Our 100 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas feature will be out in June. To gather those best ideas, we reached out to successful advisors to get their best tips. Following are highlights from top advisors.
"I had a client that was going to add funds to a non-qualified annuity that was earning about 3 percent. She had no intention of using this money and ultimately would pass it on to her daughter. I explained to her how we could use life insurance to create a tax-free death benefit that would go to her daughter upon her death. We took $50,000 and created in excess of $88,000 of death benefit overnight. My client never thought she could get life insurance at age 84. I helped improve the situation for her and the daughter and also earned a nice return for me. We have to think outside the box and ask questions in order to provide the best service for clients."
Eric Van Shore
"First, help your prospect fund the premium: What accounts can be used to provide 3 percent to 6 percent of their retirement income to pay the premium without invading their monthly budget? Second, show them the pool of money 25 or 30 years from now compared to the accumulated premium; if they don't see the value in leveraging their savings, they probably won't buy. Explaining that 25 years of investment won't even cover one year of care in the future should convince them to mitigate the risk by transferring the catastrophic portion to a third party."
Mike Westling
"Follow up! Sometimes the client is not always ready to buy or it was not the right time. What I have found is that less successful agents that did not get the sale the first visit do not follow up, and there is low hanging fruit with a follow up call and/or visit even two, three or six months later. I create email blasts and letter mailouts that will prompt an old client to call."
