20 issues to inspire your prospects & clients to take action

I am sorry to tell you this, but if you missed the Advisor Network Summit in Las Vegas, then you missed a lot. This meeting was spectacular.

Tom Hegna, Joe Jordan, and Amy McIlwain presented fantastic ideas that should be immediately implemented. I shared new ideas to increase appointments and earn more successful outcomes in those appointments.

Jason Jenkins has become one of the best speakers in our industry, and his perspective was beneficial to all attendees. The finalists for Retirement Advisor of the Year were truly amazing, and they shared the secrets to their success with us all. There were many other valuable contributors.

I have only been home for a week and I have received dozens of calls, texts, and e-mails from attendees who used the information and skills they learned at the meeting to make sales they would not otherwise have made. The agents and advisors I have spoken with are glad they attended. Some have said that the Advisor Summit was career-changing and even career-saving.

The most common inquiries people posed at the meeting were: "What do I talk about with prospects and clients to get appointments? And how do I inspire them to take action?" My answer is that it is important to become skillful at asking powerful questions.

It would seem intuitive that we should ask our clients what they think, so we can get to know their concerns, their hopes, and their fears. Nonetheless, most agents do not.

Most agents just talk about whatever they want to talk about, and then wonder why they continue to have mediocre success. True, advisors are advocates and counselors, so they ask as many questions as necessary to help their clients achieve their financial and retirement goals.

I have met in my career few prospects or clients who have organized thinking about insurance, investments, taxes or retirement. If they do not have organized thinking, then they cannot make a quality decision about the products or strategies you are proposing.

As a result, you will lose some sales and not know why. You are offering a great policy that really fits their needs; and yet, they cannot decide whether to buy from you. This occurs because you did not help them organize their thought process. And sometimes, they did not realize they had a need.

Please remember: Most of these people were not thinking about these issues until you called on them. If you do not begin by asking them about their concerns, they have no way to determine if you are presenting quality solutions for those concerns. And frankly, neither do you.

Here are 20 issues that may inspire your prospects and clients to take action:

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
Interest on the national debt
Federal, state, county and municipal budget deficits
Taxes
Inflation or deflation
War, defense and terrorism costs
Cyber attacks
unemployment
Healthcare and nursing home costs
Infrastructure
Natural disasters
Black swan events
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Housing costs and home mortgages
Student loan crisis
Derivatives
Sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Argentina, China, and Japan
Oil, gold, silver and commodity prices
Asset allocation or income allocation
Sequence of returns, sequence of inflation, and sequence of withdrawals

Skilled advisors take these issues, which look like problems, and show their prospects and clients how not to be hurt by them. Elite advisors take these issues and show their prospects and clients how to take advantage of them. Become an elite advisor!