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November 24, 2010 at 07:00 PM
When it comes to new sales, 2010 has been my worst year ever; up until now, my sales have increased every year since 1990.
It feels like I must be doing something wrong – but I’m not.
When interest rates and the stock market fell, portfolios tanked, and the front page of nearly each day’s paper covered huge budget shortfalls, I was confident that people would finally connect the dots, and that LTCI sales would boom. I fantasized about never hearing the “I’ll just self-insure” excuse again. In reality, the opposite happened, and my sales actually slowed down for the first time in 20 years.
I overlooked the fact that people under stress are not logical. As fear takes over their lives, they can become irrational. Under these circumstances, they don’t want facts, no matter how obvious and well publicized, to interfere with their procrastination and denial.
Two years ago, my phone would ring about once a week with referrals who knew they wanted and needed LTCI, and knew they wanted to buy it from me. This is not happening as often anymore.
I need to re-invent my marketing efforts.
What’s the next big thing?
In May of this year, I attended Phyllis Shelton’s Worksite and Combo Products Conference. This conference helped me figure out how I will re-invent and revamp my LTCI marketing efforts.
Since consumers appear to be seized with fear, causing fewer to spend money – any money – even on something essential, responsible, and appropriate like LTCI, advisors will need to figure out how to use the same amount of time to reach more people.
According to Shelton, The Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 National Compensation Survey reports only 6 percent of employees in firms with fewer than 100 employees, and 24 percent of 100-plus-employee firms, have access to LTCI.
Within a short period of time, the source of new LTCI sales has shifted to the workplace half of the time.
