Selling It As A Planning Benefit In The Business Market

Assuming you are properly trained to thoroughly discuss the LTC planning benefit, there are a variety of ways to reach potential clients. Here are some considerations and ideas where the "retail" approach is concerned:

? Go to the businesses and companies that are your clients and discuss adding LTC benefit planning to their current benefit offering.

? Leverage contacts that are in positions of power or influence in businesses and companies for favorable introductions that lead to LTC planning benefit appointments with decision makers. Try to get as "high up the food chain" as possible.

? Make a list of all friends and associates who can make favorable introductions on your behalf to business owners and company "higher-ups." Develop a plan of action for each contact.

? If you are comfortable speaking in public, you can conduct educational LTC planning sessions in forums where business owners frequent. Those speaking engagements could create your own favorable introductions.

Option 2: The wholesale approach

With the "wholesale" approach, you connect with the client as a result of another broker's or advisor's relationship or as a result of a favorable introduction where there is a subsequent commission split. Using this concept, you may wish to partner with others who already have relationships with businesses but may not have the expertise to deliver LTC planning in a business or company-type format.

Here is a list of professionals that at some level control client relationships. This is a good place to start when seeking favorable introductions to companies.

? Accountants

? Lawyers

? Benefits brokers who sell health insurance, etc.

? Brokers who deal in executive benefits or executive compensation-related benefits.

? Other advisors or applicable members of the insurance/financial services related community

Bring value to wholesale approach

You can serve as an asset to these professionals–assuming you have the necessary LTC expertise. The key here is to offer value these other professionals and their clients do not have access to or can't deliver themselves.

Here is another angle to reaching the business market that is just like the individual market: These brokers have business owners and company clients who are probably talking to someone about LTC planning. If the client moves forward with this benefit using a competitor independent of the incumbent broker, then the broker's relationship and some or all of the business that he or she has with that client could be at risk. By partnering together to provide an LTC planning benefit, you could help these professionals retain their client base while expanding your reach into the business market.

So, the options mentioned above in the "wholesaling" category have two choices. These professionals can take you on a favorable basis as the LTC benefits specialist and split the case with you appropriately. Then they continue to control the client and associated business. Or they can do nothing and risk that someone who is well-trained could meet their client, deliver LTC planning independently of them, and potentially have access to the business they have with that client.

Seek further education

When speaking face-to-face with individuals in the business market, it pays to be as educated as possible on long term care. The planning associated with this type of insurance is multi-faceted; and there are numerous forms of protection and pricing structures. If you haven't taken a course focused on long term care, this might be an effective way to educate yourself further on this subject.