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Because the decision to buy a financial services product involves trust, a company should employ producers who "look and speak and think like the consumer, and who can understand whats important to the consumer," says Rupa Ranganathan, ethnic strategist and senior vice president, Strategic Research Institute, New York.
This is certainly true when it comes to the African-American market, according to Pepper Miller.
The president of market research and consulting firm The Hunter-Miller Group, Chicago, says "black people want to save, but were not sure what to do, where to go, how to go about it.
"So, financial services companies should extend the invitation by having black faces in their communications and offices as well," Miller says.
"Weve done research that shows when all things are equal, black people want to do business with a black financial services representative," she adds.
The thinking by the African-American consumer, Miller says, is that a black financial services representative, "understands me and the issues we have as people. The comfort level is raised."
In fact, this is so important that many college-educated African-Americans feel they can only admit to not understanding investments to another African-American, she says.
The African-American client thinks, "I can be myself and say I dont understand investments, and I know you, my brother or my sister, will understand me," Miller says.
Bob Blake, an associate managing general agent in the Los Angeles office of Colonial Supplemental Insurance, Columbia, S.C., agrees that comfort level is integral in reaching a certain market.
"People dont have to worry about being politically correct when theyre the same," he says. "There are things I can talk to an African-American client about that they probably would be embarrassed talking to someone else about, like financial prospects."
Under these circumstances, the value of recruiting African-Americans for an insurers sales force would seem obvious. But, when Blake, who is African-American, first started in the insurance industry in 1988, he says he was hard pressed to find a company that would offer him a job. He suspects the reticence of the managers doing the hiring was born of the same anxiety minorities have when considering whether to see a financial representative.
