Anchoring conversations to clients maintaining their long term life goals can dramatically increase the amount of protection cover advisers write.
This is according to the Protection Coach, Matt Chapman, who challenged advisers at ProtectX9 to demonstrate what protection is worth rather than what it costs.
He argued that talking about consequences can make all the difference with one brokerage he works with increasing their full term income protection penetration sales by 2,500% by taking such an approach.
True value
Chapman told delegates that while the industry talks a lot about penetration rates, conversion figures and even premiums, value doesn’t exist in those numbers alone.
“Value exists in the moment when a family gets to keep their home after a significant loss,” Chapman said.
“Value exists when a father battling cancer can still provide for his kids.
“Value is when a business owner suffering a stroke can still retire on their own terms.
“Yet too often protection is treated as a bolt-on solution, an afterthought to mortgages and even wealth planning – something to sell.
“When we start focusing on the product and we start focusing on the human being sat in front of us, everything begins to change.”
Shifting the conversation
In terms of shifting the conversation, Chapman maintained advisers need to talk about the potential of policies.
“We stop talking about cost and we start talking about consequences,” Chapman continued.
“Because nobody comes to us for a mortgage, they come to us for a home.
“Nobody invests just to see their numbers grow, they invest to build a future, a strong financial future.
“And if we position protection as the foundation of their financial success, then the conversation isn’t about whether they want protection, it’s about whether they want to protect the future that they are working so hard to create.”
By doing this, Chapman said advisers can align protection with their client’s personal success.
“Clients don’t see protection as an expense anymore,” Chapman added.
“They see it as an investment in their financial freedom.
“Advisers don’t feel like sales people anymore.
“They become true experts – guiding their clients towards their goals and objections? They disappear because value becomes undeniable.”
The proof
But Chapman added that this approach also delivers real results for advisers.
“I’ve coached advisers who once struggled with protection, who saw the hard sell, who saw it as a very uncomfortable conversation with their customer.” Chapman said.
“And when they shifted their approach? One brokerage that I worked with increased their full term income protection penetration sales by 2,500% simply by adding more value to anchoring protection back to the client’s long term goals.”
But this was not the only example Chapman cited.
“A team of mortgage and protection advisers that I worked with went from struggling with protection to writing more business in two months than they had in the previous 12 combined – simply by connecting the need for protection back to their client’s ability to get and keep their desired home,” he continued.
“A mortgage adviser who barely saw protection alongside the recommendations started producing the best average premiums I’ve ever seen by building comprehensive financial resilience packages for their clients structured around their life goals – all while delivering better outcomes for all parties.
“And these results? They weren’t delivered by selling harder. They were driven by advising better. Focusing on value.”
