Aaron Hoos

Imagine tracing a line along the path that someone takes in becoming your client. You might think of it as your sales funnel but let’s just simplify it into a single line that is easy to trace.

It starts with them having never heard of you before…

It follows them along a path as they learn about who you are and what you do…

It reaches a point where the prospect decides to become your client…

And then the line continues for as long as your client/professional relationship continues.

There is one big decision point in the relationship (noted by the star) when they decide to become your client for the first time.

But there are many more decision points along the way. These are moments in your developing relationship in which the prospect chooses to continue listening to you.

(As financial or real estate professionals, we don’t always know when these moments are, but they might be times in the relationship when the prospect meets us for the first time or visits our website or picks up the phone to call us or even hears from a competitor). I’ve drawn them below as red dots…

What we’ve drawn so far is the preferred path – only for the scenario when the prospect continues listening to the professional through the burgeoning relationship and then agrees to become a client.

But we both know that every prospect DOESN’T say “yes”. Some prospects say “Yes” but don’t mean “Yes, let’s work together right now”. In fact, there are many times when prospects choose to leave this path and go in a different direction – maybe they decide to find another professional to sell them insurance or maybe they decide to list their home themselves.

This can be frustrating for a financial or real estate professional to hear – you work so hard and want to help everyone but some prospects don’t have a reciprocal enthusiasm for you. It’s easy to despair when you call up a prospect who you THOUGHT was going to become a client only to hear them tell you that they decided to work with someone else or do it themselves.

But don’t despair. All is not lost. When you hear about your prospects diverging from the preferred path, take note of when they leave and why. Ask if there was something you could have done differently that might have convinced them to stay. (Note: You’re not necessarily offering to do whatever it is they say, but you know for next time.)
If you hear a lot of people giving the same reasons for leaving, you know it might be time to revisit how you sell your services.

Don’t just assume that it was because of a price issue or that a competitor swooped in on the right day when your prospect was in a good mood. There are other reasons that might drive someone away:

• Perhaps there isn’t enough alignment between what you say in person and what is expressed on your website.
• Perhaps they have doubts about your level of expertise.
• Perhaps you haven’t yet described (in a way they understand) all of the value that you can provide them.
• Perhaps you haven’t hit on the pickaxe factor.
• Perhaps they are going through your sales funnel at a different speed than you think they are (so the messages they are hearing do not match what they are ready to hear).

When someone diverges from the preferred path of becoming a client, find out why and grow from what you learn. You’ll end up with a sales funnel that gets increasingly effective… and ultimately you’ll end up with a stronger business.

Insurance brokers can spend so much time thinking about insurance that they fail to see the world through their prospects’ eyes. Hey, I’m not judging… I’ve been in your shoes selling life insurance and equipment insurance!

Here are 6 myths that insurance brokers believe…

Myth 1: People care about insurance.

Sorry. People don’t care about insurance. It’s a necessary evil. They care about whether they’ll have enough money to pay the bills and they care about whether they’ll make it out of work on time to get to Jonny’s soccer practice.
They need insurance. They know they do. But they don’t know why and they definitely don’t care about it. It’s a hassle. So in your marketing, make it seem like the easiest, fastest thing they have ever done in their lives.

Myth 2: People understand the acronyms.

Insurance broker: “You’re going to get GRD with this XLM policy. Later, you’ll enjoy a ton of FST”.

Customer: “Sure. Show me where to sign.”

It’s so easy for us to speak in acronyms and other industry slang because we’re thinking about it in those terms all day long. But Mr. and Mrs. Just-Off-The-Street don’t have a hot clue what you are talking about and they’re probably too embarrassed to ask.

In your marketing and in your face-to-face communication, be insanely easy to understand. In fact, why not go find an 8-year-old kid and try to explain your insurance to them. When you find the right words, then you’ll be equipped to talk to your clients.

(By the way: I just made up the acronyms in the above scenario so don’t try to figure out what they are.)

(Another by the way: Obviously don’t talk to your clients like they are 8 years old. But the simple terms and concepts and metaphors you used with an 8-year-old can help guide you as you create a grown-up version of your explanation).

Myth 3: People want to take care of their loved ones after they’re gone.

That’s if you sell life insurance. There’s a similar myth if you sell car insurance – Myth: People want to protect their vehicle investment. There’s a similar myth if you sell house insurance – Myth: People want to replace their belongings in case of fire or theft.

Not true. That’s not the reason why people buy insurance. Yes, it’s a logical reason why people think about buying insurance but it’s not THE reason. It’s not what motivates them to get into their car and to drive to your office.
The truth is, there are two competing factors here: On the one hand, they don’t want to think about their death or a car collision or their house burning down. So that keeps them from thinking about insurance. But on the other hand, they worry about the “ifs” of life. (“What happens if I die?” or “What happens if my house burns down?”) and that motivates them to get into their car to drive to your office.

Myth 4: Deductibles matter.

Deductibles don’t matter to clients. How many clients have you had in your office who sit there and look at the deductibles and choose the lowest deductible? Maybe a few. Compare that to how many people sit in the office and look at the lowest premium. Probably way more.

Clients see insurance as a hassle. As an ongoing expense for something they’ll never use.

I’m not saying that you should downplay the deductibles or not mention them at all. Yikes! That would be bad. However, I am saying that you need to review how your clients make decisions and make sure that your marketing and sales presentations are resonating with what’s important to them.

Myth 5: Clients completely understand insurance when they sign for it.

Your clients have a lot going on. When they walk into your office, insurance is only one of a dozen things on their mind. Their kids are sick. Their boss is breathing down their neck. Their spouse forgot to get milk at the store so there won’t be cereal for breakfast. Their favorite TV show is on tonight. Their in-laws are visiting on Sunday. So when you show a client their policy and they nod approvingly to everything you say, it’s not because they understand what you’ve told them. And they’re not about to go home and read the fine print.

As a broker, you need to find the balance between explaining your insurance products adequately and giving your clients enough breathing room that you don’t bore them to death. It’s not easy. Fortunately, here’s something interesting you can do: Why not give them a print book or an ebook about some of the things that they need to know about their policies. (Or, get their email and send them an e-course with ultra-short lessons about their policies). If you write it in the right way, and follow-up, they just might become better educated.

Myth 6: The client is coming back at policy-renewal time.

Okay, this one might not apply to everyone – it depends on the type of insurance you sell and your jurisdiction. So in some cases, you sign up a client and just renew them year after year until the Mayan prophecy comes true and the world ends. But for some insurance brokers, that renewal is a HUGE opportunity that is all-too-often overlooked. All too often, insurance brokers make a sale and then ignore their client for year (unless the client misses a premium payment of course! Instead, that initial visit should be an opportunity start a relationship – a relationship that should include printed information, email, and telephone conversations. You’re not hassling your client, you’re helping them.

Case in point: In the eight years I’ve lived in Winnipeg, I’ve been to 4 or 5 insurance brokers for my car insurance – just the broker’s office that’s the most convenient to me at the time. And the company that sold me house insurance has never followed up with me to discover that I also need car insurance, life insurance, and business insurance. Hmmm.

Joseph Sugarman is one of the great copywriters.

He’s sold just about everything there is to sell in just about every possible medium to sell it in. In this excellent book The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters, he lists 64 elements of copywriting that marketers can use as a checklist when creating their own copy.

These 64 elements were offered by Sugarman as generally applicable to all copywriting, but you will need to put your own twist on these, depending on what you’re selling.

Not every item will be applicable to every ad every time, but marketers need to at least consider all 64 elements and find a way to include most of them into their copy.

JOSEPH SUGARMAN’S 64 COPYWRITING ELEMENTS

Items 1 through 10 are graphic elements; items 11 through 33 are copy elements; items 34 through 64 are psychological triggers.

1. Headline
2. Subheadline
3. Photo or drawing
4. Caption
5. Copy
6. Paragraph headings
7. Logo
8. Price
9. Response device
10. Overall layout
11. Typeface
12. First sentence
13. Second sentence
14. Paragraph headings
15. Product explanation
16. New features
17. Technical explanation
18. Anticipate objections
19. Resolve objections
20. Gender
21. Clarity
22. Cliches
23. Rhythm
24. Service
25. Physical facts
26. Trial period
27. Price comparison
28. Testimonials
29. Price
30. Offer summary
31. Avoid saying too much
32. Ease of order
33. Ask for the order
34. Feeling of involvement or ownership
35. Honesty
36. Integrity
37. Credibility
38. Value and proof of value
39. Justify the purchase
40. Greed
41. Establish authority
42. Satisfaction conviction
43. Nature of product
44. Nature of prospect
45. Current fads
46. Timing
47. Linking
48. Consistency
49. Harmonize
50. Desire to belong
51. Desire to collect
52. Curiosity
53. Sense of urgency
54. Fear
55. Instant gratification
56. Exlusivity, rareness, or uniqueness
57. Simplicity
58. Human relationships
59. Storytelling
60. Mental engagement
61. Guilt
62. Specificity
63. Familiarity
64. Hope

In this business, your success is entirely dependent on leads. The more leads you have, the better. So where do you find these leads?

HOW TO FIND LEADS

First, start with you.
List you all the different places in life where you interact with other people. These are called your “spheres of influence“. List as many spheres of influence that you have. (By the way, you probably have more than you realize).

Some common spheres of influence include:

• Immediate family
• Extended family (don’t ignore family who may not live nearby!)
• Close friends
• Friends
• Acquaintances
• Current co-workers
• Previous co-workers (list all of your previous jobs)
• Alumni (college and high school)
• Church (past and present religious affiliations)
• Charity connections
• Other organizations (Toastmasters, etc.)
• Online connections (Twitter followers, Facebook friends, people you frequently talk to in forums)
• People you do business with (accountant, dry cleaner, mechanic, dentist, etc.)
• Current clients
• Past clients (past clients at your current job and past clients at your previous job… Just make sure that you are complying with any non-compete clauses if your are still in the same industry)

Second, list names
List all of the people by name in each sphere. Yes it will take a long time but the more time you spend being thorough right now, the more successful you will be later.

Third, gather contact information
Figure out how to get in touch with the people. If you know their number or email address or postal address, great! Collect it all into one place. I suggest a database of some kind.

Fourth, identify how you can help them
This step is optional but I think it helpful. Figure out how you can help them. If you’re a real estate professional and they are renters, you’ll likely be able to help them buy their first home. If you’re a financial advisor and they are near to retirement, you’ll likely be able to help them transition their portfolio into safer, income-producing investments while minimizing tax consequences.

If you really want to improve your odds, check out this blog post: 6 sales funnel tips for real estate professionals (it applies to financial professionals, too!)

Fifth, get in touch with them
Using whatever method you have identified (face-to-face, phone, email, or postal mail), get in touch with your contact and let them know what you do and make a recommendation about how you’d like to help them.

Chances are, one of the following things will happen:

• They will become your client
• They will hedge a little; they won’t commit, and they’ll tell you that they’ll think about it
• They will tell you no
• You won’t reach them or they won’t respond

If they become your client, that’s great. Congratulations! However, most people will fall into the second category and some people will fall into the third category. In those situations, thank them and let them know that if anything changes, you’d love to help them. Ask them for permission to stay in touch and collect any contact information you don’t have (so you can email or mail them something). Don’t delete the ones who never responded; just keep them on file and from time to time reach out to them.

GET EVEN MORE LEADS

Now that you have this list started, it’s time to generate even more leads. Here are three ways:

• Add another sphere of influence. Join a group, join the gym, get involved in a new organization, volunteer for a charity, etc.
• For each of your leads (yes, that big list you just created earlier in this blog post), do the same exercise and write down THEIR spheres of influence. Sure, you might not know their names but just get down the spheres of influence first. Then create a strategy to approach those people and make a request like: “Can you put up my business card on the bulletin board at your work?” or “can I put on a presentation about insurance in the lunch room at your office?” Make sure to keep the request easy for them to do. Remember: They won’t agree to anything that makes them uncomfortable!
• You probably already have a website that is geared to people who are ready to become clients. (Most real estate and financial professionals have a site like this). Move up your sales funnel and create content that is geared toward lead generation instead of prospect conversion. For example, a real estate professional might want to create content that answers some earlier stage questions like “should I buy a home right now?”. You can do this on your own site, or start another site, or use internet marketing (like articles and press releases and social media) to help you drive traffic to your website.

Lending and leasing professionals should offer some of these ebooks for free to help position them as experts in their market, or for sale to help generate a passive revenue stream.

1. Leveraging: How to make money with borrowed money.
2. How to improve your credit to get more money at a lower interest rate.
3. How to understand a lending agreement (including: What clauses to watch out for and what a stated interest rate really means).
4. A decision-making framework to determine whether someone should buy something outright or lease it.
5. A borrower’s “101 guide” to understanding interest rates: What is interest, why does it fluctuate, etc.
6. How to borrow money like a pro: Getting what you need, paying it back on time.
7. Troubleshooting your loan: What happens if you forgot to pay; what happens if you are unable to pay, etc.
8. How to be a loan officer/loan broker.
9. Top tips and ideas to borrowing and paying it back from real borrowers.
10. How to extend the life of your purchase (with care, maintenance, upkeep, upgrades, etc.)