Talking to clients about illness, disaster and mortality is never easy, but switching from a sales mentality to a more advisory approach is vital in a competitive environment, said many speakers at the World Critical Illness Insurance Conference in Toronto today.

“It’s time to throw away the sales material in the briefcase and sit down and listen,” said Philip Harriman, a Falmouth, Maine-based past president of the Million Dollar Roundtable (MDRT), an industry association for financial professionals. “It’s not a sales business, it‚s a relationship business.”

This distinction between sales and client relationship-building was a thread that ran through many of the presentations at today’s conference.

“It’s not about me, it’s not about the product and it’s not about the price,” Anthony Morris, a financial services sales coach from Australia, told the crowd of advisors, planners and insurance professionals. “It’s about how you make people feel.”

Advisors tend to “get too bogged down in the product, when they need to be focusing on the process,” said Mark Coutts, a CFP and partner at Benchmark Benefit Solutions Inc., during a session on creating client relationships.

Harriman discussed the changing demographics of population growth in the United States. In the 1960s, for example, the majority of population growth occurred in the fifteen to 24 age group, while between 2000 and 2020, it is expected that 73% of growth will be in the 55 to 64 age range. Harriman touted this as an “enormous opportunity for anyone in the financial services industry.” This is true, in part, because boomers are increasingly required to take responsibility for their own financial planning, as defined benefits programs are being replaced by defined contribution plans.

“It’s not just a U.S. problem,” said Harriman, who is also a former U.S. senator. He said people are running in fear wondering if they are prepared for retirement, and many are looking for a coach make sure they run in the right direction. And, he added, the current period of economic slowdown is the perfect time to explain to clients that things don’t always go well — and thus insurance is necessary.

Morris said that a lack of systems and a lack of discipline are the main reasons for failure in the financial services sector. “You have to industrialize your marketing,” he suggested. He elaborated with simple and organized systems for regular client contact, updates and reviews as well as the importance of using newer technologies that are now commonplace for many clients, such as text messaging.

Morris also noted advisors are constantly “playing against the odds of mediocrity.” Once-novel ideas — such as sending birthday cards to clients — are now standard and should be replaced with new and more personal ideas. “I’ve witnessed a sense of learned helplessness in our business that worries me,” he said.

People nowadays are living longer and living at a higher standard, according to Guy Proulx, an adjunct professor at York University who specializes in geriatrics and rehabilitation. There is no doubt that the market for insurance products is growing.

In 2003, there were 6,300 centenarians in Canada, according to Proulx. Looking ahead, it is expected that by 2050 there will be about 80,000 people older than 100 in this country. As well, the professor cited statistics showing that 35% of people 85 and older have dementia.

Proulx questioned if aging is a tsunami or an opportunity. He ultimately concluded that it is a tsunami of opportunity.

Conference Web site

http://www.criticalinsurance.org/ciic/