Hi everyone and welcome to the last protection update of 2022.
It has been another year of growth for protection business across the network along with other product areas but the events of the last quarter with Liz Truss, that emergency budget, interest rate rises, soaring inflation and the ongoing cost of living rise… we’ve had quite a few challenges and the first few months of the new year will see the effect of these things continue.
So, how can we combat this?
How can we get on the front foot?
I’ve spoken recently about “Urgent reasons to get in touch with customers”.
Why urgent? If it is not urgent, it might be perceived to not be important and this can be put off to another time.
I’ve attached a link to that podcast which went out early December. Take a look…
Now in this final protection update of 2022, I wanted to run through a set of simple top tips to get you on the front foot in 2023. I’ve got 6 top tips so let’s get started!
1) Talk about Protection
This is the most basic and the most fundamental thing of all. Talk about protection every time with all customers. Be matter of fact. Business as usual. Normal business practice.
There’s important psychology here because if you don’t talk about something which you actually think is important, by default you are projecting that this isn’t really that important – or you would have mentioned it.
Turn this into a habit. It’s the very first step to being successful in the protection market because some people will want protection simply because you mentioned it. Obviously, there’s lots of other skills which we will get into, but if you don’t talk about it; you’ve got no chance.
2) Talk about Risks
As a follow on from the first point; talk about protection risks.
Often, I hear advisers talking about products, but protection products are the solution to a problem.
When you position protection with your clients; they need to appreciate there is a problem before we start looking at solving it.
So, as I talk about in my last protection update; talk about risks.
If you are arranging a mortgage, it is the risk of being unable to keep up the payments and the risk of losing the home because it gets repossessed. People do not want that, so if you can get them to buy into the problem; you can get them to buy into the solution.
Otherwise, they could become defensive because they think you are trying to sell them something.
There are some excellent risk probability / chance of claim calculator tools out there.
My favorite is the LV= Risk Reality tool and I have added a link to this update. Ask your clients to fill it in themselves and then ask them how they feel about those results. It is a good way to start the conversation. Link added to this protection update.
3) Always book them back in
You might have heard me talk about the dentist strategy.
What happens when you have had your dental treatment and you’re at the reception desk waiting to pay? They book you back in again. That cycle never ends.
You have your appointment; you have a checkup or treatment and then you leave; but not before securing your next appointment.
Why don’t we do that with our clients?
Most clients do not have all the protection cover they need, but even if they do; their circumstances will change over the course of time and there will be things that need to be addressed.
My top tip is to normalize this process. Do it every time and again, be matter of fact about it. Explain that is how we do things here and it’s important that we keep in touch from time to time to review your protection plan. You can choose the frequency.
If you do this, you will have lots of appointments with existing clients in your diary each and every year.
4) What can we review?
Let’s think about urgent reasons to keep in touch with clients. What are the talking points we can review with them?
Well, let’s not include anything to do with the mortgage as that’s easy. That should definitely be a diary note with a future appointment lined up for when the mortgage deal ends.
But in terms of reviewing specifics around protection; how about:
- When new cover comes onto the market. Has there been a year since you have been doing this job where the protection products have stayed exactly the same? No, and the great news is products get better not worse. Why not review their existing cover and talk about new things on the market?
- Unaddressed Risks – what if a client just could not afford cover in a certain need area? For example; income protection. Is that worth a conversation again in the future?
- What about when your clients are starting a family or having more children? Is that worth a conversation. There is some great cover for children and sometimes this can be added to existing plans. Or you might want to review the cover to see if there is something much more suitable?
- Trusts – are you clients policies written into Trust? If not, can we look at this? If they are, do they need any updates? Trustees – are they all still alive and capable? Are they still local? What about the beneficiaries – are those wishes still the same?
There are lots of legitimate reasons to go back and see customers. Call it the ‘Protection Plan’ that you will work with them on over the course of time and it is the reason for your review meetings.
5) Assumptive questions
And my final top tip is around assumptive questions.
I am going to use home insurance as the main example here because this is an area we need to do better with as a network. And really, it should be very easy because it is a condition getting a mortgage.
If you look at the new sales aid questionnaire ‘Your home is at risk’; there is a question specifically about home insurance that says:
Insurance for your property is mandatory and a condition of your mortgage, but how important would it be to also include cover for your contents?
What is the assumptive question?
We’re saying that because building’s insurance is mandatory and a condition of your mortgage, you will be taking it out cover? We assume that is going to happen.
That then sets up the question to ask about whether they want to include contents cover.
Is that a bit cheeky? Maybe, but it is good way of getting to the point.
Clients need guidance – that is what advice is all about.
What other assumptive questions could you bring into your sales process?
Let’s say you’re talking about the various protection risks; ask which is your priority? What do you want to address first?
What is the assumption; the assumption is all of these are important to you, but which is your top priority to address?
Another great sales technique is to use assumptive close questions. This is where there is an assumptive in the question but you are also narrowing down the selection to help the customer make a decision.
For example, “what is the best day of the month for the direct debit to go out on”?
The assumption is that you will be buying the product, but what is the best day for you?
Or… the benefit from this product can either stay the same or it can increase each year; what would work best for you? Again, the assumption is they are going to take one of these but what is your preference regarding the level of cover? When they answer the question, they are not disagreeing with the idea of taking out the product.
One more… ask them for feedback and what they like best about the options you’ve spoken about? What are the most important things you want to have covered and included in your plan?
6) Refer to Real stories
Now this last sales idea again is very simple but it’s also very powerful… real or personal stories.
Jonathan Barnett from Mortgages to Go got in touch with me over the weekend about a story he read in the news this week.
I did see it myself and it’s tragic.
Its Jonnie Irwin who was one of the hosts of ‘A place in the sun’. He is suffering from stage 4 terminal cancer and he’s been told to get his affairs in order by his doctors. He is terminally ill.
He went public last week with his deep regret about not taking out critical illness.
He said that he initially had to hide his cancer diagnosis from Channel 4 because it was the only way he could continue to provide an income for his family.
Jonnie has a wife and 3 young children.
He says that with hindsight; it was a big mistake not to take out critical illness cover because that would have enabled him to stop working when he got diagnosed.
It’s heartbreaking for him and his family.
He understands the benefit of having cover in place but it’s too late to get any.
We’re not trying to frighten our clients or disturb them, but it’s about trying to help your clients see the risks and make sure they and their families are taken care of from a financial point of view.
You have a different vantage point to them. You will have dealt with claims and you’re more finely tuned to the likelihood of these things happening.
As I always say – you cannot stop bad things from happening, but you can put money on the table when your clients need it the most. That’s it.
Personal stories or relatable stories can get he point across. When you have experienced a client or a loved one suffer a serious illness or bereavement it can help you focus your own mind.
When you have seen either side of someone who was able to make a claim or someone who couldn’t because they didn’t have any cover; again, that can be a very powerful thing to help you get your point across.
Have a think about your sales process. Think about what you can improve and what you can add. What tweaks can you make? I’ve mapped out some simple ideas you might want to think about – will they work for you?
We want to get on the front foot in January to make next year better than this year. There will be challenges but also opportunities
We sometimes stop doing things that make us successful and sometimes we get into bad habits.
Have a think about your process over the holidays and think about 3 things you want to work on next year and if you do so – make it happen.
Shape of product updates next year
Now if you have been tuning into my protection updates each week you will appreciate that this protection update is number 51 of 2022. And if you take out the product updates whilst I took a week off on holiday, I have written 47 this year which all included an audio podcast and transcript.
That is quite a feat which I am quite proud of, but it’s unsustainable to commit to that every single week so we will be changing the format.
At the moment; my team publishes Protection updates from me, Private Medical Insurance updates from Amy, Equity Release Updates from Victoria, Mortgage Updates from Anita. Then we have newsflashes, company updates, compliance bulletins and more.
I appreciate that is a lot and we’re going to look at streamlining some of this content.
So, here is what you can expect next year.
Once a month starting towards the end of January; you will get a single ‘Products Monthly’ update.
This communication will have a series of buttons for each of the different product areas and that communication will go out to every adviser in the network.
If you press one of those buttons it will take you to a products page with that month’s content. But you’ll also be able to get to any of the other product updates by using the tabs which appear at the top of the screen.
The idea is to streamline the amount of content we send you but make the content better and easier to find.
And as far as the protection update is concerned; we will have provider podcasts once a month where they will talk about sales ideas all related to protection and you’ll also hear from me.
So watch this space and let me know what you think? You’ll see this in January and there will also be banner adverts on the adviser site to give you easy access to these updates.
So that’s it from me for 2022. It has been a really good year for protection but there are lots more opportunities so here’s looking forward to 2023!
Have a great holidays all with your families and loved ones.
See you in the new year!
