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Life Health > Life Insurance

Bullet proof your business

By Michael Zmistowski

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Quick sales are not the preferred outcome today with increasing post-investment-stress litigation. The preferred outcome – sales that continue to satisfy clients while building loyalty.

We are all participants in the great financial game called Life. For many people, fear and financial anxiety prevent them from employing the smart strategies that lead to building personal wealth and financial freedom. When you help clients overcome their fears, you will be a long-term winner with short-term satisfaction all along the course.

Baby boomers are unlike any subset of elders we have encountered. Our elders were reluctant to sue, reticent to shift the blame away from their own responsibility, and less informed than the boomers itching to be the new, improved seniors. Boomers will be very informed, anxious to shift all blame onto you and eager to sue whoever has the deepest pockets, or, for that matter, any pockets at all. The increasing dangers of litigation and arbitration are enormous. Strategies, plans and prescribed actions mitigate the customer’s negativity towards quick and easy sales. You never had a date with someone who liked being taken for ‘quick and easy.’ Why should customers feel differently? Thoughtful sales that satisfy short- and long-term goals build client loyalty – your clients’ loyalty to you.

The boomer generation tends to think “sales” is synonymous with being sold a bill of goods. What we sell in this profession are relationships, not stuff. In the minds of boomers, the Internet has reduced the need for a salesman. The need for financial advisors has grown because people, and boomers in particular, need advice. As financial advisors, we position clients to live the life they want, on their terms. “Positioning,” then, becomes the operative word.

Positioning is all about leveraging what you’ve got to get the most out of it. It can be done with money, attitudes, investments, legal arrangements, risk-avoidance vehicles and, importantly, with retirement income management. Leverage can be applied through proper use of resources, selective asset distributions, effective tax management strategies, life insurance settlements, and through annuities and long-term care. It can even be applied through medical insurance in much the same way that leverage is used with homeowners insurance, auto insurance and personal liability coverage. With all this in mind, we begin the newer rules of the game geared to sales that satisfy the client’s needs, lead to long term relationships and bullet proof your business.

Michael Zmistowski, RFC, is president of First Gulf Advisors, where his specialty is retirement income planning. He can be reached at [email protected].

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