Advisor: Seniors Can Be A Tough Sell, But Well Worth It

Advisors who are uninitiated in that aspect of dealing with seniors may present a financial solution that, while technically correct, runs into resistance because it is outside the seniors experience.

The senior may not express it in so many words, but the sensitive advisor can see when the client is losing interest in a subject. When you see the eyes glaze over, Klein advised, the senior has stopped listening. Its time to move on to some other topic.

Another important point, Klein noted, is that seniors want to be comfortable. To the smart advisor, that means avoid trying too hard to get them to invest in something that they explicitly say they dont like.

The fact that seniors tend to have a lot of time on their hands presents a couple of other hazards to the advisor.

For one thing, they dont always appreciate the time-management problems of the agent. When a senior telephones and leaves a message, they may expect the agent to get back to them in a few hours.

"The smart financial salesperson has an assistant who will advise clients that you always return your calls at the end of the day or first thing the next morning or whenever," he advised. "Otherwise, you may not be getting the check you thought you were getting."

Another aspect of having all that time on their hands is that seniors read a lot of newspapers, Klein pointed out. And they tend to believe what they read.

"Never mind that you have your MBA and few people in the U.S. know more about finance than you," he advised. "And never mind that the guy writing for the paper is just repeating what someone else told him. Dont argue with newspapers."

Klein observed, too, that seniors risk aversion means that they want whats proven. So advisors need to avoid emphasizing that a product is new.

"Seniors want to know 80 million people bought it, its tested and everything worked out great," he explained.

The best way to avoid running into seniors hidden objections is to ask questions rather than telling them what you know, Klein added.

"Young salespeople love to use technical words," he observed. "But seniors arent impressed by them. If you try to sell them something they dont understand, theyll feel foolish. Youre giving them one more reason to say, Ill think about it."

Discussions about an annuitys surrender charges, for example, can frighten a senior away. So, rather than talk about those charges in technical terms, Klein suggests explaining in the simplest possible terms how much it would actually cost them if they tried to cash the investment in next year, say, instead of five years from now.

Finally, Klein stressed, act confident. Seniors can see through an advisors uncertainty very quickly. Gaining confidence means thorough training in all the products you sell, he concluded.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, May 6, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.