Ideas for your 2013 business planning

So we've provided you the template for a calendar of events to input into your 2013 business planning.

There's even a short YouTube posting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbbQzW-flB4

Apologies for the angle we filmed that on!!!

But what are the events that you might consider?

Here's a few that we'll investigate individually for you over the following weeks but as a starter.

Ideas For 2013

1) Accountant / COI engagement : thank you event or kick start to new referral sources / or the year : take on a more social angle but highlighting the importance of the relationship and collaboration


2) Accountant / COI education session : use a business succession lawyer and educate on small business issues and case studies / add a claims case study : now you've got them thinking!

3) Client night: value add with speakers / topics that your top clients will find engaging : ask them to bring a friend : tie it into building their networks as well

4) Client communications : create an integrated communication campaign : incorporating all modes of communication: direct mail / flyers / social media : yes you might start listening via social networks : answer topical issues : create awareness : fulfil a need

5) Engage your trusted providers/suppliers for collaboration on client opportunity identification ie: work on files together and get the best outcome for your clients : that may not always be your number one provider so you have to trust whomever you collaborate with to give you honest assessments! Examples: look at specific subsets eg: SMSF and design ways to get more of these clients etc etc.

6) Use tele-underwriting and save up to 4 hours per application (get a day back a week!)
Look at group insurance opportunities in your client base

7) Look at adding a direct insurance offer on your website

8) Meet and spend time with your suppliers/product providers : do they run in house sessions where you can meet, engage and interact with your providers : do they have special events to engage : the more they know about your business the more creative suggestions and help you will / should get.......so share your 2013 vision and watch people line up to make it a reality for you.

We'll investigate each of these for you over the coming weeks.

Link To Planning Template

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oikvyuvp10cvbo0/BusinessPlanDiary.docx

Business Plan Template : A Guide to Pro-Active Client Engagement

So the end of the year is nigh and if you are really serious about making 2013 a success, then it is highly likely that you have already thought about your key client engagement plans for next year and quite possibly planned out the first three months of 2013.

No?

What are you waiting for??!!!

Imagine ending 2012 knowing exactly what the next twelve months looked like from a client engagement point of view in regard to a series of set plays.

Activity and responsiveness are of course key, but having a structured plan to support your day to day, business as usual activity can provide a clarity and preparation that your competitors just have not got around to doing.

The attached template is not an answer to your client engagement dreams but what it is, is a simple yet powerful tool to illustrate just how well planned your year is, or conversely highlights that your client engagement planning is not up to scratch.

So in 2013 give yourself, your team and your clients the gift of leadership, pro-activity and positive client experiences that will should you be disciplined enough to follow through deliver success in 2013.

You can access the template from the attached link.

#enjoy2013 How enjoyment, valued content and belief mark success in 2013

In reviewing the year there is one thing that is evident.....it went really quickly!!

PCE struggled to reflect as is usually our daily discipline as the pace seemed to quicken especially in the second half.

As we breathe a collective sigh of relief, the chance to regroup and reposition has given us our buzz word for 2013 : Enjoyment.

The key to our success in 2013 will be simply : enjoyment. Enjoying the process the engagement, the reflections, the interactions.

This then defines what content we want to share with clients. What is it that they will enjoy hearing about that will provide enjoyment in their business and to their clients.

Delivering such content with a process that we are currently mapping out then delivers the third aspect : belief.

How can we not succeed if we are enjoying what we are doing, delivering content that is adding value and changing positively the way our clients interact?

And make no mistake this translates to our personal world as well. Enjoyment of those around us, bringing value and genuiness to our interactions with all we come into contact with and belief in them and ourselves that we are shaping and defining something more than ourselves but we are part of something much more important than us in isolation : humanity.

So what are your plans #enjoy2013

Social Media Success for Financial Planning

We had a great conversation today with an adviser who posed the question : what have financial planning businesses done to be successful with social media and has that activity generated business?

We see many advisers who have dabbled.

They have a twitter account, Facebook - but it's not a business site more an extension of their social world and blended with clients often it's happened very much by accident, they have a linked in profile and sometimes they've written an article on financial planning and posted it on a company site and perhaps tweeted it.

Maybe they've been a little bit more advanced and using Hootesuite that blog has been tweeted and made its way to Facebook, where it's scored some likes.

What next?

The question: "what next" is actually the wrong question...."what should I do first" is the right way to go.

Lon Safko, The Fusion Marketing Bible, 2013, discusses the three major tools of social media, what he calls "the Trinity" - blogging, micro blogging and social networks.

Blogging is vital as not only does it improve SEO results but provided your content is what your desired audience values then you hit the mark as becoming someone trusted and regarded as a subject matter expert.

Directing people to your blog via Twitter espouses Safko, works provided you have great content and content that is original or adds value. Retweets and tweets about articles might provide information to your followers but for originality or interpretation and WIFM why wouldn't they go direct to the original authors?

Either by making your content original or actually writing an opinion piece on a topic that is relevant to your target audience that actually adds value by making it easier for them to understand a topic makes you ...useful....followable.

Finally all this activity is great but pointless unless you can generate a community that you can engage, share with, bond with, consult and learn about - then you don't have a base to build your business from.

So actually the first step is to decide ....who is your market? Where do they congregate? What do they follow? What are they interested in? What are the concerns they have?

It's about listening. In the Hypersocial Organisation, Gossieaux and Moran gave countless examples of corporations listening first to their target market before engaging successfully versus those who embarked on a social media strategy that was quickly seen as a marketing push.

Demonstrating that you care, understand, empathise and share similar values to your target market are critical factors in successfully engaging them to use your services.

It has to be genuine else it is easily seen through.

So the answer to the question posed?

Businesses in financial planning that have successfully used social media have:

- listened to what their clients and people like their clients want

- they have created original content based on those insights

- they have communicated that content via blogging and micro blogging

- they have engaged their followers via Facebook - appropriately separated from their personal page - and twitter

- they follow people who can add value to thier target market and to their own business

- they have engaged their followers by doing what social media is designed for : communicating and engaging

- they then have offered face to face group engagements on the topics that generate a buzz

- they have attracted friends of followers

- they are consequently seen as leaders, opinion leaders, subject matter experts....someone who can be trusted ......

- they collaborate and contribute


And by doing this they have built loyalty and their business.

Do you - have a claims service?

When the rubber hits the road - that promise - when your client first took out their policy for be it life, total disablement, critical illness (trauma cover) or income protection - that promise that sadly for your client now, they or their family need you to deliver on.

That worst case scenario now facing them, is your moment the true test of your business.

What do you do? What are you prepared to do? Are you prepared?

This can not be an administrative process. This is a human interaction that transcends your other client engagement protocols.

Are you prepared?

Do you have at your disposal :

- committed empathetic staff

- people trained to deal with grief

- a process of engagement

- a network of specialists: counsellors, physical therapists, builders, car services, food delivery, florists, child minders, caterers, doctors, handymen services, travel agents

- what can you deploy immediately to help your client with whatever they need

- can you anticipate and deliver

- do you want to?


And that last question is key.

Claims take an enormous commitment from an advice business. Complicated claims can focus the business on nothing else and so we can understand why some businesses are moving to a fee for service for claims management.

But what is claims management?

Is it simply getting the money to the client as quickly as possible?

Many would argue that yes that is the purpose.

For us that is the minimum. And if that is what you are planning on charging for.....well we want to say shame on you ....but we do get business...we've been there....we've experienced dealing with claims.....but we always wanted to do so much more.

To be that central hub, to organise all of the things our clients need to get better, to recover, to get through the grief, to deal with the loss, to share the time left with a loved one.

Our promise to clients is to provide the financial framework for them to live their dreams and to support that with a back up plan in the worst case scenario.

Should not then the promise be to deliver as many of those dreams as possible perhaps as merely being a facilitator - and sometimes being so much more.

What sort of claims service do you want to provide?

How to Sell Insurance For Children

Selling child trauma cover : an insurance option under a policy for a parent - that provides a payment should that child be diagnosed or suffer from a specific listed event must be a really hard thing to sell.

We have to believe that because we are told constantly by advisers that they find it a hard conversation to start with parents.

We have to believe that because when we look at the data : the number of policies that have child trauma attached is incredibly low : single digits in percentage terms.

Yet when we look at our own families surely we acknowledge that were anything to happen to our children we would as parents want to be there by their side.

We acknowledge that to be able to do that for however long their recovery takes will require financial adjustment.

We take out insurance on our children not to profit but to be able to fulfil the promise of parenthood - to be there for our children.

Why then is so little of it sold?

We have forgotten to share our values with our clients. And in doing so we have not connected to their values that are a mirror of ours. Of course they would want to be there for their children. It is the professional advisers job to facilitate that opportunity for them.

All that is required then is to share your values and beliefs and your action with a client.

An adviser dear to us, tells of how she sells child trauma insurance to every parent every time.

She tells them that if anything happened to her child she knows where she would rather be and she has arranged the method to allow that to happen.

Her clients acknowledge that choice as completely rational. They agree with it. They share that value and belief.

Why does this adviser do it? Because one day her daughter came home distraught that a school friend had been diagnosed with cancer. There was a physical and emotional battle about to start for that child and that family. There was also a financial battle.

For that reason this adviser tells her clients that she knows where she would want to be.

For that reason every recommendation includes child trauma. There is no need to go into micro detail about the policy.

The positioning is simply:

- tell the client what you have done for your own children and why
- they will agree with what you have done : sometimes with just a nod of agreement sometimes with an emphatic "oh yes, I'd want that too"
- then when you present your recommendation you simply say and I have included childrens trauma because I want you to be able to make the same choices I can make and so you can be there for your children too

At about $10 per $10,000 of cover, I do not know a parent who would opt out of covering their child for an appropriate level of cover at what amounts to essentially a cup of coffee a week per child.

Plan for 2013 - taking time out, to move ahead - power of mental replenishment

It's been a busy period for PCE and the to do list is longer than ever as plans are put in place for 2013.

The plans are expansive, ambitious and on first glance the biggest concern is how will we get all of this done?

Clearly careful structuring and utilisation of time are required. But critically PCE just needs to get it done - to be aggressive with action and push through any inertia slowing momentum.

In the run up though as PCE reflected on each day one thing was apparent - a demeanour that was stressed - hardly a positive disposition - the impact on PCE was palpable but the message that sends to clients is equally as destructive.

For the first time in 5 months then, PCE took a time out. It was a client event, but it was designed to take time out. The format was a pleasure cruise, a swim, good food and great company.

We laughed, took of our serious hats, talked some business but with a light heartedness that not only carried through the day but was taken home by PCE. Later that evening PCE quipped "Look I've had a hard day - I spent all day on a boat - I'm really tired" - and that brought the roar of laughter it was intended to from children and adults and the mood was infectious.

The lightness of being continued and as "so you think you can dance" screened, PCE performed an impromptu contemporary routine to the opening credits - all captured on an I Phone for future blackmailing.

What's my point?

You can not run at full speed all the time and expect your internal engine both mental and physical to operate without damage.

As Coach Carter says " a little gas....a little brake".....you have to be ready but replenishment of mind, body and spirit, provides that clarity of thought that actually provides for progress.

The Energy Project and their work " The Way We're Working Isn't Working" is all about replenishment and maximising working with your rhythms.

There is no sustainable rhythm to working in a highly stressed physical and mental state.

So as you plan for 2013 - take a pause - surround yourself with those in your business world who can contribute and support and collaborate with you in 2013 - but take business of the agenda - talk, laugh, share - and watch your mood and positivity for the year ahead move to the achievement zone.

The clarity you will obtain will make those plans sharper, the solutions clearer and the road ahead will in your mind straighten, flatten and seem increasingly achievable.

14 Steps to Sales Success in Financial Planning

Want the keys to sales success and achieve results such as 68% referral rate from you existing client bases and over a 90% close rate?

Want to find out how to write 80% of your future new business from your existing client base?

Follow these steps practised by the leading financial advice firms.

1) BE FOUND

Stand out in any search a prospective client makes.

Yellow pages, local business directories, online or word of mouth in a social circle.  

2) CREATE CLIENT CENTRED COLLATERAL TO ENGAGE CLIENTS WITH PRE FIRST APPOINTMENT

3) HAVE A WEBSITE THAT IS ENGAGING OFFERS VALUE AND CONNECTION TO YOUR CORE PROPOSITION

4) HAVE AN OFFICE SET UP THAT TELLS A POSITIVE STORY THAT YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR NICHE CLIENTS

5) BE ABLE TO SAY WHAT IT IS THAT YOU DO AND WHY

6) BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN AND DEMONSTRATE VISUALLY YOUR PROCESS

7) EXPLAIN THE STEPS IN THE PROCESS AND WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

8) HAVE AN ENGAGING AND DEEP CLIENT INFORMATION COLLECTION METHOD THAT COLLECTS MORE THAN JUST FINANCIAL DATA BUT COLLECTS DATA ON VALUES AND MOTIVATION

9) CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING BEFORE MOVING FORWARD

10) FOLLOW UP POST MEETING WITH A REASSURANCE PIECE

11) BRIEF YOUR STAFF WEEKLY ON THE CLIENTS AND PROSPECTS THAT WILL VISIT YOUR OFFICE AND WHY THEY ARE COMMING IN SO THEY CAN MANAGE CLIENT PSYCHOLOGY WITH SIMPLY A WARM AND RELEVANT WELCOME

12) MAKES SURE YOUR STATEMENT OF ADVICE SPEAKS TO THE CLIENTS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND WANTS

13) ENHANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE STATEMENT OF ADVICE BY USING VISUALS

14) CONNECT THE STRATEGY TO THE CLIENTS VALUES, BELIEFS, ATTITUDE AND MOTIVATIONS

High Performance Teams

So how good a team member are you? How good is your team?

Are you as good as the 1986 Giants?

The 1986 New York Giants season was one of the most successful seasons in the professional American football franchise's history.

The 1986 Giants had been ranked as one of the greatest NFL teams of all time by fans, and members of the media.It was this Giants team that popularized the practice of the "Gatorade shower", which entailed the players dousing members of the coaching staff with Gatorade near the end of a victorious game.

When we think of what the Giants had to overcome (first Superbowl in 30 years, and had come from an abysmal record only some three years earlier), they as a team and as individuals demonstrated:


- high level of trust
- defined roles and expectations
- set plays that played to individuals strengths 
- ability to honestly call a spade a spade 
- positive team talk before during and after 
- focus, vision, goals
- measure and positivity , game plan, calculated risk, open comms 

As Individuals they were:

- intrinsically motivated
- clear on how they attributed success and they had
- clearly defined goals.....constantly reviewed
- daily self assessment 
- driven by positive self talk 
- mindful of daily thankfulness 


How successful you are as an individual and as a team depends on how well you embody and develop some of these characteristics.

5 Steps to Success

It's been a couple of weeks since PCEs last post. There's been a bit of travel that has been a pre-occupation, some daily life activities that have needed attending to, some personal development and well being that took priority but what has occupied PCE most,in these two weeks has been the opportunity to meet and sit down with some masters of client engagement and personal success.

What the clear message is from these meetings is that success comes from doing what you love.

Joseph Campbell offered us the phrase "follow your bliss". Or more exactly If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

These businesses that PCE have met in the last two weeks are deliberately and methodically following and leading their clients into following their own bliss.

They have a process. They believe in it. They have developed it and honed it and adapted it to their personalities and the personalities of their client base.

At its core the process is simple:

1) Know and define what you want

2) Create a plan

3) Enlist the services of an action coach

4) Take action

5) Review and adjust

This is about being crystal clear on what it is that you want and creating a sequence and set of objectives in the form of a plan to get you where you want to be.

Having accountability and a guide is crucial.

You can apply this process to anything you do in life - anything that is important enough to you to apply considered thought and process to.

But for financial advice, wealth creation and protection businesses - building this into a client engagement process is by no means an easy proposition. What it requires is you living and experiencing your client service encounter and reflecting on how engaged you would be with your current process. Then answering the question - how would I like to be engaged.

Then follow the 5 steps above and make it a reality.

When you get to step 3 - maybe give PCE a call.

Believing in Unicorns - the power of purity of intent

The mythical unicorn. According to http://www.unicornleanmanufacturingchangemanagementservices.com/about-unicorns.htm

- unicorns are fierce yet good, a symbol of strength endurance and agility, perserverance, wisdom and playfulness, purity, love hope and majesty.

Further to find the unicorn again it is suggested we must unlearn old lessons, seek new paths, stop and listen to guidance and look deep within ourselves for the right answers.

For those in financial services, it is our role to guide our clients then to finding the unicorn meaning in their lives - to have our clients look at their journey, guide them along new paths to a desired destination and teach them to develop a vision that needs to come from deep within so that it satisfies their often unspoken needs.

Doing that ensures the connection between what a client really wants and what the design of the clients strategy to achieve needs to be. It provides our clients with the knowledge that empowers them to understand and recognise the effectiveness of the path that they choose.

Your advice in this process is then invaluable. Those advisers who connect with clients in this way are described by their clients in a way that transcends the advice piece itself. Clients of these advisers have the feeling that their advisers simply "get me" they understand them and their deep needs and motivations. These clients and the relationships they have with their advisers are ones of friendship, coach, guide, confidante.

This can't be delivered unless the adviser themselves embodies the unicorn spirit.

We talk now of "best interest" and what that means. More paperwork? A statement of intent? A promise? Best interest is a way of being.

Unicorn advisers are leaders who are fierce yet good, symbols of strength endurance and agility, perserverance, wisdom and playfulness, purity, love, hope and majesty.

These remarkable individuals have unlearnt old lessons, sought new paths, stopped and listened to guidance and have looked deep within themselves for the right answers.

They embody what it means to lead. They change people's lives for the better. And they reach far beyond their businesses into the wider community as they inspire and allow people to dream again.

The Power Of Great Stories #afaau AFA 2012

The AFA conference of 2012 wrapped up last night with all the glitter of a diamond encrusted satellite and the suspense and thrills of a car chase reminiscent of Diamonds Are Forever and Quantam of Solace as the James Bond theme added to the 10th anniversary of a celebration of quality advice and community.

The conference was at its core a celebration of an industry that often maligned by the media has as its essence the best interests of Australians always at the forefront of its mind.

There was not a session where the benefits for the client was not considered. There was not a session where peers did not share ideas, where stories were told.

It was in fact a celebration of great client stories.

This was embodied by the stories of the 6 finalists. Olivia Maragna, Jenny Brown, Michelle Tate-Lovery, David Clark, Mark Rando, Dennis Jones....take another collective bow.

Olivia : an inspiring leader, pro-bono work, support of orphanages and active with her peers

Jenny: an education junkie, a communicator and educator herself, a mentor and connector

Michelle: an educator and implementer and passionate advocate for the industry

David: the IT genius with the creation of a client engagement process, active in community and charity work

Mark: a mentor, advocate, presenter and fund raiser

Dennis: a process driven client engagement guru, demystifying the financial planning process

What enables these leading advisers to engage a clients whole person planning is that these advisers are themselves examples of whole person development. Self aware, charismatic, empathetic and highly emotionally intelligent these advisers embody the characteristics of leaders : true leaders who are leaders not because they have had created that mantle for themselves but they are leaders because people want to follow them.

Further they have at their disposal and they tell with candour, honesty, belief and conviction their own stories.

As a client, as a staff member, as industry peers as businesses you can't help but reciprocate.

May we look to these leaders and develop our stories and tell them with the passion that these individuals embody. If we do that, then this industry has a bright future and what comes with that is a better Australia : one of rich community ideals and values and where people take an active role in living well and looking after their families through the guidance offered by the value of financial advice.

I love financial advisers - but my mum would only do business with less than 5% of you

What?? Surely we're not discounting the service proposition and value of 95% of the industry.

No, not at all, but we are just reporting back why some clients don't do business with some of your industry peers.

Here's some reasons why.

1) She couldn't find you.

You didn't stand out in any search she made via : yellow pages, local business directories, online or word of mouth in her social circle. Just what social circle is that? Could be anything. Don't make assumptions, but rather what social circle would you want to be a topic of conversation within?

2) After making an appointment, the collateral you sent her (did you send any) was generic.

3) When she looked on your website (do you have one) she did not feel engaged or that you demonstrated that your proposition was exactly what she needed.

4) When she arrived at your office it just did not feel right. What does your office say about you?

5) Upon meeting you she did not get an understanding of why you do what you do and how you do it.

6) You didn't explain the process you use in an articulate, believable and professional manner.

7) She didn't understand what happens next.

8) The information gathering process was such that she didn't feel you understood her or that she understood you.

9) After the meeting she felt she'd agreed to something which she didn't really comprehend.

10) You didn't follow up with anything to reassure her in between the time from the first appointment to the date set for the next.

11) When she came back for the second meeting, your front of house staff did not make her feel like they realised this potential start of a significant advice relationship was a big deal for her. In fact she felt they did not remember Her at all.

12) The statement of advice looked impressive. It was in a folder! Her name was in it like maybe 40 times. She's pretty sure she knows who she is. Do you know who she is or is her name in it a lot to remind you?

13) She did not understand the statement of advice.

14) She could not make the connection between your recommendations and what she wanted to achieve.

She told you she needed to think about it.

Great Questions For Your Client Discovery Meeting

So recently we've written about initial client engagement and in particular how to engage clients with a difference even before you sit down with them.

We've also posted on YouTube at http://m.youtube.com/user/positiveclientengage

- a couple of videos about using mind maps with clients in the discovery process.

The key outcomes of course that we are looking for are:

- depth of knowledge of the clients circumstances that transcends pure numbers and data of the clients financial situation but leads you to truly understand the clients world

- which then allows you to become involved in that world and play your part

- that part is to assist the client live out what is important to them

If you can do that then that is true client engagement and service delivery. Clients will utilise your solutions and advice and pay for it and proudly refer you to their social circle because simply you have delivered with difference.

But to properly engage even using a mind map technique you need to be asking great questions.

Many people do this naturally - there is an innate and genuine curiosity that demonstrates respect and the understanding of another's point of view.

It's basic conversation. It's about the way you were brought up. It's about how you engaged your family around the dinner table. (do people do that anymore as a family??).

And therein lies the problem. Since 1992 as the internet began, we have started communicating differently.

There are some advice professionals who no nothing other than communicating via a portal rather than face to face.

So great conversations are not so natural today.

So what are the great questions?

It depends on you and if you have some of the ingredients of the above great listeners and communicators.

But essentially you need to be asking:

- what's the clients thought process around planning for their future
- what has that thought process brought up
- how do they feel about it
- how do they feel about areas of their life such as family, health, interests, hobbies, relationships, philanthropy, community, education, living circumstances, travel, over all well being, social circle, work,
- what's a life that is full look like to them
- what dreams are they missing out on
- what dreams are they living
- what dreams are they fearful of chasing
- what would they have missed out on if they don't take action
- how would they live if money was plentiful
- what would they change
- what if circumstances meant they needed to fast track plans for providing for their family
- have they done enough
- what does success look, feel, sound like
- how do you know when you're there


Great questions can not be forced or read out like a script. They need to evolve. It's a journey. Great questions are a great conversation. Great conversations start with a willingness to share and a great listener.

The Five Step Client Interview Process for Insurance and Financial Planning

So you have dazzled your prospective client with the customer experience they have just encountered when first entering your business. Now they are sitting across from you and the fun begins. What do the best businesses do to ensure what happens next: is fun, is differentiated, is highly engaging (for the client and the adviser) leads to 100% conversion from prospect to client and leads to obtaining client referrals at a rate of above 70%?

Essentially there are 5 things that these businesses do. They do them in sequence and as a part of a deliberate well thought out process. Further they advise their prospective clients sometimes well before the meeting itself that there is a defined process that they are going to take them through. Further these businesses have developed collateral be it corporate brochures or web site applications or information that defines what this process is.

The brilliance in what they are doing is first and foremost is that it is simple, second by doing this they tap into a vast array of positive client psychology techniques, third, because it is a defined process it can be taught to emerging advisers and front of house staff, fourth it can be articulated clearly and succinctly and best of all despite the simplicity the fifth point to note is that it is rare that a business works through all 5 elements and consequently it is highly differentiated.

The 5 step client interview process:

1) Engage your clients in the data collection process

This does not mean running laboriously through the fact find or similar data collection forms. This means a highly engaged genuinely curious inquisition into the clients world. This is best done using a formulaic method. Ideally visual, participative and a means to get the client talking about themselves. It's "going deep" with a client.

Best techniques and practitioners utilise mind map diagrams that go further than just assets and liabilities but cover much broader areas of a clients world.

How do you get clients to share that much information? Show them your mind map or family tree but the best practitioners start by outlining what it is that they have incorporated for themselves and then ask the prospect to reciprocate.

2) Ask great questions and set a benchmark for where the client is now and what the possibilities may be.

These are questions about lifestyle and other aspects that are non financial. It's about where else they have obtained advice and what was their experience. It's about hard questions about how they would live their life if time was limited or if money was no object.

Great questions take practice and take time to construct. PCE has created 4 questionnaires available via PCE for those interested. (yes website still under construction)

Further PCE have a benchmark tool to assess where a client sits now and where they will be after your advice.

3) Describe your methodology, for insurance sales, for choosing the right levels of cover. There are plenty of applications that work through clients scenarios, even i pad applications provided by life risk houses, and worksheets that PCE have developed. What's important is to highlight that there is a method and that all your clients go through this process and have positive results as a consequence : this is where the power of story telling about your clients comes into its own. And story telling is a critical element of step 3.

4) Use visuals to explain your suggested course of action. Be it words on a slide. A diagram about how it all fits together, what you need to do here is imprint in a clients mind the solidity of your solution. Flow charts work very well and if you can for example explain how packing insurance options works and will work for the client sitting in front of you by a visual method what stays with the client is not so much the product names and intracacies but rather that you have constructed (or will construct) something cohesive, relevant and understandable for them.

5) Describe the next steps : what is the application process / when will your recommendations be ready / what is the underwriting process and in doing so define the outcome that they will have which should be in the clients words and aligned to the objective that they want to achieve or that you have identified is a necessary component of their well being. Further provide them with an engagement pack that reassures them that they have made the right decision in choosing you. This will certainly have relevance when natural buyers remorse sets in. By having managed the psychology of the sale process during the appointment you have mitigated the natural thought process of the client and reassured them that what they experienced in your waiting room was genuine and that in a very short space of time the feeling that you understand them and are genuinely concerned about their well being. The WHY you are in business is powerful here. Make sure you tell them at this point why it is you do what you do.

Five Ways to Engage Clients Before They Sit Down In The Office

What do great businesses do to engage and educate clients before they have actually started the client discovery meeting?

They have at their disposal waiting room excellence.

In other words the client experience begins as the client enters the business premises. And by design rather than default these great businesses tap into client behaviour and emotion to educate and inform before the formal interview has even commenced.

How?

Follow these five steps and start your transformation.

Create a welcoming environment.

Like the PCE Assurance Letters, the waiting room environment is all about confirming to the client that they have made the right choice. This means that it needs to speak to the client needs that are in play. If you are pitching to senior executive clients a waiting room needs to evoke the environment they are accustomed to. The details right down to the magazine selection needs to be appropriate. If pitching to families a waiting room that is child friendly is a winner.

Your pitch to your prospective client that you understand them, starts in the waiting room. Create an environment that loud and clear announces that you know your market.

Have great front of house staff that can engage your clients.

This works because you can find out vital information about a clients decision making internal influences such as ...attitude, motivation, how they learn (do they watch the video screens, read the magazine, look at pictures in a brochure, read your business collateral?). Recently PCE were strongly engaged in two adviser waiting rooms. Once by a dynamic receptionist who was also studying law. PCE were quite put on their heels and certainly discovered there were some issues over and above what PCE were there to discuss that it was suddenly illuminated that this particular business could assist with. The second occasion PCE was struck by the smiles, the welcome, the conversation of two front of house staff.


Start educating and leading your clients.

Create and use focused and targeted collateral be it brochures, case studies, video that provides information about your business and what it is you do and why.

Importantly what is your process and what sort of clients have been through your process and succeeded. There are many ways to do this. Video, flow charts, client storyboards. What you are doing here is creating credibility that positive results happen for people who work with you.

Demonstrate the value you provide.

With the pressure you face from an ever increasing Competitive environment, differentiating your offer has never been as vital as it is now. To win you need to demonstrate that your offer transcends what else in out there. Easily done. Simply create a map/ a process/ a visual of all the things you do for clients and how broad your network is, in a way that clearly identifies that you can provide and facilitate a multi faceted solution for your clients and that you are the vital hub of their world.


Let them bond with you before they meet you.

How? Let them know you and who you are and who are the clients you've helped. You, your staff, your clients should be on display. This means visuals, photos, a library and other items that can make an emotional connection with your clients. What community contribution do you make? What about charity? What do you stand for and what is valued in your world that you are willing to share? By opening yourself up and displaying your values you will have as a result like attracting like and people bonding with you or at the worst people understanding and respecting your values and giving you the opportunity to reciprocate.

Waiting rooms.......not just for waiting.

Insurance Company Client Retention - how to retain clients and advisers

Some time ago the McKinsley Quarterly published work on limiting customer churn in insurance. Whilst the report looked at various types of insurance contracts across general and personal risk the learnings can and should be applied to the life market in Australia if not globally.

One of the interesting findings was that some companies suffered high departure rates despite reducing prices, highlighting that price and customer price sensitivity may not in fact be a pre-determining factor to a resultant high lapse rate.

First and foremost, customers of insurers have relatively low barriers to an exit. Secondly price is but one of several factors that sees a client depart.

McKinsey identified several factors within the insurers control that impacted on retention rates:

- Lack of service differential for clients with a high policy spend
- No service differential between older and younger clients with older clients less likely to stray
- Discounts to long term customers (who are less likely to leave) and thus a lack of focus on clients at threat
- misunderstanding the profitability of the client base in regard to the application of retention activity in that there is not adequate focus on the clients worth keeping
- Engagement of the adviser force
- Poor claims experience
- Poor service experiences

None of the above factors are adviser driven. They are all associated with the client experience and the service encounter. And most importantly the client for an insurer is not only the end policy holder but the adviser distribution force.

So what's important to advisers when it comes to insurance providers?

PCE are told by advisers:

- passing back of policy benefits to all policy holders
- consistent pricing
- underwriting relationships which encompasses the ease of collaboration and contact with underwriters
- fast efficient administration
- claims service and payment protocols
- value adds and true business development
- price

In short it's about being able to speak with your insurance provider representatives when you need to and long term sustainable relationships built on efficient service and empathetic claims delivery.

Are there instances where a shift from one insurer to another is adviser driven for the sole purpose of generating a commission payment to the adviser? Sure, and no set of protocols around restrictions to an advisers business model be it legislated or otherwise will stop those instances.

But would a risk adviser need to shift business from an organisation that provided solutions designed around a focus on a positive client and adviser experience in line with the areas discussed above? Never say never, but mostly likely the answer would be no.

Gen Y Clients and Staff - Gen Y bother?

There is something different about the Gen Y's.

They communicate in a different way compared to X'rs and Boomers.

Growing up in a post internet world they have adapted and adopted a different mode of communication that often does not translate to the workplace or in dealing with service professionals.

Rapport can be a series of abbreviations in a text message and not the rules of etiquette that PCE were taught.

The way Gen Y's have been brought also lends itself to them in general having a different view of how they should be treated in the workplace or in an advice relationship. Having had parents who during a period of increased wealth and productivity provided opportunity beyond that which they had experienced has led to a Gen Y stereotype of entitlement and neediness. How that translates into the workplace or in advice relationships is a need to be praised for doing what is expected and tailor made solutions.

What this leads to is from a Gen Y perspective is constant disappointment that the lofty expectations can not be met and this is observed as a lack of loyalty as a mobile thought process adopted by many Gen Y's leads them to believe that they can do it better sometimes simply because they know where to find the information and how to connect without regard for whether they actually have the skills to implement.

Is it all about them?

To a degree yes.

The expectations they have for success, for career, for remuneration and ongoing reward, for service are lofty and perhaps unrealistic in that they do not fit with defined structures and the operation of a corporate let alone a mutually beneficial long term advice relationship.

So are they worth the trouble?

They can be. But what PCE belives is that you need to look at it from a different angle. Forget age forget Gen Y, Gen X, Boomers.

Rather look at it from the perspective of how has this individual been brought up? What a their motives, their perceptions, their attitude and how do they learn.

From that you essentially find yourself with two groups - traditionalists and new age.

Traditionalists have been brought up with discipline and work ethic. New age can be seen as self centred but really it's a consequence of them being taught that there is an entitlement that their very being demands. The impact of this can be dramatically varied in our broad generalisation of Western humankind into two groups.

But what is true is that traditionalist will

- cooperate
- collaborate
- seek advice
- deliver on promises
- are true their word
- will accentuate the positives
- work hard
- are driven by intrinsic motivation

The new age will

- challenge
- seek autonomy
- seek information
- deliver on what they see as priorities
- are often non committal and seek contracts and written agreements
- look for shortcomings
- seek flexible work arrangements that fit in with their lifestyle
- driven by extrinsic motivation


What you need for your business culture if employing them and if seeking them as clients how you go about charging them appropriately without factoring in a long term relationship - are critical elements to consider.

How our clients brains stop them making rational decisions

So you've written a great plan, an insurance strategy that is relevant, appropriate and desperately needed by your prospect and yet.....the response is...I'm not sure, I need to think about it.

Maslow offers us some great guidance on motivation and drive.

We at PCE would love to accept that positive view of people that analogy that cream rises to the top that people really do try to be the best that they can be.

For us the one of the greatest examples of Maslow's hierarchy working is Chris Gardner;think Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness.

Chris's journey and struggle to be the best he could be was Maslow personified.

But Maslow does not fit when you think of a client walking away from a sound financial plan. Maslow does not explain why someone who has it all still wants more. Maslow can't explain why your COI having engaged you does not continue to provide referrals. Maslow does not explain why people make decisions that appear and probably are totally irrational.

How you understand what is going on in someone's mind and why they make the decisions they do is really the key to positive client engagement.

It's what this website/blog is all about. It's about being the best you can be and being self aware enough that you can engage clients with honesty and genuine curiosity and sincerity.

It's about emotional intelligence and it's application.

As Golemon writes in his groundbreaking work, in 1995, it's about knowing yourself, managing yours and your clients emotions, motivation and understanding motivation, recognising emotions and motivations in your clients, building relationships, maintaining relationships.

People's ability to do this differs and PCE is about developing tools to assist.

But heres the big tip. Ready?

If you want a client to go through a process with you.......do it yourself first.

Go through the PDS and full out your own application. Do a fact find on yourself. Mind map your world on a single page. Get underwritten. Walk through your business with your clients eyes. How do you feel about that policy loading, about some of the personal questions on the application....did you answer the honestly ...really?

What about that fact find process.....how'd it feel.....fake, false, like you were a number.

Draw your family tree......

Examine the way you shop. The last holiday you went on ....did you use a travel agent ...or did you go online......do you value advice when it's your business but diminish the value of advice when it's someone's elses business.

Do you walk the talk?

Do you believe in what you sell? Can you state why you do what you do? Do you know who it is that you help, what problems they have and what you do about it and what your clients feel about what it is that you do?

Our brains have evolved from a brain stem that kept us alive and to this day still regulates all that is automatic.

The other systems that evolved have at their core an emotional centre, the limbic system that receives all the information that bombards us each day and attaches emotional markers to it before our pre frontal cortex makes that decision that we hope is rational but that is driven by experience and acquired knowledge.

What is key here is the emotions that we assign to things, that drive us that shut down rationale thought when the feelings are strong enough.

So how well do you engage your clients on an emotional level? Really? A fact find? What are you doing in your business to really connect with clients?

If you can answer and articulate and demonstrate that then you are well ahead of the curve. And on the way to positive client engagement.

Social Media For Financial Services - What You Need To Know

With the Financial Standard launching a scholarship to support financial advisers who are taking the lead in social media, http://www.financialstandard.com.au/smileys
PCE thought it worthwhile to look at some of the aspects of success in social media community building.

As fans of Gossieuax and Moran and others such as Iggy Pintado, looking at their research and writings makes sense for any one grappling with how and what they should be doing to engage clients via social media.

1) People trust people in their tribe.

As humans we have simply not evolved to engage with businesses who deliver to us content embedded with jargon and that is positioned to us in a way that portrays why dealing with said businesses is a good choice for us. What really matters are stories shared with us around the campfire. In other words we look to people we know and we trust to give us green light signals about our purchasing options and choices.

2) Building relationships is predicated and successful only when there is reciprocity.

A bond between people or indeed between people and a corporation is only successful if the bond is mutual which means there needs to be some give and take. In a social media sense this means that in order to engage a community you as the business need to bring something of value to the conversation / to the community.

3) People want to hear, read, see, experience what other people say about you, your services, your service encounters that you deliver.

It however is more than the what you do. People want to know and understand the why. Why is it that others have chosen to work with you. Testimonials are not enough. True engagement that is required is the power of the open forum. In essence an ongoing and virtual conversation about why you do what you do.

4)Forget traditional segmenting.

The financial planning business who talks to us about A,B,C and D segmenting based on revenue should forget about social media marketing.

What needs to occur is a mind shift in your business so that you explore and think about your clients in terms of the communities or using Gossieaux and Morans language the tribes you have in your client base and which tribes within your client base and beyond you would like to engage with.

5) Become truly customer focussed.

This means you need to assess your client service encounters and reshape them so that It speaks to the interests of your core identified communities.

6) To do that you need to listen.

Where is the community that your business can engage with value congregating? What interests do they have? What forums do they engage in? What are they saying?

7) Throw out the rule book.

Easier said than done. This means getting the people in your business to allocate time, budget and resources to placing emphasis on social media strategies. This requires a single dedicated and senior person in you business (senior in regard to hierarchy not necessarily age!) responsible for the strategy. It requires time to spend in forums to respond in a consistent customer focussed manner with alignment to the goal of the business that is importantly something the business can deliver on.

But let's make it clear that you can't do any of the above without the business knowing who it is they want to deal with, what problems those people and people in that community have, what it is that the business does for those people and the results that are provided. This is essentially your raison d'être.

Without that you will sadly get lost in the socia media clouds.

The power of claims stories

Sales people are not all the same.

By that PCE means that not all sales people representing life risk providers and sales people within advice practices have the same skill sets.

Not all of them have as a dominant intelligence or capability : people skills.

Shocking!

But breathtakingly refreshing. Because as a consequence the fact that some intelligences are more dominant in some sales people than others means that these sales people bring different conversations to the table.

Do we as an industry want to have one dimensional expectations and profiles of our life risk representatives and our advice practitioners?

In a recent exercise observed by PCE, the intelligences of a sales team were measured and what we learnt highlighted the necessity to align the right sales person with the right panel of advisers or indeed for advice practitioners aligning the right adviser with the right subset of clients.

As an example, the salesy, buddy buddy, wheel and deal slick conversations were not the forte or in fact the skill set that was a dominant intelligence with one of the participants.

What proved to be more important was clear statements of facts delivered with selective story telling about one specific aspect of the life risk process : that being claims.

In itself that is not the best part of the story. What is, is the dedication and delivery of claims assistance, counsel and advice to the advice business when then were lodging and assisting a client with a claim.

What the individual concerned does in the delivery of the ultimate promised of life insurance ....the claims promise, is provide advocacy and support to advice businesses when they and their clients need it the most.

Telling those stories whilst not sexy, slick, and the modus operandi of your typical stereotypical sales person, is in PCEs opinion highly effective.

So next time you are making a judgement about the life risk representative who makes contact with your office, comes to see you and in fact the next time you assess your own client engagement take a moment to investigate if they and you know how to deliver on the promise of insurance : the claim process. How do they and you fare? And what would you prefer a sales professional who is slick and a closer or a sales person who is a client advocate and had the intelligences, skills and capabilities to deliver when you and your clients need it the most?

Why marketing campaigns don't work and what to do about it

What response rate are you getting from your financial services / life insurance mail out campaigns?

Be it letters, perhaps flyers, brochures, snazzy postcards with eye catching imagery - what is the success rate you get from either your existing client base or from leads from your centre of influence or even better your centre of influences client base that you are strategically attempting to tap into?

30% success?!!! 20%!? Not less than 15%? Less than 10? Don't tell me less than 5?

In PCEs experience businesses who use generic marketing material, perhaps sourced of he shelf from their product providers, experience a response rate of less than 5%. And this response rate is only the response of calls into the business or requests for more information. The actual real response rate and that is the conversion amounts to less than 2.5% of the original marketing sample.

At this response rate is it little wonder that most small business and even large financial planning firm baulk at the offer from product providers to run a marketing campaign. And the BDM with little else in their kit bag finds it difficult to continue the conversation.

What's wrong here is the misalignment of the marketing material and the client base. The generic messages in the content do not match the need of the prospects.

The analysis of the client base has just simply not been done.

The problem with this equation is the lack of knowledge about what to do about it.

The key is in the message and whether the message is framed to connect with the prospect in a certain way. Advocates of 4 drive theory understand that the curiosity of human beings is heightened enough to cause investigation of a new concept when the gap between the current understanding of an issue and the new information is of a medium variance.

That causes the prospect to drive towards finding more.

In other words we are talking about upwards of 30% response rates.

But most marketing material utilised either does one of two things : one : it does not identify the gap to be large enough and consequently there is no impetus for change OR two: the statement of the issue to be considered is so different to the prospects current situation or made to be so complex that it causes a fear reaction or a complete rejection on either theses grounds or on complexity.

What then is the answer?

It's all about:

- better data mining of the client bases
- smaller subsets
- tailored messages
- better information about the clients that enable the messages to be shaped accordingly
- more creativity with then message
- ultimately closing the gap between the clients current situation and the proposed solution to a point where it is large enough to drive curiosity and small enough for it to appear achievable

For now, think about the messages and material you send to your clients and prospects in your marketing campaigns.

Is it generic of the shelf material that you have sent to a broad set of clients and prospects?

If so .......don't expect a return on your postage spend.

If you want great results....contact PCE.

Techniques to get more information to win the sale

So the collected posts from PCE have at their core one objective and that is to have professional advisers in financial services engage more people with better skills and in doing so deliver solutions to more clients.

Those solutions take the form of insurance that provides peace of mind and money to families when it is needed most. Those solutions revolve around maximising the possibility that people live well and look after their families.

The key and the lessons of all of our posts is that in order to do this you need to gather more and better information about your prospects, your referral sources and your existing clients.

We at PCE have talked about and demonstrated how revisiting or discovering the theories of Maslow, Jung, Rogers, Nohria, Dilts, and building the learnings into your business in processes and engagement techniques can take you and your clients on the journey towards meeting the objective of positive client engagement and all the success and rewards that come with that.

How do you build it?

We have described in a lot of our posts methods of implementing techniques into your business and we have received feedback of how well it has worked for many businesses.

But to be truthful, these have just been snippets, ideas and conversations like proverbial paper napkin diagrams over coffee or better still a red or two.

The next step for PCE is packaging this for you. Making available the questions, the pro forma questionnaires that can take your business to another level and of course packaging all of the techniques into one cohesive flowing document.

That's exciting for PCE and we hope for you.

Till then as a teaser, how do you engage someone on their values and beliefs?

It's about great questions, centred around what Lawrence and Nohria’s theory focusses on that explains what humans want, as well as why they want those things.

We know from this that people love to:

Acquire

Bond

Learn

Defend

What questions can you design to find out what people want in these 4 areas and why?



2. If you want to succeed in business, it pays to understand what people want. Markets form around core human drives.

Why people buy from you

PCE has often written about how to enhance the buying process using positive psychology that taps into human motivation.

The ability to do this is reliant on your understanding of what drives human behaviour and in particular why it is that people connect with you and your offering.

PCE and others have written about the work of Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria whose theory on human behaviour can be adapted to the sales process in financial planning and especially insurance sales.

As a recap the theory suggests that humans have 4 insatiable drives being the drive ti acquire, to bond, to learn and to defend.

In financial planning and insurance solutions we have at our core a desire to help our clients and in fact meet these needs.

Success therefore should you subscribe to the theory is dependent on having a deep understanding of what it is that your clients truly identify with as needs and wants.

In the new world of financial planning and a future insurance world what people will buy from you is dependent on how deeply they feel that they need your services or your offer or your solutions when balanced against these drivers.

In fact the greater your ability to explore these motivational forces with your clients ergo the greater your success at positioning your solutions.

This then transcends the need for niche marketing or specialisation. Inter generational advice techniques become irrelevant along with the marketing materials to tap into and converse with multi generations.

Rather these needs and drives work across demographics of age, culture, sub culture and social class.

Skilled practitioners using these drives can predict human behaviour and hence anticipate needs into the future making sure that they are always one step ahead of their competitors.

In a new world of financial services such foresight is invaluable.

Most of all utilising and designing your business to tap into these drives does one very important thing. It allows you to connect and engage with your clients on a deeply emotional level. Not only a differentiator this emotional connection is incredibly important in decision making. Despite the temperament of the client the emotional feedback internally provided to the client becomes positive buying signals that drive rational decision making. Whether someone just feels right doing business with you or whether they feel it is a sound rationale decision the truth of the matter is they will buy from you because you have emotionally connected with them.

The way you've done it is by leading them to the path to either acquire, bond, learn or defend or better still......all of the four.

Doing the Placido Domingo - The things you can't take back : why first impressions count

I played chess with my son tonight. He's just learning so I let him get away with things. He makes a move, I say "really....you sure about that....take a moment...look around ...what might happen?". He stops, he thinks, he sees the potential outcomes and he says "oh I take it back, I take it back". And of course I let him. He rethinks and makes another, better move.

If only life was like that. If we got to see and live out the consequences of our actions but then be able to press the rewind button and "take it back" would we make better decisions? Would our learning be augmented?

Translating this into the world of financial services, our clients experience us making that first move. That move stays with them and it is something that we can't take back.

Sometimes that first move takes placed before we have even met our clients. The first move is they way the receptionist answered the phone when they first made their inquiry.

The first move is the look of our website, the information pack that arrives in the mail, the look of the carpark, the front door, the waiting area, the smile at the front desk, the coffee, the ornaments, the client testimonial book, the photos, the awards, the uniform, the music playing or not, the channel on the TV, the magazines in the stand, the flowers be they artificial or real.

It's the first handshake, the first words we utter.

What PCE are talking about here is because you do not get a second chance at a first impression then preparation matters. When Paul Keating in his address to the Canberra press gallery on 7 December 1990, talked about doing the Placido Domingo, his message was widely misconstrued and misquoted.

In paying tribute to Chris Higgins, Prime Minister Keating spoke about those people who when really serious about what it is that they are doing then they truly are a participant.

And to be a participant you need to master what it is that you do and be a performer. Each first impression is that opportunity to be on stage and shine knowing that because you can't "take it back" that you don't get second chances that you get up on stage prepared, polished, with experience with practice and with belief.

It is PCE's belief that there are unfortunately in this industry and many other service industries a few too many as Mr Keating pointed out "voyeurs".

For financial services this extends from financial planners, insurance agents, BDMs, executives and underwriters.

People who daily go through the motions. Who never replay back the moves, the decisions they have made, the way they have engaged with people and realise that they could have done it better and that yes indeed there is room for growth and improvement.

These people damage relationships irreparably and damage brands and the most important brand they damage is their own.

Go back to that chess board, have a look at the moves you've made. Reset the board. Try again, think ahead, practice, practice excellence, look at things from another's perspective and change those first moves into ones that are lasting positive impressions that build brands, build relationships and in this industry change lives.

Creating creative sales strategies

Fun Fridays! The day when your prep/grade one children get to run a muck dressing up and acting and having free run of the facilties and using every aspect of energy enthusiasm and spirit possible.

The art of learning in this environment delivers an experience that allows self discovery and importantly the ability to look at things from another persons point of view. Play acting or taking a part requiring one to step out of themselves comes easily to these children but eludes us adults restricted by the conventions of our workplace compared to the uninhibited playground of Fun Friday.

So the solution : create the fun Friday environment in your workplace.

First step in this is to recognise the strengths of the individual's in your team and then importantly recognise and document the valid learning experience required by each team member.

The exercises you need to then employ draw on De Bono and Gardener's multiple intelligences. This is where you need help and a professional to execute the programme.

The first step though starts with you and your willingness to take yourself and your team on a journey of discovery and have fun doing so. What you will find is new skills and a new way of looking at things with your clients your staff you and your business the beneficiaries as you further differentiate your client engagement.

Use the Whiteboard - Your Next Sales Presentation

So it's your first meeting with a new client. You need to get to the core of their very being - their dreams, hopes and aspirations and connect with them in a way that is memorable and that resonates with them to such a degree that they think when considering the options and perhaps weighing your services up against a competitors that it is you who understands them better that any prospective or current adviser.

How do you do that?

Is it the quality of the brochures you gave them? The luxuriousness of the couch in the waiting room. The way they were greeted by your front of house staff? The magazines in reception or perhaps it was your pure brilliance in the way you desicribed the multi-layered strategy you would put into place for them?

The reality is that is would and should be expected to be none of the above.

Now don't get us wrong you need a lot of the above to even be considered.

A professional air and the impression that you actually have a business that is successful and can afford a decent coffee machine not to mention decent staff are critical factors.

Your capabilities and a demonstration that you have catered for and helped clients exactly like them are non-negotiables.

The way you demonstrate that is therefore key.

So how do you communicate that to clients have different ways of receiving, perceiving and then relaying information?

By mapping out thought processes and strategy using a combination of words, pictures, and diagrams you are able to cater for different learning styles and create a live visual and text diagram of your prospective (or review) clients world.

Better still once you develop a template for yourself - share it with your clients as the example of what you will work through with them together......that's right....give them the pen and get them involved - drawing and COLLABORATING in your process.

Whose appointment will they remember?....yours or the adviser who asked them questions directly from a fact find document OR the adviser who seemed to have no process at all......not to mention instant coffee?

Creative Sales Engagement Through Disciplined Process

Is it possible to have a disciplined sales methodology and process and at the same time provide an environment of innovation and creativity.

At PCE we think the two go hand in hand.

By providing the boundaries and automation of process staff are empowered by understanding how the core of their required KPI's can be built into daily, weekly and monthly process - some of which can be automated, the balance of which becomes habit.

From there staff, you and your sales professionals, have the freedom, flexibility, well defined boundaries, empowerment and most importantly the time to be innovative.

So how do you create a process that leads to freedom and flexibility?

At PCE we believe it's all about communication and transparency and leadership by example.

A mechanism to communicate with clarity and transparency is a good old fashioned communication board.

Now let's get this straight - having worked in the boiler room environments of high performance and cut throat sales - we are not talking about a leader board that is fear driven.

Rather we are talking about a pulse board. A snapshot of the mood of your office, of the development plans for individuals. Yes it's also about results and activity that people have achieved and have committed to. This is an important component but it is also about what you as a leader of your sales team have delivered in removing hurdles for outperformance and what incremental improvements have been made in the previous week for example.

It's a mechanism for communicating success and for looking at what conversations and techniques the team will try in the next period (say for example over the next fortnight) in their sales conversations.

So very quickly this type of communication becomes not only a performance tracker but a performance monitor and a guide and mechanism to share ideas.

Most importantly having leaped over hurdles it allows for time out for ideas development. By allocating 20% of sales team time for them to innovate - after of course this type of board has been in operation for a period that you are comfortable that the right behaviours have been adopted - you give through a process the right and autonomy to be creative.

Creativity through disciplined process.

Leading the client relationship stakes

Watching Luke Nolan ease Black Caviar up and almost get pipped at the post got us thinking at PCE whether no matter how hard you've gone early is it right to ease up before the line in the interests of taking care of the workhorse(s) under you?

We think yes, a thousand times YES.

To become a business of choice that your clients seek out relies on your ability to develop your capabilities to transform the lives and perhaps the businesses of your clients.

To do that you need to have an unwaivering focus on relationships and continuous improvement schedules for yourself and the people in your team.

The differentiatior in business success is relationships.

Your ability to attract, engage and retain the right relationships is the ticket to the races where you compete to practically apply your product knowledge and strategy skills in a meaningful way articulating how these skills relate to a clients world NOT how they show relate to yours.

This way to play allows your business to be incredibly co-herent and in so doing positions you and your people for success. You are clear in your message about how you add value to your clients and your staff understand exactly how your business does that.

Whatever you decide your way to play is then requires you to develop the capabilities that deliver those promises.

The skills you build are paramount but nothing beats attitude, energy and follow up.

To foster an environment that thrives with the passion of this approach you need to foster story telling and sharing at every possibility with your team. These stories become part of your culture and become the "WHY" we do the things we do.

Further looking to develop your teams and individuals within the team so they can be subject matter experts creates the daily positive momentum that drives them towards that finish line in the relationship stakes.

But you can do none of this without process:

- a system for balancing and harnessing the energy of your team and for replenishment
- accountability for activity
- transparency in team actions including the leader
- a daily assessment of team dynamics
- visual reminders of the promises made by all team members
- the fostering of a high EI culture where mood assessment is an individual and team doctrine
- and a focus on the 1 percenters - all the simple things that you'd like to do for clients but never get the time........these are the differences between winning and losing so build a process and automate these small wins and watch the dramatically positive effect on staff moral and client WOW factor

So is is right to ease up before the finish line in one race to make sure that your team and you can sustain repeated excellence over time.

The way to do this is via individual development and the accentuation of positive re-inforcement and extrinsic motivation.

Critically it's about working within peoples daily and weekly rythyms and their lifestyle outside of work.

It is no surprise that the 5 BRW best places to work offered flexibilty and autonomy BUT matched with clear goals, clear reward systems and intermittent random acknowledgement to drive the positive emotions of staff towards the work itself and the clear defined goal oriented outcomes.

Why would a client pay a premium for something that isn't there? Reassuring your clients when buying your service

Marketing guides such as the work of Solomon et al (2011) remind us that services, such as the provision of financial planning services, have the characteristics of intangibility, inseparability and variability.

These characteristics create problems for the financial planning business wanting to engage clients and position as the solution of choice as well as charge a fee commensurate with the degree of work involved and the expertise of the service provider.

Why would a client pay a premium for something that isn't there?

How can a client assess that you have done a good job, when the outcome of your work (a plan for retirement in 20 years, a full insurance plan that is effected on the future passing of the sole breadwinner) is either a) many years into an ever increasingly uncertain future or b) something they really don't want to ever contemplate happening?!

The intangibility of the service that a financial planner provides means that customers can not see, touch, experience the "product" as they could with for example with a new flat screen TV. Further the inseparability of your service means that clients can not experience your services without being involved in the process which means they need to engage with you and your staff. The "moments of truth" in the delivery of financial planning services are a daily occurance.

And after all of that no matter your best intentions or the fact that you may be dealing with the same client and say performing the same task such as the annual review of their insurance or investment portfolio the performance of you and your staff will vary.

What can you do about this to reassure your clients but also importantly be even more different (than you already are if you have been following the tips from PCE) from your competitors in the provision of your financial planning services?

1) Dealing with the intangibility of insurance and financial planning.

Solution: Make it tangible.

You need to re-assure your clients about the service that you are about to provide. Visually, this starts with the look of your offices. How is it furnished? Decorations. Art-work. What's the quality of your logo, business cards, letterheads, corporate brochures? (oh....do you have one?). What about your staff? How are they dressed? How are you dressed? Do you look the part? Do they? Do you have a corporate uniform? Should you? What would it say about your business? Might give people the impression that you are here for the long haul. Might focus the client more on the business proposition and less on the individuals who make up the business.

And just where are your certificates, awards, press clippings (oh...do you have any of them?), white papers you have written (you've done one of those yes, positioning you as a specialist in your field of expertise?)...are they displayed in your offices?

What about that testimonial book? A dream board perhaps of your clients living out their dreams after the plans you put in place for them came to fruition. That's in the reception area yes?

And that website...that's a winner yes? You've got a video clip of you and your staff, there's lots of useful information, a place to sign up to more information that's of value, lots of tabs so people can find things easily, it's connected to your social media hub.

You in other words have a business that is well presented, and oozes credibility.


2) Dealing with the moments of truth


Solution: Train your staff on what is expected in delivering service to your clients and workshop with them what it is that you do and how it changes peoples lives for the better. Train them to appreciate the value of what it is that your business provides and then build systems and processes that allows them to efficiently deliver quality service.

This is harder than it looks and means a lot of work in process mapping and building a robust CRM.

3) Variability

And despite all this work you are just not going to be able to avoid things going wrong. So build your processes and follow them to try and standardise/industrialise what it is that you do, but take it as an opportunity when things go wrong. You can review your processes and you can deliver on your initial promise that you should make to your clients which is "this is what we will do if things go wrong...". It's a service promise and should be part of your initial pitch in your engagement letter before the client has even become a client.

And if you really want to test your services get a friend to test drive your staff and other like businesses and find out what you do well, what you can improve and what gaps you need to fill.


Do all of this and people will pay and pay a premium for something that isn't there.

Marketing to your client base - set your expectations!

So you've decided to run a sales campaign, promote a new product, re-engage your client base with a new service offer, re-launch your business with a family advice offer to tap into the intergenerational opportunity or simply try and sell more products into your client base and increase the number of connections your clients have with you.

Let's suppose for arguments sake that faced with an opt-in regime and the need to clearly articulate your services you've designed a unique proposition for your clients. Perhaps you plan to engage your clients differently even positively with things like a lifestyle questionnaire or a wealth index.

How many people will adopt this new paradigm of service?

Turn to marketing 101 and understand the adoption of innovations and understand your client base.

Innovators - are who you should aim to target first. These people are typically adventurous, better educated, younger than the norm and financially stable. Who are these clients in your data base? They will be small in number perhaps 2.5% of your clients.

Hence don't expect huge numbers to beat down a path to your door in these initial days.

But don't give up, the next segment you need to target are the early adopters. These people like to be socially accepted and your marketing needs to speak to that need so tailor your communications accordingly. It's worth it as these 13.5% will reap significant rewards for your efforts.

Next who in your data base are the middle class, deliberate and cautious clients, with above average education and income but need something that is proven - tried and tested. This is when you change your marketing message to use social proof that is tell them stories that this has worked well with clients you have already worked with.

This retake on your marketing - version 3 as it stands is worth the effort as typically they make up the next 34%.

So the messages you need:

version 1 - it's cuttng edge, new and a different way of doing things.

version 2 - this is working and there are opportunities to be part of it.

version 3 - this really works and we have proven results for you to examine.

So be it a new holistic way of engaging your clients. A cutting edge product or service. Or a relaunch of your business - tailoring your message and carefully selecting your targets from your client base not only works but is crucial to your success. Knowing what to expect as above will help you keep motivation to keep pushing ahead with your innovation!

More sales by connecting what you do with why you do it

This is one for the sales leaders. For the state managers, the heads of sales. The financial planning practice manager. The senior adviser. The team leader.

This is one for any one who leads or aspires to lead in a sales environment.....and yes financial planners and strategy solution coaches...that means you too....all sales people....trying to engage a client with an intangible....with a promise.

When we look at our teams we see people on different journeys who have come from different destinations and ended up in our team at our place of work. We induct them, some more in depth than others and we show them what it is that we do here. And some of them even get it. Others don't ...and it's really not their fault. Some do the same job for years and don't really understand at all how the company makes money and stays in business. They don't get how all the things that happen in the work place are interconnected.

They live in their silos ...the silo's mind you ...that leaders have created and maintain.

And then we ask them to share our vision, our goals, to work together to meet our objectives, our sales targets, to put the clients at the centre of their world, to practice stewardship and make customer focussed, commercially sensible decisions at the front line.

Yes, that'll work.

Well actually it won't but yet in our industry businesses operate like this every day and get by. They however are constantly on the look out for new opportunties for the next big idea, the clear water where they can get slightly ahead of the competition if only just for a quarter.

They spend money building new systems, new processes, new campaigns....new yes....innovations no....it's catch up in the donkey race.

Amabile and Kramer, The Progress Principle, HBR Press, 2011, write of their observations, study and findings discovering the essence of progress at work and its' connectedness to meaningful work. And there it is in all its' simplicity.

Progress can be achieved by connecting employees with meaningful work and celebrating the small daily progress that is achieved on the way to a goal.

What does this mean for an insurance providers sales team or for example a financial planning practice?

What it means is this:

1) do an audit of your staff - what in their own words does the business do?

2) what is their role in that objective?

3) what does it mean for the customer?

4) what are some of the daily hurdles that get in the way of their role?

5) what do they see as being daily wins that they feel proud of?


Now, you are not getting to get through to number 5 straight away. PCE thinks you might be talking about 1 for a while.

What's the pitch of what you do that all staff can embrace? And next and most importantly are they willing to walk that talk? Do they embody, practice and believe in the core promise of your business?

For insurance businesses it's pretty easy to work this one out. Do all your staff from front desk to admin, from claims staff to the sales team......do all of them have/or have discussed/planned for:

1) a comprehensive insurance package for themselves
2) a comprehensive insurance package for their significant other
3) insurance such as trauma cover for their children
4) for their siblings they know what cover is in place
5) for their parents they know there is adequate estate planning and powers of attorney
6) for their parents they know how aged care accomodation may be funded
7) for their friends they have encouraged and made sure they they speak to an adviser to get a plan in place for all the above

If the answer is yes to all of the above, then you have a leap ahead of your competition far more than any system upgrade will provide.

What you have at your disposal is a team that understands what it is that the business does and WHY the business does it. They have embraced it. They live it. They believe it. All they need to do now is bottle that story and deliver it to every prospect the business has.

And letting them do that ....that's your job...that's right...the leaders in the business....you need to get out of their way...and remove the hurdles in the way of letting these people shine.

People Don't Buy What They Don't Understand - The Future of The Life Insurance Industry

Without life insurance, without insurance that provides money for clients when they are sick or injured and can't work and without insurance that provides money for clients when they may never work again - families would and do struggle to meet their basic financial ends meet, let alone save money towards dreams hopes and ambitions.

Why is it then that Australia is one of the most underinsured nations in the world and from a consumer perspective insurance sales people have a tarnished image? And before PCE gets a steady stream of correspondence from insurance professionals disputing the image insurance sales people have...let us point out that.....the facts are irrefutable ...only 2 out of 10 people seek financial advice, insurance cover through superannuation funds is assessed to be 90% less than what is actually required, the estimated underinsurance amount is in premium terms $8billion dollars (Life Insurance In Australia Industry Report, April 2012, IBISWorld)

The fact of the matter is as Tim Stephen from IBISWorld points out, is that people do not buy what they do not understand.

The next 5 years could be a boom time for the industry. Growth is forecast at 8%. The big companies; AMP(AXA), NAB(MLC), CBA (Comminsure), ANZ(OnePath) look set to grow their market share even further perhaps gobbling up some smaller players.

But if the industry is to live out its promise - providing money to people when they need it most - the need to capture the hearts and minds of the consumer has never been more important especially as the industry competes with the allocation of household income that perversley when disposable income is readily available people feel less exposed to lifes risks.

The industry will also need to change its language to the consumer as superannuation funds compete strongly through offering insurance via superannuation accounts - despite the fact that the lack of advice from this channel leads to the exacerabation of the underinsurance problem.

So what's the answer?

IBIS point out and PCE agree, the the industry needs to improve the understanding that consumers have about life insurance - to decrease the complexity - to simplify the product and the process involved in getting insurance - and the industry must tailor the message and communication of all of this so that it actually means something - that there is a tie in to enabling customers to see how getting the right insurance cover actually contributes to the clients life ......everyday....not just when things go wrong.

Life insurers need to adopt new technologies to speak to consumers in multiple ways and to enable product tailoring to different client needs.

Rather that individual products, a life insurer could design packages that are labelled towards the clients life circumstances ......the "two kids and one parent at home" package....OK PCE hasn't worked on the name yet...but you get the drift.

But what is clear is that the industry will consolidate, cost cutting is required, jobs will be under pressure and we need a distribution effort that captures clients attention, is facilitated by professionals prepared to connect with clients and offer flexibility through simplified offerings.

But the main players perhaps are not as nimble or have the appetite to facilitate this change. They are all facing an environment requiring the securing their adviser distribution force and of running in the donkey race of product changes driven by rating house scores. This is by all means neccessary but delays what is really needed.....a new way of speaking to clients and new tools and products that replicate that new philosophy that can be used by advisers.

Can the nimble, distributionless, IFA dependant life insurance providers....the boutiques...actually lead the way?

Yes. To an extent they are far more advanced in providing the technology platforms that actually may speak in a way that is easier to engage a customer with. But they need to finish the job. They need to engage the adviser force differently, be bold with product design, engage customers directly in the education piece and create forums and listening posts with and for advisers and customers.

Flexibility will be key, technology neccessary and capturing customers and the insurance adviser distributions force attention wil be key ingredients for success.

Who's bold enough to say they have the passion and the vision to insure more Australians?

Successfully Engaging Centres of Influence - Slide Set

For the full presentation, Australian based personal risk insurance advisers can contact PCE. But here's a snippet for everyone.

Is strategy advice the key to successful centre of influence engagement?

So select your COI targets carefully.

And match them to your ideal clients.

As an example maybe your ideal clients are like these?

Build and be ready to articulate your capabilities and pitch.

Tailor your pitch to something that suits your style.

Then deliver to your chosen COI.

Finally use PCE tools such as the Wealth Management Index and Client Lifestyle Questionnaire to give the relationship with your COI ongoing life.