate and describe the many uses and benefits of a life insurance policy, a narrative is a chronology of related ideas that can help a prospective insurance buyer walk through the stages in appreciating the importance of life insurance in a well crafted financial plan

If a financial advisor can make a life insurance policy as desirable as an iPhone using clear and concise financial advisory narratives, he may then be able to help secure more Filipino families

Next : The four essential financial advisory narratives

stay safe my friends!

65. To qualify for MDRT, bring in 2 clients per week

 

Most of us have already set targets for ourselves, no doubt a lot would be aiming to qualify for MDRT and beyond, but wishing and believing is not enough, it must be supported by a process that outlines the critical action steps and benchmarks that would tell us if we are on track

The two most important benchmark for tracking is first, the number of clients that we brought in and second, the average case size

The number of clients that we bring in is a function of our activities;  the more number of prospect engagements we have, the more clients we can bring in, this is very straightforward

so wishing and believing will come to naught if it is not supported by the number of sales calls that we do regularly

Average case size is a function of skill; we cannot close a Php 1 Million policy doing a Php 10,000 presentation, To get prospects to entrust to us their millions, we should be able to demonstrate credibly through our advisory conversations the extent of our knowledge and expertise in helping them achieve their financial objectives

Among the two, "number of clients" would be the more rewarding benchmark in the sense that "victories" no matter how small will motivate us to do more, as we do more presentations, we will become better, doing this regularly will raise our skill level

This will lead to progressively bigger case size

To qualify for MDRT, aim to bring in 2 clients per week, doing this consistently will greatly increase our chances of finally qualifying for the MDRT

All the best my friends!

64. Number of clients x case size = MDRT

Its the time of the year when financial advisors all over set their targets for the year, whether its the setting of personal or team targets, it helps to focus on two key measures to track progress

A lead is just a "name" that may or may not avail of our services, to convert a lead to a prospect, there has to be some interest in the part of the "lead" to bring the conversation to the next level

Financial advocacy is freely sharing ideas and that may be relevant to somebody aiming for financial security, approaching a lead with insightful ideas on how to maximize the benefits of financial planning without any commitments on his part may create a desire in the "lead" to request for more information, this could pave the way for a follow up meeting which would increase the chance of the lead to turn into a prospect

Contrast this with the typical sales approach when a "lead" is placed in a situation where he has to categorically decide "yes" or "no" to a proposition, a negative response effectively ends the possibility of follow up meetings

Activity is number driven - the more people we talk to, the higher will be the chances of getting prospects. Adapting an advocacy approach minimized call reluctance due to rejections and increase the number of people we talk to

The lead that turned into a prospect and eventually to a client may start with the "minimum" to test out the validity of our ideas, next step would be to build up case size which is function of financial advisory skills

The basic foundation of financial advisory skills is an extensive understanding of the financial planning process, mastery of available products and the ability to match these products to an identified need

To make 2022 your best year ever!

1. Talk to as many people as you can using your "advocacy narrative"
2. Continuously enlarge case size using your "financial security narrative"! 

All the best my friends!

63. The famous "X-curve", why young breadwinners need life insurance

One of the benefits of working with distribution channels is the opportunity to imbibe different contexts of financial principles. One such principle that had a profound impact in my own development as a financial advisor is the "X-curve" which I first encountered while working with the International Marketing Group (IMG)

This principle states that breadwinners - at an early stage may not have much savings but already have huge financial responsibilities to their families, this can be addressed by a life insurance product with investment component (typically a VUL) where the life insurance coverage may be able to mitigate possible lost income if something happen to the breadwinner while the investment component will start building up long term savings

As regular premiums are made over time, financial responsibilities may lessened as other members of the family may start contributing to family income, the principal breadwinner may then decrease his contribution to the life insurance component and shift more to the investment side to accelerate fund growth - this could be intended for retirement funding, build-up of a medical fund or provisions for other important life goals

This makes the case for the income replacement benefit of a life insurance policy and its importance to a breadwinner's family during the early stages

just sharing, all the best my friends!