It’s incredible to think that the life insurance product we sell today has been around since the days of the Roman empire, back when long-haired guys named Caius existed as real people and not as part of the cast of Twilight.
Folklore is that around 100 BC, Caius Marius started a burial club for his military troops to help cover the cost of burial and to provide support for surviving family members. Of course, the concept of death benefits and insurance in general have evolved significantly over time, and today our complicated lives demand much more complex products. But, while the complexities of life insurance products have grown over time, one constant has remained: In order to sell, you need customers.
Back in Caius’s day, if a merchant wanted to sell something, he went to the market and set up shop, always in the same spot. He probably called out the same pitch to every customer passing by, attracting their eyes and ears to his product for sale. He did this day after day just to establish himself as the go-to guy for that product with those customers.
Starting to sound familiar? He was building a brand for his product-a reliable, identifiable brand. Most importantly, he was selling it where his customers could easily find him.
Selling today isn’t very different. What has really changed is the way we buy things.
I don’t usually write articles in the first person, but I’m making an exception this time because “we” really is the appropriate pronoun here-we do this. We shop online. We expect the things we need to be available at the click of a button, or the tap of a thumb. Thus, the question every life insurance agent needs to ask himself today is: “Why should selling to my customers be any different?”
In order to sell our products and services, we must be where the eyes and ears of our customers are, and more of today’s customers are on social media. It’s why it’s important we as businesses have an online presence and advertise our services to potential customers. It’s why there are sites like GetViral that let people buy followers online and other alternative sites like this one https://growthoid.com/getviral-alternative/ that grow your follower count in an organic way. It’s why, whether we like it or not, sales and marketing can no longer work without social media.
I know the words “social media” make a lot of folks in the financial services industry nervous. There are a lot of common fears about social media in our industry. Oftentimes, they stem from a belief that the way we communicated or sold in the past will continue to work in the future, no matter how the world around us changes. If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it, right?
This view is a little idealistic when we take into account that life insurance sales are the lowest they’ve been since World War II.1 First smoke signals, then telegrams disappeared when newer, faster modes of communication developed. So, too, must we change the way we communicate to customers-even if we don’t like it.
As the saying from Star Trek: The Next Generation goes, “Resistance is futile.” You might not like smartphones on the dinner table or the need for young people today to so openly share their lives on Facebook, but how you feel about it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Smartphone usage is bound to grow and as of now, about 1.5 billion smartphones are sold each year around the world. People rely on this device extensively; from scheduling their morning alarms to booking a cab ride.
Bottom line: A cultural shift is happening, no matter who objects. Embrace these moments as opportunities to connect with customers.
People today send buying signals in a more public way than ever before. Your customers are on social media broadcasting life events like marriage, new children and job changes.
As an experiment, try a quick Twitter hashtag, searching for “#itsaboy.” You will see hundreds of people tweeting about their newborn sons, grandsons and nephews. If you want to, you can narrow it down by geographic location.
Short of hanging around a maternity ward, there’s probably no faster way to get the information that a potential client has just had a baby.
Striking up conversations by tweeting a congratulatory message back, or commenting on the cute baby, is not seen as intrusive. Actually, in the “Twitterverse,” interaction like that is welcome. But the conversation can’t stop there. Keep it alive by following up with the new parents, sending them valuable information about how to save money, or personal parenting tips you may have.
Whether this happens on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or any social media platform, the point is to build trust, value and your brand. Once you have a relationship established, you can take it offline and go for the sale.
Social media searches are free and simple, and they produce results-your target audience. Find small business owners, newlyweds, recent college graduates-you name it, they’re probably on social media. If you don’t find them and engage them there, your competition will.
Other anxieties I hear most often have to do with regulatory concerns. Let me set your mind at ease there by saying that you should never pitch product to consumers on social media. You should be building relationships and providing value to their lives.
When you first meet a potential client, do you start talking about index options and interest rates? It is entirely possible to sell on social media without ever mentioning products. Instead, sell your personal brand. Sell your knowledge, your experience, and your ability and passion for helping those around you.
Yes, you should educate yourself on your broker’s social media policy. But fearing the rules shouldn’t stop you from learning how to work within them. FINRA has published guidance on Social Networking Websites and Business Communications under Regulatory Notice 10-06-look it up and follow it (www.finra.org). Regulators are trying very hard to work with the social media current, not against it. So should you.
I recently saw a public pay phone in the subway and, feeling a little nostalgic, I took a picture of it with my smartphone and posted it on Facebook, asking, “How long has it been since you have used one of these?” The responses were not surprising. Though people still talk on the phone every day, they have new ways of doing it. It is imperative that we accept the same reality about the consumer’s path to purchasing today.
According to LIMRA, eight in ten2 consumers conduct online research before buying life insurance and most take financial advice from either financial professionals or friends and family. Simply having a social media presence, through the powerful word-of-mouth nature of social media, means opening the door to an exponentially wider range of potential new customers or referrals.
After the Great Recession, trust in financial institutions is still low. In fact, according to the most recent Edelmen Trust Barometer report, financial services and banking remain the least trusted industries in the world.3 Today, people want to connect with people, not companies. So, not only will customers shop online, they’ll also want to find out who you are before they do business with you.
What will they find when they search for you-the old pay phone deep down in the subway, or the smartphone they’ve come to expect?
Whether we like it or not, the path to purchasing has permanently shifted. Educate yourself on the technology, the strategies, and the regulations surrounding social media and lead the purchasing path directly to your door.
Footnotes:
?1.?”Household Trends in U.S. Life Insurance Ownership.” (2010) LIMRA.
?2.?Denley, Norah. Mitchel, James O. “2012 Insurance Barometer Study.” (2012) LIMRA.
?3.?”Edelman Trust Barometer: 2013 Annual Global Study.” (2013) Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/EdelmanInsights/global-deck-2013-edelman-trust-barometer-16086761/9
The opinions and ideas expressed in this article are those of the individual author and not of Sammons Financial Group Member Companies.
