Sales Ideas That Work

By David Appel, Gregory B. Gagne, Jeff Fleischman and Edward C. Auble

David Appel, CLU, ChFC, AEP, is with Appel Insurance Advisors, LLC, in Newton, Mass. Appel can be reached at 617- 332-7900 or at david@appeladvisors.com

My practice thrives on a consistent flow of qualified referrals. They pour into my practice without my asking for them. Here are a few ideas you can use to market yourself and turn your civic, charitable and professional contacts into your own personal business ambassadors and referral centers.

• Create and use business ambassadors. Do people in your immediate circle really understand what you do for a living? To make sure they do, create business ambassadors in your community. You need your friends, neighbors, clients, clergy and local businesspeople to know exactly what you do for a living, not just have an idea of what you do. Your business ambassadors need to be able to project a vision of your business to a stranger in way that will cause that stranger to seek you out and want to do business with you.

When speaking to your business ambassador about what you do, be proud to tell them what you do and say so with soul and conviction. Potential prospects and other advisors will feel secure if you show them that you are emotionally tied to what you do and that you are proud of your profession.

• Make good use of events you attend. You should always accept invitations to attend communal, spiritual or charitable events if you can fit them into your schedule and they don’t have adverse consequences for your family.

To make these events even more productive, review your invitations for any board members, hosts or event committee chairs you have been interested in targeting for business. Research these individuals carefully before the event and make mental notes. Then when you are at the event, introduce yourself to them in a wellthought-out and effective manner. Ask questions about life and try to create links between them and the people you know. Creating value before they even know what you do is powerful.

You can then begin the storytelling process, creating emotional stories about what you do, how you have changed lives, or what you have witnessed with proper planning. By taking the wheel, you can take control of the situation and put yourself in the driver’s seat.

Also, don’t give out your business card at these events. Instead, get contact information of those you meet so that you can reach out to them. If you hand out our card, you will wait forever for a prospect who may never contact you.

When you start prospecting in this manner, you move from being a hunter to a trapper. While a hunter shoots many times, misses often, and hits very few, a trapper can decide who they are going to do business with and when; therefore, their hit-to-miss ratio is substantially higher. All of us will be more productive advisors if we learn to become consistent trappers.

• Do well by doing good deeds. You will do well in your practice by doing some good, and your involvement in charitable organizations, if managed correctly, can help you grow your business exponentially. By becoming involved with a charity that you passionately believe in, potential prospects will see you in a new light.

To be successful, however, you need to find a charity you feel strongly about—one that fulfills a personal goal of yours. If you get involved for the right reasons, eventually, business will come. Philanthropists always know if an individual is there to support the cause or work the crowd.

Charitable organizations look for wealth, wisdom and work from each lay member who gets involved.

I have found that to be successful in an organization, you must possess at least two of these three criteria. If you are a young advisor, work on the “work and wisdom” piece—the monetary part will come later. If you are a veteran, give until it feels good. Regardless of your financial situation, it is critical that you get involved and try to take on a leadership role. When you take

Gregory B. Gagne, ChFC, is with Affinity Investment Group, LLC, in Exeter, New Hampshire. Contact him at 603-778-6436 or at www.affinityinvestmentgroup.com .

• Here is how to get your client or prospect’s attention. If you find it difficult at times to get your clients to focus on what you are trying to tell them, here is a script that might help:

“Mr. Client. Have you ever taught someone how to drive a car? Or do you perhaps remember the first time you drove? Where did the new driver look?

After you ask these questions, give your client some time to respond and then continue:

“Typically, a new driver is focused on looking right over the hood of the car right in front of them. Sometimes you need to put on the high beams and look down the road to see what is ahead of you. This is how we help our clients plan for life’s uncertainties by helping them look down the road to see what their dangers are and where opportunities might be. Does that make sense to you?”

After saying these words, you can proceed with explaining what they should do to prepare for the long haul.

Jeff Fleischman is Penn Mutual’s senior vice president, chief marketing and digital officer. He is responsible for overseeing Penn Mutual’s corporate branding, marketing programs, market research, conferences and recognition, corporate communications and interactive marketing. For more information, visit www.pennmutual.com

• To bolster your brand, think outside the box. On the surface, it may seem like The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company and the sport of rugby have little in common. However, there are a number of parallels between the two, and our unlikely marriage has helped take our brand awareness, talent on a leadership position in an organization and you excel, people will take notice of you and will want you to work just as hard for them on their investments, taxes, legal work and insurance. The volunteers and philanthropists involved are already disposed to like you as a person, and you can begin marketing in that organization from the inside out.

• Here is how to explain investing in difficult markets. The following script will help make it easier for your client to understand the concept of investing in difficult markets.

“Mr. Client. The stock market is really much like the ocean tide. What I mean is: When was the last time you were at the ocean and watched the tide go out and never come back?”

After this question, give him some time to answer, and then continue:

“Exactly. The ocean tide has always come back, and since the inception of the stock market until today, the market has always come back too. Some people think “getting out of the market” is the right thing to do during a steep decline. We do not suggest this. You see, when the storm comes, you need to batten down the hatches, not jump ship! Make your portfolio like an all-weather boat designed to ride through the storms of the market, and do not “jump ship” during a downturn. When the storm is gone and when the tide comes back, your boat will once again rise with the tide.” recruitment and client prospecting to the next level.

We initially engaged the rugby community by becoming the title sponsor of the Collegiate Rugby Championship and Varsity Cup in 2015. Since then, our company became a sponsor of the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) as well as The Rugby Business Network, a not-for-profit organization for senior business leaders with a passion for rugby. We decided to partner with rugby because the sport’s values of teamwork, integrity, respect, and serving our communities align perfectly with the Penn Mutual brand and core philosophy.

Also, being one of the fastest growing life insurance companies in the U.S., it made perfect sense to sponsor the fastest growing team sport in the country. However, the primary deciding factor in partnering with rugby was its strong affinity with highly educated, affluent, teamoriented and loyal individuals—in other words, the same people we are looking to attract to our company.

Our sponsorship of the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship, the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup, NSCRO and The Rugby Business Network has put us directly in front of our targeted demographics and allowed us to build countless meaningful relationships.

These relationships have not only bolstered brand presence, they have significantly boosted our talent recruitment and client prospecting as well. Before the rugby sponsorship, the Penn Mutual brand was yet to be taken to the national scale. Today, we have a brand that is growing nationally in recognition and respect. I have no doubt a similar sponsorship could do wonders for other businesses. But when thinking about sponsoring a sport as we have, I encourage firms to first align their sponsorship goals and objectives to their business priorities. Is it to bolster your brand, meet client prospects or recruit new talent? For us, we wanted to accomplish all three, and we are lucky to have found great partners that allow us to do so. protect him now, protect increased earnings, and protect him should he change employers or opt to establish his own practice.

• Always remember to fight for your clients. After all, underwriters are human, too. Recently, a client, Tom, approached me about reviewing his disability insurance.

Some years ago, I had provided him with a policy that has a $2,000 monthly benefit. Since then, he had become an attorney and had just joined a major corporation where his initial salary was $100,000 a year. The corporation offered a typical group, long-term disability plan, 60 percent to a maximum monthly benefit of $20,000. What was not typical was that the plan was voluntary, fully employee-paid.

Tom needed another $3,000 monthly benefit to protect his income. I proposed an additional $3,000 individual disability with $6,000 future benefit option. This would

The problem: Why would the underwriter approve the individual application when they knew that the applicant could “double-dip” by subsequently adding $5,000 monthly of employer-provided voluntary plan?

The individual policy was to include an amendment, which said, essentially, that any benefit from the individual policy would be reduced dollar-for-dollar by any benefit paid by the voluntary plan.

We impressed upon the underwriter that my client had no interest in being covered by both plans. The amendment was changed to indicate that the applicant had no intention of enrolling in the voluntary plan now, but he might do so in the future. And there was no mention about a benefit offset. The individual plan was approved.